2026

Abstract The resignation of Ms. Shweta Menon and the full team from the leadership structure of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) has reopened important debates concerning gender, representation, and institutional power within Kerala’s cultural sector. While her elevation to leadership was initially celebrated as evidence of a historic breakthrough in women’s representation, subsequent developments invite a more critical interpretation. This article argues that the (…)

Immediately after coming to power in the state of West Bengal in 2026, the BJP government has been taking new measures of governance to curtail the freedom of the Muslim community. The Hindu reported (May 28, 2026): “Kolkata’s Id-ul-Azha celebrations this year were marked by a major shift in venue, moving from the traditional Red Road to the Brigade Parade Ground for the morning prayers. The festival also witnessed no public slaughter of animals after a May 13 notification by the West Bengal (…)

Keeladi! Rarely has any archaeological find generated as much emotion as Keeladi did since the discovery, during the British Raj, of the civilizational ruins at Harappa, now in Pakistan.
Historians had always believed that large-scale urban life in India first emerged in the north, in the greater Magadha region of the Gangetic basin, from around 600 BCE. South India, by contrast, was thought to have urbanized much later, only around 300 BCE.
The discovery of Keeladi shattered all that, (…)

The Indian Constitution is unique as it grants Cultural and Educational Rights by way of Articles 29 and 30 as fundamental rights. Article 30 in particular, guarantees to religion and language based minorities, the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. This was in keeping with many schools and colleges in colonial India which served as traditional institutions of learning, at times combining subjects of both, a denominational and secular nature. Article (…)

Images of protestors from the satirical political movement Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar, giving flowers to police officers, are circulating on social media, which many have interpreted as a representation of democratic civility and political maturity. Such gestures convey the idea that dissent should not be confrontational and that it can coexist peacefully with state institutions. Moreover, the offering of flowers is not just a kind act with no political meaning; rather, it (…)

As a long-time observer who has followed developments in the Indian nuclear energy sector for more than three and a half decades, I read with great interest the recent news regarding the finalisation of the Administrative Arrangement under the India-Australia Civil Nuclear Agreement, signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s latest visit to Australia.
Quoting a statement shared by Randhir Jaiswal, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, Prime Minister Modi (…)

The Chamber of My Heart – ‘Twenty thousand children killed in Palestine’: U.N report
A chamber of my heart broke; gasping, it dived and clasped a fin; ‘You need to school yourself in decency; we do not kill our kids, here in the sea’, scolded the dolphin severely.
The chamber of my heart flew hanging on to a star; ‘I have been watching from afar and in the twinkle of my eye, O my, I’ve never seen such bloodshed in the sky. You humans who suckled at your mother’s breast, have lost (…)

The Banas River flows for over 500 km in water-scarce Rajasthan, fulfilling important ecological roles and meeting the needs of many people. The Bisalpur project has increased its reach further for meeting the drinking water needs of many more people in Ajmer. In its upper reach in South Rajasthan, in the Aravalli hills, this seasonal river has been sometimes referred to as Van ki Aas or hope of forests, a reminder of its important ecological role. The river, a tributary of the Chambal (…)

The recent investigations by an Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Territory of Palestine by a leading body of jurists under the patronage of the United Nations (UN), led by former Chief Justice of Odisha High Court, Justice S. Muralidharan to investigate human rights abuses and violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws in three areas viz Occupied Palestinian territory, which is Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem and Israel itself, has (…)

From: ‘Mother Earth: Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature’, February 1915, New York City, published by Emma Goldman, edited by Alexander Berkman Text dated 1915, written by Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis
At this most earnest time, when the whole of society seems to be disrupted, we also want to raise our voice which has as much right to be heard as that of the other parties. For it was indeed we who have ever been the only ones who opposed militarism under the motto, (…)