India’s oldest Socialist Weekly!
Editor: Dr. G.G. Parikh | Associate Editor: Neeraj Jain | Managing Editor: Guddi
Indian Muslims and Christians have been forced into psychological and political isolation. Hate against minorities is part of the BJP’s ideology, but what about our police, our civil administration, our judiciary? Do they exist to facilitate the politics and project of the BJP?
Given India’s association with Persian, the BJP’s renaming spree, taken to its logical conclusion, will end up wiping away substantial portions of what Indians find familiar.
Increasing levels of Islamophobia, often manifesting itself in violent attacks, has left Muslim communities worldwide with deep mental health trauma about their belonging. However, fear of raising these issues has made the problem worse.
Historical record not only debunks Union defence minister Rajnath Singh’s claim that Savarkar filed mercy petitions at the behest of Mahatma Gandhi, it establishes that the two men had nothing in common.
What does it mean then to remember the ‘horror’ of partition at a time when identities are so polarised. Do we remember only what was done to us, leaving out all that we did to others and to our own?
Julian Assange is a truth-teller who has committed no crime but revealed government crimes and lies on a vast scale and so performed one of the great public services of my lifetime. Do we need to be reminded that justice for one is justice for all?
If education in India is to serve its true purpose, then it must have a content oriented towards serving India’s needs. But globalised capital would like the educated middle class, from which it employs its personnel, to be as alike everywhere as possible. Modi’s NEP is seeking to serve its needs.
Radicalism, the Prime Minister should know, is born in the perceived absence of a conscience in those who control the levers of the Indian State. Radicalisation is suicidal for the weak—and Muslims certainly know that. It is also suicidal for India.
While attempts by the ruling party to control the media and the messaging are not new in India, what we see now is the use of new technology to ‘curate’ and exercise ‘centralised control’ to spread disinformation in order to harass and intimidate critics.
The drumbeats of celebration that marked 20 years of Narendra Modi’s public life have to be confronted. One has to admit that when the media become an inane chorus, dissent is not easy. At such a time, I remember the dictum of my old philosophy teachers – read the silences of the regime.
Janata Weekly is India’s oldest independent socialist weekly.
Ever since its founding in 1946, Janata has voiced its principled dissent against all conduct and practice that is detrimental to the cherished values of nationalism, democracy, secularism and socialism, while upholding the integrity and the ethical norms of healthy journalism. For more than seventy years now, week after week, it has continued to analyse the changes taking place in the country and the world from a socialist standpoint, and thus promote the spread of socialist ideology in the country.
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