Category Archives: Left watch

Capitalism, Countryside, Debates, Ecology/Environment, Government, Left watch

Two Reports and Many Strategic Agents: Post-Disaster Thinking in Kerala

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Two massive calamities, tremendous losses, continuing signs of serious ecological destruction impending — yet all we Malayalis seem to have produced in response: two reports, and even more frenzied strategic calculation. There is little doubt that the disasters happened in the first place at least partially because of the latter, but there seems to be no rethinking. Instead, we have strategic agents refurbishing their strategies to the new circumstances.

What else explains the Kerala government’s  Rebuilding Kerala Development Programme Report (RKDPR)? It popped up all of a sudden around the end of last year, after the UN-led Post-Disaster Needs Assessment Report (PDNAR), and even members of the Chief Minister’s Advisory Council were caught unawares.  The economist K P Kannan, whose life’s work has been focused on Kerala’s economy, a member of the Council, remarked in a recent interview in the Sastragathy that they did not know of it until the third meeting of the council. None knew who put it together, and there is no mention of this in the report itself. It draws heavily but selectively on the PDNAR, but also perhaps on the projects that were prepared for World Bank funding – and Kannan reaffirms this impression. The draft report was made available online for comments but there is no clear idea about these experts or the public consultations. Continue reading Two Reports and Many Strategic Agents: Post-Disaster Thinking in Kerala →

Capitalism, Countryside, Debates, Government, Left watch

Healing Kerala: Thoughts after the Second Warning

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Everywhere the talk is still about rebuilding Kerala: I say, we need to talk about healing Kerala. The change in phrasing is not trivial. When we admit that we need to heal, rather than rebuild, we are admitting much that we did not care to own up till now. That is, we would be agreeing that the problem at hand is a human one and not just one that can be resolved through technical intervention; that, as a complex process, it will take its time and quick-fixes will not suffice.  Thankfully, there is a widespread discussion on the recommendations of the Gadgil Committee Report and the Post-disaster needs assessment report of last year; quarrying has been stopped all over the state. Maybe we will heal, indeed. What do we need to do to heal, and not just rebuild? Continue reading Healing Kerala: Thoughts after the Second Warning →

Capitalism, Countryside, Ecology/Environment, Government, Left watch

After Kavalappara: Is the Future that of Ecological Patriotism?

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I guess bad habits in development take a very long time to unlearn. Even in the face of the direst of warnings.

I know that last year, when taken completely by surprise, Kerala rose to the occasion. It appeared that a new civil society had come to being around the flood rescue and relief work, and that promised a new lease of life for our flagging-if-still-working project of people’s planning and political decentralization. It appeared that there was a real chance to stop the bureaucratic-technocratic coterie from shoving this ecologically-fragile area down the path of utterly destructive infrastructure-obsessed growth. It seemed that we could now seriously expose the depredations of the predatory capitalists, especially in the construction sector. Continue reading After Kavalappara: Is the Future that of Ecological Patriotism? →

Debates, Left watch, Literature, Movements, Politics

Marx in Brussels

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The most remarkable development during his time in Brussels was the penning down of the Communist Manifesto, which firmly established Marx as well as Engels as the intellectual leaders of the working class movement.

Marx in Brussels

Karl Marx

Lived in Brussels from February 1845 to March 1848

He celebrated New Year’s Eve 1947/48 together with the “Deutscher Arbeiterverein” and the “Association Democratique” in this place

The plaque put on a building which housed a restaurant ‘Le Cygne, The Swan’ now is the only memory left of the days when history was ‘made’ here. According to legend, it is the same place ‘[w]here the First International had convened’  and Marx and his lifelong friend and comrade Engels ‘[h]ad written the Communist Manifesto’.

No doubt it was the same place when Marx, Engels, Mozes Hess – who was another early luminary of socialism and who supposedly had influenced Engels about communism – and other associates of the surging workers movement pondered over many of those ideas which have been memorialised in the opening sentences of the Manifesto, “A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism….”

May be the historic slogan ‘Workers of the World Unite, You have nothing to lose but your chains’ which later reverberated throughout the world – whose echoes are still heard – had its ‘humble’ beginning in one of those very rooms, where Marx and his close associates used to educate workers about their exploitation.

