All posts by subhash gatade

Culture, Debates, democracy, Education, Government

In New India, No Ambedkar Readings ?

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How a Central university is being allowed to humiliate/ stigmatise Ambedkar and a conspiracy of silence still pervades it.

Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, Maharashtra is again in the news for wrong reasons. It has been more than around four months that a unique initiative of doing readings from Ambedkar has been forcibly stopped, show-cause notices being issued and even punitive action being taken against Dalit teachers, but there is no murmur of protest about it and despite being in the know of these developments, the top bosses of the UGC or University Grants Commission are silent over it.

Stop readings on Ambedkar in open in University Campus, it could endanger the “safety and health of (participating) students and reputation of the university‘

The news of this unbelievable diktat by an educational institution remained dormant for a day.

Expectedly, the tremendous nationwide uproar about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election speech in Banswara, which is considered his most ‘divisive’ in last 30 years, overshadowed other similar urgent issues.

The institution under scanner for this diktat to teachers is Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, Maharashtra, a Central university. You would recall that some time ago, this institution had similarly attracted eyeballs when a team of Hindi research scholars from China had visited it. A visit that was followed by this team’s meeting with RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) leaders at their headquarters in Nagpur.

What is rather troubling to note is that it has been more than four months that this unique experiment of doing readings from Ambedkar, in open, which was an initiative undertaken by the Dalit teachers of the vishwidyalaya, under the informal group called Ambedkar Study Circle India, stands forcibly stopped, show-cause notices being issued to teachers involved and even punitive action taken against three of them, but a conspiracy of silence has pervaded it.

What must have prompted this action by the University administration against the teachers, who were were just following the UGC recommended Code of Professional Ethics?  ( Please read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/new-india-no-ambedkar-readings)

Culture, Debates, Movements, religion

Bhakti Era in North India : Dr Ravi Sinha

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Dr. Ravi Sinha, Marxist Scholar and author delivered a talk on ‘Bhakti Streams of Religious Movements in Medieval North India

Q  &  A session Part 2 : https://youtu.be/bEJjcto5P14?si=EU0XzkVih8O-8gis

Q & A session Part 3 :  https://youtu.be/Eihwjhj_HRM?si=29UwXGfNO-c8UPux)

A  brief outline of the talk is also shared below :

Theme : Bhakti Streams of Religious Movements in Medieval North India

Outline

The idea is to take up discussion of the Bhakti Movement as it moves to medieval North India. It is often stated that the Bhakti Movement was born in the Tamil land in the 6th-7th centuries and over the next millennium it made its way to the northern and eastern parts of the subcontinent. In his famous Patel Lectures of 1964, the famous Sanskritist Professor V Raghavan engagingly described the pradakshina yatra (clockwise circumambulation) of the Bharat Bhumi by Bhakti carried on the shoulders of singing saint-poets. Such a narrative, however, can contain only partially the historical truth. It is difficult to locate a singular source of a phenomenon that covered the entire subcontinent and took twelve hundred years to accomplish that. Given its scope and complexity and its temporal span, it is even more difficult to attribute to it a linear historical momentum that would carry it along an identifiable trajectory across the subcontinent. ..

( For full text and other details, please see :https://nsi-delhi.blogspot.com/2024/04/videobhakti-era-in-north-india-talk-by.html)

Centre watch, Culture, democracy, Government, Movements, Politics

What is stopping the Government from Scrapping the Agnipath Scheme?

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..‘Agnipath’ Still Simmers ..

‘The anger and anxieties over ‘Agnipath’ scheme – have not died down.

Gone is the period of open protests by youth and students and other ordinary people which rocked when the scheme was hastily announced (June 2022).

It does not mean that the youth are now happy about this scheme.

In an ambience of rising unemployment how is it possible to be happy about the fact that “[d]ue to the implementation of the Agniveer scheme, around 1.5 lakh candidates selected for the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy between 2019 and 2022 were allegedly denied joining.( 2)and all future possibilities of such an employment being closed forever.

Anyone who is keen to know how Agnipath has literally ‘destroyed’ thousands of jobs in military can take a tour of Kuchman City in Nagour ( Rajasthan) once a hub of more than 200 defence coaching academies preparing students from Rajasthan, Haryana and neighbouring parts of Western UP for entrance exams in Military..

…The anger and discontent of the Youth will continue to harm the ruling dispensation – whatever gloss they try to apply over the scheme. 

