Marginalised but not Defeated Tarun Kanti Bose Uppal Publishing House Price: 1,295 Year: 2023 Pg: 277  The book, like the author, a seasoned public interest journalist, travels far and wide, among ordinary and invisible people, in remote regions, across the fragmented landscape of India. Tarun Kanti Bose writes about the demography, topography, society, politics and culture, and the anthropology and[Read More…]

Salman Rushdie once commented that those who are displaced by war are the shining shards that reflect the truth. With so many people fleeing wars and ecological collapse in our world today, and more to come, we need acute truth-telling to deepen our understanding and recognize the terrible faults of those who have caused so much suffering in our world[Read More…]

Francis Bacon said some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed and digested. “A reader on Financial Inclusion” by Dr Moin Qazi belongs to the last category. The language is simple and jargon-free, and the terms used and concepts are well explained. But the reader would be required to go rural mentally or climb[Read More…]

Grand Delusion – The Rise and Fall of American Ambitions in the Middle East. Steven Simon. Penguin Press, New York, 2023. It should be obvious that U.S. policy in the Middle East is now losing influence. Steven Simon’s new book “Grand Delusion – The Rise and Fall of American Ambitions in the Middle East” purports to cover the era from[Read More…]

——————————————————————————————————————————- FROM KERALA TO KESLA By Loriette Benjamin “Lorry” Qurate Books Pvt. Ltd, Panaji Goa. 2023, Pp 74, Rs. 300/- Contact: Lorry: 82807 95523 ——————————————————————————————————————————- Lorry (Loriette Benjamin) was born in Kozhikode (Calicut for old timers), Kerala in 1954. Her father was an Army officer and the family moved to Pune in 1958. This very short autobiography (only 74 pages)[Read More…]

Review by Mitali Chakravarty of Sanjay Kumar’s Performing, Teaching and Writing Theatre: Exploring Play, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing About a hundred years ago, Tagore had tried to close social gaps with his work in Sriniketan. He had tried to bridge the chasm that separated ‘villagers’ with no access to technology and education and the ‘town dwellers’ with access to[Read More…]

Imagine this. You have to travel from one place to another. You have two options. Human driver driven taxi or an-AI-algorithm-controlled automatic taxi. You know the associated traits of each – the human driver wouldn’t accurately know the roads that will be congested, and may be tired or sleepy. The “machine” driver will exactly know that roads to avoid and[Read More…]

——————————————————————————————————————————- BAGAAWAT AUR WAFAADAARI: NAVJAGRAN KE IRD-GIRD (REBELLION AND FAITHFULNESS: IN THE VICINITY OF THE RENAISSANCE) By Vir Bharat Talwar 2023, New Delhi, Vani Prakashan, Pp. 152, Rs. 399/- ——————————————————————————————————————————- Dr. Vir Bharat Talwar is a scholar of renaissance in the Hindi and North West India region. He retired as head of the department, Hindi, JNU. He has written several[Read More…]

‘Flaming Forest, Wounded valley- stories from Bastar and Kashmir’ is a gripping account with lively narratives of first hand experiences in Bastar and Kashmir, where neo-fascist state repression has simmered to a boiling point, since 1947. Manecksha illustrates how the fabric of human rights has been ripped apart, violating the laws of the Constitution. More than the commentary — of[Read More…]

Swapna Liddle is not only a very good scholar of the history of Delhi, she is a very good communicator both in her writing and in speaking, one can understand so much from her whether it is about the changes to the Central vista in Delhi or the 1857 rebellion or the walks through historic areas of the capital. In[Read More…]

New York:  Public Affairs Press, 2021. ISBN: 978-1-5417-6829-1 (hardcover) Africa has long been looked at by outsiders as a continent that is hopelessly mired in corruption and incapable of social and economic development.  This especially pertains to sub-Saharan Africa, overwhelmingly populated by black people, thus fitting the trope of white supremists that black people cannot successfully govern themselves. This book[Read More…]

Market and labor in market are crucial questions both to capital and labor. The questions have been discussed and answered by economists, from the mainstream, and also from the camp of labor. “Markets”, writes Michael D. Yates in his Work Work Work: Labor, Alienation, and Class Struggle (Monthly Review Press, New York, USA, 2022), “act as a veil, hiding the[Read More…]

What are workers? Are they human beings? Do they have only a bundle of muscles but, no brains? How do they feel and how do they think? Do they think at all? What do they face in their life – in factories, in foundries and other shops, in assembly lines, in unions? Workers’ answers to the questions above differ from[Read More…]

Eduardo Galeano was best known for his 1971 book Open Veins of Latin America, which rocketed to the top of US bestseller lists after the Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez presented a copy to President Barack Obama in 2009 It is one of the most inspiring and monumental works against imperial exploitation. We now have a slender but valuable translation into[Read More…]

They have become the outsourcing mandarins, consultancy companies which have served to degrade expertise in the public sector while diminishing the quality of services.  Along the way, they have charged astronomical fees in giving repeatedly flawed advice.  Consultants, packaged as all wise gurus, have become the great confidence tricksters. Embracing the inner voodoo of consultancy had the effect of discouraging[Read More…]

‘Lenin’ by Rajani Palme Dutt ,published by Magpie publications,most classically dissects all aspects of the life and Contribution of Lenin. In a most lucid and congealed form it illustrates how Lenin’s ideology was relevant to the world and how Leninism shaped world history. Its aim was to project the significance and role of Lenin not primarily as a Russian leader,[Read More…]

Work is easy. Work is difficult. Work shows a lot. Work hides a lot. Work creates. Work destroys. Work is painless. Work is dreadful. Work brings victory. Work is slavish. Work is like creating a poem or a picture with joy. Work is hellish. A poet or a philosopher may define work differently than a physicist’s definition. An economist or[Read More…]

by Intizar Husain Trans. Ghazala Jamil and Faiz Ullah. Originally published 2003. Yoda Press. INTRODUCTION Dilli tha jis ka Naam is a historical account by Intizar Husain published originally in Urdu in 2003. The book at hand, Once there was a city named Dilli (2016), is its English translation by Ghazala Jamil and Faiz Ullah. In today’s time, when a[Read More…]

GANDHI AUR SARLA DEVI CHAUDHARANI: BARAHA ADHYAY (GANDHI AND SARLA DEVI CHAUDHARANI: TWELVE CHAPTERS) By Alka Saraogi 2023, New Delhi, Vani Prakashan, Pp. 216, Price Rs. 299/- Alka Saraogi (1960- ) is a well known modern Hindi author. She received the Sahitya Akademi award for her first novel, ‘Kalikatha via Bypass‘ in 2001. Since then it has been translated in[Read More…]

Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts – Feminism Inter/Nationalism & Palestine. Nada Elia. Pluto Press, 2023. London. Interestingly this work by Nada Elia – Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts – takes off from what the last book I read on Palestine discussed as images of Palestine and the imagination arriving with that. The first image used here[Read More…]

I would like to announce the publication of a new nook, entitled “Our Knowledge-Based Society”. The book may be downloaded and circulated, free of charge, from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2023/02/Our-Knowledge-Based-Society-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Below is some discussion of the content of the book: Cooperation in groups of animals and human groups The social behavior of groups of animals, flocks of birds and communities[Read More…]

A new, freely downloadable, book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, entitled “Lives in Acting”. The pdf file of the book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2023/01/Lives-in-Acting-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf It is part of my series of books on cultural history. Human history as cultural history We need to reform our[Read More…]

“The 1619 Project – A New Origins Story”. Hannah-Jones, Nikole et al, Ed. One World, (Random House), New York, 2021. The American narrative – and other stories Most of the world in which there is a decent educational system knows the foundational myths of the United States. Essentially a bunch of oppressed settlers could no longer tolerate the weight of[Read More…]

Narendra Modi was prime minister of India for five years from 2014-2019 in his first term and his second term began this May; so, readers may ask why this book? The devil is in the details. Debut writer K.S. Komireddi traces the rise of Modi who he argues has reduced Indian democracy to ‘Mann Ki Baats’, road and stage-shows, instead[Read More…]

History ignored yields history repeated, and ignoring genocides and holocausts yields repetition of such atrocities. My book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (1998, 2008, and 2023 editions) exposes 2 centuries of British-made and British-ignored famines in India, and argues that ignoring such atrocities and the worsening[Read More…]

Here’s one possible trajectory for ambitious print journalists. After making your name with aggressive reporting at a smaller newspaper, move up the ladder until you are at a top paper with a prestige beat. Go on the television talk shows to pontificate. Maybe snag a regular column. Offer analyses that seem critical but make sure never to challenge the conventional[Read More…]

A Book Review of Lesley Hazleton’s The First Muslim My consideration of this article’s titular question was almost physically confrontational – so much so that I actually boycotted my smartphone for a week so that I could finish reading this book and organize my thoughts on it. To be clear, as a practicing Muslim living in the contemporary day, it[Read More…]

‘World Turned Upside Down’ by Amit Bhattacharya is a most lucid, comprehensive work,an integral part of a library of any Marxist or revolutionary democrat. It is dissected into 5 chapters comprising ‘Imperialist development, ‘People’s Resistance’,’ Repression’, ‘People’s Development and ‘Emergence of new human beings’. Most comprehensively Bhattacharya diagnoses the essence of the anti-people nature of the globalisation and liberalization policies[Read More…]

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel (2020) | ISBN 978-93-90166-27-5 No matter how hard you try, you can never stop yourself from making the mistake of understanding the idea of money in a purely emotionless manner. And, that is why, for reasons well know, it is said that “Some people are so poor that all they have is money”![Read More…]

I would like to announce the publication of a new nook, entitled “Trying To Predict the Future”. The book may be downloaded and circulated, free of charge, from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/12/Trying-to-Predict-the-Future-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Below is some discussion of the content of the book: How can we try to predict the future? As the Danish humorist Storm Petersen once said, “It’s hard[Read More…]

