2024

August 28, 2024
The moral distinction between liberal democracies and dictatorships is being flattened by the carnage in Gaza.
For most of human history human rights did not exist.
The struggle to secure them arguably began in 1215 with the Magna Carta in England, which promised protection from illegal imprisonment as a right.
But it took another 733 years and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for those rights to be enshrined for all.
Now, just 76 years later, they’re at (…)

This is the mantra given to BJP by the current Prime Minister! Which he said in March 2020 during the first wave of Corona! When at that time no medicine for Corona had been invented! And due to it being a completely new disease, there was an atmosphere of panic in almost the entire world!
But this mantra was used by Narendra Modi in the initial phase of his political life after 27 February 2002. Without half-hearted post-mortem, the 59 half-burnt bodies of the Godhra incident were handed (…)

by Murzban Jal
I am certainly glad I live other than an academic life.
— Raya Dunayevskaya,

On the annual International Day of the Disappeared, 30 August, a look at how the Baloch community in Pakistan is being pushed to the wall but also ignored by the state. Their marches, sit-ins, and demonstrations do get some attention, but little seems to change.
By Abdullah Zahid / Sapan News
The International Day of the Disappeared, observed on 30 August annually, holds particular relevance to Pakistan’s Khyber PakhtunKhwa and Balochistan provinces, plagued by enforced (…)

WOMEN RIGHTS NOW!
CITIZENS SPEAK OUT AGAINST BRUTAL CASES OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE FROM KOLKATA TO MANIPUR, GUJARAT, UTTARAKHAND, BIHAR, UTTAR PRADESH…
DEMAND URGENT, INDEPENDENT AND UNBIASED INVESTIGATIONS AND INSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY!
NO MORE SHIELDING OF PERPETRATORS AND THEIR PROTECTORS JUSTICE TO VICTIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES!
August, 2024
Amidst distressing news of brutal rape cases coming from multiple states, women’s rights groups were joined by mass organisations, trade unions, (…)

Press Release
The following statement was issued to the press jointly by the Central Trade Unions and Samyukt Kisan Morcha on 26th August 2024
Justice to the Victims and survivors Unitedly Fight to End Violence Against Women Violence against women - deep rooted issue of patriarchy and commodification of women
The brutal rape and murder of a young medico in R G Kar medical (…)

The original 295 page Hema Committee report on issues faced by women in the Malayalam film industry was submitted to the Kerala government on December 31, 2019. It is not available publicly. The Kerala government released a heavily redacted version of the report on August 19, 2024, after removing 63 pages

by Tirthankar Mitra
For India, correct data compilation is of paramount Importance at the present stage
August 29, 2024
KOLKATA: India’s population census was initially due for completion in 2024 but was delayed by COVID-19 pandemic. It’s resumption scheduled to begin in September this year will be a pivotal moment. The history of Indian census can be traced back to 1800 during the British colonial period. The first census of an Indian city was conducted in Dhaka in 1830 by Henry (…)

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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Return of the Taliban: State, Society and Terror
by Apratim Mukarji
Vitasta Publishing Pvt.Ltd 2023, Pages: lii + 292 ISBN-10 8119670035 ISBN-13 978-8119670031
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With very little hope that the Taliban may become a responsive administration, one does not know when millions of Afghans can even dream of a better tomorrow.
This is the price ordinary Afghan men, women and children are today paying for the needless aggression (…)

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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Arrested Development: The Soviet Union in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, 1955–1968
by Alessandro Iandolo
Cornell University Press 2022. xv + 287 pp. (cloth), ISBN 978-1-5017-6443-1.
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Reviewed by Thom Loyd (Augusta University)
In his 1955 novel, Flamingo Feather, the Afrikaner writer Laurens van der Post painted a sinister picture of Soviet influence in Africa, one in which the Soviet Union used whatever underhand means it (…)