( Read the complete article here : https://countercurrents.org/2024/04/what-is-stopping-the-government-from-scrapping-the-agnipath-scheme/)

democracy, Government, Identities, Politics, religion, Theory

Secularism in a Religious Mode ?-  Gandhi’s Practice during Partition : Prof Sucheta Mahajan

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Democracy Dialogues Lecture 30 :

Speaker: 

Professor Sucheta Mahajan

Centre for Historical Studies, JNU ( retd)

Date: Sunday, 28 th April, at 6 PM (IST)

Theme :

‘Secularism in a Religious Mode ?-  Gandhi’s Practice during Partition ‘

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81056829791?pwd=VnRpK2xtWDA3elArZGR5WnN0MGNDdz09

Meeting ID: 810 5682 9791
Passcode: 433470

The lecture will be live on facebook.com/newsocialistinitiative.nsi

Abstract :

The talk looks at the practice of Gandhi in his struggle against communalism in the years leading up to Partition. 

This is a hugely controversial subject with polarised positions taken by his followers and critics. 

The perspective of the talk emerges from Gandhi’s oft quoted but not heeded statement, My Life is My Message. The talk is a reading of a life text in this sense: Gandhi’s mission in Noakhali to mend the social fabric torn by communal riots and spread of communal ideology.

Gandhi’s search for a way out may offer some insights to those sharing his concern for a secular, plural society and polity today.

About the Speaker :

Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, till the end of February 2023, Professor Mahajan has been visiting professor and Fellow at different International and National  Institutions.

She was member of the prestigious international research projects such as SPECTRESS and CHCI-MELLON Crises of Democracy, Global Humanities Institute. She has authored and edited many books on India’s Independence Struggle, Partition, Challenge of Communalism, Composite Culture etc

Publications :

Towards Freedom: Documents on the Movement for Independence in India, 1947, Parts One
and Two, (edited and with an Introduction) OUP, 2013 and 2015.
Education for Social Change: MVF and Child Labour, National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2008.
RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi- The Hindu Communal Project (with
Aditya and Mridula Mukherjee) Sage Publications, 2008.
Composite Culture in a Multi-Cultural Society (Co-edited with Bipan Chandra), Pearson India & National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2006. 
Rites of Passage, A Civil Servant Remembers: H.M. Patel, (ed.), Rupa & Co., New Delhi,2005.
Independence and Partition: The Erosion of Colonial Power in India, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2000. 

 

Culture, democracy, Right watch, Violence-Conflict

Militarising Minds, Hindutvaising the Nation | Training Future Military Leaders Imbued in Hindutva Supremacism?

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How the policy of PPP (Public Private Partnership) Model in Sainik Schools is counter to all Constitutional principles and values

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In a controversial and much reviled decision, the union government under prime minister, Narendra Modi “decided” to hand over “67 per cent of Sainik Schools to the Sangh Parivar (and its allied organisations who are self-acclaimed majoritarian and unconstitutional), BJP Politicians and allies. This investigation was undertaken by meticulous examination by the Reporter’s Collective and became public on April 3, 2024. This piece looks at the gross implications of this move.

“It’s the day of resurrection…”:

Swami Avdheshanand Giri after Pran Pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya[1]


1.  A Memorial For a Supremo

‘Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir’ Shikarpur Tehsil, Bulandshahr.

It was October 2020 when a Sainik School for boys was inaugurated in Shikarpur Tehsil of Bulandshahr District.[2] Right from Indresh Kumar, or Ram Lal, to Mahant of Junagarh Avadheshanand Giri, a seer supposed to be close to the proponents of Hindutva, many leading lights of the RSS and its frontal organisations or co-travellers of their ideology attended the high profile function.

The event made headlines for several reasons:

One, it was called the ‘first Sainik School of RSS’.

Two, a whooping sum of Rs 40 crores was supposed to be spent over it – thanks to the largesse extended by the union (Modi) government.

Thirdly, it was one of those rare occasions when RSS had moved beyond its founder member Dr Hedgewar to build memorials. Remember Rajendra Singh alias Rajju Bhaiya (1922-2003) was the first non-Brahmin and non-Maharashtrian Supremo of RSS from 1994-2000.  This Sainik School is located in the same place where he (Raju Bhaiya) was born.

Normally, an idea to start a school is met with jubilation. This one however had the opposite effect.  There were voices of concern raised by educationists, social activists as well as political leaders,

The added concern was that Vidya Bharati, the education wing of the RSS – which already runs 20,000 schools across India – would now also be running this military school although there was a clarification that this Army School will follow the CBSE curriculum and will have classes running from Class 6 to Class 12.

