Culture, Genders, Islamophobia, Politics, Right watch, Sex, Violence/Conflict

Statement in Protest of the Violent Meme targeting Mamata Banerjee and the Muslim Community

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Following is a statement signed by 1815 people protesting against the violent anti-Muslim and misogynist meme that had been circulating, targeting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

We, the undersigned people from different walks of life, express our deep revulsion and anger at the vicious meme, targeting the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, which has been circulating in social media on this day April 27, 2026. We are attaching with this statement, a blurred image of the meme, along with the profile of the person who circulated it – they call themselves a “Rightwing Nationalist” based in Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh – so that our compatriots know what we are protesting against.

The meme is not only violent and misogynistic, it is also viciously anti-Muslim. It depicts the Muslim – perhaps the “Bangladeshi Muslim” – as passing through Mamata Banerjee’s open legs and is titled “This is Momta Culture” – while of course, giving us a splendid view of the meme creator’s own sanskari culture.

Through this statement we want to appeal to the people of this country, our compatriots, and to those in the judiciary, and elsewhere in the system, who still stand in defence of minimum standards of probity in public life. We want to underline that this is a challenge to our justice system that such hate speech against an entire community and a woman politician can be aired and shared with complete impunity.

We also want to underline that it is the culture of rape and misogyny that has been encouraged by the ruling party at the centre that has led to this situation that anybody can air whatever comes to their hate-filled minds. We have not forgotten the release of the rapists of Bilqis Bano, the killing of the Hathras rape victim, the destruction of the entire family of the Unnao rape victim; nor have we forgotten the Kathua rape or the killing of Ankita Bhandari for failing to provide “special service” to a senior leader of the ruling party or giving an election ticket to sexual harassment accused former chief of the Wrestling Federation of India. In all these cases, we have witnessed complete silence from the top leaders of the ruling party including the prime minister and home minister.

We do not want to address the creators of the meme for we know that they are products of this frightful hate machine that “Rightwing Nationalism” (their appropriate self-description) is. Rather, we are interested that our institutions of democracy and justice play the role that they should be playing in order to ensure minimum standards of probity in public life. Continue reading Statement in Protest of the Violent Meme targeting Mamata Banerjee and the Muslim Community →

Colonialism, Debates, Democracy, Politics

The Indian Nation State and Its Discontents: Ravindra K. Jain

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Guest post by RAVINDRA K. JAIN

ABSTRACT

The nation-state that is the Indian Union comprises a diversity of socio-cultural minorities and a ruling majority. The decoupling of nation and state highlights a contradiction rather than the integration of socio-cultural diversities and political functions of governance. This contradiction is marked by a double deficit of democracy, namely, authoritarianism and citizenship. A potted history of three phases of modern India explores the roots, symptoms and provenance of this democratic deficit in the present conjuncture.

Keywords Apologetic patriotism; nation state and state-nation; late colonial, early post colonial and Hindutva phases; nationalism and social polity; caste, class and power.

I analyse the Indian State sociologically in three phases of continuous chronological succession: A. The Late Colonial, B. The Paternal post-colonial and C. The current Hindutva. Each phase is characterized by a dual deficit: authoritarianism and citizenship. In order to elucidate the origin and perpetuation of this dual deficit, I would delve into the potted history of each phase. Continue reading The Indian Nation State and Its Discontents: Ravindra K. Jain →

authoritarianism, Culture, Debates, Democracy, Movements, Politics, Right watch

सत्य के अन्वेषी और ‘अंधेरे की आदत’ वाला समाज

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…… ‘समाजवादियों ने हिन्दू राष्ट्र को किस तरह मुमकिन बनाया ?’

..समाजवादी धारा की यह परिणति भारत की वाम शक्तियों के सामने भी कुछ सवाल निश्चित ही खड़े करती है।

अगर 60 के दशक में समाजवादी धारा के अग्रणी कांग्रेस को शिकस्त देने के लिए ‘शैतान के साथ भी हाथ मिलाने को तैयार होने’ की बात रख रहे थे, पहले उपचुनावों में और बाद में राज्य विधानसभा के चुनावों में भारतीय जनसंघ के साथ मंच साझा कर रहे थे, गठबंधन कायम कर रहे थे, उन उथल पुथल के दिनों में वाम की शक्तियों का क्या रूख था ?

