2010

Surrogate motherhood—an arrangement in which a woman carries and bears a child for another person or persons, but takes no ownership of the child born—has raised moral, ethical, social and legal questions about both—the woman and the ‘commissioned baby’. The practice of renting a womb and getting a child is like outsourcing pregnancy. The business volume of this trade is estimated to be around $ 500 million and the numbers of cases of surrogacy are believed to be increasing at a galloping (…)

For all the opposition from a vocal and recalcitrant minority within Parliament and certain sections of informed opinion outside, the passage of the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha on March 9 by a landslide (186-1)—after the vociferous opponents seeking to hold the Upper House to ransom with their unprecedented actions (setting a record of sorts in unruly behaviour within the precincts of the Council of States) had been evicted and the BSP members also walked out—was (…)

The setback that the parochial form of Maharashtrian regionalism has recently received may result in revival of the progressive potentialities that regional nationalism had once displayed. Its experience is of wider relevance in other parts of the country also and needs a more thorough debate than has taken so far. First, let us recall what happened in Mumbai.
The overwhelming response of the Mumbaikars to My Name Is Khan in defiance of the Shiv Sena’s call for the boycott of the (…)

I was never a student of Dr K.N. Raj; yet he was my teacher.
This curious circumstance came about in the following manner. Driven by an irresistible urge to work for the poor, I resigned my job with the eventual aim of working in a village. But I felt an overwhelming need for deeper social understanding, and as one influenced by Marxism, economics was an indispensable tool for this purpose. But I had never studied economics at any stage. I was in the South (to avoid my unhappy (…)

TRIBUTE
[ Professor Kakkadan Nandanath Raj, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi, who founded the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram and was its Honorary Emeritus Fellow, breathed his last in Thiruvananthapuram on February 10. As a token of our tribute to his abiding memory, we reproduce here his contribution by way of an intervention at a discussion in Thiruvananthapuram (December 8, 1998)—it was carried in the Mainstream Annual Number 1998 (December (…)

On February 15, 2010, around 5 pm in the late afternoon, a group of armed Maoists attacked the camp of the Eastern Frontier Rifles at the Silda bazaar area. [Silda happens to be some 30 km from Midnapore town and 14 km from Jhargram in West Bengal.] They set fire to the camp and killed two-to-four riflemen while injuring a dozen others. No civilian was killed or injured by the firing. Then they decamped with 47 rifles and a large volume of ammunition.
The Eastern Frontier Rifles is a (…)

One major challenge before the Indian state today is that of Naxalism, a movement which has a long history and which over a period of time has expanded its influence and violent activities. It is now spread over 14 States covering about 160 districts. (Misra, 2008, p. 63) According to various sources, it is believed that more than 6000 people have been killed in Naxal violence in the last 20 years. This really becomes a matter of concern and hence provokes one to identify the factors which (…)

The word hijacking brings to mind horrific images and disturbing thoughts about air travel safety. Hijacking is now looked upon as an act of terrorism. Hijacking entered a new phase on September 9, 2001. This signified an attitudinal change in terror tactics in the world.
The first recorded case of hijacking of a civilian airliner occurred in 1948. Thereafter, it has been used to express human rights violations, dissidence and to highlight national liberation struggles. During the (…)

There was a National Meet of Muslim Activists for Reservation at New Delhi on February 10, 2010. The following is the Final Statement adopted at the Meet.
Muslim Activists for Reservation from all over the country, meeting in Delhi on February 10, 2010, have considered the Report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities headed by Justice Ranganath Mishra, former Chief Justice of India, in depth and generally welcome it and salute the Chairman and all the members (…)

Introduction
In the recent past, wider discussion and debate have been built over the issue of mega-construction works undertaken by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Government. Intellectuals and social activists were worried that public money was being drained out in such a big way to build something which blatantly represents the political symbols of a particular political party. In the media also we have noticed severe criticism against these construction works by describing them as ecologically (…)