An organisation which claims to work for Hinduism, Hindu unity and consolidation needs to address the discriminatory practices in religion by rising above the caste-based identities. It needs to be more reformative in nature rather than revivalist and work towards annihilating caste rather than reinforcing caste based discriminatory practices. The book by Raghuram Meghawanshi ‘I could not be a Hindu:[Read More…]

Imagine being confined to a space the size of a car’s interior in the pitch blackness of outer space for three days. Your spacecraft is the Apollo 14 Command Module “Kitty Hawk,” returning from the moon. In order to maintain thermal balance, the module will rotate 360° every two minutes, as the sun, the moon and stars, 10xs brighter and[Read More…]

A new, freely downloadable, book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, entitled “Lives of Some Great Classical Composers”. The pdf file of the book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/12/Lives-of-Classical-Composers-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf It is part of my series of books on cultural history. Human history as cultural history We need[Read More…]

Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar was a giant of world history, though one barely understood both at home or abroad. While I am no expert on his life or his legacy, suffice it to say the more I read and the more I discover about him, the more I am in awe at his contributions, especially in the light of terrible personal[Read More…]

‘Politics in Command ‘by Joshua Moufawad Paul, in it’s own right is a classic, which breaks conventional norms to resurrect Marxism-Leninism. The book continues the flow of his earlier works like ’’Continuity and Rupture’, ‘Critique of Maoist Reason’, and ‘The Communist necessity.’ It poses challenge to dogmatic approach. The book investigates or probes into the very germinating of economism, deeply[Read More…]

Review of P. Sainath’s “The Last Heroes, Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom” One of the twentieth century’s signal moments happened in the summer of 1947.  That summer, the population of the world’s second largest country gained Independence from British rule, after 190 years of plunder, murder, famine, and immiseration.  A nation that in 1757 boasted 25% of the world’s economy[Read More…]

My Son’s Inheritance: A Secret History of Lynching and Blood Justice in India, Aparna Vaidik, Aleph Book Company, New Delhi, 2020. ISBN-13:978-8194233787, Pages 192, Rs 499. This short book of creative non-fiction by historian Aparna Vaidik collides forcefully and head-on with many of the convictions of the communally-charged political parties in India. Composed in a controlled way, My Son’s Inheritance,[Read More…]

Ravish Kumar in his book ‘The Free Voice: On Democracy Culture and Nation’ critically evaluates the role being played by the media in contemporary times. Journalism in contemporary times had turned out to be uncritical of the Government and become mere mouthpieces of the Government. In a culture of fear, what is required is breaking the silence by raising uncomfortable[Read More…]

The novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini poignantly writes the story of brave and courageous Afghan women who have lived under the debilitating shadows of patriarchal oppression, endless violence and war. As the extremist Taliban regime in Kabul enforces its full obscurantist and repressive rule on Afghan society, the brave Afghan women are again facing the brunt of[Read More…]

Glimpses from the book launch — The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom by noted journalist P. Sainath New Delhi: The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom by noted journalist P. Sainath was launched at the India International Centre, New Delhi,  yesterday. The book documents the country’s last living freedom fighters. It narrates life stories of 15 people[Read More…]

Gandhi’s Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India, Dhirendra K Jha, Vintage Books, 2022.  ISBN-13 :978-0670096473. Pages 344 In the last few years, there have been a few scholarly books published about Gandhi and Nathuram Godse. These books attempt to re-create the context of Gandhi’s assassination. One such scholarly and well-written book is journalist Dhirendra Jha’s[Read More…]

The hyperthreat is a combination of impending ecological carnage influenced in large measure by hidden behind-the-scenes human forces that drain the vigor and lifeblood of reasonable solutions. A major exposé of the hyperthreat is the essence of a recently released book by E.G. Boulton, PhD: Cancelled Woman, Destination Safe Earth Publishing, 2022. Dr. Boulton introduces the concept of hyperththreat by reflecting[Read More…]

A new, freely downloadable, book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, entitled “Lives of Some Great Philosophers”. The pdf file of the book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/11/Lives-of-Some-Great-Philosophers-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf It is part of my series of books on cultural history. Human history as cultural history We need to[Read More…]

The AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) is releasing the second edition of ‘Less than Gay’ – A Citizens’ Report on the status of Homosexuality in India. The first edition of the Report – co-authored by seven members – was published in November 1991. This edition has a long essay running into 18,360 words in the form of an introduction written[Read More…]

Review of Twenty Dollars and Change by Clarence Lusane City Lights Books|2022 In 2016, Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew declared that Harriett Tubman’s would be the new face of the $20 bill and that Andrew Jackson’s would be moved to the back. Scholars and activists, then and now, noted the irony- that two figures of such radically different dispositions[Read More…]

The Garden of Solitude is Siddhartha Gigoo’s debut work. Gigoo was born in Downtown, Srinagar in 1974 in a Kashmiri Hindu family. Kashmiri Hindus are generally known as Pandits. For the first fifteen years of his life, Siddhartha Gigoo lived in Srinagar. Then, in 1990, he and his family, alongwith thousands of other families migrated from the valley as a[Read More…]

This book is part 9 of the Sison reader series, ‘GRP-NDFP Peace Negotiations’ encompasses the years 1986 to 2022. It reflects the role Joma Sison played in exploring and realizing the peace negotiations. It carries the essays, statements and interviews related to the tremendous odds, explorations, preparations, the forging of agreements, frustrations and advances. The book also gives deep insight[Read More…]

How Do Human Beings Relate to Their History? A Book Review of Urvashi Butalia’s The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India I am a big believer in the power of books to change the world. In my journey as a reader, I have come across a few of these sorts of books, one of them being[Read More…]

“On a hike in East Africa 2 million years ago, you might well have encountered a familiar cast of human characters: anxious mothers cuddling their babies and clutches of carefree children playing in the mud; temperamental youths chafing against the dictates of society  and weary elders who just wanted to be left in peace; chest-thumping machos trying to impress the[Read More…]

The novel Night of the Golden Butterfly (2010) by eminent Marxist intellectual and author, Tariq Ali, is a narrative which paints a dystopian vision of what political authoritarianism looks like. The novel primarily explores the rise and nexus between religious fanaticism, dictatorship, majoritarianism and military-mullah-feudal nexus in Tariq Ali’s native country Pakistan, referred nostalgically to as “Fatherland” in the novel.[Read More…]

A book announcement I would like to announce the publication of a new book, which may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/11/We-are-Demanding-Too-Much-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf The explosive rise of human population When the global population of humans is plotted as a function of time over a period of twelve thousand years, and the uses of fossil fuels[Read More…]

Gods in Shackles: What Elephants Can Teach Us About Empathy, Resilience and Freedom, Sangita Iyer, Hay House, New Delhi, 2022.  ISBN: 978-1-4019-6884-7. 304 pages This book talks about the ill-treatment meted out to Asian elephants in the state of Kerala, during religious processions. Well, almost. Gods in Shackles is a book that tries to interrogate the notions of loneliness suffered[Read More…]

A book announcement I would like to announce the publication of a new book, which may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/10/Against-Nationalism-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf A dangerous anachronism Today, in an era of all-destroying nuclear weapons, instantaneous global communication and worldwide economic interdependence, nationalism has become a dangerous anachronism. History, as it is taught today, is centered[Read More…]

Incidents are told in simple, straight style, but significant in meaning; and metaphors are there in the Lived Stories. Madhu Bhaduri tells her days as an Indian diplomat in Vienna, Hanoi, Mexico City, Hamburg, Minsk, Lisbon. These are about geopolitics and war, economy and history, culture, persons and people, and about undaunted spirit of humanity. As First Secretary to the[Read More…]

As this century began, I was writing War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, my reflections on two decades as a war correspondent, 15 of them with the New York Times, in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, Bosnia, and Kosovo. I worked in a small, sparsely furnished studio apartment on First Avenue in New York City. The room had a desk,[Read More…]

Glory to God in the Lowest – Journeys to An Unholy Land. Donald E. Wagner. Olive Branch Press (Interlink Publishing group, Inc.). Northampton, Massachusetts. 2022. In “Glory to God in the Lowest” Donald Wagner set out three themes for his memoirs: his transition from political apathy and social conservatism to activism in the civil rights and anti-war movements; a theological[Read More…]

A new, freely downloadable, book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, entitled “Lives of Some Great Film Directors”. The pdf file of the book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/10/Lives-of-Some-Great-Film-Directors-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf It is part of my series of books on cultural history. Human history as cultural history We need[Read More…]

Victory Colony, 1950 by Bhaswati Ghosh is a harrowing tale of partition that brought death and displacement for millions of people. The novel is set in Kolkata. Though the novel is about partition, it’s more about the human lives that bear the brunt of the whimsy of the rulers. The novelist portrayed the wounds that her forefathers or my forefathers[Read More…]

Glass windows have existed since as long ago as 290 CE, if only in a limited supply of small sheets. It seems fair to say that window glass has enriched human aesthetic, cultural, physiological, and psychological well-being for at least 16 centuries. Even one small pane is enough to admit a bit of the sun’s light and warmth into an[Read More…]

Tariq Ali’s novel The Stone Woman critically tells us the story of declining Ottoman in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and has plenty of lessons for the current day Turkey. As is well known, the Ottoman kingdom, based in Turkey, ruled a vast portion of the Middle East and Eastern Europe for over 600 years. Like any other[Read More…]

When I first went abroad to the US for my PhD, I, like most other Indians, was very surprised by many of the customs and ways of life that I encountered there on a daily basis. For example, once when I went to meet our Statistics teacher, right at the beginning of the term, and addressed him ‘Sir’, like we[Read More…]