The same Vidya Bharatii (of the RSS’) whose stated mission is  

“To develop a National System of Education which would help building a generation of young men and women that is committed to Hindutva and infused with patriotic fervour”. [3]

Questioning the whooping sum of Rs 40 crores which would be spent over it, Akhilesh Yadav, leader of the Samajwadi {arty (SP) and former Chief Minister of UP, had, at the time, underlined that since we already have enough such institutions “[r]un by the government so where is the need for RSS to run its own army school,”[4]

He did not hide his apprehensions about what curriculum be taught there.

“RSS apparently wanted to serve its political purpose by opening the army school where the students will “probably be taught lessons in mob lynching and disrupting social harmony”.[5]

The concern expressed by many about this project could not be brushed aside easily. It is a different matter that in today’s mediatised world, things move with such a speed that the issue of a RSS run military school , the RBSVM – Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir – and the attendant furore soon died down. Little did anyone carry the premonition that the founding of RBSVM was just a trailer of what lay in store: asli film abhi baaki thi‘.

( Read the full article here : https://sabrangindia.in/militarising-minds-hindutvaising-the-nation-training-future-military-leaders-imbued-in-hindutva-supremacism/)

Capitalism, Debates, democracy, Government, Politics

‘लोकतंत्र की जननी’ को अपना अलग डेमोक्रेसी इंडेक्स बनाने की ज़रूरत क्यों आन पड़ी है?

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अपनी जनतांत्रिक छवि चमकाने के लिए ‘मदर आफ डेमोक्रेसी’ होने के दावों से शुरू हुई भारत सरकार की यात्रा फिलवक्त डेमोक्रेसी रेटिंग गढ़ने के मुक़ाम तक पहुंची है. अभी वह किन-किन मुकामों से गुजरेगी इसके बारे में भविष्यवाणी नहीं की जा सकती.

प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी. (फोटो साभार: pmindia.gov.in)

‘भारत- जिसने औपनिवेशिक हुकूमत से आज़ादी के बाद जनतांत्रिक संरचनाओं को अपनाया और हर नागरिक को संविधान के तहत बुनियादी अधिकार प्रदान किए- वहां जनतंत्र की परंपरा कमजोर की जा रही है….’

दुनिया के अग्रणी विद्वानों- जिनमें से कई भारतीय मूल के हैं – द्वारा पिछले दिनों जारी बयान में प्रगट सरोकार काबिलेगौर हैं. बयान में साफ कहा गया है कि किस तरह यहां ‘मूलभूत आजादियों को भी कुचला जा रहा है या कमजोर किया जा रहा है. ’

गौरतलब है कि साझे बयान का फोकस न्यूज़क्लिक न्यूज़ पोर्टल पर हुए संगठित हमले, भीमा कोरेगांव मामले में पांच साल से अधिक समय से हुई गिरफ्तारियों और उत्तर पूर्व दिल्ली में हुए दंगों के बाद इसी तरह जेल में डाले गए लेखकों, कार्यकर्ताओं पर रहा हैे, लंबे समय तक जेल में रखने के बावजूद चार्जशीट तक दाखिल न होने पर है, लेकिन वह यहां की बद से बदतर होती स्थिति को ही रेखांकित कर रहा है.

तय बात है कि एक ऐसे समय में जबकि चुनाव आसन्न हैं और मोदी सरकार द्वारा देश के अंदर उठाए जा रहे दमनात्मक कदमों को लेकर मामला सरगर्म है, यहां तक कि चुनावों का ऐलान होने के बाद विपक्ष के नेताओं की गिरफ्तारी, प्रमुख विपक्षी पार्टी कांग्रेस के बैंक खातों को बहाना बनाकर सील देने के कदम ने देश-दुनिया में चिंता प्रगट की जा रही है, उस समय इस बयान ने निश्चित ही मोदी की अगुवाईवाली हुकूमत को कत्तई खुश नहीं किया होगा.

आधिकारिक तौर पर इस बयान को लेकर मुल्क के मौजूदा हुक्मरानों की तरफ से कोई प्रतिक्रिया नहीं आई है और न ही उनके हिमायतियों ने इसके बारे में कुछ कहा है. उसकी पूरी कोशिश यही होगी कि हुकूमत के प्रति आलोचनात्मक रुख रखने वाले अन्य बयानों, रिपोर्ट की तरह इस बयान को भी भुला दिया जाए या दफना दिया जाए. ( Read the full article here : https://thewirehindi.com/271640/why-does-the-mother-of-democracy-need-its-own-democracy-index/)

Capitalism, Debates, Law, Government, Politics, Culture

Why Judiciary’s Independence is a Big Thorn in Designs of Autocrats

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It is an interesting coincidence that ‘Best Friends’ Netanyahu and Modi have been put on the defensive by the judiciary, which they so tried to control.

