2021

by Htwe Htwe Thein and Michael Gillan*
23 June 2021
The military coup in Myanmar in February has reversed or put at risk a decade of gradual economic progress. In the last decade, the Myanmar economy benefited from significant economic and political reforms, achieving above 7 per cent annual growth, reduced poverty and a significant increase in international investment.
These gains are being unwound by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and, more so, by the coup, with the World Bank (…)

by Ashis Biswas
(India Press Agency - June 24, 2021) With no prospects of an early end to the ongoing civil strife in Myanmar, the exodus of Burmese refugees to India’s Northeastern states has swelled from a trickle to a torrent. As of now, various media reports suggest that the number of people crossing over to Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland within only five months may have crossed 16,000 and counting. More than the head count, it is the overall financial/administrative /diplomatic fallout (…)

by P. S. Jayaramu
The assumption of power by Joe Biden as President of the United States in January this year led to global debates about renewed American attempts at the containment of China. Biden was preoccupied for the first hundred days in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, the effect of which is seen in the massive nation wide vaccination drive resulting in nearly 45 percent of the US citizens being vaccinated in record time, hoping to achieve the target of 70 percent by July 4th (…)

Arabinda Poddar recently passed away after living a long life of 100 years. His name is not well-known among the young scholars of history. He was a bilingual intellectual, who wrote on important thinkers/writers of undivided Bengal, including Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and Rabindranath Tagore, in Bengali and English.
Arabinda Poddar wrote a well-researched treatise on the ‘Bengal Renaissance’, which is still a contested issue in the cultural history of Bengal. The book titled Renaissance (…)

by Mohiuddin Mondal and Abhijit Jana *
Introduction
India emerged from the ashes of partition and prolong exploitation as a pulverized nation with much uncertainly but with a brilliant inclusive vision in sync with its pluralist culture . That was the social capital which Independent India epitomised .However more we have moved on since 1950s, we encountered more difficulties coming on our way and introspection reveals that more than external challenge, we ought to have been (…)

MUSINGS - 23 June 2021
Humra Quraishi
It seems a bizarre U-turn or term it as another of those political moves! The same group of the Kashmiri political figures who were not just labelled “the Gupkar gang” and were also kept under detention and house arrest for several months at a stretch, are now invited to hold talks with the establishment on 24 June, in New Delhi.
As I’m filing this column on Wednesday, 23 June, that is one day before the talks so one can only come up with this (…)

We walked and We protested, We raised placards and We pleaded, We were mocked at and we prayed, We shouted, we howled but it fell on deaf ears, Development is the key to growth, No one had the answer when asked, But Who will eat the fruits of blowth?
Few were seeing it coming but most were busy winning, Yesterday we were fighting pollution and today we are fighting corona, we are not allowed to touch, tomorrow we will not be allowed to see, Today we cannot step out, tomorrow we might not (…)

It’s autumn
Human lives will spill
It’s autumn.
Who to write for? : For those who died this morning?
Who to write for? : For those who are going to die every morning?
Who to write for? : For those who wander for oxygen?
Who to write for? : A woman carrying her dead husband on her lap and crying?
Who to write for? : For people who put a damp cloth on their stomach?
Who to write for? : For useless government?
Who to write for? : For The begging politician?
The noise of death is (…)

Many people cherish memories of visiting Mussoorie ( located bear Dehradun, capital of Uttarakhand ), even called the Queen of Hill Stations in India. The famous hill resort houses the L.B.S. IAS Academy where the country’s future top civil servants are trained. The Mussorie hills divide the Ganga and Yamuna river systems which have their origin in Western Himalayan region and hence water aquifers here a wider ecological importance which extends much beyond the local region. The limestone (…)

Reviewed by Anayat Ullah Mugloo
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Kashmir and the future of South Asia
(ed) Sugata Bose & Ayesha Jalal
published in 2021 | 162 Pages
ISBN: 9781003119357.
by Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
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South Asian politics is splintered by diverse narratives jockeying for position! To a certain extent, it is discernible that South Asia has remained a hotspot for militarisation, violence, conflict, and resistance, more importantly since decolonization. President Bill (…)