2017

The Government of India has appointed Dineshwar Sharma, the former Intelligence Bureau chief, as an interlocutor to find a solution to Kashmir’s problems. This is not the first time that such an exercise is being conducted. New Delhi has had interlocutors in the past. Then instead of officials, Ministers were appointed so that the issue could get urgency as well as immediate attention. But nothing came out of these exercises.
The Kashmiri leaders wanted more than what New Delhi would (…)

by Geetanjali Atri
With the imprisonment of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the 15-year-old rape cases in the last week of August this year and the violence that followed, the sacred imagination of the masses has been marred by turmoil. The event sparked debates on a multitude of issues concerning the dera phenomenon in general, and the Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS), the Sirsa-based socio-spiritual organisation headed by Singh, in particular. The intelligentsia on the popular media was talking about (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
November 7 this year marks the centenary of the October Revolution that heralded a new dawn in the world. Today a hundred years later the Soviet Union, the product of that Revolution, has ceased to exist. Yet the significance of the Revolution remains undiminished. To mark the occasion we are reproducing some pieces from this journal, including the following write-up by N.C., written fifty years ago at the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution, and (…)

by Shaukat Usmani
The approaching fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution brings to mind many episodes connected with it. This Golden Jubilee of that great historical event of 1917 takes us back to the blessings of our own national liberation struggle which was then intensifying. It is no exaggeration to state that the October Revolution had a great impact on Indian natioinalism and on the colonial revolutionary movemnt throughout the entire enslaved Orient.
Inspiration
The (…)

Human society has witnessed so many revolutions but no revolution has influenced human history so much as has the Great October Revolution of 1917. No other revolution has triggered so profound socio-economic and geopolitical transformation in the global scale as has the October Revolution. The further we move away from the history-making events of 1917, the more we realise the global significance of this revolution. The October Revolution led to the birth of not only the first socialist (…)

What exactly was unique about the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia? What was it that made this revolution fundamentally different from all other previous revolutions? Why was it that it was something new, something unheard of, something never before imagined, in the entire history of human civilisation.?
Rabindranath Tagore in his inimitable language summed up this uniqueness succinctly in his book Letters from Russia, which he wrote when he visited the Soviet Union in 1930. He wrote: (…)

‘Ten days that shook the world’—the tremor of the October Revolution was felt throughout the world with its cascading effects on society, polity and economy at large, its far-reaching impact on the national liberation struggles of Asia and Africa, while giving specific direction to the working class movements across the globe. What Rosa Luxemburg, a stalwart in the communist move-ment, wrote in her article entitled ‘The Russian Revolution’ in September 1918 while she was languishing in (…)

On November 3 this year fell Nikhil Chakravartty’s 104th birth anniversary. On this occasion we are reproducing two eminent Pakistani public figures’ article and message sent on N.C.’s birth centenary four years ago when a two-day conference on “Media Engagements in Contemporary World” was held in New Delhi on November 4-5, 2013 under the aegis of the Centre for Media Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Editors Guild of India and Nikhil Chakravartty Memorial Foundation. Both the (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
My Earliest Recollections
After N.C.’s demise on June 27, 1998 three pieces were recovered from his notes as evidence that he had started writing his autobiography. Since November 3 this year happens to be his 104th birth anniversary, we are carrying the following piece (written on March 5, 1990) on his birth and childhood.
What’s the earliest memory I have about myself? I have tried to look back to catch a glimpse of what could possibly be the earliest scene I can (…)

EDITORIAL
At long last the dates for the Gujarat Assembly polls have been announced.
Yesterday Chief Election Commissioner A.K. Joti disclosed to the media that voting for the crucial electoral contest in the State will take place or December 9 and 14—the polling will be held in the first phase for 89 seats across 19 districts, and in the second phase for 93 seats in 14 districts—and the results will be out on December 18.
With the announcement of the poll schedule, the Model Code of (…)