Bad ideas

मुक्तिबोध के ‘नौजवान का रास्ता’

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मुक्तिबोध शृंखला:2

“मैं कुछ शिकायत करना चाहता था इस दुनिया के खिलाफ लेकिन मैं रुक गया, सोचते हुए कि आखिर मैं अपने को दुनिया से अलग क्यों मान लूँ. दुनिया का खाकर, दुनिया का पीकर, दुनिया के मनुष्य से प्रेम कर, उससे अलग समझना अपने स्व को ज़रूरत से अधिक ऊँचा रखना है—दुनिया ने हमको बनाया, अब हमीं दुनिया को बनाएँगे.”

‘आधुनिक समाज का धर्म’ नामक टिप्पणी की शुरुआत यों होती है. यह आत्मविश्वास कि हम इस दुनिया को बना सकते हैं इस विनम्रता से संयमित किया जाता है कि उसके साथ ही खुद को बनाने की जिम्मेवारी भी है. उसके साथ पहली शर्त इस ज़िंदगी से मोहब्बत. ‘नौजवान का रास्ता’ के आरम्भिक अंश की पंक्तियाँ हैं,

“ज़िंदगी बड़ी खूबसूरत चीज़ है, वह जीने के लिए है, मरने के लिए नहीं. अच्छे आदमी क्यों दुःख भोगें—इतने नेक और इतने अभागे. दुनिया में बुरे आदमियों की संख्या नगण्य है, अच्छे आदमियों के सबब ज़िंदगी बहुत खूबसूरत चीज़ है, वह जीने के लिए है, मरने के लिए नहीं.”

Continue reading मुक्तिबोध के ‘नौजवान का रास्ता’ →
Capitalism, Debates, Movements, Politics, Right watch

Six Months of the Farmers’ Struggle – Looking Ahead

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Farmers observe ‘Black Day’ as struggle completes six months on 26 May, image courtesy Economic Times

The farmers’ struggle at the Delhi borders completed six months yesterday, the 26th of May. The day was observed as a Black Day all over the country, at the call of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM).

Braving unprecedented cold, followed by rains and storm, the struggle has now moved into the cruelest part of Delhi’s summer. In the process, it has lost 470 of its people, thanks to the obstinacy of the government. If one dates the beginning of the struggle from June, when it began in Punjab, soon after the farm laws were stealthily, under cover of the pandemic, promulgated as ordinances by the Central government, the struggle has been on for ten months now. In other words, it is incorrect to go on referring to it as a protest – which we routinely do for many lost causes – for it is now a ‘do or die’ struggle. It became so from the time it shifted its venue to lay siege to Delhi.

Periodically, the government, its police and its minions in the media try and zero in on this epic struggle of the farmers for its ignoring, if not violating of Covid19 protocols. All this even as they look the other way while lakhs of people are thrown into the jaws of death, brought about by the mass murderers who have pushed populations in four states into prolonged election campaigns, played cynical games with precious oxygen and vaccine supplies and allowed all kinds of mass religious gatherings of the Hindus to take place in complete disregard of any protocol whatsoever.

Continue reading Six Months of the Farmers’ Struggle – Looking Ahead →
Bad ideas, Government, Politics, Right watch

Legendary freedom fighter HS Doreswamy is no more

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Doreswamy

Legendary freedom fighter and Civil Rights activist Harohalli Srinivasaiah Doreswamy popularly known as HS Doreswamy breathed his last yesterday.

The 103 year-old Gandhian, who kept the ‘conscience of Karnataka till his very last breath, and was the tallest public intellectual, who appeased none and spared none‘ would be remembered for his enthusiasm for public causes till he remained alive

Born on 10 April 1918 in Harohalli village in the then princely state of Mysore, he was jailed for the first time during Quit India movement – for his association with a group involved in making bombs and who spent 14 months of his life then – never stopped working for people even after independence.

In 1975, he had even challenged the then prime minister Indira Gandhi when emergency was declared, civil liberties stood suspended and who faced jail under the draconian Defence of India rule.

One of the issues closest to his heart remained getting land rights for the poor and the landless.