क्या उन्होंने गैर कांग्रेसवाद के नाम पर संघ-भारतीय जनसंघ को वैधता दिलाने वाली सियासत का उसूली आधार पर विरोध किया या नहीं ? कहीं ऐसा तो नहीं कि अस्पष्टता के चलते या urgency के भाव के चलते मौन ही रहे ,  उसी ‘सिद्धांत’ से हमकदम चलते रहे ?

क्या हमारे लिए यह आत्मपरीक्षण का विषय होना नहीं चाहिए कि आपातकाल के बाद जिन जयप्रकाश नारायण को दूसरा महात्मा कहा गया था, यहां तक कि आपातकालविरोधी संघर्ष को ‘दूसरी आज़ादी’ के नाम से महिमामंडित किया गया था, जिसने एक तरह से पहली दफा राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ को वैधता दिलायी, नयी  स्वीकृति प्रदान की और केन्द्रीय मंत्रिमंडल में भी स्थान दिलवाया, उस जयप्रकाश नारायण को लेकर कम्युनिस्टों का रूख क्यों बहुत अस्पष्ट रहा ?

किसी परिघटना को समझने में हमारी भूल हो सकती है, किसी व्यक्ति-संगठन की असलियत जानने में हम गड़बड़ी कर सकते हैं, लेकिन यह बात समझ से परे है कि राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ, उसके पीछे की फासीवादी प्रेरणाएं या स्वाधीनतापूर्व आन्दोलन तथा स्वाधीनता के बाद के आंदोलनों में उनकी निरंतर विवादास्पद भूमिका पर विस्तार से तथ्य पेश किए जाते रहने के बावजूद बाद के दिनों में क्या फौरी राजनीतिक लाभ के नाम पर उसके आनुषंगिक संगठनों के साथ जुड़ने से परहेज करने में प्रगतिशील ताकतें, वाम की शक्तियां सचेत रह पायीं ?.. ( Read the full text here : https://nayapath.in/seekers-of-truth-by-subhash-gatade/)

Capitalism, Debates, Democracy, Movements, Violence/Conflict

‘Our wages were stolen and we forced a correction’ – NOIDA workers: Anumeha Yadav

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Guest post by ANUMEHA YADAV

NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh: At 8 am, an hour before factories would start work. Maina Devi* waited for her company bus on the sidewalk next to a large warehouse in Phase 2 of Noida’s industrial area.

Way to NOIDA SEZ, image Anumeha Yadav/The Migration Story

It had been a week since she and hundreds of workers from multiple factories on the borders of Delhi stopped work for four days protesting low wages and difficult work conditions. Several factories still had visible damages. Amid the continued police presence, fresh notices on factory gates reassuring workers of revised wages, Devi was heading to work, her thumb in a fresh bandage.

Maina Devi before rushing off to work, image Anumeha Yadav/ The Migration Story

Continue reading ‘Our wages were stolen and we forced a correction’ – NOIDA workers: Anumeha Yadav →

Capitalism, Culture, Debates, Democracy, Government, Politics

‘India, China and the New World Order : Is the Onus on India to Change and Adapt?’ – Mr Chandran Nair

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Democracy Dialogues Series 43

Organised by New Socialist Initiative

Theme : 

‘India, China and the New World Order : Is the Onus on India to Change and Adapt?’

Speaker :
Chandran Nair
Author, Thinker and Political Analyst
Founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT)

Date and Time :
Sunday, 3 rd May, 2026, 6 PM (IST)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83945588791?pwd=k23qcCsRbSLwvl0MjtxstVpRYJDBOF.1

Meeting ID: 839 4558 8791
Passcode: 837048

Abstract:
In a conversational and interactive mode, the speaker will broadly be covering the following aspects of the theme:

1. Neighbourhood, Geopolitics, New World Order – The troubled relations between the two Asian giants have, by now, a history of several decades. In India, the constraints of domestic politics (largely flowing from liberal democracy and competitive electoral politics) appear to make it difficult for the Indian rulers to serve India’s strategic interests and to formulate an appropriate foreign policy. How should India deal with the strategic challenges arising from the emerging New World Order?

