2023

The government’s Marathi language department on December 6 announced the Yashwantrao Chavan Literature Award 2021 to Anagha Lele for her translation of Kobad Ghandy’s book ‘Fractured Freedom: A Prison Memoir’. 33 awardees were announced on that day and the translation of Fractured Freedom was chosen for the Tarktirth Laxmanshashastri Joshi Puraskar. The book was published by Lokwangmay Gruha.
The next day, Deepak Kesarkar, minister in charge of the department, stated that he would (…)

Sanjeev Nanda the grandson of former Indian Navy chief Admiral S.M. Nanda and son of well known Arms dealer Suresh Nanda drove his brand new BMW not even registered yet through the police barricade at Lodhi Road in the early hours of 10 January, 1999 at a reported speed of 140 kilometres killing six people, mostly policemen on security duty manning the police checkpost. After years of to and fro in Delhi courts he was finally awarded only two years of imprisonment for rash and negligent (…)

by Prachy Hooda *
__0__
Abstract
The article seeks to undertake a review of literature related to the idea of the right to the city that first emerged in the works of twentieth century French Marxist scholar Henri Lefebvre and the ways in which the concept has been used to analyze social movements and mobilisation processes. The catchphrase of ‘the right to the city’ has been appreciated for its potential for a renewed urban democracy. It seems useful since it helps us envision a more (…)

by Jayanta Kumar Ghosal *
In the year of 250th birth anniversary of Raja Rammohan Roy, the inaugurator of Modern Age in India, we remember the ‘Luminous Star’ who through the dynamic power of his personality and ‘his uncompromising freedom of the spirit’ became the path maker of this country removing the obstacles on the way of our progress at every step and placed us in the path of world wide co-operation of humanity. He was the only person in his time, in our country, to realise (…)

While spearheading Bharat Jod Yatra (BJY) and undertaking the arduous journey on foot from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, Rahul Gandhi, apart from stressing the objectives of BJY, among others, to unify India by countering hatred has been recurrently telling people, "Daro Mat”, (Do not be afraid of ) and act fearlessly to defeat politics of divisiveness and intolerance . He is exhorting lakhs of people spontaneously joining the BJY with abounding enthusiasm that they should get rid of fear. His (…)

While health policy makers need to be guided by careful evidence-based approach in all times, this need has increased all the more in recent times due to two important factors. Firstly, of course there are the pandemic related factors. Secondly, there is the rapid increase in the dominance of the profit motive in health sector. Although in India the economic discourse has been dominated more by the Adani-Ambani discussion, it is in the health sector (which ideally should be the sector which (…)

by Ahmed Raza *
EVER SINCE THE film Pathaan’s song ‘Besharam Rang’ has been released, a call for boycotting the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer has been doing the rounds on social media in India. This is nothing new. Shah Rukh has come back to films after a five-year hiatus looking sleeker than either Aamir or Akashay, all in their post-50s and contemporaries, even younger-looking than Salman who makes a cameo appearance in this film.
Every time a big Bollywood star comes with a new film, the (…)

1
Ravela Somaiya, a senior socialist friend living in Hyderabad, had sent a video to me about two months back. I opened the video and found Ramchandra Guha’s speech in it, which was delivered at Ashoka University, Sonipat, Haryana. I closed the video without listening to that speech. This university came into limelight last year for abruptly terminating the services of Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta. He had been the Vice Chancellor of this university for two years between 2017 and 2019. He (…)

The following quote is from the first paragraph of Lenin’s great work; The State and Revolution:The Marxist Theory of the State and the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Revolution (1917) underlining a cardinal truth; how rulers and their henchmen/women repress those ideologies and individuals who strive to emancipate masses from the exploitative rules. This chameleon like lot uses every trick in their criminal armoury.
“What is now happening to Marx’s theory has, in the course of history, (…)

by Anil Kumar Kanungo and Ujjvala Kanungo *
Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decisive move to initially discount the growing promises and popularity of crypto currency in India is quite praiseworthy. In a highly uncertain, volatile and non-transparent global financial regime, adoption of cryptos as a currency runs the risk of putting Indian economy into jeopardy. What instead worth considering was a controlled, transparent and reliable digital currency such as CBDC (Central Bank Digital (…)