2016

by S.N. Sahu
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was a many-splendoured personality whose hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary was celebrated across the country a few years back. (And only a week ago we observed his one hundred and fiftyfifth birth anniversary.) He was one of the noblest gifts of Bengal to humanity and the world. To my mind, Gurudev Tagore was one of the earliest champions of sustainable development and gender equality. All such ideas which assumed centrality to his life and (…)

by Fayezah Iqbal
Today we are surfeit with the entertainment of sundry kinds from the digital world and social media in addition to the regular means of television and movies. The dimensions of entertainment have widened and expanded like never before. Especially for the youth there is no particular mode or programme when it comes to entertainment; as they can always jump on to various diets/stuffs being offered on a platter, ranging from classic Hollywood teleseries to movies to reality (…)

I went searching for the woods— Dark, dense and deep; But I fear they are no more to be seen.
Whoever felled my beloved trees— Neem, palash, peepal, bargad—with an axe? I fear I did not see him, Oh! Do forgive my lapse!
I was so intent in building towers of cement I quite forgot the hours spent, Under the boughs of the banyan tree On whose ariel shoots we swang, along which bonds of friendship And early love, just sprang.
Then those very shoots became roots And in turn sprouted new (…)

EDITORIAL
They had come prepared to put the Opposition Congress on the mat. ‘They’ meaning the new nominated member in the Upper House, Subramanian Swamy, and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in particular. But what happened at the end of the four-and-a-half-hour-long debate on the AgustaWestland helicopter deal in the Rajya Sabha was entirely different. As Hindustan Times noted,
Ruling party speakers were at their wit’s end in the face of a concerted counter-offensive by Congress (…)

COMMUNICATION
At a time when the processes and infra-structure of planning have been badly derailed in the country with the unceremonious dismantling of the Planning Commission, a challenge that should be taken up by indepen-dent scholars working with the cooperation of various people’s movements is to prepare alternative plans both at the national and State levels. This will help to give the people a more specific idea of what well-planned development effort based on justice, equality and (…)

by Ashok Celly
In his celebrated Chicago address, Swami Vivekananda declared that he was “proud to belong to a religion which had taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance”. He also took pride in the fact that “he belonged to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth”.
The Sangh Parivar in general, and the Prime Minister in particular, are supposed to be great admirers of Swami Vivekananda. Do they share his (…)

Prof Gerassimos Arsenis expired in Athens on April 19, 2016. He was an economist of international repute, an eminent international civil servant, a pioneer in the realm of ideas of international cooperation for development and a highly respected political figure for close to 20 years. In the last-mentioned capacity, he held the portfolios of the Minister of National Economy, Finance, Shipping, National Defence and National Education and Religious Affairs. He was a prominent-member of PASOK, (…)

The following is a rejoinder to the attack on Prof Bipan Chandra for his views on Bhagat Singh. The rejoinder is by the co-authors of the book India’s Struggle for Independence.
A vicious attack was launched by BJP MP Anurag Thakur in the Lok Sabha in Zero hour today (April 27, 2016) and in a section of the media on India’s Struggle for Independence, a book published in 1988, 28 years ago, by Bipan Chandra, Mridula Mukherjee, Aditya Mukherjee, K.N. Panikkar and Sucheta Mahajan. Deliberate (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s 155th birth anniversary falls on Sunday (May 8, 2016). On this occasion we are reproducing two pieces by N.C. on Tagore written 75 years ago, in 1941. Both were published in The Calcutta Municipal Gazette—Tagore Memorial Special Supplement, September 13, 1941 (that appeared after the Poet’s death on August 7, 1941). The first piece was carried under the pseudonym Vanguard. Though written during World War II when the global scenario was (…)

by Jayanta Kumar Ghosal
The fierce aggression of consumerism is causing huge damage to ecology and environ-ment. The concern for protecting them has also gained momentum these days. Unrestricted misuse and exploitation of natural resources, in the name of ‘development’(actually mal-development) has led towards destruction of the world’s habitat. The natural world has been totally altered by the new and improved methods of production. Present-day mankind is being confronted by serious (…)