2. Political Economy for India – India is often projected to emerge as the next economic powerhouse of the world, but the facts on ground pose many challenges. The path to export-led growth as traversed by China appears to be closed for India. Furthermore, a strong State that can guide and force private capital to work in national interest is impossible in the liberal democratic and capitalist India. How to visualize a political economy suitable for India?

3. Woes of Liberal Democracy – Competitive electoral politics often activates the social, religious and sectarian fault lines of Indian society. It has, for example, paved the ground for the rise of the Hindutva forces. What can be done about such challenges thrown up by liberal democracy?

4. Civilizational Discourse – China and India are often cited as the two glorious and largest ancient civilizations. China is cited as the civilizational state that has managed to tame modernity for its own ends. How can India accomplish something similar in its own way?

Speaker :
Chandran Nair is the founder and CEO of the Global Institute for Tomorrow, an independent Pan-Asian think tank that explores the dynamic relationship among business, society, and the state, as well as the rules governing global capitalism

Nair was born in Malaysia, he studied chemical engineering in the UK, at 28, he joined the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, later earned a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Bangkok.

He has authored / co authored many books, here is a representative list of his publications : Understanding China : Governance, Socio-Economics, Global Influence (2026) ;  Dismantling Global White Privilege : Equity for a Post-Western World (2022) ; The Sustainable State: The Future of Government, Economy, and Society (2018) ; Consumptionomics: Asia’s Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet  (2011) ;  

He is also the creator of The Other Hundred, a non-profit global photo journalism initiative to present a counterpoint to media consensus on some of today’s most important issues.

Chandran was chairman of Environmental Resources Management (ERM) in Asia Pacific until 2004, establishing the company as Asia’s leading environmental consultancy.

Chandran has served as Adjunct Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. He is a Member of the Executive Committee of The Club of Rome and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

authoritarianism, Democracy, Education, Feminism, Politics, Right watch

Principal’s endorsement of Women’s Reservation Bill on a party platform unacceptable: Statement by LSR students

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Public statement by LSR students

The students of Lady Shri Ram College for Women—a large number of them filling the area outside auditorium, the corridor, the entire staircase and many even outside under the sun—started the protest not because we are against the Women’s Reservation Bill, but because the video of the Principal of the college was posted on the BJP4India official Instagram page. As a college that touts that it is apolitical and does not allow students to organise political events, the students found this extremely hypocritical. In the 15 minutes of the claimed “transparent dialogue” that happened yesterday, we were told by the Principal that she recorded the video for the Ministry of Women and Child Development and that it was posted on the BJP4India page without her consent. On further questions about if she contacted the page regarding it being posted without her consent, she said, “No”. Continue reading Principal’s endorsement of Women’s Reservation Bill on a party platform unacceptable: Statement by LSR students →

authoritarianism, Debates, Democracy, Government, Media politics, Politics, Theory

India in the World – Mostly Through Lens of Iran War – Ravi Sinha

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Theme :India in the World – Mostly Through Lens of Iran War

Speaker : Ravi Sinha

Abstract :
The unipolar world that came into existence at the end of the Cold War is on the way out and a new world order, potentially a multipolar one, is in the offing. This epochal change, as evidenced in the miraculous rise of China and the re-emergence of Russia on the world stage, appears to have gained acceleration with the war in West Asia in which the Iranian nation has handed an astonishingly courageous response to the aggressors. A broad framework to understand this epochal transition was presented in a study group by Comrade Ravi Sinha

Part 1 of this video contains the basic presentation followed by further elaboration of the argument in the Q/A session in Part 2.
New Socialist Initiative (NSI)

Culture, Debates, Democracy, Right watch

‘सत्य को बयां करने के रास्ते की मुश्किलों के बारे में’ क्या लेखक सचेत और सक्रिय हैं?