Scores of people sitting in this particular restaurant which was serving them sumptuous food and choicest drinks were completely oblivious of all those details. Few of them rather looked at us with a sense of disbelief and dismay, when they witnessed us taking photos of the nondescript wall which had the plaque put on it. Perhaps they looked more satisfied that they are enjoying food at a place which is situated on the Grand Place or Grote Markt, which is the central square of Brussels and is considered one of the most beautiful squares in Europe and is also part of UN Heritage.

( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/karl-marx-in-brussels)

Capitalism, Culture, Debates, Left watch, Politics, Right watch

विचार ही अब द्रोह !

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(‘चार्वाक के वारिस : समाज, संस्कृति एवं सियासत पर प्रश्नवाचक ‘ की प्रस्तावना से)

कार्ल मार्क्‍स की दूसरी जन्मशती दुनिया भर में मनायी जा रही है।

दिलचस्प है कि विगत लगभग एक सौ पैंतीस सालों में जबसे उनका इन्तक़ाल हुआ, कई कई बार ऐसे मौके आए जब पूंजीवादी मीडिया में यह ऐलान कर दिया कि ‘मार्क्‍स इज डेड’ अर्थात ‘मार्क्‍स मर गया’; अलबत्ता, यह मार्क्‍स की प्रत्यक्ष मौत की बात नहीं थी बल्कि मानवमुक्ति के उस फलसफे के अप्रासंगिक होने की उनकी दिली ख्वाहिश को जुबां दिया जाना था, जो उनके नाम के साथ जाना जाता है। याद किया जा सकता है कि सोवियत रूस का विघटन होने के बाद और जिन दिनों पूंजीवाद की ‘अंतिम जीत’ के दावे कुछ अधिक जोर से उठने लगे थे, पूर्व सोवियत रूस के एक गणराज्य में बाकायदा एक पोस्टर मार्क्‍स की तस्वीर के साथ ‘‘मोस्ट वाटेंड’’ के नारे के साथ छपा था।

यह अलग बात है कि हर बार इस भविष्यवाणी को झुठला कर अग्निपक्षी/फिनिक्स की तरह मार्क्‍स राख से बार बार ‘नया जीवन’ लेकर उपस्थित होते रहे हैं। आलम तो यहां तक आ पहुंचा है कि 1999 में- अर्थात सोवियत रूस के विघटन के लगभग नौ साल बाद- बीबीसी के आनलाइन सर्वेक्षण में मार्क्‍स को सहस्त्राब्दी का सबसे बड़ा विचारक कहा गया था। Continue reading विचार ही अब द्रोह ! →

Capitalism, Government, Left watch

Clinical Establishment Act Kerala: A Historic Initiative — B Ekbal

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This is a guest post by Dr B EKBAL

The Kerala Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act 2017 is being implemented with effect from Jan 2019. The rules pertaining to the Act have already been framed. In the first phase, establishments under modern medicine including hospitals, clinics and laboratories will come under its purview.

<!–more Continue reading Clinical Establishment Act Kerala: A Historic Initiative — B Ekbal →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Identities, Images, Left watch, Media politics

Thejus – The Death of a Daily Newspaper

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[This is a GUEST POST by N P CHEKKUTTY]

 

It is rarely that a journalist writes about himself or herself, because they are supposed  to be detached observers of history-in-the-making. But this time I cannot help it because one of the things that happened in the Sabarimala-obsessed state of Kerala this week happens to be the demise of Thejas, a daily newspaper that I was associated with for almost 14 years. It was a death foretold over two and half months ago, but no one took notice and no one raised any serious concerns about the passing of a newspaper that existed in our civil society for over a decade. It is sad that the newspaper which was known for its fierce anti-Sangh Parivar positions leave the scene just a few months ahead of a general election that will decide the future course of this country. Continue reading Thejus – The Death of a Daily Newspaper →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Feminism, Government, Identities, Law, Left watch, Politics, Violence/Conflict

Hindutva Terror and Left Hegemony: After Women’s Entry into Sabarimala

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Hours after the two women entered Sabarimala, the Hindu terrorists began their handiwork. Mad mobs, including women, began to roam the streets and attack by-passers, in their desperation to foment violence and provoke riots. In Karunagappally, Muslim establishments and shops were singled out for vandalism. The Sangh-backed Sabarimala Action Council called for a hartal today and they have spared no effort to make sure that people are terrorized. Continue reading Hindutva Terror and Left Hegemony: After Women’s Entry into Sabarimala →

