India’s oldest Socialist Weekly!
Editor: Dr. G.G. Parikh | Associate Editor: Neeraj Jain | Managing Editor: Guddi
If Gandhi and Ambedkar are indispensable to political thought today, it is because both are deeply committed to the figure of the minor, and to an equality centred around this figure. This is why we must study the antagonism between them.
Gandhi remains so real. It is because he drew meaning from ordinary things, especially those that signified the persistence of friendship and love amidst hatred and violence. That is why his life and message are so much a part of the “still sad music of humanity”.
The struggle for inter-faith harmony remains vital and urgent. To overcome the malign forces of Hindutva, we need Ambedkar and Gandhi on the same side.
May 2000: There are four Gandhis who have survived Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s death. Fifty years after Gandhi’s (1861-1948) assassination, it may be useful to establish their identities.
At the very outset, two things can be said about Gandhi. One, no leader of modern India has been misunderstood as much as Gandhi. It would be true to say that Gandhi has been written about a lot, but understood very little. Two, today we need to understand him more than ever before.
His careful reading of the history of the revolutions led him to conclude that revolutions were not made by bombs and pistols – the most important thing was to mobilise people, a far more difficult prospect. The real battle was the battle of hearts and minds.
Netaji was very clear that religion had no place in public life and could not be used to unite Indians.
The overall approach of the national movement towards foreign policy was that the immediate pragmatic interests made sense only when placed in a larger setting – of a vision of a world order based on peace and cooperation. This approach continued after independence.
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was an actor, social reformer, feminist, freedom fighter, reviver of Indian handicrafts, and a global proselytizer of Satyagraha. She was a woman who was years ahead of her time and a romantic renegade.
A great responsibility falls upon the democratic and secular parties – whatever be their differences on policy matters – to come together and defend the country’s values.
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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