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(जनवादी लेखक संघ, दिल्ली के 10 वें राज्य सम्मेलन (4 अप्रैल 2026)  में प्रस्तुत वक्तव्य का संशोधित एवं विस्तारित रूप, सम्मेलन के विचार सत्र का फोकस था : हमारा समय और लेखक की भूमिका)

प्रस्तावना

हम एक नाजु़क वक्त़ से गुजर रहे हैं।

कोई भी प्रबुद्ध व्यक्ति – जो न्याय, अमन और बराबरी की चाहत रखता हो, समूची मानवता को तरक्की के रास्ते पर ले जाना चाहता हो, यह दावा नहीं कर सकता कि उनमें से किसी ने भी इस बात का तसव्वुर भी किया होगा कि 21 वीं सदी की तीसरी दहाई में हम ऐसे दौर से रूबरू होंगे।

एक ऐसा दौर जहां हम और वे की सियासत उरूज पर दिख रही है, आबादी के अच्छे खासे हिस्से को अमनुष्य घोषित करना, दीमक, कीड़ों, मकौड़ों की श्रेणी में शुमार करना एक सम्मानित उद्यम में रूपांतरित हुआ है। नागरिक शुद्धता की कवायदों के जरिए – अवांछितों को, अधर्मियों को, असहमतों को -गणतंत्र के दायरों से भी बाहर सरहद पार मुल्कों के बियाबान में ढकेल देने की मुहिमों पर इन्साफ के रखवाले कहे गए संस्थानों से भी मुहर लग रही है।

इस खत़रनाक समय को अलग-अलग ढंग से परिभाषित किया जा रहा है। 

कोई कहता है कि यह ऐसा दौर है जब यह प्रतीत हो रहा है कि समूचा समाज एक उन्मादी खुशी के साथ एक गर्त में जा रहा है और उसे इस बात का कोई इल्म भी नहीं है।

मेरे एक मित्र – जो एक प्रख्यात मार्क्सवादी  विचारक हैं – कहते हैं, यह ऐसा दौर है जब समाज को गोया अंधेरे की आदत हो गयी है, मद्धिम सी रौशनी से भी उसकी आंखें चुंधिया जाती हैं। ( Read the full text here : https://janchowk.com/is-the-author-aware-ofand-actively-engaged-withthe-difficulties-inherent-in-the-path-of-articulating-the-truth/)

Democracy, Education, Everyday Life, Movements, Right watch

Deified Bodies, Diminished Rights – A Critical Anatomy of the ‘Divyang’ Discourse: Viraj Kafle

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Guest Post by VIRAJ KAFLE 

The landscape of disability rights in India underwent a seismic shift on December 27, 2015, not through a legislative amendment or a landmark judicial decree, but via a radio broadcast. During his Mann Ki Baat program, Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested that the term viklang be replaced with divyang. While ostensibly a move to alter societal mindsets and reduce stigma, this nomenclature shift signaled a profound reorientation of the state’s relationship with its disabled citizenry. This declaration of “divinity” arrived a full year before the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act of 2016 was actually passed, effectively setting a paternalistic tone for the rights-based framework that followed.

By invoking “divinity” to describe physical or sensory impairments, the discourse moved disability from a hard-won, rights-based framework into a deified, body-focused model that prioritizes symbolic elevation over material accessibility. As disability activist Nidhi Goyal has argued, this is merely a new way to tell the disabled they are “not normal”—moving them from “abnormal” to “supernormal,” but never simply equal. It is generally accepted that to be disabled is to be “disabled by society,” yet the divyang narrative replaces this political recognition with an abject surrender to divinity that reflects a forced consent of the disabled to their own marginalization. Continue reading Deified Bodies, Diminished Rights – A Critical Anatomy of the ‘Divyang’ Discourse: Viraj Kafle →

Colonialism, Debates, Decolonizing Theory, Empire/ Imperialism, Knowledge, Violence/Conflict

