‘Where They Burn Books, They Will Burn Men as Well’

‘Where They Burn Books, They Will Burn Men as Well’ It had been a balmy early-summer day in Berlin, but by late afternoon, storm clouds started gathering overhead. As evening fell, a slight drizzle set in, forcing many Berliners to stay indoors. Yet, groups of young women and men—more men than women—started converging on the…

Gandhi, Marx and the Ideal of an ‘Unalienated Life’

Gandhi, Marx and the Ideal of an ‘Unalienated Life’ In your famous essay “Gandhi, the Philosopher”, you were making a fresh reading of Mahatma Gandhi as a philosopher. In your own words you were “struck by the integrity of his ideas”. What do you mean by “integrity” in Gandhi’s ideas?   That essay was written…

Anthropocene Age and Relevance of Tagore and Gandhi

Anthropocene Age and Relevance of Tagore and Gandhi The earth is today facing a critical ecological crisis. A few months back Dr. Sanmatha Nath Ghosh, the socialist leader of West Bengal, arranged a discussion on “21st Century Socialism”. Socialists and Marxists all over the world are today deeply engaged in discussions on the worsening environmental…

Ambedkar’s Socialism: Some Reflections

Ambedkar’s Socialism: Some Reflections Babasaheb Ambedkar experientially and pragmatically looked at Indian society as structurally unequal because of the caste system that governed what a person born in a particular caste would get. He was naturally attracted to socialism as a system of property equaliser. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the first conscious attempt of…

100 Years of Amnesia

100 Years of Amnesia It was meant to be the war to end all wars, another of those grandiose and foolish human notions. World War I, often dubbed the Great War, formally ended at 11am on 11 November 1918, though fighting on the far eastern front, in Russia, dragged on. If there was greatness in…

‘Reservation Is Not Poverty Alleviation Programme’

‘Reservation Is Not Poverty Alleviation Programme’ P.S. Krishnan, the former secretary to government of India, was one of the crucial people behind the enactment of several historic laws regarding social justice. He spoke to the Wire on the Bill moved by the government to provide reservation to economically weaker upper castes in jobs and education….

New Era for Mexico’s Zapatista Army

New Era for Mexico’s Zapatista Army “We’re the product of 500 years of struggles: first against slavery and the war for independence against Spain, then avoiding being absorbed by North American expansionism, then promulgating our Constitution and expelling the French Empire from our territory, then against Porfirio’s dictatorship that denied the fair implementation of the…

Whither Bangladesh

Whither Bangladesh At the end of the post-poll cooling-off period, the Awami League set in motion the business of governance in Bangladesh. The decimation of the entire opposition in the elections gives the impression that the opposition is virtually non-existent in Bangladesh, but this is not actually true. There is no gainsaying the fact that…

Sangh’s Latest Attacks on Academic Institutions

Sangh’s Latest Attacks on Academic Institutions In his convocation address to the University of Allahabad in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru said, “A university stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for the adventure of ideas and for the search of truth. It stands for the onward march of the human race towards even higher objectives. If…