Tania-Undercover for Che Guevara in Bolivia, Ulises Estrada, 1st ed. 2005, Ocean Press, Melbourne… pages 331, price Rupees 295/ Ulises Estrada, editor of Tricontinental, joined Cuban revolution from the very beginning as part of 26th July movement in 1953. He was part of Cuban liberation war 1957-59 and later worked with Che Guevara in many assignments including in Congo. He[Read More…]

This book documents the rebirth of an anarchist consciousness in India’s masses. “The workers have begun to think that if people are given the opportunity and power to manage things on their own, they can do so better than the government. A lot of the workers have begun to ask, do we actually need a government at all?” – Nodeep[Read More…]

A Pioneering Book That Brings Out the Love of School Children for Birds “Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.” This is the illuminating quote from Douglas Coupland with which a remarkable new book ‘Familiar Birds of Sanawar’ has started. This book has been[Read More…]

Owl physiology can help advance technology to address noise pollution—and maybe even help the deaf hear. To the ancient Greeks, the owl symbolized wisdom, but the Romans saw it as an evil omen. Their myths tell of an owl-like strix that stalked the night and preyed on human flesh. Ovid’s poem Fasti describes how such a demon slipped into the nursery of the sleeping[Read More…]

Introductory Review of ‘Aleek Manush Anirban Biswas’, a Frontier anthology Anirban Biswas, assistant editor of Frontier and one of the directors of Germinal Publications Pvt Ltd, passed away on April 4, 2021 at the age of 69, in his home in Birbhum district, West Bengal. He was also a regular contributor in the bilingual monthly Purbasha Ekhon, and editor of[Read More…]

The Arc of a Covenant – The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People. Walter Russell Mead. Alfred A Knopf, New York, 2022. In today’s world a clear understanding of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel is important – this is not the work to clear it up. Walter Mead’s hypothesis is that Israel does not[Read More…]

Review of Hitler’s Girl by Lauren Young Historians and lay-people alike have for decades posed the counter-factual question, “How could Hitler have been stopped?”  The answer, shocking to those at play in the fields of elision, is that the easiest way to contain him and therefore to halt the growth of Nazism and the save the world from murderous peril[Read More…]

Temperatures are rising, and so is communal hate. Rainfall is drying up, and so is employment. A war is being waged on the working masses by the corporates and ruling classes on every front. A war in which the people are losing one battle after another. But when the corporates and their henchmen in the seats of power thought that[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a new book about how we might strengthen the United Nations and make it more effective in the great tasks that are facing the organization. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link; https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/09/Reforming-the-United-Nations-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Strengthening the United Nations It is becoming[Read More…]

The French theologian Simone Weil wrote, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” On the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, Hawakal Publishers released The Well-Earned, a poetry anthology edited by Kiriti Sengupta. This collection sought the nearly impossible: poems defining liberty. Freedom of expression is the artist’s bedrock. However, there seems to be a lack of poetry anthologies[Read More…]

A new, freely downloadable, book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, entitled “Lives in Molecular Biology”. The pdf file of the book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/08/Lives-in-Molecular-Biology-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf It is part of my series of books on cultural history. Human history as cultural history We need to reform[Read More…]

Malthus’ “Essay on The Principle of Population” T.R. Malthus’ “Essay on The Principle of Population”, the first edition of which was published in 1798, was one of the the first systematic studies of the problem of population in relation to resources. Earlier discussions of the problem had been published by Boterro in Italy, Robert Wallace in England, and Benjamin Franklin[Read More…]

“Four Seasons in Rome” by Anthony Doerr is an absorbing account of a year spent in Rome in 2004-2005 by a young American couple and their new-born twins. This book touches on WW2 Normandy, victims of the 2004 Tsunami, the wounding of an Italian journalist in Iraq, and death of the Pope, but it avoids mentioning any of the huge Iraqi[Read More…]

The Hundred Year War on Palestine – A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017.  Rashid Khalidi.  Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2020. With the writing of The Hundred Year War on Palestine – A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, Rashid Khalidi has created an interesting well written overview of the Zionist colonial-settler enterprise in[Read More…]

Sanjukta Dasgupta, Virasat Art Publication, Kolkata, 2021 Sanjukta Dasgupta has been a scholar and an academic over her entire working life. Having taught English literature in its varied manifestations has seen its reflection in her very scholarly books revolving around literature, both English and Bengali, but she later shifted to poetry in the original and in translation and is now[Read More…]

The idea of writing short poetry that conveys intense feelings isn’t new but has flourished through the internet especially as a method of sharing emotions with multitudes, often using a beautiful layout to evoke a feeling many of us can relate to. Surely this move towards making poetry accessible to everyone is a good thing, but it can also be[Read More…]

Advocating for Palestine in Canada – Histories, Movements, Actions. Ed.: Emily Wills, Jeremy Wildeman, Michael Beuckert, Nadia Abu-Zahra. Fernwood Publishing, Halifax/Winnipeg, 2022. Different groups advocate for Palestine from a variety of perspectives while developing several common themes. Advocating for Palestine contains nine presentations looking at Palestine from the viewpoint of students, Jewish activism, indigenous issues, being Palestinian-Arab in Canada, and[Read More…]

Why does war persist? War was always madness, always immoral, always the cause of unspeakable suffering, economic waste and widespread destruction, and always a source of poverty, hate, barbarism and endless cycles of revenge and counter-revenge. It has always been a crime for soldiers to kill people, just as it is a crime for murderers in civil society to kill[Read More…]

Activist, filmmaker and bestselling author Raj Patel was dressed as a genetically modified tomato when he met Rupa Marya, MD, more than a decade ago. They were at a protest organized against pesticide use, and Marya—who is a musician as well as a physician—was playing a show at the event with her world-touring band Rupa and the April Fishes. Patel says the two quickly[Read More…]

For a short while, at least as announced by the mainstream media, Canada found itself described as a “peacemaker” among the countries of the world. This was an image promoted abroad and valued domestically as Canadian troops, war materials, and military equipment worked around the world to maintain peace. This necessity for peace, when reviewed critically, came from the reality[Read More…]

‘Revolution and Counter Revolution ‘printed by Foreign Languages Press  in November 2021  and written by Pao Yu Ching  is a most analytical work  .It stands amongst the major achievements in modern times summarising the positive strides made by China under Mao from 1949-78 and how those objectives were inverted 180 degrees after 1978 after Deng Xiaoping. With intrinsic details she[Read More…]

Through his stories and novellas, Bharat Dogra makes it possible—the confluence of political sociology and literary imagination. Bharat Dogra, A Day in 2071: A Collection of Stories and Novellas, Saptarishi, New Delhi, 2022, pp. xiii+246, price: Rs. 399/ I have been reading Bharat Dogra’s essays and columns in a spectrum of newspapers and magazines for quite some time. What fascinates me[Read More…]

“Aemilia Lanyer As Shakespeare’s Co-Author” by Mark Bradbeer presents a detailed case that a woman of colour and feminist poet, Aemilia Lanyer, was an important co-author  of William Shakespeare, and hence made a big contribution to a body of works that are foundational to English literature and the English language that is spoken by over 1 billion people in India,[Read More…]

Redundant Author: Bitan Chakraborty Translated from the original Bengali by Malati Mukherjee Published by Readomania, New Delhi May 2022, Paperback, Page 102, ISBN: 978-93-91800-38-3 “Redundant” as a word addresses excess. For something to be “redundant,” it must be superfluous. In the context of Bitan Chakraborty’s novella Redundant, we absorb excess through the exploits of one of the central characters, Shubho,[Read More…]

BOLLYWOOD, TOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND – LITERARY ESSAYS ON INDIAN FILMS – By Somdatta Mandal, Pencraft International, New Delhi, 2021. Pages 344, Price: Rs.1200 Somdatta Mandal recently retired from her position as Professor of English and Chairperson of the Department of English, Viswa Bharati, Santi Niketan where she was very active in organizing seminars, panel discussions and conferences on subjects linking[Read More…]

French economist Thomas Piketty’s latest West-oriented book “Time for Socialism” is about worsening wealth inequality in an ever worsening global climate crisis. His solutions for Western economies include a just and progressive income tax, wealth taxes, carbon taxes, and economic justice for the poor and the young. Because capital begets more capital he argues for a  big grant to 25[Read More…]

A book announcement Humans, in their arrogance, call themselves not just “Homo sapiens”, but “Homo sapiens sapiens”, the “wisest of the wise”! Admittedly, our species has enormous technical and scientific progress to its credit, as well as great cultural achievements. But wisdom? Wisdom is another matter entirely. Our suicidal wars against nature and against each other can hardly be called[Read More…]

Professor Joma Sison in recent times has come out with some most analytical Marxist-Leninist works which are an invaluable collection in the treasure house of all Marxist or Progressive readers. In March in Netherlands there were book launches of his recent works on Critique of Philippines economy and politics and “On a Peoples War’. I recommend reference to the reviews[Read More…]

Dr. Jonaki Mukherjee is a Kolkata-based, dedicated teacher of small and growing children and is a distinguished counsellor. She is also a part of the West Bengal Women’s Commission. The book is a powerful reflection of emotional nostalgia that are narrations of her personal journey with women she has interacted with, mostly as counsellor. Books authored by counselling experts are[Read More…]

The Chidananda Dasgupta Best Book Award to Vidyarthy Chatterjee’s book on Calcutta and the Joshy Joseph Trilogy- A critical review Published by Cerebrum Books, India, 2022 Stuart Hall identifies three ways of reading media messages.[1]  According to Stuart Hall, Dominant Reading takes what the film says for granted. The Negotiated Reading questions the minor premises but accepts the major ones.[Read More…]

In 1971 , when I left school, I was sure that I was opting out of the traditional Brahmin world–it was too burdensome for a woman to carry that cross. Gita Ramaswamy in her just released Memoirs Land, Guns, Caste, Woman (2022) Gita Ramaswamy was born in a Brahmin family, never remained one in her later life. She is an[Read More…]

