2016

Come together
on the cobblestones of freedom
Unfurl the Tricolour
Climb the Altar
Speak out from the heart
of Freedom in India
of the Indian Constitution
of the coagulated blood that unites
dalits, adivasis, minorities,
marginalised, poor workers and poor farmers
of their pain, hunger and deprivation and
of the struggle that lies ahead
that must be waged together
for India is waiting to listen to you.
Suhas Borker There is a Spot upon the Earth
There is a spot (…)

by Arun Srivastava
Nationalism has been the most misused manoeuvre by the ruling establishment in India to bully the political opponents and throttle the peoples’ protest and saner voice. We have seen how this was misused in the past by the Congress. Anyone protesting the machinations of the ruling clique would be dubbed anti-national. But what makes the present machination of the RSS and BJP in the case of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar different is that the saffron brigade is preparing a (…)

by Aslam Khwaja
The following is a paper presented by the author at an international conference on Karachi at Karachi in November 2015. February 2016 marked the seventieth anniversary of the Royal India Navy’s Mutiny.
The Royal Indian Navy’s Mutiny was a total strike and subsequent revolt by the Indian sailors of the Royal Indian Navy on board ship and shore establishments at Mumbai harbour on February 18, 1946. Though the initial flashpoint was in Bombay, the revolt spread in a matter (…)

Perception about India of Intellectuals and the Colonial Legacy
Almost all the Indian historians and scholars like D.D. Kosambi, Amartya Sen, Sudipto Kaviraj wrote about the idea of India in terms of an ancient civilisation or a political boundary formed after British colonisation. In their writings they prominently mentioned about Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore and Bankimchandra. Bankim’s writings do not mention anywhere about India, Bharat, Hindustan or Bengali. He rather wrote about arming the (…)

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
The debate in Parliament on Rohith Vemula’s suicide and the subsequent incidents in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has brought out in sharp relief the respective positions of the saffron camp and the entire Opposition on questions of nationalism and democracy. The partly emotional and partly minatory Lok Sabha speech by the Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani from the Treasury Benches was no match for the objective analysis of the present situation and the real (…)

The following article was written just before the Budget session of Parliament that began on February 23, 2016.
There is no conceivable reason why a government which commands the support of 282 lawmakers in the 543-member Indian parliament should feel wobbly in the legs.
Narendra Modi has reason to feel insecure. Yet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made an astounding statement on Sunday (February 21) that there is a concerted conspiracy to destabilise his government.
Modi pointed (…)

by Bharat Bhushan
The primary casualty of the fiasco at the Capital’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and the paranoid politics being promoted in the country is not likely to be the JNU Students’ Union President, Kanhaiya Kumar, who faces fictitious sedition charges. It is Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh whose reputation, if not his job, may be on the line.
Sending police to the JNU campus and his claim on public television that the student protest had links with Hafiz Saeed, a wanted (…)

The manner in which Jawaharal Nehru University Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar was roughed up in the Patiala House Court premises, while being brought to be produced in the court room, in the presence of observers from the Supreme Court who were there to ensure the security of Kanhaiya and everybody else targeted by the RSS-BJP, has brought back memories of the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition incident. The people associated with the Sangh Parivar, who are quick to accuse others not (…)

by Arup Kumar Sen
The recent arrest of the JNU Students’ Union President, Kanhaiya Kumar, on the charge of sedition, thrashing him by a section of “lawyers” in the court premises on his way to the hearing, and physical assault on the students, faculty and journalists by the same “lawyers” on the first day of hearing in the presence of the police signify complete breakdown of the constitutional order. The matter did not stop there. The unruly “lawyers” did not even spare senior Supreme (…)

by Shruti Jain
A mother, also a student of the JNU, was carrying her daughter on her back, straining to listen to a teacher over thousands of other students and teachers gathered on Saturday evening at the JNU administrative block. She had to strain to hear, as mikes were not allowed by the administration. The child was making mischief and the mother gently rebuked her in satire ‘stop being anti-national’. Her remark for me aptly captures the distorted picture and travesty that certain (…)