Culture, Debates, Feminism, Genders, Government, Law, Left watch, Religion, Violence/Conflict

The Triumph of Streevaashi! Women break the wall of caste at Sabarimala

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Out of the dark, seemingly never-ending night, a streak of light! Two women of menstruating ages, Bindu and Kanakdurga, finally entered Sabarimala, breaking the concerted walls built against them by brahmanical-Hindutva male authorities on the right and left. Continue reading The Triumph of Streevaashi! Women break the wall of caste at Sabarimala →

Bad ideas, Culture, Government, Law, Left watch, Movements

50 Years Later, Shadow of Keezhvenmani Continues to Hover Over our Republic

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December 25, 1968, termed as ‘Black Thursday’, saw the first mass crime against Dalits in independent India, who were fighting for respectable wages under the leadership of the Communist Party.

50 Years Later, the Shadow Keezhvenmani Continues to Hover Over our Republic

Image for representational use only; Image Courtesy : Socialist India

P Srinivasan, a veteran village functionary who cremates the dead had, in an interview done few years ago, described the darkening early morning on December 26, 1968, when the bodies began arriving from Keezhvenmani, a non-descript village in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu.

The village functionary, called Vettiyan, who is nearing 60 now, still remembered the number: “There were 42 corpses in all, horribly burnt and mangled. The stench was awful,” Pointing towards the plot of land where they were cremated, he said “All of them were Dalits, burnt to death in a caste clash. I cremated them on these very grounds.”

Srinivasan, then 23-year-old, shared vivid details of that ‘Black Thursday’ in 1968, a day that has remained etched in his mind.

December 25, 2018, completes 50 years of that ‘Black Thursday in 1968’, which is remembered as the first massacre of Dalits in independent India. The Dalits were martyred while fighting for respectable wages under the leadership of the Communist Party. All of these landless peasants had started to organise themselves into a campaign for higher wages following the increase in agricultural production in the area.

(https://www.newsclick.in/50-years-later-shadow-keezhvenmani-continues-hover-over-our-republic)

Bad ideas, Culture, Government, Left watch

വിട, IFFK! വിട, ബീനാ!

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പ്രിയ ബീനാ

IFFK എന്ന പ്രസ്ഥാനത്തിനോട് വിട പറയാൻ സമയമായിയെന്ന് തോന്നുന്നു. ബീനയ്ക്ക് വേണം ഈ വിടവാങ്ങൽ കത്തെഴുതാനെന്നും തോന്നി. കാരണം ഇതിനെ ഒരു ജനകീയ പ്രസ്ഥാനമാക്കിയത് നിങ്ങളാണ്. ഇന്ന് അത് മറ്റൊന്നായി മാറിയിരിക്കുന്നു. ഇടങ്ങളെല്ലാം മാറിക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന ഈ കാലത്ത് ഇതു പ്രതീക്ഷിതമാണ്, അതുകൊണ്ട് ഇതു വ്യക്തിപരമായ കുറ്റപ്പെടുത്തലല്ല. Continue reading വിട, IFFK! വിട, ബീനാ! →

Bad ideas, Debates, Feminism, Government, Identities, Law, Left watch, Religion, Right watch

An Open Letter to Brinda Karat about Rehana Fathima: Why are we being hunted in Kerala?

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Dear Comrade

Last year, around this time, I wrote you an open letter about the plight of Hadiya Asokan who was being hunted down by the Hindutva groups for her choice of faith and partner while the CPM and its cyber force was either actively abetting the violence or watching passively. I wrote in joy, because you had taken a firm stand and despite angry howls of protest against you from your own party. However, this time, I write in sheer despair at your silence; not just yours, but of the AIDWA in Kerala in general, in the wake of the twisted machinations of the Hindutva forces around the Supreme Court’s order permitting the entry of women of menstruating ages to the Sabarimala temple. Continue reading An Open Letter to Brinda Karat about Rehana Fathima: Why are we being hunted in Kerala? →

