SECULARISM, DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

INSAF Bulletin 247 November 2022
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: COM KUMAR SHIRALKAR PASSES AWAY

Vinod Mubayi

From time to time, the Insaf Bulletin’s editorial column pauses its review and analysis of current events to focus on the lives of recently departed progressive South Asian comrades whose work greatly enriched their academic, social, or cultural community in many ways. In March 2022, we paused to remember our comrades Sudheer Bedekar and Aijaz Ahmad who passed away then.

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MODI LED BJP GOVT HAS MADE INDIA THE HUNGER HOTSPOT OF THE WORLD

The Global Hunger Index 2022, released on October 13, shows that India’s rank in the world has slipped further – from 101 last year to 107 this year – in terms of this important indicator of conditions of hunger and malnutrition.

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RISING HUNGER, GROWING POVERTY

Prabhat Patnaik

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) for 2022 recently came out, showing India occupying the 107th position among the 121 countries for which the index is prepared (countries where hunger is not a noteworthy problem are left out of the index). India’s score on the hunger index is 29.1 which is worse than the score of 28.2 it had in 2014. (The lower the figure the less is hunger).

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AVTAR SINGH JOUHL (1937 – 2022): BELOVED COMRADE – OBITUARY

Paul Mackney

On Tuesday morning, 10 October, a large and loud gathering of UCU strike pickets, outside South and City College Birmingham, stopped their singing, chanting, blowing of whistles and vuvuzelas to observe a minute’s silence.

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‘HUMANS BEFORE HINDUS OR MUSLIMS,’ SAY MEN WHO SAVED LIVES DURING DURGA IDOL IMMERSION IN BENGAL

Astha Savyasachi

While in Gujarat, cops were seen thrashing Muslim men over an alleged attack on a Garba event, in Bengal, three Muslim men risked their lives to save around 30 people from drowning in flash floods.

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EAGLES AND SHARKS: FINANCIAL IMPERIALISM IN PAKISTAN AND SRI LANKA

Hashim bin Rashid

Sri Lanka and Pakistan today face the largest economic crisis in their histories. Domestic currencies appear on the verge of collapse, import bans have been announced, and inflation is at an all-time high as indicated by spikes in fuel and food prices.

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THE UNMISSABLE MAINSTREAMING OF THE HINDU RIGHT’S HATE FOR MUSLIMS

Dhirendra K Jha

Just about a fortnight before Bharatiya Janata Party MP Parvesh Verma’s call for a “total boycott” of “these people,” a sinister anti-Muslim message emerged from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Nagpur headquarters.

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NEOLIBERAL DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES: HEGEMONY AND THE MIDDLE CLASS IN PAKISTAN

Umair Javed

Book Review: The Struggle for Hegemony in Pakistan: Fear, Desire and Revolutionary Horizons by Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, Pluto Press, 2022; pp 192.

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BATTERED BY FLOODS AND TRAPPED IN DEBT, PAKISTANI FARMERS STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE

Christina Goldbaum and Zia ur-Rehman

NAWABSHAH, Pakistan — The young woman waded into the waist-deep floodwater that covered her farmland, scouring shriveled stalks of cotton for the few surviving white blooms. Every step she took in the warm water was precarious: Her feet sank into the soft earth. Snakes glided past her. Swarms of mosquitoes whirred in her ears.

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