2021

by Francine Prose*
19 Oct 2021
The question of what specific books and topics can and can’t be taught is linked to a disturbing new law in Texas
I’ve been trying to imagine what Gina Peddy could have been thinking when, on 8 October, she informed a group of Southlake, Texas, elementary school teachers that, if their classroom libraries included books about the Holocaust, students should also be steered toward books with “opposing views”.
The executive director for curriculum and (…)

They burn the wicked one
Who does not exist.
Those that deserve extinction
Are not on their list.
The thief who takes the biggest cut
Is new global hero.
Those that squeal for a loaf of bread
Are dangerous to the marrow.
Effigies are obliging antagonists,
Harmless, insensate things–
Lighting up to deluded cheer,
They protect the real kings.
by Badri Raina - October 16, 2021

* ACN Nambiar: The Forgotten Freedom Fighter | BP Mathur
* Caricature: Putting Words in Gandhi’s Mouth to Shore up Savarkar | J.Vellur
* Why repeated sexual violence by humanitarians & peacekeepers? | Mukesh Kapila
* The Children and Psychology | Paul Goodman

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, October 16, 2021
Prime Minister Modi makes practically every public speech by him sound like an election campaign speech where he sees the need to blame his critics for pointing out wrongs. Why does such a powerful leader with mass appeal, see the need to constantly point fingers at his ‘insignificant’ critics? Few expect him to act like a statesman who is above politicking and who would set high standards for all. So as usual, when he addressed the 28th (…)

As we enter the 75th year of our freedom, the most appropriate thing to do is to pay homage to our freedom fighters by remembering the sacrifices, trial and tribulations they have gone through. This would inspire our countrymen, particularly youths and develop a spirit of nationalism and patriotism in them, so necessary for nation building. During our long struggle for freedom, a band of daring youths went abroad to Europe, USA and other places to escape the iron hand of British rulers and (…)

Must things go from bad to worse as civilisation progresses? Of course not. In civilised societies everyday routines go from good to better. New York’s subway system, one of the largest in the world, has coped very well with the city’s growth in population as well as in daily activities. London’s underground, fondly called the Tube, is ever popular. Those who have lived even for a month in London will have a romantic feeling about stations like Piccadilly, King’s Cross and Victoria. (…)

Chaman Lal*
Jallianwala Bagh the most iconic symbol of Indian freedom struggle is in news on its reopening in a renovated form, which started a few years ago. There are few internationally known iconic symbols of colonial and imperialist repression on the people during their colonial regime in Asian, African and some other victim countries of the world. The horror saga of repression on people is not a new phenomenon, it is there since the beginning of the human society turned into (…)

by Arun Srivastava
Priyanka Gandhi is using all her might to rejuvenate the party rank and file and make them to take the BJP head on. During recent years Priyanka has built strong case against the Yogi government but ironically the state leaders of the party have miserably failed to take the struggles to its logical end and establish a strong connect with Dalits and harijans, those who really matter in UP politics. People recall how the victims of Sonbhadra, where tribal people were (…)

by Pavittarbir Singh Saggu*
Because of climate change, permafrost is thawing, releasing viruses and bacteria that have been dormant for thousands of years, posing potentially catastrophic risks to humans and ecosystems.
When a strange illness struck the Siberian tundra during the 2016 summer heatwave, a group of reindeer herders became ill and it also caused the loss of 2500 reindeer as well as a 12-year-old boy. Siberian plague, which was last seen in 1941 in the region, was thought to (…)

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 was awarded to Abdulrazak Gurnah “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents” (Nobel Committee citation). So far, he has published ten novels and a number of short stories.
Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in Zanzibar, East Africa, in 1948, moved to England as a refugee in the 1960s and got settled there. According to the Guardian, Gurnah left (…)