..[t]here is another way to break a democracy. It is less dramatic but equally destructive. Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders—presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power. Some of these leaders dismantle democracy quickly, as Hitler did in the wake of the 1933 Reichstag fire in Germany. More often, though, democracies erode slowly, in barely visible steps.

How Democracies Die – Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

The greatest danger the tyrant can inflict is to limit us to his range of options, not only “for how to live, but also for how to exercise our options.”

– Hisham Matar

(American born British-Libyan writer)

Every hurried and ill-thought attempt to browbeat the judiciary on the basis of legislative majority hides the possibility of a backfire.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, popularly known as ‘Bibi’, is learning this lesson the hard way, in the midst of a genocidal war he has unleashed against the Palestinians — a war which has already killed more than 30,000 people — mostly women and children.

Gone are the days when he was riding the popularity charts. Today, after the attacks on Gaza, there is increasing discontent among the Israeli people themselves against this ‘unending war’ which has manifested itself in the demand of Bibi’s quitting to ‘Save Israel’. Massive protest demonstrations have been held in different parts of Israel.

The recent judgements of the Supreme Court of Israel have further added to Netanyahu’s discomfort. ( Please read the complete article here)

Culture, Debates, democracy, Theory

Wokeism – the new whipping horse of India’s Hindutva Right & of the Global Right 

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(This is another article on ‘Wokeism’ on Kafila, you must be familiar with earlier discussions on this theme here and here) 

Ram Madhav and Mohan Bhagwat, Stylised by Jaseem ( Photo Courtesy : The News Minute)

The shrill voices of those who give orders
Are full of fear like the squeakings of
Piglets awaiting the butcher’s knife, as their fat arses
Sweat with anxiety in their office chairs….
Fear rules not only those who are ruled, but
The rulers too.

—Bertolt Brecht

The global right is ’terrified’ (at least that’s what it wants us to believe)

We are being increasingly told that it has finally discovered what could prove to be its nemesis.

Right from the likes of Donald Trump to the Indian origin American Vivek Ramaswamy – who has even written few tomes on this ’menace’ to the controversial hard right Florida governor De Santis, there are claims that the spectre of woke or wokeism haunts them. One can recall how De Santis had famously declared in his re-election victory speech that ’Florida is where Woke ideology goes to die’. [1]

What needs to be noted that this ’menace’ felt by the right is not limited to the Western World only.

There are newer converts to this movement.

Mohan Bhagwat, the Supremo of RSS ( Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) – a Hindutva Supremacist Organisation – happens to be the newest entrant. Sometime back he joined this chorus by the global right, similarly expressing his anger against ’Wokeism’ and ’Woke People’ in no uncertain terms. For him these were ’forces’ who were ’spoiling Indian ethos’.

( Read the full article here )

Culture, Debates, democracy, Law

How India Wants to Whitewash Its Democracy Image

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It was the early part of last year when the chorus of India as ‘mother of democracy’ gathered pace.

The summit for Democracy held in March, witnessed PM Modi in his virtual address sharing his pearls of wisdom as India being “indeed the mother of Democracy” citing reference to Vedas and Mahabharata

Delegates who arrived for the G 20 summit in Delhi were similarly greeted with the slogan Welcome to the ‘Mother of Democracy’ ( -do-)

Rightwing think tanks were not behind to project India’s past experience in its very own Indic Democracy despite proofs to the contrary.

Continue reading How India Wants to Whitewash Its Democracy Image →
Culture, Debates, democracy, Politics, religion, Theory

Democracy and Religion in Modern India: Critical and Self-critical Reflections – Prof Rajeev Bhargava

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Professor Rajeev Bhargava, noted political theorist will be delivering the 29th Democracy Dialogues Lecture on Sunday, March 31, 2024 at 6 PM ( IST)

Please reserve the time and date for the lecture. Details are given below

Democracy Dialogues Lecture 29:

Speaker: Professor Rajeev Bhargava

Date: Sunday, March 31, 2024, at 6 PM IST

Theme: 

Democracy and Religion in Modern India: Critical and Self-critical Reflections – Prof Rajeev Bhargava

– New Socialist Initiative

Abstract:

“It is widely accepted that ‘secular’ is an alien category in India. This is too simplistic a view. But even if we agree with it, how come no one has asked if ‘religion’ is alien to India? My claim is that it is or at least it is as foreign to India as secular is. What are the implications of this thesis? What have been the consequences of religionization on Indian society and polity? How has it shaped Indian democracy?  In my presentation, I shall expand these views and show why India  needs secularism and in what form.”

