Capitalism, Debates, Ecology/Environment, Left watch

Beyond Growth and Ruin – Socialist Experience, Environmental Breakdown and Ecosocialism: Atri Bhattacharya

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Guest post by ATRI BHATTACHARYA

[Given Kafila’s deep interest in the question of climate change, environmental crisis and the explorations of possible pathways out of it,  we publish this piece by Atri Bhattacharya who  attempts a synthesis of different kinds of thinking emerging on the Left, globally today, which point towards different kinds of postcapitalist imaginations.]

The contemporary environmental crisis presents what appears to be an existential paradox: how can human societies organize production, consumption, and habitation without systematically destroying the ecological systems that sustain them? The four texts under examination—Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro’s analysis of socialist states and ecosocialism, Amy Zhang’s ethnographic study of waste politics in Guangzhou, Sam Mickey’s philosophical meditation on whole earth thinking, and Mathew Lawrence with Laurie Laybourn-Langton’s ecosocialist manifesto—offer divergent yet potentially complementary responses to this question. Taken together, they reveal that the relationship between political economy and ecological degradation is neither simple nor uniform. While Engel-Di Mauro argues that socialist states demonstrated environmental records superior to their capitalist counterparts (Engel-Di Mauro 2021, 126-127), Zhang’s meticulous fieldwork exposes how Chinese state-socialism has produced what she terms “sustainability by dispossession” (Zhang 2024, 65). Mickey, approaching from a different trajectory altogether, suggests that ecological wisdom requires transcending the very categories of state and capital through what he calls “anthropocosmic” consciousness (Mickey 2015, 83-95). Lawrence and Laybourn-Langton, meanwhile, offer a practical political program—ecosocialism—that seeks to dismantle capitalist power while building democratic, planetary alternatives (Lawrence and Laybourn-Langton 2021, 80-102). Continue reading Beyond Growth and Ruin – Socialist Experience, Environmental Breakdown and Ecosocialism: Atri Bhattacharya →

Capitalism, Culture, Debates, Democracy, Identities, Right watch

क्वार्टर लाइफ / देविका रेगे / सुभाष गाताडे

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‘क्वार्टर लाइफ’ यानी नई सदी में पुराना भारत

कुछ रचनाएं, कुछ किताबें मन में ठहर जाती हैं। आप कह सकते हैं कि उनकी ओर बार बार लौटने का मन करता है, निश्चित ही उनकी यह ख़ासियत इस वजह से पैदा होती है कि वे आप के मन के कुछ तारों को छेड़ने में कामयाब होती हैं, आप की दुखती रग को कहीं छू देती हैं। देविका रेगे (https://devikarege.com/about) के पहले उपन्यास ‘क्वार्टरलाइफ’ Quarterlife के बारे में मैं यही कह सकता हूँ।

क्वार्टरलाइफ अर्थात चौथाई  जीवन। उम्र का वही पड़ाव जब आप को पहली बार एहसास होता है कि आप की अपनी ‘राय होने की क्या खुशी होती है’ ‘that age when you discover the pleasure of opinion’, भविष्य को लेकर चिन्ता भी होती है, पसोपश भी होते हैं, ज़िन्दगी के दूरगामी निर्णय लेने के ज़बरदस्त दबाव में होते हैं, ख़ुद पर ही संदेह, ख़ुद की खोज का यह दौर होता है। …

उपन्यास के पन्नों पर आप ‘पहचान की राजनीति से लेकर काॅरपोरेट लूट और आदर्शवाद की सीमाएं, इन सभी की छटाओं को देख सकते हैं। उपन्यास के यह सभी किरदार अपने आप में भारत के इस बदलते रूप का एक अंश लेकर चल रहे हैं। जैसे जैसे वह न्यू इंडिया से टकराते हैं, वे उस गहरे में विभाजित और जटिल वातावरण के बारे में सचेत होते जाते हैं। नतीजा होता है कि लगातार विस्तारित होती एक कहानी जो उत्सव की एक रात तक उरूज तक पहुंचती दिखती है, जब समूची बंबई सड़कों पर है और सुषुप्त असंतोष फूट पड़ता है।’ ( Read the complete text here : https://sammukh.com/subhash_gatade/)

authoritarianism, Culture, Debates, Democracy, Right watch

Citizens for Democracy Writes Open Letter to CJI Protesting “Cockroach” Remarks

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We are publishing below the Open Letter to the Chief Justice of India, written by Citizens for Democracy

Hon’ble Chief Justice of India
New Delhi.

Esteemed Sir,

Citizens for Democracy (CFD) strongly protests your comment equating environmentalists, RTI activists and others with cockroaches and parasites

While hearing a petition filed by a lawyer seeking designation as a senior advocate, you said in the court on May 15, 2026, “There are already parasites of society who attack the system, and you want to join hands with them?… There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists, and they start attacking everyone.”

Your comment generated heat and anger among the activists following which you tried to clarify your position the next day: “I am pained to read how a section of the media has misquoted my oral observations made during the hearing of a frivolous case yesterday. What I had specifically criticised were those who have entered professions like the Bar (legal profession) with the aid of fake and bogus degrees. Similar persons have sneaked into the media, social media, and other noble professions as well, and hence, they are like parasites. It is totally baseless to suggest that I criticised the youth of our nation. Not only am I proud of our present and future human resource, but every youth of India inspires me. It is not an exaggeration to say that Indian youth have great regard and respect for me, and I too see them as the pillars of a developed India.”