Light in Gaza – Writings Born of Fire. Ed. Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing,, Michael Merryman Lotze. Haymarket Books, Chicago, IL, 2022. The actual history of Gaza can be readily researched – the dates, the actions, the numbers. What is not readily available is information beyond the Israeli narrative of Gaza being populated by terrorists. This current book, a collection of[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, which discusses the causes of war, and how they may be eliminated. The book may be downloaded free of charge and circulated from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/04/Eliminating-the-causes-of-war-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf The danger of nuclear war War was always madness, always immoral, always the cause of unspeakable suffering,[Read More…]

In recent years, and particularly after the 2019 General Elections, there have been growing concerns regarding the fairness of the election process in India. These have ranged from highly technical issues concerning the EVMs to the systemic corruption and lack of transparency in election bonds, the amassing of huge funds by the ruling party and its misuse. A new book[Read More…]

Joe Burns’ new book says only workers can save the labor movement (Part One) I have only started reading Joe Burns’ new book, Class Struggle Unionism, but I feel a need to report on some important ideas that he introduces in Chapter Three, titled “Beyond Labor Liberalism.” There is a trend in the labor movement that is often called, somewhat[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents many aspects of culture in the Middke Ages. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/03/Lives-in-the-Middle-Ages-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf How the Middle Ages are defined The Western Roman Empire fell to the attacks of Germanic tribes  in 476. The[Read More…]

“Transforming Universities in the Midst of Global Crisis: A University for the Common Good” by Professor Richard Hil, Professor Kristen Lyons, and Fern Thompsett calls for a radical transformation of our universities  in the face of worsening global crises. From a scientific perspective this book has great merit because it demands such radical change at time when neoliberal and Trumpist[Read More…]

While the pandemic has brought distress to all sections of people, the poor and vulnerable sections have suffered the most in this phase, not just from the disease directly but including  the impact of policy measures like prolonged lockouts which caused huge unemployment and loss of income. The urgency of discussing this issue particularly from the perspective of weaker sections[Read More…]

We expect authoritarian governments to lie, and anti-racist Jewish American writer I .F. Stone famously opined that “Governments lie”.  However the Australian Coalition Government under PM Scott Morrison has adopted blatant, in-your-face lying and falsehood to an extraordinary, Orwellian and Trumpist degree as revealed by Bernard Keane in his scathing book “Lies and Falsehoods. The Morrison Government and the new[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, which discusses the ways in which giant corporations control both governments and media, thus undermining democracy. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2022/02/Corporations-Versus-Democracy-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Corporate oligarchy versus democracy As Professor Noam Chomsky has pointed out, greed and[Read More…]

On a trip to India 8 years ago, I picked up “A Village Awaits Doomsday” at an airport bookshop.  It appeared to be an interesting read and I was glad to find it in a shop that otherwise was littered with business titles and pulp fiction.  On the flight, I read it cover to cover and was at once impressed[Read More…]

Book Review: Where is India Headed? An Historical Critique by  Dr Vinod Mubayi, Media Society and Sahithya Pravarthaka, 2021. It was April 2017, UP elections had just concluded, writing about the loss of composite culture, the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, Vinod Mubayi, in his essay UP Elections and Consequence said, ‘the early signs are not reassuring’. The essay foretold that the country[Read More…]

Human history as cultural history We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents many aspects of[Read More…]

The extraordinary statement “we cannot truly die” is found on page 133 of Joseph Selbie’s book, The Physics of God (New Page Books, 2021). Indeed, it’s a book for people who want to understand and believe that there is more to life’s course than earthly corporeal existence. Based upon reams of fascinating scientific and metaphysical research, Selbie connects the dots[Read More…]

Public Intellectual – The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim. Richard Falk. Clarity Press, Atlanta, GA. 2021. Writing an autobiography after experiencing the greater part of a century as a public intellectual has resulted in Richard Falk’s superbly written story covering many of the major events of the Twentieth and nascent Twenty-first Centuries. Public Intellectual is densely written with ideas and[Read More…]

Friedrich Engels’ Dialectics of Nature has been arguably the most polemic ‘book’ within the corpus of classical Marxist literature.  It is fair to say that since its initial 1925[1] publication in German and Russian, one can infer a ‘Marxists’ political orientation based on their assessment of Engels’ text. However, the centrality of the ‘text’ in the debate between the artificial bifurcation of ‘soviet’[Read More…]

Giants – The Global Power Elite. Peter Phillips. Seven Stories Press, New York, 2018. Abby Martin’s interview with Peter Phillips was the instigator for reading Peter Phillips’ now slightly outdated but highly valuable work, “Giants – The Global Power Elite.” The interview is valuable unto itself and like all Abby Martin’s work is concise and pointed; it is a good[Read More…]

Poring over Appu Suresh and Priyanka Kotamraju’s THE MURDERER.THE MONARCH AND THE FAKIR(Harper Collins) at a stretch I have just finished reading it.The story has its own interest and the authors have brought to light things that can never be evaded now.Savarkar and his associates can no longer be simply absolved of guilt as has so far been done.The Prince[Read More…]

Amid the talks of a five trillion dollar Indian economy, there is still an India where people struggle to arrange two square meals a day. Many strive hard for basic needs of food, health and education. Often unheard and ignored, these voiceless people mostly don’t matter to the mainstream media. This book, through various ground reports over a decade and[Read More…]

This is the first book by Wangba Senjam, a 35 year writer from Manipur, who has written this in exceptionally difficult circumstances. Despite the difficulties he faced, he makes a strong impression with the originality, freshness and deep sincerity of his ideas. His inclination and ability for out-of-box thinking is evident also in the subjects he has selected for his[Read More…]

The American Trap – My Battle to Expose America’s Secret Economic War Against the Rest of the World. Frédéric Pierucci (with Mathieu Aron). HOdder & Stoughton, London, 2020. It becomes more clear with more and more readings that the “American trap” is the U.S. dollar, and that for some it is no secret. Frédéric Pierucci’s well written personal story tells[Read More…]

Human history as cultural history We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents many aspects of[Read More…]

If you’re reading this, you’re probably no longer skeptical about the need for Humanity to change its ways hard and fast. I would dare to say that you are one from a rising tide of consciousness, for whom the depth and breadth of our impact on this Earth is starting to sink in. You feel that equally massive changes are[Read More…]

Human history as cultural history We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents many aspects of[Read More…]

A while back, a friend said to me, “What’s wrong with your friend, Gurpreet? Has he gone crazy? He keeps posting about Bollywood actress, Kareena Kapoor on Facebook.” I did not know about the posts, so I did not respond. I later heard that Gurpreet penned a book about Kareena Kapoor Khan, I thought to myself, “What does Gurpreet have[Read More…]

International Brigade Against Apartheid. Ed. Ronnie Kasrils. (With Muff Andersson and Oscar Marleyn). Jacana Media, Auckland Park, South Africa. 2021. When reviewing a book already given high testament by the likes of Richard Falk, Ilan Pappé, Omar Barghouti, and John Pilger, among many others, the easy recommendation is simply read this book: it is an important addition to the history[Read More…]

An event for the launch of “From Nazneen to Naina”, based on the work of the Bollywood diva, held in Surrey on Sunday, November 28 was an eye opener for many who are unaware of the spill over effect of right wing politics of New Delhi on the Indian cinema. Authored by Canada-based author Gurpreet Singh, the book tries to[Read More…]

One of the major accusations against the historians in India is that of neglecting and ignoring the role of the marginalised in the freedom struggle. Most of the time, we were ‘informed’ that there were some ‘heroes’ and ‘villain’ of the freedom movement and then there were historians fighting the ‘political battle’ of ‘history’ and interestingly all of them belonged[Read More…]

There are several aspects of nature protection to consider. Science is one among them which has been playing a major role to protect nature from all the threats. But a scientific understanding of nature is not only enough to protect nature and its components. There are also a few things that are beyond scientific understanding. Similarly, a close relationship between[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book Today the world is facing several threats, and to avoid them we need to act. The greatest threats are catastrophic climate change and thermonuclear war, but a large-scale global famine also has to be considered. I would like to announce the publication of a new book, in which these problems are discussed The book may[Read More…]

As the world prepares to depart 2021 and head into 2022, it is clear that the United States is a declining economic power and that China continues its rapid upward trajectory. While homelessness and poverty sully the debt-laden US, China has eliminated extreme poverty. What is the American response to economic disparities domestically? Institute a guaranteed minimum income? Andrew Wang[Read More…]

Human history as cultural history We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents many aspects of[Read More…]

Thanks to a Vancouver-based body of literary awards, the Dhahan Prize for Punjabi Literature, Balbir Madhopuri’s Mitti Bol Peye has received this year’s award in the “novel” category. Based on the Dalit resistance movement in Punjab, the novel is a powerful commentary on the oppression of the so-called untouchables in a caste-based Indian society. The story of Gora, a Dalit[Read More…]

Desert travel writing tends to evoke feelings of excitement, enthusiasm and surprises. In an article in The Times Literary Supplement, Caroline Eden wrote that deserts “offer a cultural and geographical otherness that suits travel writing.” Calling Ethiopian-born British military officer Wilfred Thesiger’s Arabian Sands “a classic of travel literature,” Eden quotes his words on desert adventuring: “Your morale improves…the hypocritical[Read More…]

The author is growing in disasters. Her journey is sad and strange. Years later, she portrays it in her book Rumours of Spring. The reading of the book is delightful. It comes from the tragedies that are naturally expected in the writings of a woman, if she chooses Kashmir as her subject. Farah Bashir does justice even to those expectations.[Read More…]