Bad ideas, Debates, Genders, Government, Identities, Images, Left watch

Now What? After the Betrayal of Women at Sabarimala

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At the end of the five-day worship in the month of Tulam, it is clear that women have been betrayed. The right wing which promised not to violently stop women devotees did precisely that; their leader also hurled vicious insults are trans people. The dominant left which foamed Ayyankali and Sree Narayana Guru at the mouth ended up reinforcing the ‘good woman’/bad woman’ division, saying first that only the former would be allowed to proceed, made the term ‘activist’ into a code word for ‘bad woman’, and then finally threw up its hands saying that it was impossible to implement the court order. The government and the CPM had obviously not done enough to make sure that women would indeed enter the shrine. Clearly, they are reluctant to touch the savarna moral majority.  Continue reading Now What? After the Betrayal of Women at Sabarimala →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Feminism, Genders, Left watch, Media politics, Mirror Worlds, Politics, Right watch

Keep Calm and Carry On: Dealing with Patriarchal Carpet Bombing in Kerala

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For all women in India, what is happening in Kerala should be an eye-opener.  This is how Indian society rewards you for reaching the top, aspiring seriously to be on top, and actually asking questions to authorities about why they keep drawing on women’s energies and resources while simultaneously undermining the very ground on which they survive. In Kerala, two things are going on: there is on the one hand, a vicious gang led by Rahul Easwar which is openly threatening women who would dare to enter Sabarimala with the worst kinds of violence, on the other, the horrid misogyny of the press was revealed at the press conference held by the Women in Cinema Collective who expressed their deep disquiet at the way in which the organization of cinema actors, AMMA, and its president Mohanlal, were eager to protect oppressors and ignore survivors. Also, even male intellectuals who have been very supportive of feminist and gender justices causes have been named in the MeToo campaign among journalists in Kerala.

Kerala is a society where, in the past twenty years, we have seen women come up everywhere — in journalism, literature, academics, cinema, architecture, engineering, art, management, sports, trade unionism, activism. Women in Kerala have been the force of social democratizing as evident from the struggles ranging from the Munnar tea garden workers’ struggle to the brave nuns protesting against sexual violence. For sure, a very large number of women in Kerala are ultra-conservative, and that is apparent both in their presence in the muck that Easwar and his gang are raking up in Kerala, as well as in the shameless way in which some of them were emboldened to hurl caste insults at the Chief Minister of Kerala. This is therefore reminiscent not so much of the Battle of Britain in World War II, but for the Battle of Stalingrad — which was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe, even as there was hand-to-hand combat on the ground for control of the tiniest slices of the city, and where the city residents were often subject to the terrors of both the Nazi and the Soviet sides alike.

If you want to see male hubris overflowing, please take a look at this video, of https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FWomeninCinemaCollectiveOfficial%2Fvideos%2F249328929064857%2F&show_text=0&width=267“>the press conference held by the Women in Cinema collective. All I can tell us all is, Keep Calm and Carry on. After all, unlike in the World War II, the ammunition of these creeps need not hurt us at all; it can make it only more powerful.

 

 

 

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life, Government, Left watch

Restore Our Vision of the Future: A Letter to the Kerala Chief Minister

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Dear Comrade

I write to you as a citizen, so unlike the many eulogies and appeals you have received recently, this will not be sugar-coated. You have received much praise, which is indeed well-deserved. But most of us have done, and are still doing, our duty well, but there is no need to indulge in any more self-praise.

Continue reading Restore Our Vision of the Future: A Letter to the Kerala Chief Minister →

Culture, Debates, Ecology/Environment, Government, Images, Left watch, Right watch

Brackish Reflections on the Great Deluge of 2018: Roby Rajan

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This is a guest post by ROBY RAJAN

Epic. Biblical. Apocalyptic. These are some of the words that have been used to describe the floods and landslides that have wreaked havoc in Kerala over the last few weeks. Entire towns and cities were submerged, and entire rivers altered their courses overnight. Continue reading Brackish Reflections on the Great Deluge of 2018: Roby Rajan →

Capitalism, Debates, Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life, Government, Left watch, Refugee crisis, Right watch

A National Pledge for Kerala after the Great Deluge of 2018

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  • Kerala is the land of my birth, and my life is intertwined closely and inseparably with the lives of all fellow-Malayalis. I will respect and remember this truth and will never think of my life as totally unrelated to nature, my neighbours, and the government that we elect to rule us.

