Ho Chi Minh: Remembering the King and the Saint
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Ho Chi Minh: Remembering the King and the Saint

Archishman Raju In February 1958, when Ho Chi Minh visited India, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru welcomed him as “a great revolutionary and an almost legendary hero”. September 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of “one of the most remarkable men of our times”, and serves as an occasion to remember what created him…

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…