2016

by Babika Khawas
In an attempt to analyse the relationship between globalisation and social movement this brief communiqué attempts to comment critically on the cliché—that itself emerged as a critique—anti-globalisation movement. As is well known, globalisation as a stupendous process has transformed everyday social reality by opening up newer avenues secured through the rapid flow of capital, technology, information, trade, ideas and other resources across the national borders. Social (…)

MUSINGS
Tuesday afternoon I was in and around New Delhi’s posh Khan Market. Usually this marketplace is more than crowded, with locals and foreigners not just shopping but stuffing themselves in the various eateries, but that afternoon (November 29) it was as though a vacancy of sorts had enveloped the entire stretch. The sellers and buyers looked glum. After all, the year is ending on a dismal note!
I did get to notice at least two rather strange developments: buyers with a two thousand (…)

I wish I could agree with Congress President Sonia Gandhi that compassion was the distinctive character of her mother-in-law, Mrs Indira Gandhi. A person with an iota of consideration for individual freedom would not have detained 100,000 people without trial as she did during the Emergency in 1975. Not only that she also gagged the press and moulded the society in such a way that it had no hesitation to cross the thin line between right and wrong, moral and immoral.
True, Indira Gandhi (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by Krishna Jha
Words Matter: Writings Against Silence by K. Satchidanandan; Penguin Group India; 2016; pp. 260; Price: Rs 399.
The knock is today at every door. The entire democratic fabric is at stake. Hence the anthology Against Silence, edited by the renowned Malayalam poet, K. Satchidanandan, where every piece of writing contains rebelling voices that refuse to get crushed.
Authors have risen to the CALL...
Munshi Premchand, the first President of the Progressive (…)

Throughout history, it has been held that leaders should lead by example. In the military, the officer is expected to set an example of bravery and good soldiering. In society in general, the expectation is that if the leader does good things, the people too will do good things.
In today’s India, however, our leaders lead only by command and set an extraordinarily bad example. If Modi is taken to be the ideal, the exemplar, then the poorest of his followers should have many, many suits of (…)

EDITORIAL
Today is the twentythird day since the Narendra Modi Government carried out surgical strikes on the Indian people through demonetisation (by pulling high-denomination Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes out of circulation) on the ostensible plea of fighting black money and corruption.
Despite all endeavours by the authorities and sections of the media (acting as the mouthpieces of the Modi dispensation) what is undeniable is the fact that the country is currently facing a severe (…)

Commentary
On November 30 a Supreme Court Bench, in a striking, though interim, judgment, ruled that “all cinema halls in India shall play the national anthem before the feature film starts and all present in the hall are obliged to stand up to show respect to the national anthem”.
As expected, the BJP, which upholds the banner of national chauvinism passing it off as nationalism, wholeheartedly welcomed it, insisting that the ruling would reinforce the idea of “Ek Bharat, Shreshtha (…)

Fidel Castro, the outstanding architect and leader of the Cuban revolution, passed away in Havana on November 25, 2016 after a brief illness. He was a remarkable personality who attracted global attention for having stood up to Washington’s devious designs to overthrow him from power ever since the Cuban revolution in January 1959.

Fidel Castro, the great Cuban revolutionary and the icon of those who have over the last half-a-century struggled for national liberation, freedom from colonial and capitalistic exploitation, and the establishment of a just and equitable world order, passed away on November 25, 2016 in Havana at the age of 90. At the time of his death, he had become outdated just as many of the platforms he had chosen for his role in the world, that is, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Group of 77 (G-77), the (…)

Fidel Castro, who died at the age of 90 on November 25, will always be remembered by history for keeping alive the hope for a socialist alternative for a very long time in very adverse circumstances. He is often admired, and rightly so, for his great courage and determination in fighting an oppressive dictatorship and finally ousting it from Cuba.
This was certainly a very impressive achievement but what followed has an even more durable place in history. Despite all sorts of opposition (…)