2023

M. N. Roy Memorial Lecture 2023 was delivered by Prof. P.R. Ramanujam * on 28th April 2023 at the Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi. The full text follows
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Karl Marx’s 11th thesis on Feuerbach states: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it” [1]. The three leaders I have chosen to reflect on for today’s talk are all, in their own ways, philosophers and practitioners in changing the world on various grounds (…)

Text of presentation by Manoranjan Mohanty, the Chair of the Reception Committee, Bharat Bachao, 11-12 March 2023, HK Surjeet Bhavan, New Delhi
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‘Save Democracy, Save Indian Constitution, Save India’
Unite In Struggle To Defend The Values Of The Freedom Struggle:
Swadhinata, Samata, Sanhati, Swaraj Freedom, Equality, Solidarity, Self-Rule
Have Faith In History, Have Faith In People, Have Faith In Future
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History is calling upon us all to awaken further and come (…)

Sheetla Singh, the great Hindi editor from Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, breathed his last on May 16. He was 93, and was on duty till the last day in his editorial office when he collapsed.
Bringing out a small cooperative newspaper is not easy in the best of times, but it becomes more difficult when the editor has a tendency to frequently incur the wrath of the most powerful persons. Adding an important local factor, this task becomes even more difficult when the newspaper is coming out from (…)

Never in the history of independent India has any Prime Minister betrayed such arrogance of power as our dear Prime Minister Narendrabhai Damodardas Modi.
Narendra Modi is the 14th Prime Minister of India since 14 August 1947. Opinion among political observers and analysts is divided on whether Indira Gandhi was arrogant or a victim of circumstances. Morarji Desai the fifth Prime Minister was haughty and disdainful of his critics who were innumerable but he never betrayed a blasé disregard (…)

FILM REVIEW
SOMETIMES, LITERATURE PRESENTS a tragic end, pregnant with a revolutionary message. Poverty, unemployment, and social conservatism intermingle to create a classic story. Malajahna (Dead Moon) is a 1965 Odiya film, written and directed by Nitai Palit, based on a novel of the same title written a hundred years ago by the Odiya novelist, Upendra Kishore Das. The book and the subsequent film reflect society of the time and truth is embedded in the narration of the story in the (…)

by Bhabani Shankar Nayak *
The defeat of BJP-led Hindutva politics in Karnataka is cause for celebration and hope for India’s secular constitutional democracy. The people of Karnataka rejected divisive and bigoted politics under Mr. Narendra Modi’s leadership. His campaign focused on polarization, while the Congress Party led a positive campaign. The Congress Party successfully consolidated its votes and organization, countering Hindutva propaganda with its five ’guarantees’ policy (…)

by TamilSalvi Mari *
May 15, 2023
Artificial recharge and deep soil mixing are two techniques showing promise in rescuing sinking cities.
Cities all over the world are sinking [1].
In Southeast Asia, the rapid growth of megacities has led to a pressing design problem that many governments are only just starting to address. Jakarta is considered the world’s fastest-sinking city [2], with some areas experiencing subsidence of up to 15 cm [3] per year.
With 40 percent of the city (…)

From Green Anarchy #12, Spring 2003
The meaning of work is once again on the agenda and gaining increasing relevance for contemporary struggles. Within movements such as ecology, work is being examined from novel and challenging perspectives and with a growing sense of urgency. Beyond prior theoretical understandings, either as the basis for identity (as in classical Marxism) or, conversely, as being of no relevance to social transformation, the category “jobs” is (re)opened as a crucial (…)

by Arun Srivastava
Probably this was for the first time that Narendra Modi’s self-eulogy did not find significant takers. On his return from Australia, taking a swipe at his opposition detractors, Modi reminisced about his pleasant triumph, how the incumbent PM as well as the former PM and the rest of the opposition leaders of Australia hailed him but the opposition leaders in India were opposing his move to inaugurate the newly constructed parliament house.
In his own perception, he may (…)

by Boris Kagarlitsky
A long-retired Russian military man was discussing current events by phone with a former colleague living in Ukraine. Both resented the war between the two recently fraternal countries and expressed the hope that this madness would soon end. A few days later, representatives of the special services raided the Russian. He did not give out any military secrets, and no one accused him of this. He was charged, however, with publicly discrediting the Armed Forces of the (…)