Continue reading A National Pledge for Kerala after the Great Deluge of 2018 →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Government, Identities, Images, Law, Left watch, Media politics, Politics, Religion, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

അഭിമന്യുവധം ഉയർത്തുന്ന കാതലായ പ്രശ്നം

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സത്യം പറഞ്ഞാൽ അഭിമന്യു എന്ന വിദ്യാർത്ഥിയുടെ ഞെട്ടിക്കുന്ന കൊലപാതകത്തിനു ശേഷം ആ ചെറുപ്പക്കാരൻറെ മാതാവിൻറെ വിലാപം മാത്രമാണ് ഇപ്പോഴും മുഴങ്ങിക്കേൾക്കുന്നത്. ആ ശബ്ദം മനസ്സിൽ നിന്ന് മായുന്നതേയില്ല.

Continue reading അഭിമന്യുവധം ഉയർത്തുന്ന കാതലായ പ്രശ്നം →

Left watch, Politics, Theory

To Gain a View of the Elephant – India, History, Modernity, and Marx : Ravi Sinha

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Guest Post by Ravi Sinha

(Marx Bicentennial lecture – Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, March 16, 2018)

etaddhastidarshana iva jatyandhah

That is like people blind by birth viewing an elephant.

  • (Shankaracharya’s bhasya on Chandogya-Upanisad 18.1)[1]

 

It was six blind men of Indostan,

To learning much inclined,

Who went to see the Elephant

(Though all of them were blind),

That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind.

  • John Godfrey Saxe[2]

The ancient Indian parable of blind men and the elephant, popularized in modern times by John Godfrey Saxe’s nineteenth century poem, has often been deployed in philosophical discourses about the nature of reality and its relationship to sense perception. It has served as a useful metaphor in many an argument about empiricist epistemology, moral relativism, cultural plurality, even religious tolerance. No such usage is intended here. My purpose in starting out with the parable is mostly methodological – how does one put together a vision of the beast based on necessarily partial observations of it. Continue reading To Gain a View of the Elephant – India, History, Modernity, and Marx : Ravi Sinha →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Government, Identities, Law, Left watch, Movements, Right watch

The Festering Sore of the Caste-Wall at Vadayambady: T T Sreekumar

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T T Sreekumar, an important commentator on contemporary politics in Kerala — a public intellectual who now qualifies to be an irritant in the eyes of the Kerala police, now that he has openly declared his allegiance to the dalit people fighting injustice and Vadayambady and inaugurated a protest-event there — writes about the issue and its historical origins:

When I visited Vadayambady the other day to express my solidarity with the cause of the agitation, what I witnessed there was an atmosphere of utmost fear and police terror. A big task force of police was stationed at the location. The team that included the special branch officers, had created a situation of terror at the peaceful site. Activists mentioned that a particular police officer continuously hurled abuses, including caste abuses, at the protesters that included Dalit women and children. When the protest began to draw national attention, the ruling dispensation of CPIM that had hitherto remained unconcerned has started to take up some damage control measures. However, when they finally arrived at the site of the agitation almost after a year since the agitation began, the CPIM leaders allegedly refused to address the caste question involved. Dalit activists, including women activists, surrounded them and raised several objections to this attitude pointing to their sheer hypocrisy and lack of integrity.

Read more at:

https://countercurrents.org/2018/02/02/fighting-peripheralization-dalit-movement-hindu-caste-wall-kerala/

 

Culture, Debates, Feminism, Frontiers, Genders, Government, Identities, Law, Left watch

Malayali Feminism 2018: In the Light of Vadayambady and Hadiya’s Struggle

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The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, not our own powerlessness, stupefy us.

Adorno.

As frightening spectres of untouchability and unseeability hover around the festering sore of the ‘caste-wall’ at Vadayambady in Kerala, as the so-called mainstream left-led government here continues to pour its energy and resources into aiding and abetting caste devils there, as most mainstream media turns a blind eye, as the Kerala police continues its mad-dog-left-loose act, many friends ask me: why have you not yet written about the struggle there of dalit people fighting of the demon of caste now completely, shamelessly ,in the public once more? Continue reading Malayali Feminism 2018: In the Light of Vadayambady and Hadiya’s Struggle →