2021

by Arup Baisya * The dynamics of social categories are based on their creation and recreation within the garb of overarching social reality. The caste-identity has a sui generis characteristic in Indian society. The social time of caste is deeply related to the sociality of caste and defines the kind of social experiences that are shared by members belonging to a given ‘Jati’. But the changing dynamics of shaping and reshaping of the caste identity need to be assessed in the context of the (…)

IMPRESSIONS
December 1, 2021
Double standards are spreading out. The latest, of course, is this: We have made stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui sit in a corner but the Right-Wing Hindutva lot roam about freely and fearlessly, mouthing the unthinkable obnoxious stuff! No, they have not been made to sit shut in a corner because they are directly or indirectly connected to the ruling lot.
We have harassed and hounded this comedian, who has no political brigades to come to his rescue. (…)

BOOK REVIEW
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The Struggle Within: A Memoir of the Emergency
by Ashok Chakravarti
HarperCollins India
July 2021
221 Pages; Price: Rs 399
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9354227473 __0__
A young man jettisons his dream to do PhD in Oxford and returns to India in the summer of 1973 filled with Marxist enthusiasm to bring a revolution in the country. Although Indira Gandhi was hailed as a Durga only two years earlier after breaking up Pakistan, a failing economy had sparked unrest all (…)

The following statement was issued to the press jointly by the CTUs and SKM today, 27.11.2021:
Joint Platform of CTUs and Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s Call for United Struggle:
Mission India: To Save the People and Save the Nation
The joint meeting of the Platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent Federations/Associations and Samyukta Kisan Morcha was held on 25th November 2021.
The Joint meeting while noting the continuing united struggles of the Trade Unions as well as under the (…)

November 27, 2021
PRESS STATEMENT
Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) strongly opposes the unconstitutional demand of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and some other organisations for an anti-blasphemy law in India. The IMSD statement has been endorsed by nearly 400 secular Indians. A large majority of the signatories are Muslims.
We condemn the constant attempts by certain hate factories of Hindutva which are working overtime to demonise Islam and Muslims. (…)

[November 30, 2021] Full statement from International Press Institute with editors and journalists follows:
We, the undersigned members of the global Executive Board of the International Press Institute (IPI) – editors and journalists hailing from 22 countries – call on the government of the Philippines to allow our fellow Board member and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa to attend her Nobel ceremony on December 10 in Oslo.
Equally, we renew our call on the Philippine authorities (…)

November 29, 2021
The three-week long “anti-terror operation” undertaken by the Indian Army from October 11 in the Bhatta Durrian forest in Poonch following the killing of nine soldiers, including two junior commissioned officers and two policemen, was billed as “one of the longest” in the history of the insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir.
Yet, no Indian functionary or politician pointed finger at Pakistan. This is despite the fact that on October 21, Pakistan was facing scrutiny in Paris (…)

by Saurobijay Sarkar *
“Neither Fascism nor Liberalism: Sovietism!” These words are uttered by Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist and a revolutionary in 1924, when fascist movement in Italy led by Mussolini was reaching its peak. Gramsci took lessons from the Russian revolution and the working class struggle in Italy in 1920s, where factory occupation started in city and land occupation started in villages and subsequently it retreated, thanks to the leadership of reformist socialist (…)

by Félix Guattari *
(This article appeared under the title "Pour une refondation des pratiques sociales" in Le Monde Diplomatique, Oct. 1992, pages 26-7 | Translated in English by Sophie Thomas)
The routines of daily life, and the banality of the world represented to us by the media, surround us with a reassuring atmosphere in which nothing is any longer of real consequence. We cover our eyes; we forbid ourselves to think about the turbulent passage of our times, which swiftly thrusts (…)

* Correction: Freedom Came In 2014 | TJS George
* The Pope’s call, and India’s post-truth Media | John Dayal
* Bordoli Peasants in 1928 & the Farmers Movement Now Both Opposed Divisive Politics | SN Sahu
* Electoral Democracy: Reinvent It | A Basheer
* Woman’s Question in Communal Ideologies in India: A Study into the Ideologies of RSS and Jamat-e-Islami | Ish Mishra