About the speaker :

Renowned political theorist and former director of  Centre for the Study of Developing Societies ( CSDS), Delhi Prof Rajeev Bhargava is currently an honorary fellow at the Centre and the director of its Parekh Institute of Indian Thought. He has taught at the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University (Delhi) and has lectured, taught and held visiting professorships at several international universities. 

Prof Bhargava’s work on individualism and secularism is internationally acclaimed. His publications include Individualism in Social Science (1992), What Is Political Theory and Why Do We Need It? (2010) and The Promise of India’s Secular Democracy (2010). His edited works include Secularism and Its Critics (1998), Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution (2008) and Politics, Ethics and the Self: Re-reading Hind Swaraj (2022), Bridging Two Worlds : Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China (2023) 

Capitalism, Centre watch, Countryside, Culture, Debates, democracy

No It Is Not Hegde’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ It is BJP’s ‘Dil ki Baat ‘:  Goodbye Constitution, Enter ManuCracy !

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How BJP dreams to Usher In Hindu Rashtra Democratically ?

Representative image. Credit: iStock Photo( courtesy Deccan Herald)

Anantkumar Hegde, BJP MP from Uttari Karnataka, is again in the news.

Close on the heels of his controversial statement about demolition of a mosque and his invoking of Hindu community who would not rest ‘until more mosques are reclaimed ‘ (1) he has delivered another explosive statement.

This time the whole edifice of Constitution is under his attack, which according to him has ‘distortions introduced by the Congress to suppress Hindu society’. (2) ..

..Critics have rightly said how this suggestion exhibits real intentions of the saffron regime which wants to usher us into Hindu Rashtra, end reservation for scheduled and backward communities, reinforce caste system and also replace Constitution drafted by Dr Ambedkar with a worldview inspired by Manusmriti. The main opposition party Congress has expressed fear that all such statements, steps just go to vindicate how a ‘cloud of dictatorship’ now hovers over India. (3)

It is a different matter that neither BJP top guns nor PM Modi – who had famously declared way back in 2014 that for him ‘Constitution is the most sacred book’ deemed it important to condemn Hegde’s statements or ordered him to seek apology for his claim.

One learns that it has merely distanced itself from Hegde’s controversial statement to convey an impression that what he said was his ‘Mann ki Baat’ and not BJP’s Dil ki Baat’ .

Culture, Debates, democracy, Law, religion, Right watch

Can a Teacher be Compelled to Offer Prayers in School Premises ?

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An atheist school teacher’s case in Nashik before the Bombay HC resonates with the recent case of a Dalit teacher’s suspension in Rajasthan.

Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Flickr

Can anyone compel a teacher to offer prayers inside a school?

This was a little vexed question before the Bombay High Court when a case came up before a two-judge bench led by Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Revethi Mohiti-Dhere. Sudhir Salve, an atheist teacher from a school in Nashik — who otherwise had an excellent record in his profession — had approached it for relief, because the school management where he worked had denied increment to him for ‘indiscipline’.

The teacher’s refusal to fold hands at the time of school prayer or even at the time of taking oath of the Constitution was construed as such an act. As it happens in most such cases, Salve’s case had lingered on for more than six years in the lower courts.

But it did not take much time for the two-judge bench to decide the case, which declared that any such compulsion to fold hands will be a ‘[v]iolation of the fundamental rights conferred on an individual under the Constitution’.

One was reminded of Salve’s case when the suspension of Hemlata Bairwa, a Dalit lady teacher from an upper primary school in Rajasthan’s Baran district, made headlines recently.

To recapitulate the turn of events, it was Republic Day (January 26, 2024) and Bairwa had garlanded the portraits of B.R. Ambedkar, Savitribai Phule and Mahatma Gandhi before the assembly of students in her school. Two of her fellow teachers interrupted the programme and asked her to put a photograph of Saraswati, goddess of knowledge as per Hindu mythology, which she plainly refused. Despite pressure by them, who even allegedly made casteist slurs against her and were even helped by the local head of the panchayat, Bairwa refused to relent.

