2021

Kerala is believed to be "the most secular" state in India. Even in this most secular state, we are witnessing a bizarre situation where a bishop who spewed outright Islamophobia is supported and pampered by the Left government and its CM. The bishop said during a sermon in a church at Kuravilangad in Kottayam district of Kerala that the Christians ought to be vigilant against narcotic jihad by which he meant that the women of Christianity are being lured through drugs by the followers of a (…)

IMPRESSIONS
It is rather foolish, politically and socially, to question what God does. But sometimes God himself makes us raise questions. Familiar legends tell us about what happened one day when he allowed leaders of the world’s great democracies to meet him and ask him any questions. This is what followed.
Joe Biden asked God: "When will America become the most magnificent nation on earth admired by all?" God said: "In about five years." Biden burst into tears. "Five years? I won’t (…)

by Arun Srivastava
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s latest experiment with the politics has been installing Charanjit Singh Channi, the dalit face of the party as the chief minister of Punjab replacing Amrinder Singh who led the party through many upheavals.
Channi has 4 months at his disposal to revive governance and motivate the faction-ridden party with ambitious leaders. Surprisingly it took four years and eights months for Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to realise that Amarinder is (…)

Looking back at the early issues of now-defunct Now weekly, founded by Prof Humayun Kabir with Samar Sen as its founder-editor, I remember Calcutta Diary at alternate weeks by AM and J Mohan –both very well read. It is well-known that AM was Dr Ashok Mitra who also used to write under another pseudonym, Charan Gupta. But readers at large were not aware that J Mohan was none other than Jolly Mohan Kaul who would have been 100+plus now. Jollyda – as he was to numerous old-timers like me- (…)

by Ajailiu Niumai
Menstruation, which is always clouded by silence, stigma, taboo, religious and socio-cultural restrictions, has become a public discourse since the past few years. Menstruation is part and parcel of women’s sexual health, and it is a "wellspring of life" from which opens up a possibility of human life. In essence, menstruation is the "brook of life," which means a source of life about giving offspring and nurturing the future generation. The idea of ’sacred’ and ’profane’ (…)

MUSINGS
22 September 2021
Sitting somewhat forlorn …as the rains go about lashing, hindering movement, upsetting structures, interrupting the flow of thoughts if not anything more substantial. Not that there’s been much happening these last several months. Dismal reports on any given survival sphere along the roti, kapda, makaan fronts. In fact, today even the freshly constructed roads and bridges and airport structures are seemingly unable to take the strain of the rain fury compounded (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by M.R. Narayan Swamy
__0__
The Silent Coup: A History of India’s Deep State
by Josy Joseph
Context/Westland
August 2021
Pages: 306; Rs 699
https://amzn.to/3j89Csx
__0__
India’s democracy faces a grave threat: from within. The very non-military security agencies meant to protect it are tearing it apart, creating fake narratives to justify their brutal onslaught. Award winning journalist Josy Joseph does a clinical examination of the deepening rot, answering (…)

by Paresh Chattopadhyay* Marx’s Critique is informed by two great ideas from two great minds, Spinoza and Hegel. In the first manuscript of CAPITAL vol. two Marx cites SPINOZA: “All determination is negation” to which Marx adds “all negation is affirmation”. (Marx advises the vulgar economists to reflect on Spinozasdictum; “Omnideterminatzioistnegatzio” (in the manuscript of the second volume of Capital). As regards Hegel, in his 1844 manuscripts Marx notes that the greatness of Hegel’s (…)

(Le Libertaire, 1921)
by Madeleine Pelletier
The Woman’s Voice published the summary of an article from the Rote Fahne (The Red Flag) from Vienna on women’s labour.
It offers the old Socialist idea of the situation of women; an idea which is primarily antifeminist since, by advocating to keep women at home, it perpetuates their slavery. However, we can see some progress. The Austrian Socialist understands that by closing the factory gates to women, he turns her into an enemy of (…)

September 21, 2021
To: Alok Sharma, the 2021 President of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties Parties to the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP-26) On behalf of 300 organizations from 69 countries, representing civil society, peoples movements, Indigenous Peoples organizations, scientists, conservationists, we call upon Alok Sharma, the 2021 President of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP-26), and all parties to COP-26, to reject attempts by the hydropower industry to secure (…)