Theory After Gaza: Decolonizing the Political

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[The essay below is based on a presentation at a recent workshop on Theory from the Global South and a part of a longer work. Some of its claims are therefore, necessarily tentative. – AN]

Gaza, December 2024, Courtesy Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

What is happening to Gaza/Palestine today is a horrible genocide, the likes of which has rarely been seen. Yet, it must be asserted that not exceptional or unique – but entirely of a piece with the history of the colonial expansion of the West over five centuries. Gaza reveals, in a flash, the long-erased histories of settler colonialism and genocides; it reminds us that that history is very much part of our living present. Gaza strips the mask of “civilization” donned by the “enlightened West” that has long portrayed us in the global South as lesser, uncivilized beings worthy of being enslaved, used as cannon fodder and ultimately, exterminated. That was what we saw in the unrepentant colonizer’s speech by US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio at the Munich Security Conference. But in stripping off the masks of “civilization” from their faces, Gaza shows up how repeatedly, over and over again, the same script has been played, regardless who was in power in the Axis of Evil countries of Europe, UK and the US.

But more importantly, Gaza forces us to retell the whole story of the past five centuries by setting aside the received mythologies of “the political” and of “Enlightenment”. Gaza demands that we put at the centre of our narrative, not states and nations but those millions of dispossessed by settler colonialism, driven to death in imperialist wars and thrown around from one part of the world to another as “stateless” people, “refugees” and “minorities”.  Even though, in the interim, Palestine must have its own sovereign state to survive in this world of armed state, Gaza/Palestine demands a complete overturning of the very possibility of a repetition of another Gaza/Palestine ever again. It demands of us that we dismantle the entire theoretical edifice undergirding dominant narratives; it demands that we start telling the story from the vantage point of the people at the receiving end of that hallowed thing called “modernity” – that most people in the global South experienced as coloniality and what has been called “war capitalism” by historian Sven Beckert – which I will discuss below. Continue reading Theory After Gaza: Decolonizing the Political →

authoritarianism, Culture, Debates, Democracy, Right watch

RSS at 100: Caste, Savarkar, and the real roots of RSS | The Federal

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Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay speaks with Subhash Gatade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpgQi1LaRgo

In The Federal’s ‘RSS at 100’ series, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay speaks with Subhash Gatade, author of Godse’s Children and Modinama, about the deeper social roots of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Gatade argues that the RSS must be understood not just through Hindu-Muslim politics, but through the caste churn in Maharashtra, the challenge posed by Jyotiba Phule’s anti-caste movement, and the predominance of Brahmin leadership within the organisation. The discussion also examines Savarkar’s influence, Golwalkar’s ideology, the RSS-Hindu Mahasabha relationship, and the strategic shift towards ‘inclusive Hindutva’ in later decades.

Debates, Religion, Right watch

Belief in contemporary India: an essay in the constitutive imagination: R Srivatsan

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Guest post by R. Srivatsan

Contemporary India is something of a conundrum for most political theorists.  What is it?  How does it hang together?  What do people believe in?  Given the large canvas, I’d like to focus here on one small aspect of belief in Hinduism and Hindutva today.  Towards this objective, I’ll take up a somewhat old pronouncement by the foremost BJP leader and prime minister, in 2014, during a conference of doctors and other professionals that there must have been plastic surgeons in ancient India who attached an elephant’s head on a human body and created Ganesha.  And, that Karna’s extra uterine birth suggested that there was a knowledge of the science of genetics during that period.  The scientific community and those adept at history were appalled, rolling their eyes in dismay at the confusion between true history and mythology.  Is such a response, i.e., a scorn or embarrassment about the unscientificity of the claim regarding the existence of these ancient sciences/events, adequate to the statement made?  Did the prime minister actually believe this?  What is it that is being said by Hindutva politicians, ideologues and thinkers when such pronouncements are made, or for example, that vedic mathematics was the progenitor of mathematics as a discipline?  And what about the rewriting of history books to valorize the Hindu past, erasing a “dark medieval period” and denigrating Muslim “invaders”? Continue reading Belief in contemporary India: an essay in the constitutive imagination: R Srivatsan →

Debates, Democracy, Feminism, Government, Law

Zero Tolerance or Restorative Justice? Althea responds to ZeTo

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The ZeTo campaign organisers responded to Althea’s concerns expressed in an earlier post. We are delighted by and thankful for their willingness to dialogue, for we do believe that such an exchange of views is absolutely necessary for common ground to evolve on this issue, precisely because our readings of the political and social present in Kerala, are different.

