2020

by M.R. Narayan Swamy
BOOK REVIEW
Title: Missing in Action: The Prisoners who Never Came Back; Author: Chander Suta Dogra; Publisher: HarperCollins India; Pages: 340; Price: Rs 699
This thoroughly researched book is a moving account of the agony suffered by the families of Indian soldiers who were captured in the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan, never to be seen again. It is not just an indictment of the Pakistani state which remained, over the decades, unmoved by the humanitarian (…)

Aroop Mangalik. Dealing with Doctors, Denial and Death. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. 274 pp. $22.00 (paper), ISBN 978-1-5381-2338-6.
Reviewed by Leah Samples (University of Pennsylvania)
Dr Aroop Mangalik wants you to know what it means to live well with a life-threatening illness. Here, “you” refers to the person dealing with a life-limiting disease, the parent of a child with an acute form of leukemia, or even the medical provider who wants to do more than offer treatment (…)

by P. S. Jayaramu
Historical international events impact not only relations among nations but also the balance of power and thereby affect the role they play in the international system. My purpose here is to assess the possible impact of Covid-19 on the international balance of Power. Before getting down to such a task, it is pertinent to briefly recapture the major historic occurances in the 20th century and the way it shaped the balance of power.
Let me begin by going back to the (…)

by R G Gidadhubli Recent conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh have hit the headlines in global media. In fact, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the two neighboring republics in the Caucasian region of the former Soviet Union, have been locked up in the conflict since 1988, over breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is geographically situated in Azerbaijan the territory. As opined by some analysts there has been ‘frozen conflict’ over Nagorno-Karabakh since the breakup of the of the former (…)

October 16, 2020
Dear Friends:
We are writing this letter with the hope that you will join the international call for a ceasefire to end the bloodshed and human and cultural carnage taking place since September 27, 2020 in what has been described as the “de facto Armenian republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)” within the Soviet-era boundaries of Azerbaijan.
Ever since the fierce border disputes at the time of the establishment of Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan, ethnic discomfort (…)

by Murzban Jal
On Human Alienation and the Denkverbot (Prohibition against Thinking)
Consider the Covid-19 pandemic along with the late 2019 Australian bush fires. Also consider the Amazon forests being depleted, not to forget California being burnt in 2019 by unexplained wildfires. While it may seem that it is some unknown fires and even more unknown virus that are creating havoc, a closer philosophical understanding will note that it is not viruses and fires which are problems, but (…)

by Navneet Sharma and Anamica
"If history and science has taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth." —E.O. Wilson
Those who don the historian’s hat are expected to unearth, collect, and present facts that make a coherent and cogent narrative. A historian also must have the historical sensibility and historical mind. Though history is known as the story of the past yet it is not a story but a reconstruction of the past based on pieces of evidence and (…)

by D.K. Giri & Maria Khan
The internet euphemistically called social media is a wonderful invention and a powerful tool for connection and communication. A vast number of people outside the mainstream media can use social media for various purposes- sharing information, conversations, group interaction, branding, relationships and so on. One can reach and engage with the target audience irrespective of their locations. It is also a powerful tool for social and political mobilization. (…)

The Editors Guild of India
PRESS STATEMENT
October 22, 2020
The unprecedented and sudden sealing of the Srinagar offices of Kashmir Times is reprehensible, and has disturbing implications for the media of the two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Newspapers and Magazines in the undivided state of Jammu and Kashmir were already ravaged by conflict, with editors and correspondents working against difficult odds.
Publications have steadily lost advertising over the (…)