When the video of the whole incident went viral, the state education minister Madan Dilawar announced her suspension in a public programme — an act that evoked a strong reaction within the Dalit community. Demonstrations were held in different parts of the state opposing this action by the education minister, demanding revocation of the suspension order and removal of the minister from the post.

The question arises: Will Bairwa similarly have to wait for a long period like Salve for justice? Or whether the Bombay High Court’s intervention would impel the Rajasthan High Court to take up her case suo motu.

Culture, Debates, Politics, Right watch

मोहन भागवत ‘वोक पीपल’ और ‘वोक़िज़्म’ को लेकर इतना ग़ुस्से में क्यों है?

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कहीं ऐसा तो नहीं कि ‘सांस्कृतिक मार्क्सवादी’ और ‘वोक पीपल’ (Woke People) को लेकर संघ सुप्रीमो की ललकार एक तरह से उत्पीड़ितों की दावेदारी और स्वतंत्र चिंतन के प्रति हिंदुत्व वर्चस्ववाद की बढ़ती बेचैनियों  को ही बेपर्द करती है.

मुल्क की दारूल हुकूमत अर्थात राजधानी दिल्ली- आए दिन कुछ न कुछ सेमिनार, संगोष्ठियां, विचारोें के अनौपचारिक आदान-प्रदान की मौन गवाह बनी रहती है. आम तौर पर वह ख़बर भी नहीं बन पाते, अलबत्ता कुछ तबादले खयालात कभी-कभी सुर्खियां बन जाते हैं.

पिछले दिनों यहां के भव्य ताज एम्बेसेडर होटल में एक विचार-विमर्श चला, जो अलग कारणों से सुर्खियां बना. आयोजक के चलते और जिस मसले पर वहां गुफ्तगू चली उसे लेकर. दरअसल इसका आयोजन भारतीय जनता युवा मोर्चा ने किया था, जो आम तौर पर ऐसी बौद्धिक गतिविधियों के लिए जाना नहीं जाता है.

दूसरी अहम बात थी कि इस विचार-विमर्श में अमेरिका, जर्मनी और चंद अन्य पश्चिमी मुल्कों के कई अनुदारवादी, रूढ़िवादी विचारक, अकादमिशियन जुटे थे और भारत के शिक्षा संस्थानों से जुड़े कई अकादमिशियन भी थे. बातचीत किन मसलों पर चली इसके आधिकारिक विवरण उपलब्ध नहीं है, लेकिन इतना तो समाचार में सुनने को मिला है कि वहां ‘वोकवाद’ (Wokeism-वोक़िज़्म) पर भी बातचीत चली थी. ( Read the rest of the article here)

Culture, Debates, Right watch, Theory

Why Hindutva Is Worried About “Woke People” or “Wokeism”?

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How Mohan Bhagwat’s exhortation that ‘cultural marxism’ and ‘woke people’ are spoiling India’s ethos betrays Hindutva Supremacism’s real agenda vis-a-vis assertion of the subalterns and independent thinking

‘A spectre is haunting the Conservative world – the spectre of Wokeism’

The brainstorming by conservatives from US, Germany and other Western countries along with academics from India is over. The host was Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) the youth front of the ruling dispensation here namely BJP – which loves to call itself ‘the biggest organisation of youth in the world.’

One does not know whether the organisers had put any such banner regarding the ‘spectre’ or not but few of the available details of meeting tell us that the gathering did discuss ‘wokeism’ apart from other issues.

BJYM’s sudden waking up on the challenge of ‘wokeism’ is not difficult to understand.

It could be easily traced to Sangh Supremo Mohan Bhagwat’s exhortation in his Vijayadashmi Speech – few months back – wherein he had castigated ‘cultural marxists’ and ‘woke people’. in no uncertain terms, who according to him were ‘spoiling Indian ethos’. He even accused them of undermining education and culture, promoting conflicts and disrupting social cohesion. ( Read the full article here)

Culture, Debates, democracy, Law, religion, Right watch

Waiting to Become Eichmann? Unpacking the Moral Relativism of a People

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“They took so much away from us that they ended up taking away our fear”
— Message scrawled on a placard in a women’s march in Spain

’How does Justice feel?’

A difficult query to answer but perhaps Bilkis Bano would be the best person to respond to it.

Yes the same Bilkis – survivor of a mass rape and the only witness to horrific massacre of her 14 relatives – when the state she lived witnessed a carnage when officially one thousand innocents perished in the communal pogrom and many thousands were displaced from their homes and were condemned to live as internal refugees.

