The Monk Who Shaped India’s Secularism
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The Monk Who Shaped India’s Secularism

Rahul Mukherji Has Indian nationalism turned utterly exclusivist? What would one of the icons of nationalism, Swami Vivekananda, have to say about this shift? Nationalism, after all, is a battle for the myths that create a nation. The practice of Indian secularism, despite its pitfalls, has distinguished the country from many of its neighbours. India…

The Republic and the Kashmir Valley:  From Federalism to “Internal Colonisation”
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The Republic and the Kashmir Valley: From Federalism to “Internal Colonisation”

Neera Chandhoke In the 18th and 19th centuries, colonial powers justified the conquest of large parts of Asia and Sub-Saharan African in terms of an almost divine mission. The mission compelled them to bring “development” and “civilisation” to the territories that had been colonised. The justification was, but a cloak, for more nefarious purposes. The…

Ecuador’s People Win a Huge Victory
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Ecuador’s People Win a Huge Victory

Neeraj Jain On the night of Sunday, October 12, the people of Ecuador were out on the streets, celebrating a major victory after 11 days of continuous protests in which hundreds of thousands of people had participated, despite massive police repression. The celebrations followed an announcement by the government of President Lenin Moreno that it…

Greed of ‘Border-Industrial Complex’ Fuelling Militarisation
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Greed of ‘Border-Industrial Complex’ Fuelling Militarisation

Eoin Higgins A new report detailing the ways US corporations are profiting off of President Donald Trump’s war on immigrants calls the partnership between security firms and the federal government a “powerful border–industrial complex,” the existence of which presents a major barrier to reform, and explains that making money off of the border is nothing…

Hands off Greta Thunberg!
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Hands off Greta Thunberg!

The young Swedish woman Greta Thunberg has faced an exceptional outpouring of hatred, expressed as the most vile macho attacks, the most sordid insinuations about her mental health, the lowest calumnies about her autonomy, and even barely veiled death threats. You don’t have to look far to find the source of these ever-growing waves of…

Relevance of Gandhiji’s Message Today
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Relevance of Gandhiji’s Message Today

Nikhil Chakravartty (This essay was first published in Mainstream, October 1, 1994.) On October 2 this year India is celebrating the hundred and twentyfifth birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The Government of India has set up a special committee studded with VIPs of different denominations and is chalking out an extensive programme of functions which…

Under Modi Rule, Ambani, Adani Have Doubled Their Wealth
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Under Modi Rule, Ambani, Adani Have Doubled Their Wealth

The release of richest people’s lists is usually a signal for much back-slapping and triumphalism in the corporate world and its hangers on in the media. It is seen as some kind of symptom that India is doing well, people are getting wealthier, achhe din (good days) are here, although such lists are only for…

Absolute Capitalism

Absolute Capitalism

  John Bellamy Foster This article is based on a keynote address, entitled “Absolute Capitalism: The Neoliberal Project and the Marxian-Polanyian-Foucaultian Critique—Where Do We Go from Here?,” presented to the 2nd Biennial Conference of the Caucus for a New Political Science, February 25, 2019, South Padre Island, Texas. The French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote in…

There’s No Scientific Basis for Race—It’s a Made-Up Label

There’s No Scientific Basis for Race—It’s a Made-Up Label

Elizabeth Kolbert In the first half of the 19th century, one of America’s most prominent scientists was a doctor named Samuel Morton. Morton lived in Philadelphia, and he collected skulls. He wasn’t choosy about his suppliers. He accepted skulls scavenged from battlefields and snatched from catacombs. One of his most famous craniums belonged to an…