2021

Kenneth Kaunda, a giant of the 20th Century, has passed away. He stood in the first line of African liberation struggles and his going marks the end of an era. It is a great loss to Zambia of course, but also to Africa as a whole and to India and the world. He was a tower of strength in Africa-India relations. Growing up in the 1960s in India meant growing up under the moral shadow, not only of our own struggle for freedom represented by such figures as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and (…)

IMPRESSIONS
How easily power goes to the head of politicians. When Delhi authorities were told to produce student leader Umar Khalid in Court, the police wanted to take him in handcuffs and leg chains. "Handcuffs in both hands from the backside" as they explained in their application. The reason cited was that armed assailants had tried to free an undertrial prisoner at the GTB Hospital a couple of months earlier.
Chastising the police authorities, the Court said: "The application [ by (…)

(Extracted from her unpublished and unfinished memoir by Uma Chakravarti)
Khadija Ansari Gupta was born in 1932 in Firanghi Mahal, Lucknow which trained ulema and was famous in the Islamic world for its rationalist syllabi which was adopted in institutions as far as Egypt. Her father was a liberal, perhaps even radical student of Maulana Abdul Bari, who was known for his erudition. In the 1920’s Bari sahib became a supporter of the Khilafat movement and drew the famous Ali brothers into (…)

The great Bengali poet, writer, thinker and artist, Rabindranath Tagore published a collection of short but deep observations on life world 100 years ago. One short piece incorporated in the Bengali collection, titled Lipika, narrated the trauma of a son after his mother’s death. Tagore’s narrative is summarized below:
The father returned home from the burning ghat. The seven-year-old son was standing alone absentmindedly in the window above the lane. When the father took his son on the (…)

by Nandini Dhar *
Communists have their own mortuary rituals. The customary final red salute, the corpse wrapped in the red flag, the slogans and the final farewell with the Internationale – the communist death is a colourful and noisy affair. I participated in all of them, trying to keep my composure intact. Yet the truth is, all through that morning on the 14th June, I avoided looking at Sharmistha’s face. The stillness of death is not what I wanted to remember about her. The (…)

by S.G.Vombatkere*
Farm laws and food
The Farmers’ agitation starting 26 November 2020, was against three Farm Laws. The Essential Commodities Amendment Act, 2020, (ECA Act) is one of them.
ECA Act amends the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, (EC Act) enacted “in the interest of the general public, for the control of the production, supply and distribution of, and trade and commerce”, and more precisely, “for controlling the rise in prices or preventing the hoarding of any food-stuff”. (…)

by Sayan Dey *
June 16, 2021
When I was a child growing up in Kolkata, I would hear stories about the European colonisation of Bengal – the precolonial name of India’s West Bengal. These were selective narratives from a particularly male perspective, and presented colonisers as transforming social benefactors installed to provide a civilising influence. The rich histories of Indian philosophy that were once associated with religion, education and health were replaced by the colonial (…)

Ever since Covid-19 hit India, it was apprehended that given its density of population and poor health care system, it would remain a challenging task for the state and its people to overcome the pandemic. This fear came true in the second surge in 2021 which saw the collapse of the health system every day despite all efforts by frontline workers. Though a second wave was expected, the thousands of deaths which left the nation grieving were not.Etched into our memories are experiences of (…)

by Arun Srivastava
Usually, the left forces represent the aspirations of peasants and agricultural labourers and act as the vanguards of the agrarian movements. But in the existing political-economic scenario the left parties, their trade unions and Kisan Sabhas have simply been providing outside support to the farmers protesting since November 26 against the three farm laws under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha.
No doubt the 10 central trade unions have been supporting the farmers’ (…)

Domestic workers generally lead a life of low wages and struggle for survival in Indian cities. However what they have faced in recent times is an unprecedented crisis. Periodic lockdowns have led to widespread loss of work and income. This extends often for a period much beyond the period of lockdown. This has led to increasing hunger and malnutrition. In addition it is becoming more difficult to retain even their very modest rented shelters as they are unable to pay rent.
Another factor (…)