2022

by Rohit Kumar*
THE IMPORTANCE OF movements and protests for the good health of a democracy is inevitable, keeping in view that these consolidate new political consciousness and help to spread and form new political cultures. However, after 2014, the authoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party government has sidelined and de-legitimised every opposition, every protest and every movement in a syncretic India. Demeaning of dissent has, thus, become the new normal of Indian democracy and undoubtedly (…)

Public perception plays a crucial role in today’s politics. While inclusivity of such public remains questionable it nonetheless creates a perception of common will. While BJP has mastered the art of creating perception through its meta narratives during and in-between elections, other parties fall far behind. What works for BJP does not seem to work for others. While the credit for building this rapport with public goes to BJP and its leadership, a large role is played by academia and media (…)

by Rajendra P. Mamgain *
Nearly 40 million women have left the workforce in India since the turn of the millennium despite an economic boom. Now, there’s a window to reverse the trend.
Since the turn of the millennium, women have been leaving the workforce in India. Over 40.4 million fewer women[1] are in paid work today than in 2004. Despite making up nearly half of India’s population, women represent less than one third of the workforce. But the spiral can turn around, and India has a (…)

October 27, 2022
The Editor,
We strongly protest against any move to emboss Indian currency notes with the images of Goddess Laxmi and God Ganesh. It is a conspiracy to give Gandhi the Divine status and manufacture a new Trimurti.
It is a move to insult Hinduism by defiling the image of a Hindu God and a Hindu Goddess whose rightful place is in sacred temples and not on the filthy currency notes. In our culture, money is dirt that needs to be discarded. We wash our hands after touching (…)

by Kamalakanta Roul
Introduction: Achieving Swaraj by Indian Masses
The paper examines the role and contribution of India’s youngest martyr Baji Rout who was just twelve years old when he laid down his life for the freedom of our country. He was martyred at the tender age while peacefully resisting the British troop to cross the river in his village by denying them the ferry boat. This year, the Ministry of Culture, Government of India has recognized him as “the youngest in the history (…)

26 October 2022
With Dengue cases on the rise, one’s been sitting wondering: where are all the development machinery and gadgets and the much promised bandobast to keep mosquitoes away from us.
Today it gets easier for the State machinery to kill a living human form than to kill the tiny little mosquito!
Yes, that is the reality of the day. Easy and effortless to silence and demolish a human form. Mind you, the State even flaunts its encountering prowess! Tell me, how many of the (…)

by Murzban Jal
In the first place I do not know the meaning of Bolshevism.—M.K. Gandhi, ‘Bolshevism and Discipline’, in Young India, 21 August, 1924.
Writing in 1924 M.N. Roy then in the flush of revolutionary zeal said in an article ‘Mahatamaji and Bolshevism’ published in Vanguard that Gandhi did not know the meaning of Bolshevism was “indeed a very damning confession made by one standing at the head of a great popular movement”. Roy’s assertion is of great importance, especially (…)

by Pragya Narang
October 20, 2022: The world watched the economic crisis in Sri Lanka turn into a political one during four months of massive sustained public protests called the Janatha Aragalaya that mushroomed all over Colombo from March to July 2022. Though the crisis continues with protests at a smaller scale, “parachute journalists” from international media are no longer landing here as they were when the movement was at its peak.
Sri Lanka’s nearly 22 million population now faces (…)

by Azamat Ismailov *
October 19, 2022
The first piece in the Labor Rights series gives an overview of the car industry
Ten years ago, Igor Kholmanskikh, shop foreman at the tank manufacturer Uralvagonzavod, promised Vladimir Putin to “bring out my guys and defend stability.”
The sycophant was showered with honors, while the speech contributed to a popular myth that blue-collar workers are a conservative proletariat that sees Putin as a guarantee against economic and political (…)

A brilliant radical reporter with a novelist’s eye and a historian’s memory
by Jon Wiener
Mike Davis, author and activist, radical hero and family man, died October 25 after a long struggle with esophageal cancer; he was 76. He’s best known for his 1990 book about Los Angeles, City of Quartz. Marshall Berman, reviewing it for The Nation, said it combined “the radical citizen who wants to grasp the totality of his city’s life, and the urban guerrilla aching to see the whole damned thing (…)