2026

Increasing concern has been expressed in recent times regarding the several dangerous ongoing wars and civil wars and the possibilities of their escalation and expansion. While any discourse motivated by peace objectives is most welcome, we argue here that a lot of recent discussion may be missing out on a wider and very important reality that has two important aspects. Firstly, human society may be becoming more of a violent society with intolerably high levels of physical and emotional (…)

October 12, 1935
The intellectual middle class, the engineers, scientists, technical employees, etc. are a necessary part of industrial production, quite as indispensable as the workers themselves. Technical progress, in replacing workers by machines, tends to increase their number. Therefore their class interests and their class character must be of increasing importance in the social struggles.
Their growing numbers reflect the growing importance of science and theory in the production (…)

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
__0__
Critical Theory and the Critique of Alternative Societies: Co-operatives, Mutual Aid and Universal Basic Income
by Neal Harris
Manchester University Press
2026. 184 pp.,
ISBN 9781526172228
__0__
Reviewed by Domonkos Sik
Neal Harris is taking on a daunting quest: critiquing those emancipatory movements that, by their own definition and according to the mainstream view of Marxist and critical sociology, are supposed to widen the

Seventy-three days into the Iran war, the Prime Minister asked Indians to cut fuel, defer foreign travel, postpone gold, reduce edible oil, revive work-from-home, and buy Indian. Citizens of any country with an import profile like India’s would accept restraint in a crisis. The question is why this crisis arrived so unprepared for, after eleven years of Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat, and Aatmanirbharta. Each ask names a vulnerability the policy ledger was supposed to close. The bill is (…)

Labour Unrest and Workers

Abstract: India’s e-SHRAM portal is one of the world’s largest digital registries of unorganised workers. With over 31.48 crore workers registered as of January 2026, it represents an important administrative achievement. Yet registration alone does not guarantee social protection. Drawing on field evidence from informal workers in Gurugram, this article argues that e-SHRAM has made workers visible to the state without necessarily enabling them to claim welfare benefits. The challenge, (…)

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant stated recently in an open court, "There are youngsters like cockroaches. They don’t get any employment. Some of them become media, some become social media, some become RTI activists, some of them become other activists."
When there was an outrage in the world outside, Justice Surya Kant clarified that his courtroom remarks comparing certain individuals to "cockroaches" and "parasites" were strictly aimed at individuals using fake degrees to enter (…)

Kumkum Sangari

False allegations and fabricated narratives capture public imagination due to their emotional charge, often spreading faster than truth, particularly through social media and sensationalized reporting. Often stemming from motives like revenge, intention to malign, to set personal score or attention-seeking, these accusations cause immense, sometimes irreparable, reputational and psychological damage to the wrongly accused.
Saffron ecosystem in league with the nouveau riche and upper middle (…)

The 2026 elections for the West Bengal assembly was unprecedented in two ways. First, it was the first ever violence-free election in the history of the State, Secondly, the voter turnout, was nearly 93%. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in this eastern State by bagging a massive 207 seats out of 293 seats. The ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), facing anti-incumbency at the end of its third term, secured only 80 seats and will now sit in Opposition. The Indian (…)