2020

This is a review essay on Professor Sobhanlal Duttagupta’s edited Bengali volume titled ‘Marx 200:Ekusher Bhabna’ (Marx 200: Thinking for Twenty-first) published by Ananda Publishers, Kolkata in January, 2020. ISBN 978-93-89876-56-7, Pages, 255, Price INR 400.

The Karnataka government led by a senior RSS whole-timer, B.S. Yediyurappa is going to honour Hindutva icon, VD Savarkar by naming two of the newly built major flyovers in Bangalore and Mangalore after him. There was a huge uproar against this decision of the RSS-BJP government as many pro-Kannada organisations with opposition parties and liberal-secular organizations questioned the logic to ignore so many freedom fighters, social reformers and others from within the state.

by Anindya Sekhar Purakayastha & Subhendra Bhowmick
2019 Nobel Winner in Economics, Abhijit Binayak Banerjee in one of his recent interviews with a leading Bengali daily, while recounting his own student life, pointed out how our elite academic institutions in various metropolitan cities in India are populated largely with students belonging to privileged social groups who hail mostly from well off families and their privileged positions restrict their scope to embed them with the (…)

by K.A. Manikumar*
The 1930s, that experienced economic depression of unprecedented magnitude, has been hailed as America’s "Red Decade”. Hundreds of protests had been organized and conducted by Communist and Socialist Parties during this extremely trying period for common people. The most prominent among them was the New York City Cab Drivers’ Strike. On 3 February 1934 more than 10,000 taxi drivers launched into a lightning strike, disrupting the city’s transportation system. The cause (…)

by K Gireesan * and Jos Chathukulam**
Abstract
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on 12 May 2020 at 8 p.m. sharing his views for the third time since the eruption of COVID-19 and imposition of lockdown in our country in which he highlighted the launch of ‘AthmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ (Self Reliant India Campaign). He revealed the vision of self-reliant India with its thrust on local economic development to boost the Indian economy, which is not much different from (…)

Mysore will never be the same to me again; Southern Star, my home on many a visit, has shut down. Tennis will not be the same again; Wimbledon has been cancelled this year, an outright sin. A cinema hall will not be a cinema hall again for any of us. How can a self-respecting "hall" live in an age when only 50 people can gather for a marriage and only 20 for a funeral? Even a prized restaurant will not remain so when social distancing matters more than food.
Before closing, (…)

by Dr. Mahi Pal
Role Civil Society (CS) which is also known as Civil Society Organisations(CSOs), Non- Governmental Organisations(NGOs), Voluntary Organisations (VOs) may be registered under any Act and non registered is very important in rescue operations, coordination, assessment and imparting training to persons engaged in the disaster management. On account of these qualities of CS, its role has been recognized and included in The Disaster Management Act 2005 in organising and (…)

by Navneet Sharma and Khem Raj Sharma
’The surest way to become a pacifist is to join the infantry’ —William H. Mauldin
War is an extreme aggression and destruction leading to mortality. It is only a masculine response to economic, political, geographical, religious and cultural conflicts. No war is fought for the sake of war but for peace or for the control over the ability to disturb peace. War is an economic enterprise. It benefits an ideology to be in perpetual state of war. The arms (…)

by Humra Quraishi
16 June 2020
I am saddened and shocked to see the systematic way in which civil servant turned activist, Harsh Mander’s name is getting dragged in the Delhi riots / pogrom of 2020. Needless to go into those backgrounders, to the obvious ‘whys’ to the harassment he is facing…
In fact ,each time Mander’s books were launched I made it a point to read them and also to interview him because they were /are laced with the ground realities which most of us sit un-aware (…)