Before the first wave of Covid 19 struck he has been a prominent figure at protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and has been openly critical of BJP-led central government’s policies.

He was cremated with state honours but it was clear as mirror that the BJP government in Karnataka always felt uncomfortable with his presence.

A year before last a leading BJP legislator had hurled choicest abuses at this legendary freedom fighter, and when the issue was raised in the Karnataka assembly, forget issuing any unconditional apology for his remarks the legislator not only remained adamant but received support from many of his colleagues.

Bad ideas, Culture, Literature

मुक्तिबोध : हृदय के पंख टूटने पर

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यह मुक्तिबोध की जन्मशती नहीं है. कोई ऐसा अवसर जिसके बहाने कवि या रचनाकार पर वार्ता फिर से शुरू करने का आयोजन किया जाए. एक तरह से यह मुक्तिबोध को असमय, बिना किसी प्रसंग के पढ़ने का निमंत्रण है. हर दूसरे दिन हम मुक्तिबोध के साथ हाजिर होंगे.

मुक्तिबोध शृंखला;1

“प्रिय नेमि बाबू,

आपका पत्र नहीं. समय का भाव नित्य से अधिक ही होगा. पर याद आपकी आती रहती है. आजकल धूप अच्छी खिलती है और मन तैर तैर उठता है, और आपकी याद भी इसी सुनहले रास्ते से उतर आया करती है.”

देखा अक्टूबर का ख़त है. 26 अक्टूबर,1945 का. शारदीया धूप ही रही होगी? सोचता हूँ, मुक्तिबोध को “अँधेरे में” लिखने में अभी वक्त है. कोई 13 साल बाद वे इस कविता को लिखना शुरू करेंगे. और फिर उनकी याद से धीरे-धीरे यह धूप, यह सुनहली धूप पोंछ दी जाएगी. मुक्तिबोध अँधेरे के कवि रह जाएँगे. भीषण, भयंकर के भावों के.

उस युवा कवि का, लेखक का अपने मित्र को उसका पत्र न मिलने पर दिया गया उलाहना आगे पढ़ता हूँ. धूप ने उसके मन को रंग दिया है.

“गो मैं यह सोचता हूँ कि यह सब गलत है. दिन के बँधे हुए कार्य को अधिक बाँधकर करने के पक्ष में रहते हुए भी कामचोरी से दिली मुहब्बत टूट नहीं पाती. मैं मानता हूँ कि कर्तव्य ही सबकुछ है. … क्या ज़रूरी है कि कर्तव्य किया ही जाय और उस समय आनेवाली आपकी याद को बाहर खड़ा रखकर मन के दरवाज़े को बंद कर दिया जाय.”

यह कर्तव्य है रोज़मर्रा की ज़िंदगी को पटरी से लगाए रखने का कर्तव्य. जो आदमी को धीरे धीरे घिस डालता है और उसे औसतपन की सतह से बाँध देता है. इससे कैसे छुटकारा पाएँ?

Continue reading मुक्तिबोध : हृदय के पंख टूटने पर →
Capitalism, Centre watch, Culture, Debates, Right watch

Missing footsoldiers seek positivity amid raging pandemic

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While Rome never burned, Nero never played the fiddle…

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Pragya Singh Thakur, the Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Bhopal, would never have imagined that the leading Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar would mark her return to her constituency after a 70-day gap with a sarcastic article published on its front page. The headline read, “He Digvijayi Sadhvi Pragya! Shukriya, Aap Ko Bhopal ki Yaad to Aayi—O World Conqueror, Many Thanks, You Remembered Bhopal at Last.”

The daily was giving vent to the feelings of the lakhs of citizens of the capital of Madhya Pradesh. Some had even organised a social media campaign revolving around their “missing” MP.

The last time Thakur was in the city was 2 March, to participate in a condolence meeting for a BJP leader. Thereafter, she was away from the city. The intervening period had proved extremely harsh for residents due to the deadly second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has already claimed hundreds of lives. 

The anger of citizens was palpable. That is why the daily asked her, “When Bhopal was sick and desperate for help, you were not to be seen. When the city needed oxygen and Remdesivir, you were still not here.”

