2021

But for the accidental reading of Shahu Maharaj’s letter to the retired Governor of Bombay presidency, Lord Sydenham, written in 1918, I would not have thought of writing this essay. In my life time experience of writing about the Brahmin-Bania power in contemporary times at the expense of life threats and cases in various levels of courts the Dwija pundits tried to dismiss my arguments about the Brahmin-Bania power over the society and state in post-independence times and in the (…)

by Paresh Chattopadhyay
Today there is a curious convergence of views between the Right and the dominant Left on the meaning of socialism. Put more concretely, for both the Right and the dominant Left socialism refers to the system which came into being with the conquest of political power by the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1917, and signifies a society governed by a single political party — basically the communist party — and where means of production are owned predominantly by the state, and (…)

by Vimal Trivedi*
Abstract
In this research paper, I tried to explore the impact of lockdown measures imposed during the Covid pandemic on the less privileged rag pickers’ community in Surat city. The survey indicates that lockdown measures raised many questions particularly on the response system to ensure ration for the rag pickers. The survey conducted between November 2020 and January 2021 revealed that rag pickers were not in a position to access any relief measures during the (…)

BOOK REVIEW
__0__ ’Orienting: An Indian in Japan’ by Pallavi Aiyar
HarperCollins India https://harpercollins.co.in/product/orienting/ 2021 Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages ₹ 499.00 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9354227643 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9354227646
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Life in Japan can be stranger than fiction.
Indian journalist and author Pallavi Aiyar realized this during a four-year stay in Japan as she probed the inscrutable Japanese and their way of life, discovering in the process why people in the (…)

The 9/11 terrorist attack in the USA was the most horrible and destructive terrorist attack and was mounted against the most powerful and resourceful country with the most extensive intelligence system and highest media concentration. Hence it is highly surprising that it has been investigated in detail time and again, officially as well in numerous independent efforts. Despite this, as we come close to the 20th anniversary of this tragedy, many unanswered or inadequately answered questions (…)

by Eamon Whalen
August 21, 2021
For years, Rob Wallace warned that industrial agriculture could cause deadly outbreaks at a global scale. It made him an exile in his field.
In early March 2020, Rob Wallace, an evolutionary biologist who had been adrift after an unceremonious exit from the University of Minnesota, flew to New Orleans and then got on a bus to Jackson, Miss., where he was scheduled to speak at an event on health and racial injustice. Wallace, who turned 50 this summer, (…)

by John Pilger
As a tsunami of crocodile tears engulfs Western politicians, history is suppressed. More than a generation ago, Afghanistan won its freedom, which the United States, Britain and their “allies” destroyed.
In 1978, a liberation movement led by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) overthrew the dictatorship of Mohammad Dawd, the cousin of King Zahir Shar. It was an immensely popular revolution that took the British and Americans by surprise.
Foreign (…)

ME
Those eyes were not nude but were surely stripping me, Wanting to decipher the black in me,
Those raised eyebrows were stampeding on my mind trampling me, Wanting to figure out the God in me,
I could hear those poisoned whispers which were raised to a higher decibel, To reach my ears and axe me.
I could read that disdain caricatured on that forehead , Wanting to pierce that needle inside me.
I wondered what would trickle out of me, Will it not be blood or was it tar which (…)

South Asia Peace Action Network – SAPAN
29 August 2021
Several prominent legal experts, journalists, and human rights activists have reviewed and commented on this Resolution. The editors have consolidated and accommodated multiple voices mirroring vast experiences and realities from across South Asia. Besides relying on the knowledge and experiences of experts, the Resolution draws on a long list of international, regional, and local documents and reports to obtain a fuller picture of (…)

unwomen.org
Statement: Pramila Patten, Executive Director a.i of UN Women, calls on the Taliban leadership to include women in the upcoming governance entity
Date: Tuesday, August 31, 2021
"I take note of the public commitments made by the Taliban’s spokesperson to uphold women’s rights “within the framework of Islam”, including women’s right to work, to pursue higher education and to have an active role in society, as well as the right of girls to attend school. The immediate (…)