Continue reading Zero Tolerance or Restorative Justice? Althea responds to ZeTo →
Debates, Democracy, Feminism, Left watch, Sexual Violence

Zero Tolerance, Democratic Responsibility, and the Question of Feminist Praxis: MJ Vijayan

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Guest post by MJ Vijayan

The recent statement issued by members of the Althea Feminist Friendship Collective on the forthcoming Zero Tolerance (ZeTo) campaign in Kerala[1] deserves a serious and thoughtful response. I hope it will not be taken as a hostile document. Far from that, it is, in many ways, an anxious one – anxious about the state, about punitive excess, about the global history of ‘zero tolerance’ policies and campaigns, and about the risk of reinforcing authoritarian or brahminical patriarchies in the name of justice.

Those anxieties are not frivolous. Feminist history teaches us to be wary of state power. Yet feminist history also teaches us that structures do not shift without public contestation, moral clarity, and organised political pressure.

As a cis male articulating within feminist and progressive left traditions, I do so with caution. I am conscious that feminism is not my intellectual inheritance to define. It is a movement and epistemology built by women and gender minorities through struggle, often against men like me. Yet it is precisely because feminism is not merely identity but political practice that it demands engagement across genders, including critical engagement. Continue reading Zero Tolerance, Democratic Responsibility, and the Question of Feminist Praxis: MJ Vijayan →

Debates, Democracy, Feminism, Government, Law, Left watch

Response to the Zero Tolerance Campaign against Sexual Violence in Kerala: Althea Women ‘s Friendship

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Althea supports DrAsha Achy Joseph’s efforts to oppose the shielding of powerful men so that they may get away with the most egregious sexual violence and harassment.


  However, we are wary of the implications of ‘zero tolerance’, given its ambiguous global history. Zero tolerance is not the same as “ending gender-based violence.” It can very quickly devolve into a superficial checkbox for institutions that sounds good on paper and in theory.

Continue reading Response to the Zero Tolerance Campaign against Sexual Violence in Kerala: Althea Women ‘s Friendship →
Democracy, Government, Identities, Movements, Politics

Bangladesh in Transition – Understanding Election in the Aftermath of the July Uprising : Sohul Ahmed

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Guest post by SOHUL AHMED

[We bring for our readers, this essay by Sohul Ahmed, which details the context and background of the recently held Bangladesh election. Though a cacophony of voices from the Right to the Left in India had already pronounced their  shared judgement of an “Islamic takeover” of Bangladesh via the July Uprising, what this essay details the extremely significant political process through which the July Charter was formulated, signed on to by 33 parties, and how the most orderly and peaceful election was held in the country just two weeks ago.  This article rebuts the general impression created by this Right-Left propaganda in India that supreme chaos reigns in Bangladesh. Since this article was written, a new government has been formed with a Hindu  and a Chakma-Buddhist face each, in the cabinet. The main Islamic party has been trounced in the elections. So much for all the doomsday prophesies about post-July Bangladesh. That does not mean everything is fine – and Ahmed explains the complications that still exist. – AN]

Bangladesh elections, representational image, courtesy Reuters/ BBC

Bangladesh stands at a crucial juncture in its political transition following the July Uprising. The country witnessed its national election almost one and a half years after the ousting of Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic regime – an election widely regarded as one of the most consequential moments in the country’s political history. Our characterization of this election as “crucial” or even “historic” has deep roots in Bangladesh’s recent electoral experience. Continue reading Bangladesh in Transition – Understanding Election in the Aftermath of the July Uprising : Sohul Ahmed →

authoritarianism, Countryside, Development, Everyday Life, Right watch

वीबीग्रामजी रद्द करो,  मनरेगा बहाल करो : कार्यकर्ताओं और संगठनों की मांग

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[निम्नलिखित बयान साठ से ज़्यादा ऐसे संगठनों और कार्यकर्ताओं की तरफ़ से 15 फरवरी को जारी किया गया है  जिनका मनरेगा  के कार्यान्वयन से संबंध रहा है। ]