The absence of an elected leader belonging to the ruling dispensation when people need her the most raises a pertinent question. Was this an exception? Forget the fact that the BJP-Sangh Parivar repeatedly claim they are “disciplined soldiers”, a number of those associated with right-wing organisations have gone missing in action. 

( Read the full article here)

Politics, Refugee crisis, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Resist the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians: Radical Socialist

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For more information on continuing Israeli attacks on Palestine, see Electronic Intifada  and What is happening in Sheikh Jarra.

Issued in 1981

Statement by Radical Socialist

Resist the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians! Oppose Zionism in the Streets! Fight for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.

Radical Socialist holds that the very existence of Israel is the existence of a colonial-settler state. The centuries of violence on Jews was carried out, not by Arabs, not by Muslims, but first by the Romans, then by Christian Europeans. Within that, the UN in 1948 had given only a small area. Over the decades, a continuously aggressive Israel has expanded, has occupied territories originally identified for Palestinians. The Naqba has been a never ending process of ethnic cleansing. Protected by US imperialism, in the initial phases by the Soviet bureaucracy, and also by the military power it has built up, Israel has waged a permanent war on the Palestinians.

The current conflict must be viewed from that broader perspective. It is not a conflict between two more or less equal sides. It is not a case where Hamas is to be held as responsible, or even almost as responsible, as Israel. It is Israel that is fully responsible for the renewed bid at ethnic cleansing by pushing Palestinians out of East Jerusalem and elsewhere. With an ultra-right figure like Netanyahu, the failure to form a stable government after the last elections was adequate reason to stoke Zionist sentiments further. Continue reading Resist the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians: Radical Socialist →

Capitalism, Government, Movements, Politics, Right watch

Why Federalism Must Become the Fulcrum Of Politics In Coming Days

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MPs demonstrtate in parliament for states' GST dues
MPs demonstrtate in parliament for states’ GST dues, 17 September 2020, Photo: Twitter/@priyankac19, courtesy The Statesman

A shorter version of this article appeared in Bangla earlier in Sahomon.

The question of federalism and Centre-State relations has been on many people’s minds lately, given that the Centre in the Modi dispensation has been hell bent on usurping the powers of the states while slyly thrusting all responsibility on to their shoulders. As a matter of fact, it was precisely during the outbreak of Covid19, when there should have been maximum cooperation between the Centre and the States, that the strains started showing in a glaring manner. Very early on, it became clear that the Centre was intent upon using the pandemic to usurp more and more powers, while riding roughshod not only on the rights of ordinary citizens but also of the States. In dealing with the pandemic, not only were the mandatory  consultations with the States not held, they were in fact simply handed over decisions. The most dramatic of all these, of course, was the completely bizarre manner in which the Lockdown was declared last year, at just four hours notice. The huge tragedy that followed was totally avoidable had there been prior consultations and had the Prime Minister, just for one moment, behaved like one. As a matter of fact, the record of this government over the past seven years has been pretty consistent in this regard at least. Continue reading Why Federalism Must Become the Fulcrum Of Politics In Coming Days →

Politics, Right watch

Hany Babu needs urgent medical treatment, release him now: CJP’s plea to Maharashtra CM

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To sign this petition, please go to this link.

Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) is deeply worried about Professor Hany Babu’s health, in wake of news that he is suffering from a serious eye infection that could lead to loss of vision in one eye. According to his family, he has little or no vision in his left eye due to the swelling caused by the infection, which has spread to the cheek, ear and forehead. The family fears the worst if the swelling spreads to his brain. And yet jail authorities have failed to provide him proper medical care.

The 55-year-old professor is an accused in the alleged Elgar Parishad conspiracy behind the Bhima Koregaon violence. He is currently lodged in Taloja Central Prison, Maharashtra and has been complaining of an acute eye infection, pain, and gradual loss of vision since May 3, 2021.

Continue reading Hany Babu needs urgent medical treatment, release him now: CJP’s plea to Maharashtra CM →

Feminism, Government, Images, Left watch

Gouri the Deathless

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My tribute to Kerala’s irreplaceable K R Gouri Amma. The brightest bolt of lightning that illuminated the dark skies of twentieth century Kerala.

