2024

Jan 26, 2024
We the undersigned foreign correspondents based in India express our deep concern over an official notice given to our colleague, Vanessa Dougnac, which warns of the impending withdrawal of her Overseas Citizen of India (OCl) status as a consequence of her work as a journalist. If implemented, this decision would effectively expel her from the country.
Ms. Dougnac, who has lived in India for more than two decades and is highly regarded as a senior journalist covering South (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Aspects of the New Right-Wing Extremism
By Theodor W. Adorno; Wieland Hoban, trans.
On April 6, 1967, Theodor W. Adorno accepted an invitation from the Association of Socialist Students at the University of Vienna to deliver a lecture on “aspects of the new right-wing extremism.” The topic held a special urgency: The National Democratic Party, a recently founded neofascist group in West Germany, was surging in popularity and would soon surpass the official 5 percent (…)

BOOK REVIEW
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Polarised Times: Living in India Today Anil Maheshwari
Vitasta; Pages: xx + 398; Price: Rs 599
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Veteran journalist Anil Maheshwari is as secular as any Indian can be. He is emphatic that labelling the entire Muslim community as anti-national is both grossly unfair and goes against democratic values. Also, Indian Muslims are not answerable for the wrongs committed in (or by) Pakistan. And they are equally not responsible to today’s Hindus for the wrongs the (…)

In this issue:

* Sustaining Democratic Spirit: Movements and Yatras | Ram Puniyani
* Modi’s Indiai: Right-Wing populism and national hegemony | Dilip Kumar
* Rethinking the Covid Pandemic | Arup Kumar Sen
* A University That Knows Speaking Truth to Power | Gyan Prakash
* The Carbon Footprint of Capital | Lucas Chancel and Yannic Rehm
* On Frankfurt School Critical Theory and Political Economy | Chris O’Kane

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Jan 20, 2024
Frenzied action is reported around the north Indian city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, where a huge multi-million dollar Hindu Temple to God Rama is coming up on the rubble of Babri Masjid — a 16th-century Mosque that was demolished brick by brick by a mob of Hindu fanatics in December 1992. The criminals who demolished the Mosque and their instigators were all acquitted, and managed to win all the legal battles, and were handed control of the (…)

18 January 2024
The unabated killings cum violence in West Asia seems spreading out, engulfing many more regions and countries and outfits. The Lebanon-based Hezbollah and the Houthis of Yemen started firing drones and missiles towards Israel. Most have been intercepted, but it does more than relay the furious aftermath.
And now with Iran and Pakistan launching targeted attacks against each other, the low-intensity war-ridden scenario seems active as never before. Let me hasten to add (…)

Several protesting women wrestlers like Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik have been extremely sad these days. It has been a distressing experience for people all over the country to see these women in tears, as they admire and respect them these wrestlers who have won prestigious medals for their country in international sports events but have been even more brave in their struggles against gender injustice and for providing safe conditions in which women wrestlers can bring more honors for (…)

n times when we see constant attacks on every inch of public space, universities give us the courage to fight the dominant neoliberal vision through the tools of constitutional democracy. Critical thinking lies at the heart of the human quest for progress and the recent protests from the JNU community must be seen in this light.
In a recent CPO (Chief Proctor Office) manual, the administration of Jawaharlal Nehru University came up with an order to fine students up to Rs. 20,000 for (…)

As the heat for the 2024 poll battle builds up, with the Modi-led BJP taking a lead with its pre-planned inauguration of the semi-finished Ram temple, the Congress and the INDIA alliance still remains in quandaries. Will they resolve the pitfalls facing them in the short time at their hand to compete with vigour? Even as the Congress is pinning its hopes on the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra which Rahul Gandhi began on 14 January 2024 from Manipur and will conclude in Mumbai after traversing (…)