2017

A hundred years ago, American journalist John Reed witnessed the momentous events of 1917 in Russia, when Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik Party, backed by soldiers and working-class people, seized power to end centuries of Czarist rule in Russia. Reed describes the scene in Moscow’s Red Square in his book Ten Days That Shook The World:
“This was the day of the People, the rumour of whose coming was thunderous as surf...
“We forced our way through the dense mass packed near the Kremlin wall, (…)

by Jaya Mehta
The year 2017 is the centenary year of the Great October Revolution. An armed insurrection by ordinary men and women—workers, peasants and soldiers succeeded in setting up a workers’ state in a country torn apart by military defeat and food shortage. The valiant attempt of the Russian people in the leadership of Bolsheviks to build a socialist state in a country which did not belong to the most developed capitalist world, changed the course of history not just for the people (…)

by Anastasia Edel
Imagine France cancelling Bastille Day. Or America demoting the Fourth of July and celebrating British monarchs instead. That sounds fantastical, even in our “post-truth” West. Yet in Russia, this is how Vladimir Putin is trying to refashion the country’s history. The leader who once lamented the dissolution of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” deems the October Revolution itself, the USSR’s foundational event, no cause for (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The following words were written 54 years ago, in November 1963. One may find these words somewhat alien against the present backdrop. Yet their significance will never fade from the pages of history, especially when we are celebrating the centenary of the Russian Revolution this month.
As the IIyushin 14 touched down on the hard crust of the Siberian snow, the pretty Chinese comrade next to me said: “It seems we have reached Omsk. But don’t be upset by the bitter (…)

by Shaukat Usmani
It was late in December that the Indian students of the India Military School at Tashkent decided to send this writer and Abdul Majid to Moscow for theoretical training. And Abdul Qadir Sehrai who was neither in our first batch nor in the second—and who had come with Iqbal Shaidai—was made to join us much against the wishes of the Indusky Kurs group, as he was a great favourite of the Roy family.
Moscow at that time was the Mecca of Revolution and the asylum for all the (…)

by Mahi Pal
Nyaya Panchayats (NPs) have been an integral part of the rural local government system of Uttar Pradesh. The NPs came into being in the State as per the UP Village Panchayat Act, 1920. Their jurisdiction was limited to civil claims of simple nature not beyond Rs 25 and criminal cases of simple hurt, assault, petty theft, mischief, insult and other ordinary cases. As per the UP Panchayati Raj Act, 1947, the NPs have been empowered to impose fine to the extent of Rs 250. The NPs (…)

This was the day the wand was waived And Currency turned to paper; When was the last the world had seen So heroic a caper?
This was the day when beggars were beggared, And taught selfless discipline; They died in lines for their own dues, So the revolution could win.
This was the day the rich were warned That the past may well be past, But that within extended dates They must their wealth recast.
This was the day the wicked Thousander Was put into the freeze, And the honest (…)

EDITORIAL
Several major developments having a bearing on our national life have lately hit the headlines. One is the pollution crisis in the Capital which is affecting the people at large. The interventions from the National Green Tribunal in the wake of the serious nature of the crisis have led to considerable controversy. As The Indian Express observes,
Last year, when Delhi was reeling under another pollution crisis, the NGT decreed that steps be taken “on long-term and short-term (…)

by Kadayam Subramanian
During his visit to Myanmar in early September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed support for the Myanmar regime’s fight against “extremist violence” perpetrated by the Rohingya rebels but failed to mention the suffering inflicted on innocent Rohingya civilians who have been subjected to violence, including torture and rape, and displacement by the Myanmar security forces in the course of their clearance operations against extremists.
While supporting the (…)

Seldom in history do things happen suddenly; they are often years in the making.
It is known that during his South Africa years Mahatma Gandhi had corresponded with Leo Tolstoy, described by Lenin in 1908 as the mirror of the Russian Revolution. This correspondence was three or four years prior to Gandhi’s last major agitation in South Africa, in which tens of thousands of Indian mine workers and plantation workers and other indentured workers struck work.
By the time the Russian (…)