Mainstream Weekly

Review of Alpa Shah's The Incarcerations | Anand Chakravarti

Anand Chakravarti — 2024-05-04T03:43:51Z

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEW[/blanc][/fond noir]
__0__
The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon and the Search for Democracy in India
by Alpa Shah
HarperCollins Publishers India 2024, xxii + 561pp. Rs.699 P-ISBN 978-93-5489-986-7 (Paperback)
__0__
This is a book by a scholar of conscience – one who is deeply affected by the perverse use of state power to incarcerate sixteen persons accused of conspiring against the state in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case (henceforth BK case, and (…)

- 2024 / Book Review

A Personal Tribute to Gita Ramaswamy Based on Reading Her Book, 'Land Guns Caste Woman: The Memoir of a Lapsed Revolutionary' | Anand Chakravarti

Anand Chakravarti — 2022-12-16T00:45:02Z

by Anand Chakravarti
Introduction: Why Am I Writing This Piece?
Fundamentally, it is an exercise in self-criticism because it charts the politics of a person who devoted a part of her life to serving the marginalized — which I also aspired to do, but failed. Gita Ramaswamy's book, by presenting a model of selfless work and the inherent challenges, shows that it requires exceptional commitment to bridge the gulf that separates noble aspirations from the practise of a mode of existence (…)

- 2022

Remembering the Rupaspur-Chandwa Massacre | Anand Chakravarti

Anand Chakravarti — 2022-01-14T11:03:55Z

On this day (November 22, 1971), 50 years ago, a mob led by the dominant Rajput landowners (henceforth referred to as 'maliks') massacred 14 Santhals (Adivasis) in the village Rupaspur-Chandwa, in Purnea district (in north Bihar). The massacre was a ghastly response of the maliks to the assertion by their Santhal bataidars (sharecroppers) of their long-standing tenancy rights. The outrage was a bloody climax to several decades of struggle by Santhal bataidars in Dhamdaha revenue circle (in (…)

- 2022

Repressive State

Anand Chakravarti — 2009-05-02T21:22:00Z

COMMUNICATION
While agreeing with the main thrust of Vandana Mishra's article, ‘Crises of Indian Parties' (Mainstream, March 14, 2009), I am unable to endorse her introductory paragraph. In fact, it runs against the grain of her own argument. The principal argument of her article may be summed up in her words: “Opportunism has overtaken ideology in politics.” (p.14) This is elaborated in the sections on the personality cult, defections, and criminalisation. It is evident from the (…)

- May 2009