2023

FEBRUARY WAS AN important month for India. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, visiting Bengaluru on 23 February, to participate in the primary G20 finance ministers’ and financial institution governors’ (G7 FMCBG) assembly in the G20 talks (with India as chair) said, ‘imparting any help to Russia’ or any ‘help to avoid any systemic evasion of sanctions, could be a ‘‘critical problem’’ for the United States’. Her’s was no threat, only a wish that India support the sanctions against Russia. (…)

by Hilary Rose & Stephen Rose
This is an abridged version of an article which appeared in Science Bulletin 22, 1979, a communist science and technology journal published in the United Kingdom.
In November 1976, we published an edited collection of articles (in two volumes: The Political Economy of Science and The Radicalisation of Science, Macmillan) attempting to define some of the theoretical issues relevant to a Marxist understanding of science under capitalism, as they had (…)

BOOK REVIEW
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The Struggle For Police Reforms in India : Ruler’s Police to People’s Police by Prakash Singh
Rupa Publications India May 2022 Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9355202474 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9355202475
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Prakash Singh is a leading former IPS officers of India. He belongs to the Uttar Pradesh cadre of the IPS and was the state’s Director General of Police. He was also DG of the Border Security Force, a Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) such as the CRPF (…)

BOOK REVIEW
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Don’t Forward That Text! Separating Myths from History on Social Media
by Amit Schandillia
HarperCollins India Pages: 303 Price: Rs 399
So, many Hindu temples did Tipu Sultan destroy?
Many, most might answer. Innumerable, Hindu radicals are bound to assert. History communicator Amit Schandilia’s meticulous research leads to findings that are bound to shock everyone: those who view the Muslim king positively and those who hate him.
At the height of the (…)

BOOK REVIEW __0__
Dark Fear, Eerie Cities: New Hindi Cinema in Neoliberal India by Šarūnas Paunksnis
Oxford University Press 2019 ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0199493189 193 pages, Kindle Edition __0__
GLOBALIZATION TRANSFORMED INDIA into modern economy in the mid-nineties. The positive impact on the economy, however, disrupted India’s traditional social structures. Withdrawal of the state from economic activities pushed society in India to modernise but created tenuous relationships in different (…)

* Reimagining everyday justice | Shalu Nigam
* Śūnyatā and Karl Marx | Pradip Baksi
* Bhiwani Murders, Haryana Police & Cow Vigilantes | Subhashini Ali
* Russia: The Collapse of the Vertical | Oleg Sheyn

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Feb 25 & March 4, 2023
Cow Protection Vigilante Groups Undermine Constitutional Governance in Haryana
The BJP government in the state of Haryana which is ideologically committed to promoting a Hindutva agenda brought in a Cow Protection Act in 2015 to counter cow slaughter and curb cow smuggling. The state later went on to establish a Special Cow Protection Task Force in each district; This scheme became an entry point for far-right religiopolitical (…)

Millions of domestic workers in India, an overwhelming majority of them women, have suffered reduced real earnings and increased debts in recent times. In fact in some cases even actual earnings have declined, while after taking into account the impact of inflation, the decline of real wages can be seen in almost all cases.
Aasmeen leaves her home in Shahbad Dairy, Delhi, early in morning in order to be able to cover all the four households in which her services are used, mainly in various (…)

The four judges of the Supreme Court (SC) delivered a historic judgement on 2nd March 2023 to put an end to the exclusive authority of the Government, led by Prime Minister, for appointing Election Commissioners (ECs) and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). They ordered that till the Parliament enacts a law under Article 324(2) of the Constitution the President of India would appoint those persons as ECs and CEC only after their selection by a Committee consisting of the Prime Minister, (…)

The media trumpets notwithstanding, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nothing much to celebrate the March 3 results of three north eastern states and a couple of bye elections in other states.
The media is only crying hoarse over the Congress losses in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland, implying that Rahul Gandhi’s over 4000 kilometres Padyatra (walk) across 12 states against hate campaign of the BJP or the expose of Adani stock market scam of humungous proportions spread globally, (…)