2014

I don’t quite know how to address you, so I shall simply say hello, Chacha, happy birthday. Do always be well. I imagine there is no dearth of roses where you are, or of laughing children in the park, or of books that you always still wanted to read, or of pen and paper for the next one you wish to write.
I also imagine Bapu, the Sardar, and Maulana will soon come calling for a heart-to-heart on this your 125th janam din, even as down here the powers-that-be are purposefully busy cutting (…)

by Mushirul Hasan
My vision is the same as that of Nehru, even though the old certitudes of Indian politics have crumbled. Fifty years later, Nehru’s idea of India and his conception of tolerant, inclusive, and common Indianness have given way to exclusivist ideas of India and its political community. From the 1990s, in particular, the definition of Indianess has been assailed by the Hindu Rightwing. “Keep your windows and doors of your mind always open,” Nehru had told a group of students (…)

The 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru would roll on from November 14, 2014. Had there been a Congress Government, the occasion would have been marked by pomp and show though it would not have been in all likelihood more than a poor caricature. The 125th anniversary comes at a time when a BJP Government is in power at the Centre with a Prime Minister who does not conceal his preferences that do not at all lie with Nehru or Nehruvian India.
Still the birth anniversary of the first (…)

by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
When the country celebrates the 125th birth anniversary of Pandit Nehru, an occasion arrives to explore his most important contribution to all of us. That is to be found in his unflinching efforts to establish and practice secularism within the country’s democratic framework in the best possible manner. The credit goes to him that he succeeded in defeating the communal forces in an effective way though his successors many a time failed on this count. In South (…)

We live in a time of the continued dismantling of the Nehruvian model that began in 1991.

by Ranjit Singh Ghuman
Prior to its independence on August 15, 1947 India had a bigger industrial sector than any other country which became a European colony. It was unique in being an industrial exporter in pre-colonial times. In 1700 AD India’s share in the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) was 24 per cent. That, however, declined to 16 per cent in 1820 and to 12.2 per cent in 1870. It declined further to 7.6 per cent in 1913 and dwindled to 4.2 per cent in 1950.
During the first (…)

EDITORIAL
Striking a note of departure from what PM Narendra Modi had promised the electorate during his whirlwind Lok Sabha election campaign earlier this year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said rectifying the economy would take a “lot of time” since the “pit was reasonably deep” and a “large number of steps are needed”.
At the same time he told the India Economic Summit (organised by the World Economic Forum and Confederation of Indian Industry) in New Delhi yesterday that some (…)

COMMUNICATION
At a time when the Left forces are in obvious decline, why is it so important to emphasise the need for unity of the Left forces and strengthening of the Left forces? The reason for this goes much beyond electoral gains or other narrow considerations.
The real reason why it is of the greatest significance to strengthen the Leftist forces is that to resolve the most pressing problems of the world in time the solutions need to have an important socialist content. The problems (…)

The Congress suffered its worst ever electoral defeat in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. What has been happening since then is that the two fundamental tenets of our polity, namely, secularism and democracy, are being challenged by the ruling party which came to power after solemnly taking the oath to uphold the Constitution. Secularism is being frontally attacked. Secularists are called pseudo-secularists and appeasers of minority communalism. Democracy has not been formally opposed yet (…)

The first principle of dialectic: things never remain the same. Thus, contrary to what you may think, there are important stirrings within the Indian Left.
History knows no greater motivator than a recognition that a termination may be in the offing. It has taken a while but an Aristotelian anagnorisis seems now dawning that India’s new Rightwing Government may not after all be just Rightwing in a classical economic sense but rightwing plus in relation to theories of state as well. India (…)