Shadow of Fascism In its attack on civil liberties, its restructuring of the State to effect an acute centralisation of power, and its pervasive purveyance of fear, the Modi years resemble Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. But the resemblance stops there. In fact the two differ fundamentally in several ways. First, there were no lynch mobs,…
Recovering the Spirit of the Rowlatt Satyagraha, 100 Years Later The leaders of our major (and minor) political parties are currently crisscrossing the country in search of votes. Exactly a 100 years ago, in the spring of 1919, another leader was also touring different parts of India. It was four years since Mohandas K. Gandhi…
Book Release: “The RSS: A Menace to India” Scholar, lawyer and author Abdul Ghafoor Noorani’s latest book The RSS: A Menace to India, published by Leftword Books, was released in New Delhi on April 2, 2019. It’s a well written, comprehensive, research-intensive deep-dive book about one of India’s biggest and most secretive organisations. Speaking…
Modinomics = Corporatonomics: Part I Ever since the Congress released its manifesto promising to implement a scheme, NYAY, under which it would guarantee a transfer of Rs 72,000 per year or Rs 6,000 per month to the poorest 20% of India’s households, the BJP has gone to town claiming that the scheme is not practical,…
India under Narendra Modi: A Throwback to the Germany of the 1930s? As a boy, the German novelist Max von der Grun heard the news of Hitler becoming the Reich Chancellor over the radio on 30 January, 1933 . Two days later, he and his family listened to Hitler speaking to the nation, again over…
Climate Catastrophe and Extinction Rebellion The British-based group Extinction Rebellion has called for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience on April 15 (2019) in capitals around the world to reverse our “one-way track to extinction.” This talk was given by Paul Street in Chicago, USA, some days ago in the background of this global call for…
Writers, Scientists, Filmmakers, Theatre Artists Appeal to Vote Out Hate Politics Hundreds of writers, theatre artists, scientists and filmmakers have issued appeals stressing that the coming elections are crucial for the future of our country, the spectre of fascism looms over the country, and appealing to the people of the country to vote against inequality,…
Weaponising the World Bank and IMF In a leaked military manual on “unconventional warfare” recently highlighted by WikiLeaks, the US Army states that major global financial institutions—such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—are used as unconventional, financial “weapons in times of conflict up to…
Tosepan: Resistance and Renewal in Mexico Since the mid-1980s, Mexico has been a poster child for globalisation. Through free trade treaties and structural adjustment policies imposed by international financial institutions, the country has been “liberalised”—opened up to unfettered corporate investment and imports— to an extent matched by few other countries. Though the North American Free Trade…
In Ex-Colonial Countries, People Should Stop Admiring the US and Europe It may sound incredible, but it is true: in countries that have been damaged, even totally robbed and destroyed by the West, many people are still enamoured with Europe and North America. For years, I have been observing this ‘phenomena’, even in the…
दिल्लीत सुरु असलेल्या शेतकरी आंदोलनाच्या पार्श्वभूमीवर या लहान पुस्तिकेचे प्रकाशन लोकायत मार्फत करण्यात आले आहे. शेतकरी आंदोलन आणि त्यातल्या मागण्या या केवळ शेतकऱ्यांपुरत्याच नसून विविध अंगांनी सर्व सामान्य जनतेच्या हिताच्या आहेत, याबाबत मांडणी करणारी ही पुस्तिका!