2018

Remembering Mahad
“Can Water Catch Fire?”
The question may surprise anyone in her/his senses. Yet any person who keeps an open eye for social and political movements would know that when masses forge ahead, breaking the millennia-old chains of slavery, then not only can the sky be pierced, but water too can catch fire.
In December 2017 fell the ninetieth anniversary of the Mahad Satyagraha when thousands of people had gathered at Mahad in Maharashtra to challenge the practice of (…)

by Binoy Viswam
All along its history the BJP has had a position on secularism. It was full of antagonism and arrogance against the very concept. To reflect this, their stalwarts had coined a phrase long back—pseudo-secularism! Their cadres were taught in such a way to believe that secularism is nothing but unnecessary appeasement of minorities. And those in the BJP are asked to believe that secularism is anti-thetic to the Indian ethos. According to them Indian ethos are based on (…)

The Hindutva politics has brought Assam on the brink of a massive social unrest. The reason is the party‘s decision to grant citizenship to all Bengali Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971, while holding all Bengali Muslim immigrants as ‘illegal infiltrators’ to be deported to Bangladesh. Whether this will be at all physically possible (that is, whether Bangladesh will accept them) is quite another matter. Bangladesh has said repeatedly that not a single citizen of theirs is (…)

by Sardar Amjad Ali
In the annals of the history of the Indian National Congress, December 16, 2017 will remain a memorable day. Not only because a change in the presidency of this one-hundred- and-thirtytwo-year party after a long twenty-year period took place on that December evening, but also because of various other factors that may well be recorded.
In our Indian set-up of parliamentary democracy, every political party registered with the Election Commission of India, the (…)

In the rumble-tumble of elections, the role of Congress President Sonia Gandhi has not been recognised. No doubt, the contest was between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi but the real rivalry was between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). And here Sonia Gandhi was relevant.
All pollsters predicted victory for the BJP in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. And this has come true. The Congress won 80 seats and BJP 99. There has been no surprise except for the margin of victory. What (…)

After about 20 deaths in protests in December, Iran appears to have quietened down. The economic stress in its countryside, however, continues. It was the rise in the price of eggs which had sparked violent demonstrations in its second largest city of Mashhad on December 28, which had led to unrest in several other places.
A draft budget presented to Parliament in December had led to a considerable increase in funds of foundations of the Ayatollahs (religious leaders) and expenses of the (…)

WOMEN’S WORLD
by Archna Katoch
Women’s empowerment is indispensable to achieve the fifth of the seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations to ‘achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls’, and ultimately an all-inclusive, democratic and peaceful world. According to UN Women, to make the SDGs a reality for women by 2030, it is vital to put efforts on five major areas: increasing women’s leadership and participation; ending violence against (…)

by Fayezah Iqbal
Being woman, be bold, brave and beautiful. Upholding all the scars, she smiles plentiful, Impeded at every stage, never ceases her soul yet bountiful.
Be woman, be tree, river and concrete; Withstanding all the betrayals, bestows love in surfeit. To be transformed, moulded and reformed indeed.
Be woman, be enormous, flowing and endowing; Who sacrifices to live and lives for sacrificing, Flowering underneath the shadows of tyrannies towering.
Be woman, be individual, (…)

TRIBUTE
by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
Ambrose Pinto’s death on January 3 of 2018, after struggling with the treacherous cancer for about six months, made me feel that this year would be bad for the Dalits. His smiling face, hopeful of change, keeps flashing through my mind.
I last met him when I gave a special lecture at the Indian Social Institute, Bengaluru on January 20, 2017, in memory of Father Henry Volken S.J. who founded the Institute. That evening we had dinner at well-known (…)

On December 19, we celebrate the Liberation of Goa from colonial rule. On that day, in 1961, Goa joined the Union of India and independent India became complete. Goa has achieved remarkable progress since independence. The greatest gain has been the feeling of self-respect regained, of liberation, the opening of the portals of opportunity particularly to the vast mass of people who were denied upward mobility over centuries and perhaps millennia.
Great strides have been made in core (…)