Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
EDITORIAL: CAPITALISM AS USUAL
Vinod Mubayi and Raza Mir
The 5th of May 2018 was the 200th birth anniversary of Karl Marx. Marx’s ideas have reverberated across the world, including South Asia. In this issue, we include a tribute to Marx by Vijay Prashad as well as a history of a few communist parties in South Asia, notably Bangladesh and Pakistan. Read more…
THE SO-CALLED “CONSUMERS’ INTEREST”
Prabhat Patnaik
IN the wake of the take-over of Flipkart by Walmart, one is once again hearing an argument which one has often come across before, namely that having a large multinational in this sphere, which can do global sourcing for its products, will make goods cheaper for buyers and therefore be in the “consumers’ interests”. Read more…
PROFITING FROM THE POOR: THE EMERGENCE OF MULTINATIONAL EDU-BUSINESSES IN HYDERABAD
Sangeeta Kamat, Carol Anne M Spreen and Indivar Jonnalagadda
Over the last decade, education for the poor in the developing world has become an increasingly attractive market for global investors and multinational corporations. This movement, known as the Global Education Industry (GEI), is vested in setting up schools for profit. It presents private schools as the best alternative to public schooling and possibly the only alternative to universalising access to education in developing and emerging economies. Among developing countries, India is almost always underscored as an education market ripe with potential and profits. Read more…
KARNATAKA: DECEIT AND DEFEAT
Ravi Sharma
The high drama in Karnataka that ended with the shameful exit of B.S. Yeddyurappa after remaining as Chief Minister for 56 hours gives the BJP a bitter political lesson and secular parties an opportunity to unite against their common foe. Read more…
CITIZENS’ REPORT ON FOUR YEARS OF THE NDA GOVERNMENT 2014-2018
Since the time Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA) came out with its first Citizens’ Report on the BharatiyaJanta Party (BJP) led National Development Alliance (NDA) government in May 2015, India has witnessed an unprecedented political change whose sheer continuity has surprised many. Read more…
WHAT IS HOME? INDIAN AND PAKISTANI ARTISTS EXPLORE THE QUESTION THROUGH STORIES OF PARTITION
Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri
Rashmi Kaleka’s family was one of the countless many which came to India from Pakistan during Partition in 1947 but never really forgot what once was home. The sound installation artist grew up on stories about Pakistan and the house her parents, aunts and uncles lived in in Lahore. One of the stories, narrated to her in Punjabi by her father, involves a simple mesh door and the desire to bring a piece of home to India. Read more…
ANATOMY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF BANGLADESH
The rewriting of history has begun. On 30 June, 2000, the CPB (Communist Party of Bangladesh) arranged a meeting in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Moni Singh’s birth. Read more…
PAKISTAN ARCHIVES: HISTORY OF THE COMMUNIST MAZDOOR KISSAN PARTY
The Communist Party of Pakistan was created in 1948 with Sajjad Zaheer as its General Secretary. An unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government by anti-imperialist officers within the army led to the incrimination of members of the CPP in 1951. This was known as the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case. Read more…
ASHOK MITRA: A LIFE OF RARE RICHNESS
Prabhat Patnaik
A fellow economist and friend looks back at Ashok Mitra’s intellectual contributions and the wide range of his experiences, associations, and interests. Read more…
MARX TURNS 200
Vijay Prashad
I imagine Karl Marx at his desk in the British Library, reading the Blue Books produced by the British imperial officials, studying the large books of Smith and Ricardo, spilling ink onto his coat, wondering what chaos will meet him at home. Read more…
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