2012

BOOK REVIEW
The Judgement that Never Came by Nandita Haksar and Sebastian M. Hongray; Chicken Neck Publishers, New Delhi; Price: Rs 495.
This book is an intensely human story of a group of innocent villagers in Oinam, an obscure Naga village in the Senapati district of Manipur, who suffered terribly in the hands of our security forces who are supposed to protect members of the civil society from those called terrorists. Way back in 1987, the even tenor of life in that quiet village was (…)

TRIBUTE
Lakshmi Swaminathan Sahgal was born in Madras in 1914 to an unusual Brahmin lawyer, Subharana Swaminathan, and her mother, Ammukutty Menon. Her parents were influenced by the Congress and her mother, according to Lakshmi, “earlier a socialite, but after my father’s sudden death, founded the All India’s Women’s Conference, got a ticket and won!”. Lakshmi trained to be a doctor, but she says: “My reasons for going to Singapore in 1940, were to be free from a marriage and to also join (…)

“Bomb blasts have taken place near the Delhi High Court, in Bombay, Bangalore etc. Within a few hours of such bomb blasts many TV channels started showing news item that Indian Mujahidin or Jaish-e-Mohammed or Harkatul-jihad-e-Islam have sent e-mails or SMS claiming responsibility. The names of such alleged organisations will always be Muslim names. Now an e-mail can be sent by any mischievous person, but by showing this on TV channels and next day in the newspapers the tendency is to brand (…)

The London Olympics are drawing to a close. These Games have proved beyond doubt that Jamaica’s Usain Bolt is the world’s biggest sprinter since he won both the 100m and 200m races in two successive Olympics—a feat that is without parallel till date since the inception of the modern Olympics in 1896. Also ace swimmer Michael Phelps of the USA became the most decorated Olympian after winning his record 19th medal surpassing former Soviet Union’s Larisa Latynina who had held the previous (…)

On August 9 this year was observed the ‘Quit India’ struggle’s seventieth anniversary. On this occasion we reproduce here Aruna Asaf Ali’s interview to Mainstream at the time of that struggle’s fiftieth anniversary (it was published in this journal’s August 8, 1992 issue) since Arunaji was the virtual embodiment of that last battle for India’s freedom from alien rule. That was one of Arunaji’s last interviews to any publication.
AN INTERVIEW WITH ARUNA ASAF ALI
How do you reflect on (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
This was the week, fiftytwo years ago, that marked the parting of ways between the Communists and the Congress. It was the Communist opposition to the ‘Quit India’ resolution at the historic AICC session in August 1942 that ultimately led to the expulsion of the Communists from the Congress organisations in 1946. Incidentally, the eviction of the Communists from the Congress marked the beginning of the process of transformation of the Congress from an all-embracing (…)

This month we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Quit India Movement [QIM] and Indian National Army [INA] or Azad Hind Fauj which 1943 onward was commanded by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose. It is true that the INA commanded by Netaji and the QIM led by the Indian National Congress had serious ideological divergence; both stood for two different strategies for the independence of India. However, both these movements proved to be milestones in the history of the Indian freedom struggle. (…)

The author’s article ’NCERT’s Political Science Textbooks Controversy: Cartoon-centred Pedagogy’ appeared in Mainstream (July 28, 2012). The following article is a continuation of the previous one.
There are six textbooks in Political Science for Classes IX to XII, two for Classes IX-X and four for Classes XI-XII. Each of these textbooks has been prepared by, or under the auspices of, a Textbook Development Committee, one for each book, but all of them have a common Chairperson of the (…)

India’s North-East is the most combustible region. Some 250 ethnic groups are arrayed against one another and New Delhi to fight for their identity, some seeking even an outside-India status. Religion-wise, the proportion of Hindus, Muslims and Christians is more or less the same. Infiltration, mostly from Bangladesh or what was East Pakistan, has only aggravated the problem. Even the Assamese, who were given a separate State in 1955 when India was reorganised on the basis of language, have (…)

Karnataka politics has not seen a dull moment in the past four years. Ever since the BJP formed its first government south of the Vindhyas, there have been those exhilaratingly ‘high‘ moments and the abysmally ‘low‘ tumbles for the party. The rapid twists and the silent turns, the amazing political somersaults and the smooth shifts in alliances within the party have all been part of that tantalizingly gripping political drama called the ‘BJP as a ruling party in Karnataka‘. Having changed (…)