2010

We think that the Indian subcontinent is the world’s most unstable region, given the dominance of religion, the Pakistan Army’s jealousy-tinged hatred of India and the rise of hatemongers like Narendra Modi. But take a trip westward and we’ll see that no part of the world is more dangerously unstable than the Arab region with Israel plonked in the centre of it thanks to the success of British machinations in 1948.
It will remain so despite Israel’s current talk of “easing” the blockade of (…)

Prologue
Stories are based upon past events, or personal or recorded human experience, embellished by imaginative thinking. They sometimes carry a clear “message” but quite often these days, the message is subtly hidden. In contemporary story-telling that is increasingly audio-visual, hi-tech special effects often draw audience and critics’ attention and help to cleverly conceal the message. One such is a recent Hollywood film written, directed and produced by James Cameron, titled (…)

It is time and again that scribes write of the international crime syndicate as during the Cold War people wrote of the international terror network. Now they talk about regional centres. The bursting of the Russian spy ring in the US involving Ms Chapman accompanied by Clinton visiting Georgia, Abkhazia and Kiev is catching headlines. The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) is being blamed for criminal activities in the Middle East involving bank robberies, corruption and illicit business for these (…)

We, as concerned citizens, feel extremely disturbed by the recent events of violence in the region of Chhattisgarh and other parts of eastern India. We condemn the spiral of violence and counter-violence between the State security forces and the Maoists. Though the violence has been continuing unabated, yet following the Peace and Justice March by a group of concerned citizens from Raipur to Dantewada, a peace process had been initiated. Letters were being exchanged between the Home (…)

We protest, for we feel there is an amiss affecting us. But to sustain a protest, so that it does not end up as a Rang De Basanti-style cosmetic candle-light protest at the India Gate or SMS protest by the slaves of convenience in the metro-cities, we need to engage with the notion of social honour and disgrace. The politics of protest presupposes an alternative notion of social honour, to combat those who believe that protest in itself is anti-honour and hence disgracing. Also, an (…)

The recent killings/threats to kill in the name of honour and social ostracism have once again brought caste-based discriminations, hierarchies, conflicts and cleavages in society to the fore. To challenge the undermining of caste authority and principle of ascribed status, the caste councils/Khap Panchayats in particular regions of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in north India have become active and assertive during the recent past.
The assertion of Khap (…)

The issue of same-gotra marriages is regularly in the news these days. Hardly a day passes without a news item about the developments surrounding this issue. Statements from the Gotra Khap Panchayats and Sarv Khap Panchayat spearheading the movement for a change in the Hindu Marriage Act 1955, as also the reactions of the political parties and individual politicians of the State of Haryana have been almost a daily occurrence in the recent past. Sometime back the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, (…)

REVIEW ARTICLE
The Limits of Influence: America’s Role in Kashmir by Howard B. Schaffer; Viking Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd, 2009; price: 499; pages: 272.
Howard B. Schaffer, Deputy Director and Director of Studies of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, has tried to make a superb history of the many efforts made by the parties and international community to settle the long-running and dangerous Kashmir (…)

In the brochures and posters of Indian tourism, Kashmir still figures with its enchanting attractions. In reality, however, the picturesque Valley of Kashmir is becoming out of bounds for the peace-loving citizens of this country.
In a sense, Kashmir today represents the gravest challenge to Indian democracy—perhaps much more than what happened at Ayodhya on December 6 and all that followed. If the bomb blast in Bombay on March 12 and the blow-up of the bomb storage in Calcutta that came (…)

Employment has many connotations. This write-up focuses on one new connotation. Before we do that let us briefly see what employment means and how it is measured.
Employment cannot simply be defined as the number of people with jobs. Such a wide definition would also include children are who are too young to work and all those who choose to take up paid employment. In fact, employment refers to all those people who are willing and able to work, and are in a position to find work. (…)