This is a fascinating and beautiful book, one of those gems you serendipitously discover and shake your head at your good fortune.  Although it is new and I received it as a gift, it reminds me of a few books I have discovered over the years while rummaging through used bookstores that have startled me into a new perspective on[Read More…]

If politicians continue to use money as a guide in making decisions, we will lose the battle to save human society and the biosphere from the catastrophic long term effects of climate change.  A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents the reasons why we urgently need to reduce the role[Read More…]

As the development model implemented in India in recent decades has involved the displacement of a large number of people, millions have faced eviction and displacement.  As the suffering people and those who have come close to them know only too well, the overwhelming majority of displaced people have been denied justice and their rehabilitation effort has been extremely unsatisfactory.[Read More…]

Review of “First Class:  The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat” by Christopher W. Shaw.  Foreword by Ralph Nader.  Open Media Series.  City Lights Books. Herodotus said this of the Darius’s Mail Couriers, “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”  Over a century[Read More…]

As climate change leads humanity’s march to Armageddon, data surfacing during late 2021 suggests that the march could be much briefer than previously thought. “Nature is starting to emit greenhouse gases in competition with cars, planes, trains, and factories,” asserts Robert Hunziker. The Amazon has switched from soaking up CO2 to emitting it. Likewise, the Arctic has flipped from being[Read More…]

Human history as cultural history We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents many aspects of[Read More…]

The question of whether or not Russia is fascist rarely if ever gets asked nowadays because it seems so obvious: Why waste the time it takes to even ask the question? International relations scholars; major media organizations; non-scholarly yet high-profile shapers of the prevailing wisdom; and politicians on both sides of the aisle seem almost unanimous in their response to[Read More…]

The aim of consumerism, which the rulers of these [socialist] economies had promoted, when they aspired to surpass the United States in the standard of life, conceived in terms of capitalist West, forced them to abandon their socialist objective. The consumerist standards of the Western world could be achieved only by providing very high incomes to a few in highly[Read More…]

Human history as cultural history We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents many aspects of[Read More…]

Review of ‘ From ‘Nazneen to Naina’   “To get a name is one of the few things that cannot be bought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted.” – British writer Samuel Johnson ( 1709-1784) – poet, playwright, essayist, biographer, critic, editor The idea to be fascinated by individuals –[Read More…]

Review of “Capital City:  Gentrification and the Real Estate State” by Samuel Stein.  Verso, 2019. Real Estate is the world’s largest asset class. The numbers are staggering- globally, real estate in aggregate is worth approximately $230 trillion.  Of this, residential real estate is the majority player, worth approximately $180 trillion.  This far exceeds the value of all stocks and is[Read More…]

Respected journalist Mark Willacy’s Rogue Forces is imperative reading for its detonating exposé of Australian SAS war crimes in Afghanistan and the systematic cover-ups at varying levels of the Australian Defence Force operations. Willacy’s window on war crimes is narrow, focusing on three SAS members of Squadron 3;  Soldier A, Soldier B and Soldier C who murdered in chilling bloodlust innocent Afghan farmers in 2012. It[Read More…]

From Nazneen to Naina: 20 years of Kareena Kapoor Khan in Bollywood and what that means for India and the rest of the world was officially launched on Tuesday, September 21 at the Press Club of the Union Territory. Authored by Canadian journalist Gurpreet Singh, the book is based on her film career so far, and what she has faced[Read More…]

Marx had famously said that the history of all existing societies is the history of class struggle. In this context, if one looks into the history of Himachal Pradesh then one can hardly disregard the fact that classes of several sorts had their struggles in the spatial dimensions of what is now known as Himachal. The homogeneity of society which[Read More…]

From Nazneen to Naina: 20 years of Kareena Kapoor Khan in Bollywood and what that means for India and the rest of the world, will be officially released at Chandigarh Press Club on Tuesday, September 21. Authored by Canadian journalist Gurpreet Singh, the book is based on the film career of the famous Bollywood diva, and what she has faced[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which discusses religious ethics and cosmology. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/content/uploads/2021/09/Who-is-my-Neighbor-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf One often hears the question: “Is there a conflict between science and religion?” In my opinion, there are two aspects to religion – ethics[Read More…]

Human history as cultural history We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents the historical development[Read More…]

In a society built on inequities based on class, caste, gender, race – existence of constitutional legislations for benefit of oppressed does not by itself ensure their welfare. It requires a conscious collective action by the oppressed against exploitation. It requires a change in mindset from ‘fearful’ to ‘fearless minds’. The book by Vivek Pandit titled ‘Fearless Minds’ tries to[Read More…]

Except for Palestine – The Limits of Progressive Politics. Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick. The New Press, New York. 2021. “Except for Palestine” is a remarkable little book. Within it, the authors Hill and Plitnick present the larger picture that the self proclaimed progressive “universal” values of the United States are argued for in many troubled spots of the[Read More…]

  India was ready for change with liberalisation and globalization. As the then Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had said in his historic budget speech, the country needed a comprehensive fiscal adjustment, but the poor would also have to be saved from it. On July 25, 1991, an editorial article in ‘The Hindu’ had called it ‘sparing the poor’. At[Read More…]

In the Shadows of the American Century – The Rise and Decline of US Global Power. ALfred W. McCoy. Haymarket Books, Chicago. 2017 Reading “In the Shadows of the American Century” is a bit of an up and down ride. The best part of the book for personal interest concerning the author is the Introduction. The author, Alfred McCoy, discusses[Read More…]

K.M. Seethi, Enduring Dilemma: Flashpoints in Kashmir and India-Pakistan Relations (KW Publishers Pvt Ltd New Delhi 2021) As India and Pakistan are set to celebrate the 75th Year of independence, the trauma of partition and the unsettled issues of the past continue to haunt the people of the subcontinent in diverse ways. The region of South Asia is not only[Read More…]

by Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen Many necessary everyday items that are produced as commodities are tied to a range of activities that are invisible during their purchase, consumption and use: the origin of raw materials used in household appliances, medical devices or transport; water and energy infrastructures; the working conditions under which materials are extracted or textiles and food[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a collection of the articles and book announcements which I have written during the last two years. Almost all of these have been published in Countercurrents or in TMS Weekly Digest or both. I am extremely grateful to Editor Binu Mathew and to Editor Antonio C.S. Rosa[Read More…]

Reviewer’s Note:  I had the pleasure to review a proof of Stan Cox’s forthcoming book.  I recommend it strongly and offer high praise, though caviled by a few nits.  Please read on. Recent events have awakened even some typically passive people to the enormity of the synthetic disaster that is anthropogenic climate change.  Though who “agreed with the Science” and[Read More…]

Human history as cultural history At present, history is taught as though power struggles were its most important aspect. Furthermore, the present teaching of history is an indoctrination in nationalism. We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations[Read More…]

Lawrence in Arabia – War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Scott Anderson. Anchor Books, Random House LLC, New York, 2013. Every very seldom often a book comes along that greatly exceeds expectations. Lawrence in Arabia is one of those books. Scott Anderson’s writing is highly entertaining and highly informative at the same time. It[Read More…]

“Cruelty Or Humanity” by Stuart Rees is an important book that should be in every institutional and public library. Despite the  Mainstream   hiding or softening horrific crimes, we are all aware of global cruelties, from  deadly Developing World poverty to equally deadly war atrocities. We utterly abhor cruel people of personal acquaintance, and my reading of this powerful book  instructs[Read More…]

Matthew Ehret, with contributions from Cynthia Chung, has written a much-needed book about the early history of the United States of America.  The title of the book is The Clash of Two Americas, the Unfinished Symphony.  It is volume 1 of a planned series.  This essay is based on the book. The “Clash of Two America” is a compendium of[Read More…]

After the Apocalypse – America’s Role in a World Transformed. Andrew Bacevich. Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company. New York. 2021. The contemporary apocalypse as seen by Andrew Bacevich in his latest book, “After the Apocalypse”, consists of four different horsemen: first mentioned are the severe climate effects of global warming; Trump “toxic and divisive” presidency is mentioned next; followed[Read More…]

Economic history is not a truly scintillating read. However, to understand how our society is arranged economically as it is today, “Goliath” provides an interesting background into the people, policies, and the political rhetoric (propaganda) that shaped the power struggle between monopoly power and democracy. Without forcefully stating it, that is the theme of the book: monopoly power as it[Read More…]

A common line of argument from the contemporary American left is that “socialism has never been tried.” It’s understandable that Western socialists would make this argument to members of the US proletariat, who have been deeply affected by years of red scare propaganda. This argument however, ignores the millions who have struggled and died in an effort to move beyond[Read More…]

       Recent incidence in IIT Kharagpur of the verbal assault mounted by the professor on the marginalised students with proclamation of impunity from penal Action of State directs us to innumerable paradoxes in 21st Century India.It also implies that not all is well in the country who seeks to achieve the goal of Superpower in International Arena but still lacks[Read More…]

Set in an unnamed southern town amid lush plantations of pepper, bananas, coffee, rice, and narrated in soliloquy Annie Zaidi’s 184- page novel, Prelude to a Riot is a brilliant, bold, honest, critical commentary on contemporary India. “Abu doesn’t want to work the land. He says it’s pointless because we cannot take the land with us when we leave”. Abu,[Read More…]

Richard P. Mitchell’s book “The Society of Muslim Brothers” is one of first and most authentic book on the formation, Ideology and objectives of Muslim Brotherhood.  Being a study conducted during most crucial period of Egypt, the time of Egypt revolution of 1952 and based on observance of true incidences and interviews of prominent personalities of Egypt (Brothers and non[Read More…]

“Anyone with a sense of history would have realized that the hubristic attempt to make the world into  a frontier- and culture- free single market would end in tears”;  this is how Robert Skidelsky, one of the leading economists of today, observes the present economic turmoil. The predictability of mathematical modeling of neoclassical economics began to be widely questioned with[Read More…]

