2021

by Shubham Sharma*
History
As a young Marxist dreaming about the triumph of labour over capital, it was a moment of near absolute nausea to stand witness to the uncritical applause received by the Communist Party of China (CPC) on its birth centenary. I was wondering whether those overjoyed reds were also secretly weeping on the recent weight loss of Kim Jong-un! Although birthdays are not the best of times for critical evaluation, but if it is the birthday of a communist party, matters (…)

by Zhongwei Zhao and Guangyu Zhang *
8 July 2021
The relaxation of China’s one-child policy in 2013, and its termination in 2015, generated only a moderate and temporary fertility increase. China’s total fertility rate in 2020. Because of this change, China’s annual population growth rate dropped to a new low of less than 0.3 per cent in 2020.
A newborn baby is seen being cared for in the ward of the hospital neonatal care center, 25 April 2021 (Photo by Sheldon Cooper / SOPA (…)

by Ram Puniyani
On the back of population control policy adopted by Assam, where those having more than two children will be barred from contesting local elections and will not considered for promotions in Government service, now UP is coming up with the similar bill, the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021. The claim is that this will control and stabilize the population of the state.
Both these states are aiming at coercive measures, carrot on one (…)

by Kamalakanta Roul and Bimal Kumar Raul*
Introduction: India’s Freedom Struggle Empowered the Women
The contribution of women to India’s freedom struggle occupies a prominent space in the history and politics. Responding to the clarion call of Mahatma Gandhi, Indian women massively came forward and led the struggle from the front even when male freedom fighters were in prison. In the same process, “Mahatma Gandhi consciously feminised India’s freedom struggle to win against the brute (…)

by Sujit Chakraborty*
INVESTIGATION
[brun]Dozens of women are killed in the tribal belts of North Bengal each year, accused of being ‘witches’. But more than superstition, the story is really about non-tribals marginalising tribals, grabbing their lands and pushing them to the edge of existencebrun]
Meghdoot Lodge. One of the best hotels in Malda city in those days, almost bang on the highway.
“Eita khoob bhalo,” (This is a nice hotel) Polu said, towering over the diminutive (…)

MUSINGS 21 July 2021
I have been focusing on the fact that the Coronavirus is just one aspect to our dismal existence. Today many more unsettling realities are intruding into our lives, making our everyday survival extremely, extremely difficult. Now comes up another hitting reality. We are under watch. We are no longer azaad. Nah, we are not. As there exist intrusions by the various sarkari characters and the machinery under their direct control. Everything, big and small, in our (…)

BOOK REVIEW by Prasenjit Chowdhury __0__
One Love, and the Many Lives of Osip B
by C. P. Surendran
Niyogi Books, New Delhi
www.niyogibooksindia.com/
Email: niyogibooks[at]gmail.com
IMPRINT: OLIVE TURTLE June - July 2021, 372 pages
ISBN-13: 978-93-91125-12-7
Rs. 695
# Fiction
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‘This is my moment of truth. Kashmir’s too. Shaheed Osip Bala Krishnan. I shall redeem honour by throwing myself in the way of bullets fired by the Indian army. Someone will take a (…)

Review by Tom Zoellner
April 3, 2021
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Do Not Disturb:
The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad
by Michela Wrong
New York: Public Affairs Books
March 2021, 512 pages
Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781610398428
London: Fourth Estate (30 March 2021)
Paperback, ‎ 512 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008294437
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008294434
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IN THE VIEW OF MOST historians, the original sin of Rwanda came from the colonial policy of making artificial ethnic (…)

by Linda Blade
May 4, 2021
Dear Olympic Games Officials and people of Japan:
The modern Olympic Games was envisioned as a festival where sports competition would remain a merit-based domain where excellence could be celebrated on a level playing field without bias towards social rank or cultural heritage.
Unfortunately, in 2015, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that the human rights of some athletes supersede the rights of others.
Without consulting broadly or (…)

The media and governments are saying that Haiti finds itself at the center of another crisis, this time for the assassination of the ex-president Jovenel Moïse on July 7. In fact, Haiti has been in crisis since Moïse’s inauguration in February, 2017.
The truth is that Moïse was the victim of the chaos and organized crime to which he himself opened the door. Since the commencement of his presidency, he began to systematically dismantle democratic institutions, instead giving more latitude (…)