2013

January 12, 2013 marked Swami Vivekananda’s one hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary. We remember that outstanding personality on this occasion by reproducing some excerpts from Binoy K. Roy’s Socio-Political Views of Vivekananda (published by People’s Publishing House, New Delhi in November 1970).
by BINOY K. ROY
At the crossroads of two epoch-making centuries, when restless Europe was convulsing, on the one hand, under the far-flung tentacles of the greedy, shameless imperialists who (…)

Kobad Ghandy from Tihar Jail has been writing on the concept of freedom vis-s-vis present-day society as also in relation to a future just order, bringing out some causes for the failure of the erstwhile socialist states. This comprises a series of six articles. The first article (covering Part I—The Context) appeared in Mainstream’s Independence Day Special (August 18, 2012), the second one (covering Part II—Search for Freedom through History) in this journal’s September 15, 2012 issue, the (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Making Sense of Bihar—An Autobiography of a Civil Servant of Bihar by Shree Shankar Sharan; Abhinav Publications, New Delhi; 2012; pages: 426; Price: Rs 500.
If one wanted to read the usual stuff generally contained in the autobiography of a civil servant, where “I” dominates the whole write-up, one would miss it in this book. Witty, simple, humble, self-effacing as he was in his real life, Shree Shankar Sharan in this book reveals more of the contemporary social and (…)

by BIJU B.L. and ABHILASH KUMAR K.G.
Women’s movements in Kerala reflect the value system, demands and methods of agitations of different strands of feminism. Socialist feminism is not dominant in spite of the lofty membership in the women’s wing of the CPI-M. The debates related to third generation feminism and its subversive politics are principally confined to women intellectuals and celebrities. At present, it resembles a powerful intellectual consortium. Its influence in fairly (…)

by R.G. GIDADHUBLI
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India on December 25, 2012, though very brief, is an evidence of the fact that India is on his priority list to promote his global geopolitical and geo-economic objectives. No doubt Germany on the West and China on the East apart from Kazakhstan in the ‘Near Abroad’, which he has already visited after taking over his third term of presidency in May 2012, are more crucial from Russia’s perspective and interest than India. But (…)