2023

I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you — Nobody — Too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise — you know!
How dreary — to be — Somebody!
How public — like a Frog —
To tell one’s name — the livelong June —
To an admiring Bog!
(Extract from "I’m nobody! Who are you?", in The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, published by Little, Brown & Company, 1960)

PRESS RELEASE
23.05.2023
On 23rd May 2023, Over 500 concerned citizens, democratic rights’ activists across movements, women’s groups, students and academics condemned the misuse of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against scholars and activists raising constitutional issues and asking for the government’s accountability.
The open letter states that ‘In the course of the last few months, several women scholars and activists have been summoned repeatedly, made to wait long (…)

Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA)
PRESS RELEASE
In 379 days 100 citizens killed in Sewer-septic tank cleaning,
We Demand for a national apology from the Prime Minister
It is the 379th day of Safai Karmachari Andolan’s nationwide
“StopKillingUs" campaign demanding for government action to stop these unabated sewer & septic tanks deaths immediately
New Delhi. 24-05-2023
Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA) has been demanding a guarantee to life from Central and state governments for (…)

Guest Editorial for Mainstream
May 27, 2023
The Supreme Court of India appointed Committee (Expert Committee (EC)) on the Adani-Hindenburg issue submitted its Report on May 9, 2023. It disappoints because it chose not to go deeper into issues that hold back the nation from achieving its full potential. It hides behind the technicality of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) following the currently applicable rules that prevent it from investigating the real issues raised in the (…)

BOOK REVIEW
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Abid Hasan Safrani: Netaji’s Comrade-in-Arms
Compiled by: Ismat Mehdi and Shehbaz Safrani
Orient BlackSwan
Pages: xxv + 148; Price: Rs 895. __0__
He was Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s sole Indian companion on his perilous 90-day submarine voyage from Europe to Asia in 1943. He was also the inventor of the INA’s – and subsequently free India’s – patriotic slogan: Jai Hind! If the Japanese had found a third seat for Netaji on what turned out to be his final air (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Reviewed by Edward Armston-Sheret (Institute of Historical Research)
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The Secret History of Soviet Whaling
by Ryan Tucker Jones. Red Leviathan
University of Chicago Press, 2022 Illustrations. xvii + 269 pp. (cloth) ISBN 978-0-226-62885-1
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Red Leviathan, by Ryan Tucker Jones, is a well-researched and clearly written book of immense interest to scholars working in a variety of fields. Jones provides a detailed and insightful history of whaling in the Soviet (…)

* India: Crisis of Democracy or that of its Political Leadership? | Nilofar Suhrawardy
* Ranajit Guha (1923-2023) and his Legacy | Karli Srinivasulu
* Spring Time for Thai Democracy | Patawee Chotanan
* The Menace of “National Socialism” | Max Nettlau

Letter to the readers, Mainstream, May 20, 2023
The two-term Narendra Modi Government at the center seems unstoppable in its zeal to use the central agencies under its command to turn the screws on its critics and make life tough for the opposition party-ruled states. Courts of law occasionally point out the dangers and try to set limits. The Police and the CBI continue to be at the beck and call of the Government, but one central agency that is frequently mentioned in this regard is the (…)

The coronation ceremony of King Charles III may also be viewed as an illustration of the importance the dress code holds for power-holders, whether monarchical or elected, together with the fascination it holds for people across the world and the extensive media coverage given to it. Undeniably, history stands witness to leaders at practically all levels, from Kings to revolutionaries, having always accorded great importance to promoting their images through their dresses and appearances as (…)

The publication of the first volume of Subaltern Studies in 1982 under the editorship of Ranajit Guha has been viewed as a major ‘turn’ in the modern Indian historiography. The publication of Guha’s The Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency the next year added theoretical gravity to this thus making him a formidable historian of ‘lower orders’ in colonial India. The fact that Subaltern Studies series with a new volume every year came to be earnestly looked forward to by scholars across (…)