हम, नीचे दस्तखत करने वाले एक्टिविस्ट्स, जो भारत के कोने-कोने में मनरेगा मजदूरों के साथ काम करते हैं, महात्मा गांधी राष्ट्रीय ग्रामीण रोजगार गारंटी अधिनियम (मनरेगा) को खत्म करने की कड़ी निंदा करते हैं, जो माँग पर मिलने वाला ‘काम के अधिकार‘ का प्रोग्राम था।

हमारा मानना है कि:

– मनरेगा महाराष्ट्र की रोजगार गारंटी योजना से सीख लेकर भारी समर्थन और बातचीत के बाद शुरू किया गया था।

 

– पहली बार हर परिवार को 100 दिन का काम मिलना पक्का किया गया था। Continue reading वीबीग्रामजी रद्द करो,  मनरेगा बहाल करो : कार्यकर्ताओं और संगठनों की मांग →

Democracy, Movements, Politics

Bangladesh Beyond the Ballot – The Struggle Begins Now: Sohul Ahmed

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We are reproducing an article written by SOHUL AHMED on the eve of the Bangladesh elections, earlier published in Bengali in Prothom Alo, Dhaka. The English version was published in Ahmed’s Substack, yesterday, 12 February. A researcher on genocide and democratic politics, Sohul Ahmed is already familiar to Kafila readers. We publish this piece here because it helps us understand the current elections as but a moment in the larger process of transformation unleashed by the July Uprising of 2024.  An important reason for publishing this piece here is because Bangladesh’s difficult struggle for democratic transition holds significant lessons for us – in our struggles in the times to come. – AN

Image courtesy Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters

After fifteen years of autocratic rule, Bangladesh is re-entering an electoral phase. This election is significant for two primary reasons: first, it reactivates a stagnant electoral process and initiates a transition toward a competitive system; and second, it seeks to establish a sustainable political settlement that institutionalizes this process.

The upcoming election serves as both a national vote and a referendum. Far more than a simple contest for power, it is a fight to reclaim the essential democratic entry points lost over the past fifteen years. By functioning as a referendum, this process seeks a mandate for the structural reforms and political settlements necessary to build a truly democratic foundation for the country. Continue reading Bangladesh Beyond the Ballot – The Struggle Begins Now: Sohul Ahmed →

Education, Everyday Life, Right watch

Phantom students and the new university: Viraj Kafle

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Guest Post by VIRAJ KAFLE

It is a common sight to see professors today wandering through the corridors of our premier universities with a look of quiet desperation, but they should instead be offering prayers of thanks to the students who never show up. We have reached a peak of administrative efficiency where the traditional classroom, built to house a modest forty souls, is now legally mandated to accommodate sixty or even eighty. This logistical miracle, where two bodies are expected to occupy the space of one, is only possible because of the profound civic duty exercised by the truant. By choosing the comfort of their beds over the cramped benches of the lecture hall, these absent students prevent a literal stampede. They are the only thing standing between a smooth seminar and a public health crisis.

Continue reading Phantom students and the new university: Viraj Kafle →

Centre watch, Culture, Debates, Democracy, Right watch

हिन्दुत्व वर्चस्ववाद :  अतीत का गंधाता कुआं 

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“आर एस एस – काया और माया” की समीक्षा

धर्मान्ध लोग – जो हंसना भूल गए हैं, रोना भूल गए हैं, और करूणा भूल गए हैं – ऐसे ‘इन्सान’ हैं जो एटम बम से भी ज्यादा ख़तरनाक हैं

– पी लंकेश के काॅलम ‘कहां मैं भूल न जाउं’ से

(पेज 6, ‘आर एस एस – काया और माया’ से)

