2021

by Siby K. Joseph, Tripti Karekatti
On the occasion of the World Environment Day and Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan’s Call for Total Revolution, Sevagram Ashram Pratishthan, Wardha, in collaboration with the Department of English, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, organised a national webinar on June 5, 2021. In the 1970s environmental issues attracted the attention of governments and international organizations like the United Nations. In 1972 the United Nations called the first major (…)

by K M Ajir Kutty *
The Hindu of March 18, 2021 had carried a brief news story about the Vice Chancellor of the Allahabad University, Sangita Srivastava, complaining to the District administration of Prayagraj about the Muslim prayer call (Azaan/Adhan/Bank) being given loudly denying her the comfort of a sound sleep in the early hours of the morning. As the copy of the Vice Chancellor’s letter of complaint dated March 3, went viral on social media platforms, her plaint inevitably became (…)

by Jannat
Introduction
Manual scavenging refers to cleaning, removing, disposing of, or otherwise dealing with human excreta in an unsanitary latrine, an open drain or sewer, a septic tank, or a pit manually. Buckets, brooms, and shovels are common hand instruments used by manual scavengers. Using brooms and tin plates, the workers must transfer the excreta into baskets, which they then transport to disposal sites, which can be several kilometres distant. Personal protection equipment (…)

by MK Bhadrakumar
July 6, 2021
The British newspaper Daily Telegraph did some kite-flying in the weekend that London is considering open-ended deployment of a contingent of elite special forces to Afghanistan “ to provide training to Afghan units and deploy with them on the ground as advisers.”
At the same time, the New York Times reported that White House approves Gen. Austin S. Miller, the top American commander in Afghanistan, staying on at his post for “at least a couple more (…)

James M. Dorsey
July 4, 2021
When Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid recently sparked a war of words with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki he was doing more than resisting Central European attempts at rewriting the history and legacy of the Holocaust and right-wing nationalistic flirting with anti-Semitic tropes.
The war centred on a bill debated in the Polish parliament that makes it essentially impossible for Jews to claim property they owned before the Holocaust. Mr. Lapid (…)

Review by M.R. Narayan Swamy
The Hunt for Mount Everest
by Craig Storti
John Murray/Hachette India; Pages: 301; Price: Rs 699
When someone asserted in 1760 that the Himalayas occupied the highest heights in “the old hemisphere”, a British daily dubbed it an “absurd claim from the land of rope tricks and reincarnation”. Before more could be found out, Nanda Devi was discovered in 1822 with a height of 25,749 feet. After 25 years, Kangchenjunga (28,176 feet) dethroned Nanda Devi. And, (…)

Book Review by Vikas Pathe*
Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India
Edited by Sandeep Mertiea
Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2020 Partner: The Sarai Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies ISBN print-on-demand: 9789492302717 ISBN EPUB: 9789492302700
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Almost 25 years after the Internet’s arrival, digital has become a new normal in which data plays a critical role. In the present digital environment, how these data are (…)

by Miguel Amoras
The capitalist world is debates itself in an unprecedented ecological crisis that threatens its continuity as a system based on the pursuit of private profit. From the pollution of air, water and soil to the accumulation of waste and rubbish; from the depletion of natural resources to the extinction of species; from the urbanizing tide to climate change; it seems that a sword of Damocles hangs over market society. Leaders from all spheres of activity are concerned about (…)

For the death of sparrows
The streets of this city are weeping.
You are just passing by the bird’s carcass
To hear the The dictatorial king’s speech
For Yoga Day.
Is the bird alive?
Only one dog is burying his face.
The death of that bird that roared east
Tells to the emperor.
In the book of death that the king has
Added a number
& Sits with yoga posture
India has meditated.
The death of a sparrow
You do not care.
Of sparrows that do not add to the surplus
Who cares (…)

You made me
a simple eighty-four old Jesuit priest
into a martyr
By demonizing me
By putting me in jail
By repeatedly denying me bail
By declining even a sipper
to my Parkinson’s torn body
You tormented and tortured me enough
But you could never imprison my spirit
a simple adivasi rights activist
fighting for my people’s human dignity.
Remember you will never be able to
wash the blood on your hands
till the day of judgment
You killed me - one Stan Swamy
But my sacrifice (…)