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/kr-gouri-amma-death-kerala-politics-communist-party-7311386/

Culture, Feminism, Government, Movements, Politics

पितृसत्तात्मक हिंसा के प्रति शून्य सहिष्णुता की नीति अपना कर अपने संघर्षों को मज़बूत करें! – नारीवादी व महिला संगठनों के बयान

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टिकरी बॉर्डर पर युवा महिला कार्यकर्त्ता के साथ यौन हिंसा और अपहरण पर सार्वजनिक बयान, 9 मई, 2021

बंगाल से आयी असोसियेशन फॉर प्रोटेक्शन ऑफ़ डेमोक्रेटिक राइट्स (एपीडीआर), श्रीरामपुर की 26 वर्षीय कार्यकर्त्ता के 30 अप्रैल 2021 को बहादुरगढ़, हरियाणा में हुए निधन पर हमें गहरा अफ़सोस है। यह युवती किसान आंदोलन से बेहद प्रेरित हुई और 2 से 11 अप्रैल को बंगाल में आन्दोलन का प्रचार कर रहे किसान सोशल आर्मी के साथ टिकरी बॉर्डर पर आंदोलन के प्रति अपना समर्थन दर्ज कराने आयी थी। उसे खोने का शोक मनाते हुए, हम टिकरी बॉर्डर पर उसके द्वारा बिताये चंद दिनों के दौरान उसके साथ हुए घटनाक्रम के बारे में सुन कर भी बेहद चिंतित और परेशान हैं।

Continue reading पितृसत्तात्मक हिंसा के प्रति शून्य सहिष्णुता की नीति अपना कर अपने संघर्षों को मज़बूत करें! – नारीवादी व महिला संगठनों के बयान →

Culture, Feminism, Movements, Politics

Strengthening our Struggles through Zero Tolerance to Patriarchal Violence: Statement by Women’s organizations

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Public Statement on the Sexual Assault and Abduction of a Young Woman Activist at Tikri Border issued on 9 May 2021

We deeply mourn the death of a 26-year old activist from APDR (Sreerampur) in West Bengal, who passed away on 30th April, 2021 at Bahadurgarh in Haryana. She was deeply inspired by the farmers’ movement and had gone to express her solidarity at the Tikri border with the Kisan Social Army who had been campaigning around Bengal from 2nd April to 11th April, 2021. As we mourn her loss, we are also deeply troubled and concerned on hearing the events that had unfolded during her short stay at the Tikri border.

Continue reading Strengthening our Struggles through Zero Tolerance to Patriarchal Violence: Statement by Women’s organizations →

Government, Politics, Right watch, Scams

Yogi Model of Fighting COVID Second Wave – Attacking People Rather Than Virus: Himanshu Shukla

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Guest post by HIMANSHU SHUKLA

As India updated its COVID cases on April 30th, it became the first country to register over 4 lakh infection in a single day. This record breaking second-wave spike in the country opened the Pandora’s Box of the Modi-led central government’s claim of defeating the pandemic. The government patted itself for successfully defeating the virus and bringing normalcy in the country, without getting hit very hard like many other countries. The second wave of virus has showed up the naked picture of the hollow claims that the government made about their preparedness to tackle COVID.

India is now the epicentre of infection, accounting for 46% of world’s total cases and quarter of deaths. The ravaging crisis brought about cries for oxygen countrywide. Mass deaths due to unavailability of medical care is the new picture that India portrays of its incompetence in dealing with the second wave. The recent editorial of Lancet slammed Modi government, mentioning that the second wave is a ‘self inflicted national catastrophe’.

Continue reading Yogi Model of Fighting COVID Second Wave – Attacking People Rather Than Virus: Himanshu Shukla →

Feminism, Politics, Right watch

That Monday will not come, Judge Sahib: Swarajbir

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Posted below is the English translation of a Punjabi poem by SWARAJBIR, Editor of Punjabi Tribune, on the culpability of the state. The poem in the original Punjabi is at the end.