War: How Conflict Shaped Us. Margaret MacMillan. Random House, New York. 2020. I almost did not finish reading “War: How Conflict Shaped Us”. It is not worth reading, but I worked through it anyway. Which is unfortunate as Margaret MacMillan can be an excellent writer of history. The two volumes of hers that I have read – “Paris 1919” and[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book, which discusses the reasons why the institution of war continues to threaten human civilization and the biosphere, and the steps that might be taken to rid the world of war. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: https://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Why-War-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf[Read More…]

Kate Elizabeth Russell dedicates her exemplary work, My Dark Vanessa to “the real life Dolores Hazes and Vanessa Wyes whose stories have not yet been heard, believed, or understood”. As I begin to read this, I already get a whiff of what I am in for. The existing scholarship around the realm of English Literature has already turned the predatory[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book, which discusses the urgent changes that are needed to save our planet and our collective future. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/A-Critical-Decade-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Humanity has reached a critical decade A new report, published on 14 March, 2021[Read More…]

Worldwide chemical emissions are six times global warming emissions. This hidden dilemma is fully exposed in a superbly researched new book by science writer Julian Cribb: Earth Detox, How and Why We Must Clean Up Our Planet, Cambridge University Press, scheduled for release August 2021. The planet has become a toxic soup of tested, untested, and inadequately tested chemicals that[Read More…]

Dr. Krishna Upadhyaya, a fellow traveller in the struggles for emancipation of bonded labourers in Nepal, in his latest Novel ‘The Ghosts in the Hills’ ventures to deep dive into the important but less narrated phase of Nepal’s recent history, the Maoist uprising. It falls within the genre of historical novels. It is not a factual narrative of the Maoist[Read More…]

The poetry of earth is never dead -John Keats This is Sanjiv Bhatla’s maiden collection of poems. He has several authoritative and scholarly works on religious and spiritual subjects also to his credit. His poems are equally brilliant and bear out the finer sensibilities in him. His anthology was originally published by Orient Longman (now Orient Black Swan).It has now[Read More…]

An  acclaimed columnist wrote recently  in one of his social media posts , “ I love to buy books written by our children . It gives me unique inner satisfaction .May Allah protect our children.” One such young boy is Aazib Manzoor who has come out with around three hundred page debut novel titled “The Sentiment in my Stone”.  One[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which discusses the duty of scientists and engineers to try to prevent the catastrophes that currently threaten human society and the biosphere. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/The-Social-Responsibility-Of-Scientists-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Three major threats to human society Science and technology have[Read More…]

In the time of aggressive neo-liberal Hindutva led by the RSS-BJP in the leadership of the Hindutva poster boy Modi poses serious political threats to the regional identity and caste based political parties and constitutional democracy. In current time, the Shudra and Ati-Shudras political parties like SP, BSP, RJD and others have failed to make any socio-cultural and political agenda[Read More…]

Moumita Alam’s debut poetry collection The Musings of the Dark  is a powerful poetic assertion of dissent.  Dissent against what?  Against state sponsored violence against Kashmiris, violence against anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protesters at Shaheen Bagh,  violence against migrant labourers, daily labourers during Covid 19 pandemic. She also voices her dissent against structural violence of casteism, fascism, violence against women[Read More…]

            In the course of facing the ongoing challenge of the pandemic, a sad reality that has  manifested itself time and again is that profit-driven health systems are unable to respond effectively to such crisis situations. There are several disturbing anecdotes  of how the profit driven systems and the individuals running them behaved in a selfish and callous way towards[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which discusses the things that I have experienced during my 67 years of work in the peace movement. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link: https://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/67-years-in-the-peace-movement-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Holger Terp’s invitation Seven years ago, Holger Terp, the founder and web editor of[Read More…]

The Crash of Flight 3804 – A Lost Spy, A Daughter’s Quest, and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game for Oil. Charlotte Dennett. Chelsea Green Publishing. London/White River Junction, VT. 2020. Titles can be deceptive – “The Crash of Flight 3804” meant nothing for all my readings of history and geopolitics. It was not about the crash that killed[Read More…]

Impacts of unjust systems manifest in many ways, but few are as poignant as independent , proud farmers being displaced from their farmland and forced to migrate to a distant and unknown place to seek work in uncertain conditions. We in India are all too familiar with this on-going , overwhelming reality of our times, our country and this is[Read More…]

Every time I had visited hill stations such as Ooty and Kodaikanal, I have greatly admired the breathtaking beauty of nature, though my admiration has found equal attention to the men’s world, who come in their cars and bikes, with cigarettes and beer tins in their hands, chatter and laugh heartily with their friends.The Indian society has no qualms with[Read More…]

Engaging the World: The making of Hamas’s foreign policy. Daud Abdullah. Afro-Middle East Centre (AMEC), 2020. Hamas has been a strongly maligned actor within the western mainstream media. The concise and well written “Engaging the World” by Daud Abdullah presents a clear picture of Hamas’ attempts to act as an international state actor while at the same time continuing its[Read More…]

The Lion and the Eagle – The Interaction of the British and American Empires 1783-1972. Kathleen Burk. Bloomsbury, London/New York, 2018. The 200 year historical span of Kathleen Burk’s “The Lion and the Eagle” shows the changes in the interactions between the newly formed United States and its imperial drive and the ongoing imperial drive of the British. In general,[Read More…]

‘The Office of the President is an emergency light. It comes on automatically when there is a crisis and goes off automatically when the crisis passes,’ observed former President Ramaswamy Venkataraman in his book ‘My Presidential Years’. Whether present-day Presidents are any longer backup lights is difficult to say. Yet, diaries of past presidents sometimes give explicit account of the[Read More…]

A discussion by Candice Louisa Daquin based on reading Candace Owens’ book Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation According to the author, Candace Owens: Hilaría Baldwin is NOT Spanish. Rachel Dolezal will NEVER be black. A biological man is NOT a woman. A biological female will never be a man. These people are just ‘playing pretend’ and as[Read More…]

A Review article on the recently launched book edited by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd and Karthik Raja Karuppusamy “The Shudras–Vision For New Path” number one bestseller on Amazon India’s farmers have sustained the largest protests in modern Indian history since Mahatma Gandhi and the independence movement. While Gandhi’s Khadi dhoti appeared in media worldwide, the farmers received relatively scant attention until[Read More…]

Title: Beyond Dharma – Dissent in the Ancient Sciences of Sex and Politics Author: Wendy Doniger Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books, 2020 When one of the world’s most acclaimed and charming scholars of Hinduism presents a trailblazing interpretation of ancient Indian texts and their historic influence on subversive resistance, the book ought to be of more than ordinary interest. Eminent Indologist Wendy[Read More…]

I have been teaching in MA Development  program of Azim Premji University since 2010.  I am also involved with conducting short trainings for people working in the development sector from the village to the state level for last 20 years. It is mainly in that context that I am commenting  on Bharat Dogra’s three books published in 2019 : Book[Read More…]

Written by Sharad Yadav and Omprakash Mahato During the Emergency (1975–77), all socialist leaders came together on one platform and formed the Janata Party government in 1977. In its manifesto, the Janata Party promised to undertake measures for social and educational upliftment of people belonging to backward castes and communities. The social upliftment of backward castes once again became the[Read More…]

Most recent works on the United States accept that it is an empire, perhaps not in the traditional landholding sense, but in the extent of its power and control of others. In “American Empire – Global History,” A. G. Hopkins accepts the idea of empire with several qualifications and with a precise focus on certain aspects of that empire. His[Read More…]

Human history as cultural history We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents the lives and[Read More…]

Originally written and published in 2012 in the Telugu language, Nirjana Vaaradhi, is a memoir by Kondapalli Koteswaramma. Sowmya V.B. translated this book in English, and ‘The Sharp Knife of Memory’ was published and released in 2015 by Zubaan books, to reach a much wider circle of readers, beyond the boundaries of the two Telugu speaking states of India. Koteswaramma[Read More…]

A socialist, a believer in equal opportunities, a defender of civil liberties, a deeply involved citizen of India and a humanist, the late Justice Rajindar Sachar (1923–2018) was a celebrated jurist. One who believed in standing for the last man in the line and was armed with a moral remit that never wavered, his life was momentous. Few jurists in[Read More…]

During the late 60s, when the US war on Viet Nam was going strong and people were questioning capitalism, I drove from Eugene to Berkeley where my sister was living.  I ran into folks who invited me to a discussion about starting a commune. There, everyone talked about dropping out of consumer society and buying land to get away from[Read More…]

India has witnessed a sea change in its social structure and political culture since Independence. Despite the progressive developmental model that the country has followed, we are witness to fissiparous tendencies that is on the path of dividing the Indian masses based on religion, ethnicity and caste ladder. Unquestionably, there is a need to develop a fresh approach to dismantling[Read More…]

  Aakar Patel starts his timely and well-researched book Our Hindu Rashtra: What It Is. How We Got Here with a sentence “Majoritarianism is primitive and easy to do”. He surmises that establishment of Hindu Rashtra, which has only one meaning, that a Kshatriya king should rule the Hindu Rashtra under the supervision of a Brahmin head priest. Such a Hindu[Read More…]

Rakhi Dalal reviews translated short stories of Nabendu Ghosh, which not only bring to life history as cited in his Bangiya Sahitya Parishad Lifetime Achievement award but also highlights his ‘love for humanity‘ Title: Mistress of Melodies: Stories of Courtesans and Prostituted Women Author: Nabendu Ghosh Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books, 2020 Mistress of Melodies: Stories of Courtesans and Prostituted Women is acollection of six[Read More…]

Man over Machine: A Path towards Peace is the kind of book you might want to preserve and return to, every once in a while. Author Bharat Dogra has worked for long years as a freelance journalist – never taking on a full-time journalism job in order to be completely free, and writing a prodigious number of articles, many of[Read More…]