One can still recollect her words when the highest courts of the country finally cancelled the remission of sentences to her perpetrators who had been convicted for this heinous crime. [1].

She frankly narrated her feelings before a reporter.

’It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again. This is what justice feels like.”

Bad ideas

Time for a Judicial Enquiry into the Violence in Haldwani!

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The sounds raised by Bulldozers demolishing ‘illegal Mosque and Madarasa’ in Haldwani, on 8 th February evening, which  have resulted in few deaths and injuries to several people which includes even policepersons as well, are now over.

Peace seems to be returning and life seems to coming back to normal ..

No doubt violence of any kind cannot be justified and people’s opposition to government’s steps should always remain in the bounds of constitution…

……Question arises, whether a judicial enquiry preferably under a retired judge of the Supreme Court will be ordered so that a clear picture of the whole incident emerges and one may better comprehend, how an area which was site a peaceful mass movement merely a year back, a movement which was joined by civil society activists, writers etc, suddenly changed colour.

Capitalism, Debates, democracy, Government, Law

Say No To Hate, We Need Jobs

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A Joint Statement and Appeal issued by people’s organisations, intellectuals and concerned citizens from Uttarakhand about the violent incidents on 8 th February

( This is an attempt at English translation of the original statement issued by writers, journalists, social activists and people’s organisations. For original statement , please see here )

Developments on 8th February are serious, condemnable as well as tragic. We would like to express our deep concern for the dead as well as the injured and demand proper compensation for them

We appeal to people in Uttarakhand and rest of India to maintain peace and harmony . We condemn all sorts of violence and want that an impartial legal action be taken about the incident. We are of the opinion that every type of resistance, opposition should always remain in the bounds of law and constitution.

We also appeal to the administration that no action should be contrary to Constitutional principles and values.

  • Negligence, hurry and biased approach of the administration can be clearly seen in these developments. Even the language of the administration sounds sectarian. When the allegedly illegally built mosque and madarsa were in the control of the administration itself and the next hearing in the case was scheduled to be heard on 14 th February, what was the necessity to go for demolition in such a hurried manner. It is time that the District Magistrate and Senior Superintendent of Police are immediately transferred and a judicial enquiry be done about the whole incident.
  • We need to bear in mind that since 2017 the Uttarakhand government has desisted from taking an impartial legal action against vigilante violence and hate speeches. Right from citizens groups, people organisastions, opposition parties, leading intellectuals, advocates of Supreme Court to ex generals of the army from the state have been raising their voices in this connection. When the government does not appear impartial it emboldens anti-social elements. In this background voices have been raised to underline how use of hate, communal and violent incidents for political benefits ultimately engenders further challenges to social harmony and rule of law. It is high time that steps on war footing be taken to strictly implement decisions of the Supreme Court in 2018 and later, regarding hate speeches and violence.
  • We have always maintained that the “anti encroachment drive” is plagued by unnecessary hurry and a biased approach. Hundreds of such incidents have occurred since last one year . We are of the opinion that without resettlement nobody should be made homeless and every such action be undertaken in proper legal manner and with enough sensitivity. As far as Uttarakhand is concerned today lakhs of people are living on 4 lakh hectare Nazul land. In Haldwani itself a large population has settled on Nazul land which comprises people belonging to all religions. It has been a long time demand that people living on nazul land be given the ownership of the land. The state government has even sent proposal to the central government in this connection. Despite all this it is beyond comprehension to see that government seems to be in an unnecessary hurry regarding the issue of encroachment. Since quite some time the state government is engaged in these efforts under the name of anti encroachment drive. We feel that the government is pushing its sectarian agenda under the name of anti encroachment drive. This should be immediately stopped.

Say No To Hate, We need Jobs

  • Rajiv Lochan Sah, Uttarakhand Lok Vahini; Naresh Nautiyal, General Secretary, Uttarakhand Parivartan Party ; Tarun Joshi, Van Panchayat Sangharsh Morcha; Bhuvan Pathak and Shankar Dutt, Sadbhavna Samiti Uttarakhand; Shankar Gopal and Vinod Badoni, Chetna Aandolan; Islam Hussain, Sarvoday Mandal ; Lalit Upreti and Munish Kumar, Samajwadi Lok Manch ; Trilochan Bhatt, Independent Journalist; Heera Jangpani, Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch ; Mukul, Mazdoor Sahyog Kendra
Culture, Debates, Law, Politics

‘Dereservation’ -Whether the genie is out of the bottle finally

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UGC led by Chairman Jagdeesh Kumar refuses to remain beyond controversy for long time.

