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: HECKLING IN PARLIAMENT, LYNCHINGS IN THE STREETS: INDIA’S NEW GOVERNMENT HITS THE GROUND RUNNING
Vinod Mubayi and Raza Mir
On the 19th of June 2019, India’s 17th parliament was sworn in by the speaker of the Lok Sabha. Muslims and Dalit leaders who took the oath were taunted incessantly by members of the ruling BJP in a naked act of intimidation. Troubled times could not have been announced more presciently. Read more…
HOW THE NATIONALISM OF INDIA’S ANTI-COLONIAL STRUGGLE DIFFERS FROM HINDUTVA AND WHY IT MATTERS TODAY
Prabhat Patnaik
The concept of nationalism that informed India’s anti-colonial struggle was a unique and unprecedented idea. There were at least three ways in which it was the very opposite of the concept of nationalism developed in Europe in the wake of the Westphalian peace treaties in the 17th century. Read more…
POPULISM PLUS
Partha Chatterjee
The Narendra Modi triumph has been built on two projects: one, the representation of Modi as the unquestioned populist leader who could be trusted to defend the nation’s security, and two, the long-term project of a nationalism defined by the Hindu majority. Read more…
WHAT DID INDIA REALLY VOTE FOR?
Vamsi Vakulabharanam and Sripad Motiram
The recently concluded election produced a puzzling outcome. During the tenure of the National Democratic Alliance government (NDA-II), the Indian economy significantly under-performed, heightening the distress of millions of farmers, raising unemployment and increasing the insecurity of workers in the informal sector. Read more…
MODI WON POWER, NOT THE BATTLE OF IDEAS
Amartya Sen
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India has led his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party to a major victory in the country’s general elections, winning more than 300 of the 543 parliamentary seats and five more years to run the country. Read more…
MOB LYNCHING AND THE INDIAN STATE
Irfan Engineer
Please see video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcr8QTPM9Io&feature=youtu.be Read more…
THE SPECTRE OF FOREIGNNESS
Harsh Mander
Extending the concept of foreigners tribunals from Assam to rest of India will result in an upheaval that will stir memories of Partition. Read more…
OF MANGOES, MOSQUES AND MUSLIMS : A TALE OF UNCHEYGAON, MY VILLAGE
Syed Areesh Ahmad
Politics is writ large on the landscape of Uncheygaon whether people talk about it or not. It is there in the graveyards that the Akhilesh government built, or the toilets, the izzat ghars, that the Modi government constructed. But I sensed that there has been a general apathy regarding politics in the muslim community of the village since the rise of Modi. Read more…
AUTHORITIES MUST ENSURE SAFETY OF DR. PUNIYANI, WHO HAS BEEN A STRONG SECULAR VOICE AND CRUSADER FOR COMMUNAL HARMONY
Courtesy SACW
Civil Society strongly condemns the criminal intimidation and threats made to noted scholar and ant-communalism activist Dr. Ram Puniyani and demand speedy and thorough investigation into the crime. Read more…
TO SANJIV BHATT, A MAN WHO DISPLAYED THE HIGHEST COURAGE
Harsh Mander
Dear Sanjiv,
I don’t know whether you will get to read this letter, and if so when. Possibly your indomitable life partner Shweta Bhatt will carry a copy to you when she goes next to meet you in prison. But she has, at this moment, so much to fight and cope with, she may well forget the trivial matter of this letter. Read more…
BOOK REVIEW: LABOUR IN THE INDIAN ECONOMY
Jayan Jose Thomas
Labour and Development: Essays in Honour of Professor T S Papola edited by K P Kannan, Rajendra P Mamgain and Preet Rustagi, New Delhi: Academic Foundation, 2017; pp 722, ? 1,495 (hardcover). Read more…
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