Mahavir Narwal breathed his last yesterday, of Covid. He was an active member of the CPI(M) and the father of Natasha Narwal, activist of Pinjra Tod, a feminist collective, who has been in jail for a year along with Debangana Kalita, another Pinjra Tod activist. Along with many others, Natasha was accused on the basis of no evidence, of having caused the violence in Delhi in January-February  2020, the violence that was in fact carefully planned and orchestrated by the forces that run this regime.

What all the activists jailed for the 2020 Delhi violence are guilty of, is the firm commitment to equal rights to citizenship in India, and unrelenting opposition to the regime’s continuing attempt to establish Hindu Rashtra, a project rejected by the vast masses of this country, and which we will resist and defeat through militant non-violent means.

When accounts are drawn up of this criminal regime, we will remember the disrespect to the Constitution repeatedly shown by different arms of the judiciary.  Natasha was refused bail on earlier occasions, and her latest plea for bail to meet her Covid-stricken father one last time, was scheduled to be heard today, Monday the 10th of May, the morning after Mahavir Narwal’s death.

Dear Kind Judge Sahib

Swarajbir

Kind Judge Sahib,
Mahavir Narwal is dead.
Yes Judge Sahib,
Natasha’s father
is no more in this world.

Kind Judge Sahib,
A day ago, this daughter
had come to your Court.
She had not said
“Don’t prosecute me”
She had not said
“Declare me innocent” Continue reading That Monday will not come, Judge Sahib: Swarajbir →

Bad ideas

triumphalist torturers: or, life in kerala is no breeze

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[Buffeted by many kinds of emotions, unable to think straight, eyes and mind clouded again and again with tears and the most tenebrous, threatening emotional clouds — this state of mind has been constant in me since many months. I have not been able to compose myself enough to write political commentary in these tumultuous times on Kafila, as I have always done. Not just because of the disease. I increasingly feel as if I am on my last journey, a forbidding one on a narrow, winding, rough, path up a hill, walking without being able to look left or right, unable to turn or help companions falling on the way behind me. Like Yudhishtira, maybe, but without knowing what lies beyond this mountain path up there.

Continue reading triumphalist torturers: or, life in kerala is no breeze →
Capitalism, Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Government

Why no one is talking about indo-british trade deal ?

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Guest Post : New Socialist Initiative NSI Facebook Page

Samuel Johnson famously said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” The two prime ministers in the photograph below would claim to be patriots both. The scoundrel part should be left to your judgment, but it is obvious that both of them cannot claim to be patriots at the same time.

These two prime ministers came up with a deal a couple of days ago that no one in India is talking about.  Even the Indian government, uncharacteristically, is not trumpeting about it. The UK government announced the day before yesterday that it sealed a deal with India in which Indians will make a one billion pound ($1.39 billion) investment in the UK creating 6500 British jobs. In addition India will open its market doors wider by reducing tariffs not only on British cars and British whisky but also on British apples and pears.

It looks curiouser than Alice’s Wonderland. India lost 7.25 million jobs in April alone. Actually tens of millions of Indian jobs have been lost during the pandemic and during the Modi misrule. And Indian moneybags facilitated by the Modi government are going to invest more than Rs 10 thousand crores in the UK creating highly paid British jobs! On top of that India will also hurt the interests of Indian producers of apples and pears (also of cars and whiskeys) by lowering tariffs on British goods. What is India gaining out of it?

But if you think about it, it is not so surprising. This is a government that spends tens of thousands of crores on a new central vista, a new parliament and a new house for the Prime Minister at a time when thousands are dying due to shortage of oxygen and of hospital beds. This is also a regime under which its favourite corporate houses have registered fattest profits ever during the worst humanitarian crisis that India is groaning under.

This Prime Minister not only helps corporate houses to amass mountains of wealth in an India where people are losing jobs, facing unimaginable hardships – many are on the verge of starvation; where cremations pyres are spilling on to the roads and burning 24×7. He also helps them take that money to safe houses on foreign shores – invest in rich countries and create jobs there. Can he qualify to be a patriot, even if one ignores Samuel Johnson’s reference to being a scoundrel? 

How anti-national this government and this Prime Minister can become? And why is this Indo-British deal not being talked about here in India?

Centre watch, Debates, Government, Law

covid-19 mismanagement : Can india ‘do’ a brazil ?