Jharkhand Me Mere Samkaaleen by Vir Bhrat Talwar, 2019, 2020, Delhi, Anugya Books, pp 213, Rs. 250/- On the surface, this book is in the form of a memoir about five persons who played an important role in the cultural, literary and political trends in the Jharkhand movement in the period 1970-2010. But they do not remain mere personal memoirs;[Read More…]

     A Review of by Gaither Stewart’s Short Story Collection, “Signs of the Times”    Gaither Stewart is an expatriate American writer who lives in Rome and knows Europe well. Mr. Stewart’s agile intellect and life-tuned, refined aesthetic sensibilities will most interest those who refuse to be confined in a single identity, preferring rather to cross at will between the[Read More…]

Autobiographies by bureaucrats every so often raise curiosity for the reason that they hide more than they reveal, even as the sequestered information and the behind the scene camaraderie in day to day governmental functioning is a lot sensational. In recent years, India’s top civil servants have been writing their memoirs. But they have only been penned only after being[Read More…]

A recently penned autobiography by eminent economist Devaki Jain, written based on a suggestion made by Doris Lessings in 1958, with a forward by Amartya Sen and reviewed by Bhaskar Parichha. This is an unusual memoir. Unusual because it isn’t archetypal, not old-fashioned nor even written in a sequential order. The autobiography is set apart into personal and professional years,[Read More…]

Famed anti-racist Jewish American journalist I.F. Stone opined “Governments lie” and those 2 words summarize the message of “The Most Dangerous Book Ever Published: Deadly Deception Exposed!” This iconoclastic 766-page book contains a total of 78 essays contributed by 7 prominent Alternative writers  who variously take a sledgehammer to the monolithic lies of Big Government that are uncritically forced on[Read More…]

This collection of short stories by Gaither Stewart takes readers on a journey of the human drama; those questions that take us into and out of ourselves; those reflections that question time, history, our interactions with them and energetic influences that run between us and them and our actions within the resulting context. This collection is being released in the[Read More…]

Tragic happenings of the 1980s continue to perturb the Sikhs. Most of them want to know what actually took place behind the smokescreen erected by the power of the day. In this context, the new arrival ‘The Khalistan Conspiracy’-A Former R&AW Officer Unravels the Path to 1984” (2020) authored by GBS Sidhu, who retired as Special Secretary of India’s Intelligence[Read More…]

When an international arms historian discovers the famous Indian firearms in a book with a focus on the legendary Jodhpur collection, it ought to be stimulating. Jodhpur was one of the most important military states in Rajasthan, playing a major role in the subcontinent’s history. During the reign of Maharaja Ajit Singh (1678-1724), large of numbers of guns were purchased[Read More…]

“The house at Number 45 Shyambazar Street had its date of construction engraved right at the top of its façade. From this, it could be learnt that the house was not built in this century. If not a hundred, it was close to eighty-five years old. Thanks to the moist winds from the holy Ganges in its close proximity and[Read More…]

Political religion has become a dominant feature of our democracy particularly in the last few years. Different proponents of Hindutva groups freely distort religion to further political ideologies. They disregard some of the fundamental teachings of Hinduism to achieve their objective of gaining political power by winning elections. They generate hate and demonization of other faiths. They routinely invent history[Read More…]

Mass extinctions due to human activities According to a recent United Nations report, more than a million species of plants and animals are currently threatened with extinction because of human activities. Rates of extinction today are as much as 1,000 times greater than the normal background rate. As the greenhouse gas emissions of human society push the earth towards catastrophic[Read More…]

The term tribe or tribal is not defined anywhere in the Indian Constitution. According to Article 342, Scheduled Tribes (ST) are ethnic communities that are notified by the President of India. India’s tribes are not part of the traditional Hindu caste structure. They are more similar to the “indigenous” or “native people” in other parts of the world. Tribal communities[Read More…]

Lastbench is an anthology written in the time of Trump and Covid-19, acting as a voice for those who are frustrated with the news cycle, wishing for something more visceral. It is unapologetically against Trump and considers his Presidency to be the terror that began the downfall. Whether true or not, this is the slant of this publication and it will[Read More…]

  In lieu of writing reviews of their own books – with the exception of Walt Whitman, who did that with Leaves of Grass – writers often write introductions or prefaces. The purpose of such introductions is to give the prospective readers a sense of what to expect in the pages that follow, as if the author knew exactly what[Read More…]

  The cover of the book says it all. The multi-colored umbrella in traditional applique on the cover of Bhaskar Parichha’s book ‘No Strings Attached: Writings on Odisha’, in a way, beautifully portrays what is there inside. The book is a panoramic view of Odisha as it has evolved in the last two decades. It is a compendium of commentaries[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a new book, in which I have tried to sketch human history, from earliest times until the present, against a cosmic backdrop. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/A-History-of-the-Earth-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf The place of humans in nature According to modern cosmology,[Read More…]

“Gaan Chhadiba nahin, jami chaddiba nahin”[i] a prominent war cry, echoed in the sacred mountains, rivers, and streams of various districts at different space and times, captures the essence of people’s resistance to land dispossession in Odisha. Ranjana Padhi and Nigamananda Sadangi’s latest book ‘Resisting Dispossession: The Odisha Story’ stands as a distinct repository of diverse lived experience, everyday struggles[Read More…]

  ‘The spectacular victory of Narendra Modi and the BJP in 2014 and again in 2019 demands a nuanced exploration of the factors that led to it. Though the role of the middle class and the media in the making of what is called the ‘Modi Wave’ is often talked about, a clear-eyed and unbiased look at how they transformed[Read More…]

‘What lies ahead? Reimagining the world. Only that.’ With these above lines, Arundhati Roy ended her introduction and they reflect what Roy set out to do in the book ‘Azadi: Freedom. Fascism. Fiction’. In the nine essays in this book, most of which are previously published or given as lectures between 2018 and 2020, Roy explores the important events of[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a new book. It discusses the role of what might be called decision trees in science, in linguistics, in philosophy and literature, and in our daily lives. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Road-Not-Taken-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf Decision trees During each human[Read More…]

…the nine essays are a fitting tribute to the inventive beauty of Gandhiji and its wide-ranging applicability in present-day society… As India celebrated the sesquicentennial of MK Gandhi last year, Marg had come out with a special issue on the lesser-known aspects of Gandhi’s engagement with aesthetics. Gandhiji’s aesthetics was two-fold: one, it was a quest for exquisiteness and two; it was a[Read More…]

Book Review – Economyths: 11 Ways Economics Gets it Wrong By David Orrel At the beginning of the year, Bloomberg.com predicted that 2008 would be a year of prosperity, based on forecasts by financial pundits. The growth rate for the year was forecast at 11 percent. No one had even a hint of the impending massive economic collapse. By the[Read More…]

INTRODUCTION My warmest salutes to Alpa Shah for writing her book ‘Night March’ of the Guerrillas. I hardly have an adjective to express my admiration for such a scholastic and creative work which is a vivid firsthand experience of her most penetrative travels in Jharkhand. Above all she was a very witness to the crusaders of liberation, living like one[Read More…]

Title: India Dissents — 3,000 Years of Difference, Doubt and Argument Editor: Ashok Vajpeyi Publisher: Speaking Tiger, 2020 Every man loves liberty and freedom. Do not interfere with another’s freedom. – Gautam Buddha They say inside the heart of a black hole there is a point of singularity. A point of singularity is where no laws of nature exist, like[Read More…]

Review of “PolyTicks, DeMocKrazy & Mumbo Jumbo: Babus, Mantras, & Netas (Un) Making Our Nation” By Avay Shukla|Forward by Shashi Tharoor. Pippa Rann books & media The public sphere in India- and India’s entire body politic- is virused. Though in the short-term, it suffers from a particularly virulent and persistent strain of neo-liberal Hindutva, the longer-term effects on the surviving[Read More…]

Review of “Dispatches from the Race War” by Tim Wise. City Lights Publishers, forthcoming December 2020 In a few short weeks- achingly painful weeks- the US will hold what is likely the most important Presidential election in its short and violent history. The choices before the populace are telling; the choice we are to make- and its clear which one[Read More…]

Title: Beyond the Fields Author: Aysha Baqir Publisher: Marshall Cavendish International, 2019 Recently, an instagram handle questioned women: “No Men for One day — What if there were no men for 24 hours?” Majority of the women replied that they would go for a walk alone. And this is the year 2020. We are living in a so called modern[Read More…]

Review of  ‘Religious Nationalism – Social Perceptions and Violence : Sectarianism on Political Chessboard‘ by Ram Puniyani, Media House 2020 “Blatant dictatorship – in the form of fascism, communism, or military rule – has disappeared across much of the world. Military coups and other violent seizures of power are rare. Most countries hold regular elections. Democracies still die, but by[Read More…]

Hatemonger – Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda. Jean Guerrero. William Morrow/HarperCollins, New York, 2020. While browsing the History/Politics section of a local bookstore the number of works devoted to the many aspects of Donald Trump was quite amazing, but considering his impact on current events domestically and globally probably not truly surprising. Unable to decide which[Read More…]

Book Review The Future We Choose: Surviving the climate crisis Authors: Christiania Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac Published: February 2020   Never before have I come across a book that literally screams out to the reader to be the change that you wish to see. And that also with practical imperatives. This is an essential read for all those who wish to[Read More…]

Title: Love is not a word: The Culture and Politics of Desire Editor:  Debotri Dhar Publisher: Speaking Tiger, 2020 Love is not a word: The Culture and Politics of Desire edited by Debotri Dhar is a timely and illuminating book. It asks the right questions, sets up the debate on issues which need to be debated in order to bring the many[Read More…]

