2019

There are diverse ways of remembering a tragic event. The aftermath of recent deaths of more than 40 CRPF men in terrorist attack in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on February 14, 2019 bears testimony to it. In the wake of the tragedy, peaceful candle light processions were organised in different parts of the country to pay tribute to the soldiers. This marks the sane way of mourning the tragic deaths. But, violent ways of responding to the event, targeting Kashmiris, are also (…)

by Sandeep Pandey and Rahul Pandey
Narendra Modi’s ascension to power was accompanied with jubilation and expectation. His supporters were expecting an end to era of corruption and initiation of good governance which was described as Achche Din. His party’s adherence to idea of nationalism was believed to make India a vibrant country and guide it to be a world leader. He gave the slogan of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ conveying that his government was for all.
Corruption
The government (…)

by Aishwarya Bhuta
Being a woman and demanding entry into a temple is taboo.
Being landless and demanding land rights is taboo.
Being Adivasi and demanding forest rights is taboo.
Being Dalit and demanding reservations is taboo.
Being a farmer and demanding loan waivers is taboo.
Being a labourer and demanding minimum wages is taboo.
Being a journalist and doing your job right is taboo.
Being an activist and mobilizing the masses is taboo.
Right to speech and expression is (…)

[After a one-and-a-half year gap we are carrying an article by the well-known Marxist-Maoist thinker, Kobad Ghandy. In the past, we have carried several of his articles that he sent us from whichever jail he was lodged in. The last was a two-part article on India and the Evolving New World Order that was published in two parts on September 16 and 23, 2017 in this journal. He could not send any piece subsequently as his health condition did not permit him to write. In a covering note with (…)

[ February 21 is the International Mother Tongue Day as declared by the United Nations in recognition of the martyrs of the language movement who fell to the Pakistani police’s bullets on that day in 1952 in Dhaka while demanding that their mother tongue, Bangla, be made the official language of East Pakistan. Remembering the February 21 martyrs on the sixtyseventh anniversary of the language movement, we are publishing the following poem by a distinguished Bangladeshi personality. This was (…)

The crisis situation in Venezuela is getting more and more serious. It is clear that while the economic problems of the people of Venezuela in recent times have increased greatly, it is also true that left to itself the Maduro Government could have reduced these to a significant extent but the problems were accentuated due to the aggressive intervention of the USA. Matters came to a head when due to the support and prompting of the USA Juan Guaido declared himself the ‘interim President’. (…)

by Gautam Sen
The Government of India has issued a notification on February 21, 2019 empowering the Assam Rifles (AR), presently a Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and de-facto the oldest para-military force of the country, having the historically embellished appellation of “Sentinels of the East“, with extensive police powers. The powers bestowed are from personnel of the lowest rank of AR, under sub-section (1) of section 41 and sections 47, 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 149, 150, 151 and 152 of (…)

LITERARY TRIBUTE
by Priyadarshan
With the death of Namvar Singh, 92, an era of Hindi literature has come to an end. It is an understatement that he was a great critic, for his contribution goes much further. He may well be considered as one of the architects of the modern Hindi sensibility. For almost seven decades, Singh’s charismatic presence had a great influence on the Hindi literary and intellectual sphere. He gave new meanings to
the old forms of writing, and he liberated the (…)

We die for ours; Our deaths are propitiated Like those of star-crossed lovers.
They kill us, We kill them; They win some, We win some.
Thus we shun the cowardice Of a pusillanimous peace; Heroes do not fold their arms— They die in bloodied grace.
There are those who would conclude Our dance of kindred hate In some petty, effeminate truce That belittles our heroic fate;
Thus our respective national pride Is our adrenaline feeder; We die so our petty lives may have Some value for our (…)

The birth centenary of the eminent Bengali poet, Subhas Mukhopadhyay (February 12, 1919-July 8, 2003), was held recently with a three-day function (February 13-16, 2019) in Kolkata. It was organised by the Bengali periodical, Saptaha; Subhas Mukhopadhyay happened to be the Chairman of the weekly’s Editorial Board. While remembering him and offering our sincere homage to his abiding memory on this occasion, we are reproducing the tribute to Subhas Mukhopadhyay that was published in the (…)