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Brazil’s Parliamentary Enquiry is probing the way the Bolsonaro-led government handled the pandemic leading to the deaths of 4,00,000 Brazilians.

Covid mismangement

Jail Bolsonaro, the far right President of Brazil, is a worried man these days. The next round of elections for the post of President is merely a year away and there is a strong possibility that his bete noire Lula – former President of Brazil between 2003 and 2011 – can be in the ring to challenge him. The Supreme Court of Brazil has annulled Lula’s two bribery convictions, and if he plans the 75 year old charismatic Lula can give him a tough challenge.

The worrisome aspect is the unfolding Parliamentary Enquiry, which seeks to focus on the way the Brazil government handled the pandemic, what his critics call ‘disastrous and potentially criminal response to Covid that has killed 4,00,000 Brazilians and the nightmare still continues.

An indication of the fact that this enquiry is not going to be a formality can be gauged from the way one of its key members, Sen Humberto Costa, who was a former health minister, put it; he said, “It is a true health, economic, and political tragedy, and the main responsibility lies with the president,” and he believes there is enough evidence to conclude that Bolsonaro committed “crimes against humanity”. Costa is not alone in his assessment of Bolsonaro, many other analysts have also used similar label for him.

( Read the full text here)

Centre watch, Government, Left watch, Politics

Post-Election Musings -Federalism to the Fore: Nakul Singh Sawhney

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Guest post by NAKUL SINGH SAWHNEY

Some observations and takeaways from State Assembly elections in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Assam in May 2021 – from an original Facebook post. The observations are in the form of informal reflections but they point towards certain developments that might open up new, anticipated spaces for the struggle for a democratic India.

Federalism: The Election verdicts of May 2, 2021, from Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Kerala scream ‘federalism’. The election results are so vastly different in the State Assemblies and Lok Sabha. The election outcomes of Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana, West Bengal, Kerala are important examples of this phenomenon.

India is a country that naturally lends itself to federalism and greater state autonomy. While the Congress, by and large, didn’t allow for it, the BJP is hell-bent on a deeply centralized structure and crushing any aspiration for regional autonomy. If progressive forces don’t take up the question of federalism and state autonomy, then it runs the risk of slipping into the hands of crude chauvinists and xenophobes like Shiv Sena of yesteryears or secessionists like Khalistanis.

Continue reading Post-Election Musings -Federalism to the Fore: Nakul Singh Sawhney →

Centre watch, Government, Law, Media politics, Right watch

Hey Ram ( Rajya) !

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Teachers as Cannon Fodder During Covid 19 ?

covid 19 ram rajya

“There is in every village a torch – the teacher; and an extinguisher – the priest.” -Victor Hugo

Hugo, the great French writer and activist, had famously described the role education or a teacher plays in a backward society, where education was still a preserve of the few.

Perhaps we Indians can associate with it more since this has been a society where education was denied to the vast majority of people for hundreds of years just because they were born into so-called unclean families. How the mere exposure to rudimentary education could transform someone like a Muktabai – a girl born to one of the depressed caste families – challenges these age-old denials with vehemence.

It can be said with a degree of certainty that Hugo would not have envisaged a situation when the Priest himself assumes power or where a monk himself becomes the ruler.

The biggest state within the Indian Union, namely Uttar Pradesh, with a population of more than 200 million people, provides a glimpse of this phenomenon unfolds in the field of education. The state is presently governed by monk-turned-politician Yogi Adityanath; a man who till he became Chief Minister was a member of Parliament and had the sole experience of running a religious mutt.

Reports mention that 135 teachers and teaching assistants died owing to their duties in Panchayat elections in the state. A teachers’ association said how right from the days of training teachers for election duty to the actual elections, thousands of teachers and teaching assistants had contracted COVID-19.The counting of votes for these elections will occur on May 2.