This is a lame explanation as your comment does target activists who you have presumed that if they are young, and have become activists they must have failed to get “any employment”. In short, using a context of a lawyer seeking the designation as ‘senior lawyer’ you tried to cast aspersions on all those who speak for the ordinary citizens of the country.  We wonder, if you, from the chair of a judge would accept such an explanation. It would have been proper for you to withdraw your uncharitable remarks and apologize for your inadvertence.  What was the judicial rationale behind your comment? Continue reading Citizens for Democracy Writes Open Letter to CJI Protesting “Cockroach” Remarks →

Countryside, Culture, Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life

Wastelands of Rajasthan: Aman Dedhia

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Guest post by AMAN DEDHIA

It has been a while since my time in Rajasthan. It took a while to collate and make sense of everything I saw, understood and documented during my time there. I have tried to write down the major parts of it in this not-so-short document. To set some context, in the two weeks I was there, I met the people from the Oran padh yatra, people from KRAPAVIS and other organisations and, most importantly, stayed in a few villages in Jaisalmer where the people were kind enough to show me around. What started with an urge to understand orans, conservation and their problems with solar projects, took me on a journey that at its core was about understanding wastelands and autonomy.

Nilgais grazing

Orans

I’d like to begin by shedding some more light on what orans (also known as deobani or rundhs) are, since they’ve been at the centre in the attempts to protect the region. Orans are sacred groves that belong to the temples of the villages and are protected ecosystems spread out across Rajasthan in every village you go. They’re basically community conserved desert forests holding a significant religious value. I came across herds of neelgai, peacocks, gazelles, huge herds of cows and goats, all grazing in these orans. They are protected in the sense, they are not used for agriculture and are mostly community conserved, being used as grazing grounds and for non-timber forest products. That is not to say that there are no encroachments on these lands. Many villagers have encroached on the boundaries of these orans for farming, borewells, shops and other establishments. A lot of people, especially in western Rajasthan do depend on these orans for livelihood. Regions that are mostly dry and on the fringes, which is a huge part of Jaisalmer, only have seasonal farmlands, if any, dependent on the short monsoon rains. A decent amount of people here are primarily dependent on pastoralism. Orans are a major part of the grazing lands supporting their pastoralism and in turn, their livelihood. There are roughly 25,000 orans across Rajasthan, accounting for roughly 6 lakh hectares of land.[1] Another important thing to note is that all of these orans have some sort of water body, mostly made and maintained by the people, that plays a key role in making the ecosystem thrive, providing an oasis for the fauna and flora of the region. Continue reading Wastelands of Rajasthan: Aman Dedhia →

authoritarianism, Democracy, Politics, Right watch

The Missing Link – How the Great Democracy Robbery Was Conducted

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A fundamental mistake is being made by many well-meaning people with respect to the West Bengal election results, For instance, many people are comparing the votes deleted in the farcical “SIR” exercise with the loss of roughly that same amount of votes in TMC’s “final” tally. The closeness of these two figures  – 27 lakhs in the case of deletions (under the logical discrepancy category, though the actual figure should be much higher), and the decrease in TMCs vote  – still falls far short of the BJPs 2.92 crores or so. If one goes by the “final figures” provided by the ECI, the TMC got only 2.60 crores in comparison suggesting that the BJP would have won hands down, even without “SIR”.
Of course all those trying to normalize the big fraud that elections have progressively become since 2019, intentionally or innocently,  also routine resort to such so-called “final figures”. The Godi Media is the biggest player in this heist of the public mind and it has been ably playing this role this time too.

Continue reading The Missing Link – How the Great Democracy Robbery Was Conducted →

Debates, Development, Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life

Heat in the Indian Cities – A Reality More Complex than Tree Cover: Soumya Dutta 

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Guest Post by SOUMYA DUTTA

Delhi, my current ‘home town’ for over 30 years, increasingly looks like a City that is learning to sweat, as  it slowly descends into a  Humid Heat environment, from a largely dry and hot summer.

Delhi Green cover Heatwave Days and Humidity

For a tad over three decades, I have lived through Delhi’s summers. I distinctly remember a time when heat here had a certain clarity – harsh, yes, but mostly dry. Except the occasional breaks by a storm or ‘aandhi’,  which brought the temperatures down, but left it mostly dry.  The afternoons scorched, the loo winds burned your skin, and yet early mornings and  evenings offered a measurable  respite from the high temperatures. Sweat quickly evaporated in the dry air, allowing our bodies to naturally cool down by the loss of heat of evaporation. Nights cooled, at least enough to sleep – because the dry rocky surface quickly re-radiated heat back to space. And that heat had a much clearer escape route, as the atmospheric  air had much lower moisture, a powerful heat trapping green house gas .

Continue reading Heat in the Indian Cities – A Reality More Complex than Tree Cover: Soumya Dutta  →

Democracy, Education, Government, Knowledge, Politics

The Making of the Apolitical Dentist: How Professional Training Erases Power and Politics : Malu Mohan

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When I joined Government Dental College, Thiruvananthapuram, in 2000, as an 18-year-old, I arrived with more confidence than clarity. I came from Government Women’s College, where politics was everywhere, in classrooms, corridors, and canteens. Like many of my peers, I leaned towards left politics, without having even a rudimentary understanding of the ideology. But I had grown up believing one thing quite firmly: in a democracy, being apolitical was not an option.

Continue reading The Making of the Apolitical Dentist: How Professional Training Erases Power and Politics : Malu Mohan →
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?’ – Chandran Nair

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https://youtu.be/zwuv8g-SP5s

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)

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 →

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