The latest being its draft proposal of ‘dereservation’ of seats if not a suitable candidate from reserved category is found wherein it asked people’s views till 28 th January.

As expected this proposal which smacked of the ruling dispensation’s surreptitious and even direct attempts at attacking or biting away at the affirmative action policies emanating from the Constitution rightly led to protests in various quarters, There were protests opposing this proposal on JNU and other campuses and even opposition parties attacked the ruling party for its compromising attitude towards reservation rights and its desire and moves to either dilute or hollow out the provisions of these socially progressive policies and this led to an intervention from the Human Resources Ministry underlining that there is no such proposal.

Capitalism, Debates, democracy, Politics, religion, Right watch

अजेयता का मिथक: 2024 में मोदी की वापसी होगी या 2004 की होगी पुनरावृत्ति?

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2024 की शुरूआत में भारत एक प्रचंड बदलाव की दहलीज पर खड़ा है। सभी जनतंत्र प्रेमी, इन्साफ पसंद और अमन के चाहने वालों के सामने यही बड़ा सवाल मुंह बाए खड़ा है कि 2024 के संसदीय चुनावों में- जो मई माह के अंत तक संपन्न होगा तथा नयी सरकार बन जाएगी (अगर उन्हें पहले नहीं कराया गया तो)- का नतीजा क्या होगा?

क्या वह सत्ता के विभिन्न इदारों पर भाजपा की जकड़ को ढीला कर देगा, क्या वह जनतंत्र की विभिन्न संस्थाओं को निष्प्रभावी करने की या उनका हथियारीकरण करने की सोची समझी रणनीति को बाधित कर देगा, क्या वह धर्म के नाम पर उन्मादी तक हो चुकी जनता में इस एहसास को फिर जगा देगा कि 21वीं सदी में धर्म और राजनीति का घोल किस तरह खतरनाक है या वह भारतीय जनतंत्र की अधिकाधिक ढलान की तरफ जारी यात्रा को और त्वरान्वित कर देगा, भारत के चुनावी अधिनायकतंत्र ( electoral autocracy) की तरफ बढ़ने की उसकी यात्रा आगे ही चलती रहेगी

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Culture, Debates, Politics, religion, Right watch

ग्राहम स्टेंस और उनकी संतानों की याद में…

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‘Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.’
Blaise Pascal, French Mathematician and Physicist who lived some 400 years ago and died young (1623 to 1662 AD)

ग्राहम स्टेंस, जो ऑस्ट्रेलिया से भारत पहुंचे ईसाई पादरी थे और ओडिशा के बेहद पिछड़े आदिवासी बहुल इलाकों में गरीबों एवं कुष्ठरोगियों की सेवा में संलग्न थे, उन्हें और उनकी दो संतानों फिलिप और टिमोथी को कथित तौर पर हिंदुत्ववादी जमातों से जुड़े मानवद्रोहियों ने 22 जनवरी 1999 को जिंदा जलाया था.

22 जनवरी की तारीख की बीती तारीख को इस घटना की पच्चीसवीं सालगिरह थी.

राम मंदिर आयोजन की चकाचौंध में किसी ने इस बर्बर हत्या और उसके निहितार्थों को याद करना भी मुनासिब नहीं समझा, जबकि हम पाते हैं कि इस बर्बर हत्याकांड में वह तमाम संकेत मिलते हैं, जिन्हें 21वीं सदी की बहुसंख्यकवादी राजनीति में भरपूर प्रयोग में लाया गया.

Culture, Debates, democracy, Politics, religion

Thinking Graham Staines and his Children in times of Jubilation over Ram Temple

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The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.

– Marcus Tullius Cicero

Politics is nothing but theology in action

– Ambedkar

 

Right-wing politics suffers from a common syndrome everywhere.

It never feels confident to project its own icons for the rest of the humanity, whatever might be their claims about their worldview,  it knows that its own icons are detested by a wide spectrum of people.

The easiest way it finds to overcome this lacunae is to appropriate already established icons – who  were even opposed to their world view as well  and claim them their own. In fact, it does not have any qualms in utilising dates – bearing special significance for exploited and oppressed and marginalised of the world – to put their stamp on it.

The project of Hindutva Supremacism – which yearns / strives to transform a Secular, Socialist, Democratic and Sovereign Republic into a Hindu Rashtra has perhaps achieved near perfection in this kind of politics.