Despite its publication and release in 2012, both the book entitled, Disenchanting India: Organized Rationalism and criticism of Religion in India, and the theme it attempts to capture stand understated today. Johannes Quack, ethnologist of Religion Studies from Frankfurt, began work on the book as his Master’s thesis project in 2009, which was released in the market as a published[Read More…]

A state-owned initiative in India is called a public sector undertaking or a public sector enterprise. These establishments are owned by the union government or one of the many state governments or both. The company stock needs to be majority-owned by the government to be a PSU. Public sector enterprises in India have now and always been the whipping boys[Read More…]

Noam Chomsky. 2004. Hegemony or Survival. Australia. Penguin Books. 301 pages, ISBN: 978-0I4I-03734-9. A$9.95rrp “Either you are with us or against us” Noam Chomsky has written one of the boldest pieces in the form of Hegemony or Survival.  It aims to dissect the grand strategy of Imperialism of United States since the beginning of 20th Century. The very word hegemony[Read More…]

There can be, and have been, countless books on Kashmir and Kashmiris. Given its geopolitical importance in the Indian subcontinent and the constant needling by Pakistan, Kashmir has been a boiling point in the relationship between the two disagreeing neighbors. It has now been a year since the Indian government changed the status of Kashmir by making amendments to Articles[Read More…]

Black Wave – Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unravelled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East. Kim Ghattas. Henry Holt & Company, NewYork, 2020. Among the many books analyzing the Middle East, Kim Ghattas’ Black Wave is outstanding – that not necessarily being a good thing. It is very good as it presents what the[Read More…]

Shimla Diary is a literary-cultural chronicle and a documentation of its times and society, with a keen focus on the world of Hindi journalism. Well-known poet and journalist Pramod Kaunswal, who has seen Hindi journalism in Shimla, Chandigarh and Punjab at close quarters, pens his impressions of the book. This is not just a book review but a brief and[Read More…]

Few years back, at a book release function, Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat remarked , “I have not read the book but the author.” I have been reading the author Mushtaque Barq , the author , columnist, short story writer, poet , translator  and what not. He has now joined the group of novelists and come up with a novel titled[Read More…]

There couldn’t be a better audience than the youngsters for a book on the environment. If the youth are the harbingers of change, it is they who will have to care more about the earth and the environment. This new book on India’s environmental history is a commendable work simply for the reason that it is written for children.  ‘Unearthed:[Read More…]

Book Review Oral History of Indian Freedom Movement By Dr Licy Bharucha; Pp240; Rs 300; Published by National Museum of Indian Freedom Movement The Congress has won political freedom, but it has yet to win economic freedom, social and moral freedom. These freedoms are harder than the political, if only because they are constructive, less exciting and not spectacular. -Mahatma[Read More…]

Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies – Critical and Lyrical Essays. Edward Curtin. Clarity Press, Atlanta, Georgia. 2020. In the introduction to “Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies – Critical and Lyrical Essays” Edward Curtin writes, “…We live in the era of massive fraud where the transnational wealthy elites, led by the American war and propaganda machine, continue[Read More…]

A review of Seeking Truth in a Country of Lies: Critical and Lyrical Essays, by Edward Curtin.  (Atlanta, GA, Clarity Press, Inc.  349 pp.  2020.) “There’s something happening here           What it is ain’t exactly clear.”                    –Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth.” Happily receiving my review copy of Edward Curtin’s new book, the first thing I noticed, naturally enough,[Read More…]

Biochemist, writer, humanitarian activist, and artist, Gideon Polya has had a selection of his essays gathered into a compendium titled US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide (Korsgaard Publishing, 2020). The compendium is important because it brings to the forefront, for anyone who cares an iota for peace and social justice, the horrible crimes of the “mendacious and politically dominant[Read More…]

A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book entitled “Some Aspects of Quantum Theory”. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link: http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Some-Aspects-of-Quantum-Theory-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf What readers may expect to find in the book I hope that this book will be of interest to students and researchers in mathematics,[Read More…]

  On the Trail of Buddha—A Journey to the East is ‘a unique sojourn in the search of the spiritual, philosophical, and cultural linkages that bind India to the East Asian civilizations. From the wandering monks of Asia to the temples and monasteries they visited; from the statues and frescoes in grottoes to those in the museums; from the diverse ethnicities[Read More…]

Self-deprecating humour is a survival strategy of human beings, and coping mechanism of the society during the dark times.  That is true to the letter as well as to the spirit when it comes to Avay Shukla’s book ‘PolyTicks, DeMocKrazy & MumboJumbo’. It is an insider masterpiece of political satire on Indian society and politics from 2014 to 2020. The[Read More…]

Like the wandering and rascally Odysseus upon whom he models his life, Oliver Stone is “double-minded” in the most profound and illuminating ways.  The title of his fantastic new memoir is a case in point.  “One of the first basic lessons in filming,” he writes, “is chasing the light.  Without it, you have nothing – no exposure that can be[Read More…]

Understanding the War Industry. Christian Sorensen. Clarity Press, Atlanta, Georgia. 2020. For reader’s wondering about the state of the U.S. economy this work by Christian Sorensen provides a small encyclopedic compendium of information relating the war industry to the overall U.S. economy and U.S. foreign and domestic policies in many spheres. He states his main ideas clearly and plainly and[Read More…]

Title: Dara Shukoh: The Man who would be King Author: Avik Chanda Publisher: Harper Collins, 2019 Scanning the list of books already written on Dara Shukoh, I wondered why the author had chosen to write yet another book about Dara Shukoh, but that was before I came across Avik Chanda’s impressive work. A magnificent tome, it is richly palimpsestic and[Read More…]

  What do we expect from an author who is a story teller, an international development strategist and a gender policy specialist? A lot to be sure. A Master’s degree holder in Public Administration from Harvard University, an equal   grade in International Relations from the University of Warwick, a policymaker Health, Nutrition and Gender portfolios with the Government of India[Read More…]

Cruelty or Humanity  by Em.Prof. Stuart Rees, is essential reading in our present tumult and bedlam of human cruelty. Rees is a stalwart man of peace; he is the founder of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney and of the prestigious Sydney Peace Foundation and Cruelty or Humanity is his unflinching Summa Pax propelled[Read More…]

  How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs.  Elizabeth F. Thomson.  Atlantic Monthly Press, NewYork, 2020. Having just read The War That Ended Peace [https://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-war-that-ended-peace-book-review/] the title How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs appeared as an intriguing and fortuitous follow up.  Its subtitle describes its more narrow focus: The Syrian-Arab Congress of 1920 and the Destruction of[Read More…]

There are two good reasons to read John Martinkus’ most recent book, The Road: Uprising in West Papua. First reason; as an act of defiant resistance to the censorship on the truth of the 50 years of Indonesia’s brutal occupation of West Papua endorsed by western governments mainly Australia, USA, the UN. Through his own experiences and those of his colleagues such[Read More…]

Title: The Other Side of the Divide – A Journey into the Heart of Pakistan Author: Sameer Arshad Khatlani Publisher: Penguin Random House, 2020 Journalist Sameer Arshad Khatlani’s maiden book, The Other Side of the Divide – A Journey into the Heart of Pakistan, published end February 2020, seemed to, at the outset, suffer the fate that the India- Pakistan relationship[Read More…]

When a defense researcher and an aggressive reporter takes us into the White House Situation Room, the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s “Tank” in the Pentagon, and the gigantic chambers of Strategic Command to bring the myriad stories of how America’s presidents and generals have thought about, threatened, broached, and just about avoided nuclear war, it is bound to be an exceptional[Read More…]

I am a long-time Countercurrents correspondent and on 4 June 2020  published in Germany a large book entitled “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” that is substantially based on articles I have published in Countercurrents as well as in other progressive media over the last 2 decades.  Despite thousands of Mainstream journalists around the world being informed over the[Read More…]

Human nature as a central theme of philosophy What is human nature? Are we humans good or evil? To what extent is the character of a person produced by heredity, and to what extent by environment? Is competition more central to our existence than cooperation, or is it the other way around? How can a happy, peaceful and stable society[Read More…]

On a recent hiking trip I took along Margaret MacMillan’s pre World War I history, “The War That Ended Peace – The Road to 1914” (Penguin Canada, 2013). It is a well written history that I have read before – and may have formally reviewed although that is not of consequence now. It is a book I highly recommend as[Read More…]

“My father was working in his garden, like he always did, though he appeared calmer. But every time I saw him, I would feel a quiet panic. I lacked the vocabulary, the courage and the cruelty I needed to tell him that I was not the son he expected me to be. And if I did, would he understand?” The[Read More…]

Peace Plays is a splendid book: a lens with which to contemplate our modern world of foibles, follies, self-and-mass destruction. It’s a book to read, and re-read, and savor. It is whimsical and sobering; grating in a positive way; uplifting and transformative

Acres of Skin—Human experiments at Holmesburg Prison, A widely reviewed Book and a true story of abuse and exploitation in the name of medical science, is written by Allen M. Hornblum. It was published in 1998 by Rutledge New York and London. The title signifies the thousands of prison inmates (vulnerable trial subjects) whose skin was the playground for Dr.[Read More…]

The small press items that slip by but should not, offer a lot of wonderful materials this summer and perhaps for me in particular, perhaps, plucking the chords of memory. More important, they offer a glimpse of leftwing writers hard at work. Andy Piascik’s deft In Motion (New York: Sunshine Publishers, 298pp, $29.95) had me when a lead character’s sister[Read More…]

It may seem strange to begin a review of a “spy story” by noting the stalwart morality of an apparently irredeemable and ruthless spy. But, Stewart’s creation of Misha Nikiforov, ex KGB and Russian successor to his influential and unforgettable Anatoly Nikitin of the novel, The Trojan Spy, and a spiritual brother of Oleg in the accompanying story in this[Read More…]