2019

by Irfan Engineer
Manmohan Vaidya, the Joint General Secretary of the RSS, puts in a herculean effort through his article — “The Mahatma and the Sangh” (The Indian Express — April 12, 2019) to seek wider social legitimacy for the RSS misusing Mahatma Gandhi’s name. Vaidya tries to make out a case that though there were differences between the Sangh and the Mahatma, the Sangh has kept Mahatma’s ideals alive “through its work on rural development, organic farming, cow conservation and (…)

The world is to celebrate Lenin’s 150th birth anniversary next year. It is an occasion to learn from the epoch-making contributions of this giant of an intellectual and practitioner of revolution. Unfortunately, many tend to forget Lenin’s discoveries and ignore his epoch-making theoretical contributions. Therefore, it is essential to restore and develop them in their relevance in the present situation.
An Eventful Life
Vladimir Ilych Ulyanov (later Lenin in the Siberian exile) was born (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Close Encounters of Another Kind: Women and Development Economics by Devki Jain; New Delhi: Sage/Yoda Press; pp. xxv+398; Rs 1095.
The book under review is by an influential economist who has consistently attempted to move the development debate away from its mainstream moorings. The Introduction itself begins with “The term ‘development’ — in my view, ... undermined if not destroyed the road to progress for the former colonies.” In Chapter 8, she argues that the development (…)

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
The ongoing 17th general elections in India have already proved two points conclusively. First, the quality of the political leadership in the country has abysmally gone down. Secondly, democracy in India is now under peril. For every right thinking citizen the time has come for taking note of these two deadly cankers.
West Bengal, the State known for its political volatility, has remained true to its reputation in the second phase of the election process. Although the (…)

by Mahendra Ved
Of the numerous incidents of violence perpetrated on the unarmed by the British while colonising much of the world, the carnage at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, is and shall remain unique.
Many say that firing 1650 bullets on the unarmed civilians that day, Britain shot itself in the foot, eventually losing India, its “Jewel in the Crown”. And that, in turn, unleashed the global process of de-colonisation.
As that event marks completion of a century (…)

by Prem Singh
Today (April 13, 2019) is the hundredth year of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It was the day of Baisakhi festival. Thousands of male, female and children had come to Amritsar from nearby villages and towns. Many of them had camped in Jallianwala Bagh’s open ground. There was an atmosphere of tension in Punjab due to the agitation organised to oppose the infamous Rowlatt Act. The public and police forces had clashed in Amritsar three days before the Jallianwala Bagh incident. (…)

The following is the letter written on May 30, 1919 by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore after the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy (that took place in Amritsar on April 13, 1919) returning the title of Knighthood conferred on him earlier by the British King.
Your Excellency,
The enormity of the measures taken by the Government in the Punjab for quelling some local disturbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to our minds the helplessness of our position as British subjects in India. The (…)

by Pravat Ranjan Sethi
Before the 1919 Jallianwalla Bagh tragedy, Gandhi had not at all visited Punjab. The mass murder, however, changed him everlastingly. It transformed him from a British Empire loyalist to a relentless opponent of British rule.
The first major national campaign organised by Mahatma Gandhi was in opposition to the Rowlatt Act, which harshly limited civil liberties. This movement began with an all-India hartal, observed on Sunday, April 6, 1919. Although he had once (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The following piece was written by N.C. 23 years ago. It is being reproduced now to highlight the importance of the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy, the centenary of which was observed in the country on April 13, 2019.
Three landmarks to cover in a single day—that was how some of us spent our fiftieth Independence Day.
The first of the pilgrimage was to the Indo-Pak border post at Wagah to celebrate the anniversary of the freedom at midnight.
Reaching Amritsar by the (…)

by Monaem Sarker
The United States’ approach to the Indo-Pacific focuses on three vital areas—economic, governance and security. This is a ploy to establish hegemony. In the name of enhancing shared prosperity the USA wants to enter this region like the Middle East; in the latter case it was the so-called “Arab Spring”. This time slogan is: “advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific Region”.
The United States is taking a holistic government approach to advance fair and reciprocal trade, (…)