2024

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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The Diary of Gul Mohammad: A Kashmiri Muslim Boy’s Journey from Kashmir to Kerala
by Humra Quraishi
Oxford University Press Pages: x + 172; Price: Rs 185
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He is all of 14 years when Gul Mohammad’s worried family decides it will be best if he is shifted out of the Kashmir Valley for his own safety. The situation in Kashmir is pathetic, what with trigger-happy security personnel viewing virtually every Kashmiri youth as (…)

* The question of moral injury and theoretical aporia in the framework of Secular governance | Shah and Reshi
* Conjuring an illusion of prosperity | Sunil Ray
* Farmers’ Movement: Bar Association president’s letter denotes the fall of civil society | Prem Singh
* South Koreans blame feminism for demographic collapse | Dylan Motin
* Open Letter to Western European Workers | P Kropotkin

On 22 January 2024, the Prime Minister of India, Narender Modi, joined the Pran Pratishtha or the consecration ceremony, held in the newly constructed Ram Mandir in Ayodhya city of Uttar Pradesh. This ceremony marks the placement of an idol of Lord Ram in the inner sanctum of the temple. He was joined by all the leaders from the ruling party, BJP, along with leaders from other political parties, to celebrate the consecration and symbolic return of Lord Ram.
The celebration of (…)

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, February 17, 2024
The news of the Supreme Court of India striking down the Electoral Bonds Scheme (EBS) has been widely welcomed as good for democracy and for transparency of funding of political parties. The not-for-profit entity Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were petitioners who had challenged the EBS — had maintained that electoral bonds were the "legalisation of political corruption” have done (…)

“They took so much away from us that they ended up taking away our fear” Message scrawled on a placard in a women’s march in Spain
’How does Justice feel?’
A difficult query to answer but perhaps Bilkis Bano would be the best person to respond to it.
Yes the same Bilkis - survivor of a mass rape and the only witness to horrific massacre of her 14 relatives - when the state she lived witnessed a carnage when officially one thousand innocents perished in the communal pogrom and many (…)

All India’s a stage upon which the performer plays many parts. “The play’s the thing/ Wherein I’ll catch mass consciousness”, intones the hero. Gesturing vigorously, he makes his words come alive, giving them the desired meaning. He appears in traditional attire, accompanied by priests and supported by a prominent prop, be it Puja Thali or Sengol, sceptre representing righteousness. Showing the symbol of virtue makes up for the lack of virtue in politics. Vedic chants provide appropriate (…)

The Central Interim Budget 2024-25 is being analyzed based on the Budget Speech (BS) of the Finance Minister (FM) and major item-wise & scheme-wise allocations extracted from the Budget at Glance. Accordingly, it is analyzed under three sections.
I. Budget Speech
The BS is like an essay on the glorification of the Government’s performance since 2014-15. to quote FM, "The Indian economy has witnessed a profound positive transformation in the last ten years. The people of India are (…)

Ever since the Interim Budget laid by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament, the government and the opposition are leaving no stones unturned to acknowledge their achievements during their tenures.
Amidst, the NDA led government applauding its achievements; the opposition released the “Black Paper” titled “Dus Saal Anyay Kaal (Ten Years of Injustices)” highlighting the issues of unemployment, inflation, subversion of institutions and instances of injustices (…)

Wars are commonly associated with the most fearsome violence. This is often true, but another reality that deserves more attention is that violence in daily life brings death, serious injury and other tragic consequences on a more massive scale and with continuity. Unlike in war there is generally no valor here, only cruelty; no heroes or patriots here, only victims and perpetrators.
According to data released by the WHO, the number of children in the 2-17 age group who have suffered (…)

Introduction
The “chariot of Trust” is now rolled out in the Indian Republic by the current political regime in power. It is claimed to be an unquestionable truth by the latter. Its influence on the economic historians of tomorrow may not be inconsequential unless chariot is thwarted. Till then, economic prosperity of the nation in all its likelihood will no way be different from what some say a ‘magical realism’. The magical realism takes a different route however unscientific it is, to (…)