( Read the full article here)

Left watch, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Ominous Dark Clouds Over Bengal’s Skies…

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A demonstration by the ‘No Vote to BJP’ campaign in Kolkata, (older image) courtesy The Telegraph

As close to 8.5 lakh voters spread over 35 Assembly constituencies go to vote today in the last phase of Bengal’s elections, the line from the famous jatra Nabab Siraj-Ud-Doula from which the title of this post is extracted, haunts. The original ‘jatra pala’, written by Sachin Sengupta was staged in 1938 had a dialogue that announced the dark clouds collecting at Bengal’s horizons. The lines ‘Banglar akashe aaj durjoger ghanaghata/ Taar shyamal prantore rakter alpona’ have since resounded in the many iterations of the play, over the decades. The figures of Siraj-Ud-Daula and the traitor Mir Jafar have generally become part of Bengal’s political vocabulary but this time round the sense of Bengal being under attack from ‘outsiders’ has been pervasive. Along with that other episode of political folklore – repeated attacks by the borgis or the plunderous cavalrymen of the Maratha Empire, on Bengal has been recalled often. The attacks by the borgis were followed, only a few years later, by the Battle of Plassey (Palashi), in which Siraj-Ud-Daula was defeated after Robert Clive bribed Mir Jafar, his army commander, to betray the Nawab. 

This time round too, it is widely believed, the aggression by ‘outsiders’ cannot and will not succeed but for the Mir Jafar’s who collaborate with the aggressors.

Continue reading Ominous Dark Clouds Over Bengal’s Skies… →

Culture, Debates, Government, Identities, Law

Why ensuring dalit human rights is still a tough task in the 21 st century

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‘Sunped in Haryana and Natham in Tamil Nadu, separated from each other by hundreds of kilometers, populated by communities speaking different languages and cultures, find themselves connected because of this ‘Unity in Diversity’ of a different kind; being witness to atrocities on Dalits in very many ways.’

Representational image. | Image Courtesy: Wall Street Journal

“The Smallest Coffins are the Heaviest”.

Sunped, a small village in Faridabad, Haryana, hit the national headlines recently once again, when a CBI court gave its verdict in case of the deaths of two Dalit children.

If memory does not fail you, one would recall that this village had witnessed the deaths of two children – two and a half year-old Vaibhav and ten-month-old Divya – who were burned alive and their parents Rekha and Jitender suffering burn injuries half a decade ago. 

These deaths in a village which had a background of simmering conflict between dominant castes and Dalits, despite police protection provided to the ill-fated family, had caused  tremendous uproar at the national level. Rallies and marches were held in different parts of the state and in the rest of India as well, demanding justice for the family. A callous statement by a Union Cabinet Minister about the incident where he argued that the government cannot be held responsible if “someone throws stones at a dog” had then added further fuel to the fire.

Perhaps to douse popular anger, the state government led by Manohar Lal Khattar had ordered a CBI enquiry into the case. It also took into custody eleven members of the dominant caste (namely Rajputs) from Sunped for their alleged involvement in these killings, based on a complaint by the victims.  

The verdict by the CBI court in the case has landed the struggle for justice in this particular case into a black hole. 

( Read the full article here)

Capitalism, Culture, Debates, Politics, Religion

What happens when faith overrides sense ?

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The severity of the second wave and the government’s unpreparedness demonstrate the limits of ‘strong’ leadership and religion-based politics.

What Happens When Faith Overrides Sense?
Image : Courtesy PTI

It was 1527, and Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation, wrote a letter advising a Lutheran leader what a believer should do during an epidemic. Europe was in the deadly grip of the bubonic plague at the time. It had killed thousands of people.

Extracts of his letter are relevant even today, especially the parts where Luther talks about what to do during an epidemic: “…Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.”

Tirath Singh Rawat, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, perhaps does not know of this letter or its contents. Surprisingly, he does not even seem to recall the experiences from last year. In fact, much of what happened during the Covid epidemic seems lost on him. In 2020, public places of worship and religious gatherings became super-spreaders of the virus. That is why, for the first time, religious congregations were banned everywhere from Mecca to the Vatican to arrest the spread of the pandemic.

So, it is strange that Rawat cannot recall how believers took the back seat and ceded space to science during the first wave. Indeed, he has made a specious claim that faith in God will overcome the fear of the virus, in the context of the Kumbh Mela, a gathering where tens of lakhs of people gathered earlier this month.

( Read the full text here )

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