…कन्नड भाषा के अग्रणी साहित्यकार एवं सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता देवनूर महादेव की हिन्दी में प्रकाशित ताज़ा किताब ‘राष्ट्रीय  स्वयंसेवक संघ – काया और माया’ ( आर एस एस – आलू मत्तू अगला ‘ नाम से मूल कन्नड़ में प्रकाशित किताब का हिंदी अनुवाद है ) इस मामले में एक नया पत्थर गाड़ती प्रतीत होती है। जैसा कि सभी जानते हैं वर्ष 2022 में मूल कन्नड में प्रकाशित इस किताब ने हाल के समय में बिक्री का रेर्कार्ड कायम किया है, वह न केवल कन्नड, तेलूगू, मराठी, अंग्रेजी, हिन्दी में प्रकाशित  हुई है बल्कि इस किताब को काॅपीराइट से मुक्त करके और लोगों को प्रकाशन की छूट देकर संघ के असली स्वरूप को जन-जन तक पहुंचाने में किताब ने वितरण के मामले में और किताब या संघ के बारे में चर्चा होने के मामले में एक किस्म का मील का प्रत्थर कायम किया है। कन्नड़ और तेलुगु में इसकी एक लाख से भी अधिक प्रतियां बिकी हैं और अन्य जुबानों में दसियों हज़ार से अधिक प्रतियां।   

ध्यान रहे कि जिस बेबाकी से देवनूर महादेव ने संघ के बारे में लिखा है, उतनी साफगोई बहुत कम लोग दिखा पाते है। किताब की भूमिका ही इस बात को उजागर करती है, आप लिखते हैं :

‘.. आर एस एस इस देश को कहां ले जाने की कोशिश कर रहा है ? इस संगठन के बारे में आम धारणा और इस संगठन के असली चाल-चरित्र के बीच फर्क क्या है ? इस सवालों पर जनमानस को जागृत  करने’ / पेज 23-24/ के लिए यह किताब लिखी गयी है। भारतीय लोककथाओं में चर्चित मायावी की कथा के बहाने जिसकी जान सात समुंदर पार किसी तोते में समायी होती है, जो बहुरूपिया है और मानवलोक में तरह तरह की ज्यादतियां करता है और उसका कोई कुछ बिगाड़ नहीं पाता क्योंकि जान ‘तोते के रूप में गुफा में सुरक्षित है’ वह संघ की असलियत जानने और उजागर करने के लिए ‘आर एस एस के अतीत के बदबूदार कुएं में ’ ( पेज 23) झांकने के लिए निकले हैं और दिखाई दिए ‘भयावह दृश्य ‘ / (पेज 24 ) का एक अंश किताब के रूप में सामने ला रहे हैं ।.. [ Read the full review here :https://janchowk.com/review-of-rss-kaya-aur-maya-hindutva-supremacism-a-stinking-well-of-the-past/]

Culture, Democracy, Education, Everyday Life, Knowledge, Politics, Right watch

Pedagogical Reflections on Silence in the Classroom: Rekha* and Rahul*

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Guest post by  Rekha and Rahul (pseudonyms).

Two early-career teachers in private universities in India reflect on what has quietly transformed in their classrooms over the last few years, as they trace the rise of a new norm of ‘silence’. Their reflections ask what it means to teach in the intimate classroom space as it begins to mirror the shrinking democratic space and what forms of care, courage and pedagogy might keep the classroom thinking in these changing times. 

I

In the last half a decade, i’ve felt my classroom in a private Indian university change in ways that are hard to capture through the usual metrics. The checklist  is enviable: i retain full freedom to design courses, assign authors i want and structure electives around questions that matter to me.  And yet, in one of the courses while teaching Margaret Canovan’s piece on ‘Two Faces of Democracy’, i realised what had changed. There is a subtle paradox: the formal freedoms of the private university remain in place, but the informal ecology of the classrooms has altered. 

Continue reading Pedagogical Reflections on Silence in the Classroom: Rekha* and Rahul* →

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