Relevance of Gandhiji’s Message Today
| |

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
|

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…

Gandhiji and Lohia: An Intimate and Fruitful Relationship – Part 2
|

Gandhiji and Lohia: An Intimate and Fruitful Relationship – Part 2

Prem Singh Lohia’s critique of Gandhiji has been a significant contribution to Gandhian studies in the post-Gandhi era. Lohia as a heretic Gandhian makes perhaps the most revolutionary interpretation of Gandhiji’s philosophy and modes of action. He left incomplete his long essay “Economics After Marx”, that he had begun in 1943–44 (the essay is compiled…

Who’s Afraid of the Word ‘Dalit’?
|

Who’s Afraid of the Word ‘Dalit’?

Courtesy: Sabrangindia Following a Central government ‘directive’ last year asking all state governments to refrain from using the word ‘Dalit’ in official communication, the Devendra Phadnavis-led Maharashtra government has asked all its departments not to use the word “Dalit” in “all official transactions, matters, dealings and certificates and instead use Scheduled Caste or its appropriate…

In the Idea of an ‘All India NRC’, Echoes of Reich Citizenship Law
| |

In the Idea of an ‘All India NRC’, Echoes of Reich Citizenship Law

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification on July 31, 2019, stating that the Central government has decided to prepare and update the population register in the rest of India other than the state of Assam. Meaning that the exercise to update the National Citizenship Register (NRC) in Assam will now be implemented throughout…

India, Pakistan, Kashmir: Taking the War Option off the Table
|

India, Pakistan, Kashmir: Taking the War Option off the Table

There is great concern about the increasingly hostile relationship between India and Pakistan. At the heart of the matter is the more than 70-year-old dispute that has led the two countries, born out of the partition of British India in 1947, to lay claim to and eventually divide, occupy, and dominate the people and land…

Gandhiji and Lohia: An Intimate and Fruitful Relationship – Part 1
|

Gandhiji and Lohia: An Intimate and Fruitful Relationship – Part 1

The relationship between M.K. Gandhi (1869–1948) and Ram Manohar Lohia (1910–1967) was unique in many ways. One can perceive this as equilibrium of opposites. When Lohia came in direct contact with Gandhiji, he was merely twenty-three years old where as Gandhiji, with his vast wealth of experience and ideas, was already sixty four. First of…

Shahid Bhagat Singh
|

Shahid Bhagat Singh

September 28, 2019 marks the immortal revolutionary martyr Bhagat Singh’s 112th birth anniversary. On this occasion we are publishing an extract from an article on Bhagat Singh. The full article can be read on Janata blog. Shahid Bhagat Singh is widely recognised as perhaps the most famous and respected revolutionary of the freedom movement of…

Where Pellets Blind Young Minds
|

Where Pellets Blind Young Minds

Why were several prominent parliamentarians from the Opposition parties denied entry into the Kashmir Valley? So that they don’t get to hear human cries; those appeals to be set free from their cage, from the clampdown, from the barbarity unleashed on hapless residents of the Valley. Together with that, these parliamentarians don’t even get to…