SECULARISM, DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

INSAF Bulletin 272 December 2024
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: MODI’S CHICKENS COMING HOME TO ROOST

Vinod Mubayi

Despite the unexpected post-Diwali gift handed to the BJP and its allies by voters in Maharashtra, other developments on the international scene suggest that the chickens let loose by the Modi regime in the US and Canada are now coming home to roost along with the shenanigans of Modi’s BFF and favorite business partner, Gautam Adani, who has been indicted on both criminal and civil charges in the US.

AFGHAN REFUGEES AND THE LEFT IN SIND

Ayyaz Mallick

The question of Afghan migrants is a test case for Sindh’s Left, progressive, and nationalist groups.

This article, originally in Urdu (and available here), was written in December 2023 during a campaign by the Pakistani state to deport Afghan migrants and refugees. It responded to heated discussions on this issue among Sindh-based Left and nationalist groups. The article led to further debates between the author and comrades of the Critical Studies Forum and Porhiyat Muzahimat Tehreek (Workers Resistance Movement), Sindh.

SOUND IN PALESTINE: SETTLER COLONIALISM AND THE ACT OF SELECTIVE DEAFNESS

Archisha Rai

The genocide of the people of Palestine is still ongoing. Despite a plethora of video evidence and testimonies from Palestine itself, the world remains deaf to the cries of Palestinians. Locating the sociality of sound and the act of political listening in the case of the ongoing genocide, it is argued that listening, in the truest sense, is a political act that shapes our experience of the social. When we close ourselves to the sounds of certain people, ideas, movements, etc, we create for ourselves a “socially induced hearing impairment,” which is crucial to the way we experience and perceive the social around us.

KILLING SEASON IN PAKISTAN: WILL THE VIOLENCE AGAINST SHIAS EVER END?

Fatima Bhutto

It is killing season in Pakistan. For the country’s most vulnerable, it is perpetual, bloody, and passes without redress or justice. For Shias, since 1990, there has been little respite from an open season of violence. Last week, at least 42 Shia pilgrims, including six women and children, who were traveling in the northern town of Parachinar, the capital of Kurram district, were killed when their convoys came under heavy gunfire.

GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT: POST-UPRISING BANGLADESH GRAPPLES WITH POWER, INCLUSION, AND HOPE

Abdullah Zahid and Pragyan Srivastava

At a Southasian panel discussion, participants from Bangladesh analysed the country’s future with some cautious optimism and hoped for progress beyond the ongoing struggles for minorities, women, and the working class.

BOOK REVIEW: AN ICONOCLAST ON AN ICONOCLAST

Ashok Gopal

In his posthumously published tome, The Buddha and his Dhamma, B.R. Ambedkar presents his view of the Buddha’s life and his teachings, according to purposes he considers important. In the process, he departs from established narratives and interpretations.

TALK ON SAVARKAR AT THE 17TH ALL-INDIA VIDROHI SAHITYA SAMMELAN

Niranjan Takle

[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966), who coined the word Hindutva, is a leading icon of the political movement currently ruling India. His portrait now hangs in the Indian Parliament in close proximity to that of Mahatma Gandhi. Ironically, Savarkar was accused of supplying the pistol used to assassinate Gandhi on Jan. 30, 1948.

DO NOT DISTURB AJMER’S COMMUNAL HARMONY FOR CHEAP POPULARITY

People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan

Press Release

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties has condemned the misleading claims and propaganda against the Ajmer Dargah and has called for adherence to the laws established regarding religious places.

EDITORIAL: VIKSIT BHARAT (DEVELOPED INDIA) AND VISHWA GURU (WORLD SAGE): PROPAGANDA AND REALITY

Vinod Mubayi

Two slogans repeated endlessly by Modi regime cohorts, the godi (lapdog) media in India, and Modi himself in recent years are: “Viksit Bharat” (Developed India) by 2047 with a multi-trillion-dollar economy and “Vishwa Guru” (World Sage) that could refer to either Modi or the country, under his rule of course. Events in the last year have thrown doubt on the validity of these slogans.

ISRAEL’S BRUTALITY IN GAZA, INDIA’S PIN-DROP SILENCE

Zoya Hasan

October 7, 2024 marked one year of Israel’s war on Gaza and its relentless bombing of the Gaza Strip killing nearly 42,000 people. The prime victims of the heartless war have been civilians, women and children in Gaza, West Bank and now Lebanon; 16,705 Palestinian children have been killed, the largest in any conflict in one year.

SITARAM YECHURY: THEORETICIAN OF PRAXIS AND THE PRACTITIONER OF THEORY

Nellore Narasimha Rao

Prabhat Patnaik summed up comrade Yechury’s personality in a single sentence “His affability, his lack of habit to put on airs, his gentleness and his modesty are legendary.”

POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INDIA’S HEALTH SECTOR: THE RG KAR HOSPITAL TRAGEDY

Amit Sadhukhan

‘Justice for RG Kar’, Kolkata, the ‘cultural capital of India’, has written new slogans reaching socially conscious academic spaces, especially the medical institutions of India.

AS PRIME MINISTER, INDIRA GANDHI DEALT WITH SOME SEEMINGLY UNSURMOUNTABLE CHALLENGES

Aditya Mukherjee

(This article was originally published on October 31, 2018).

The assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 was described by India Today then as the passing away of “a giant among pygmies” leaving the country in “shock, disbelief, anger”.

PEOPLE’S MEDIA AGAINST MONOPOLY CAPITAL: A CONVERSATION WITH P. SAINATH

Hadia Akhtar Khan

Hadia: P. Sainath is an award-winning writer, journalist and activist. Currently based in Mumbai, he serves as the founder and editor of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), which is an independent, multimedia, digital platform which showcases the stories of rural people and their impact on Indian politics and more. Hi Sainath!

THE GHOSTS OF GAZA

Vaishna Roy

They say history repeats itself. But one did not imagine it would come full circle in less than 80 years, when our memories are still leaching shock at the extent of the horror unleashed during the Holocaust when more than six million Jews were exterminated.

PAKISTAN’S FUTILE BAN ON THE PTM FAILS TO STOP A MAJOR CONSOLIDATION OF THE PASHTUN STRUGGLE

Hurmat Ali Shah

Hazrat Naeem Wazir, better known as Gilaman Wazir, would post his evocative poetry about Pashtun rights on Facebook, where it would be widely shared. He was often seen at gatherings of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), where his sing-song voice was heard advocating for Pashtun rights.

EDITORIAL: “DEMOCRATIC” STATES AND GENOCIDE

Vinod Mubayi

Israel’s genocidal assaults on the Arabs, first the Palestinians and now the Lebanese are intensifying. What are the world’s democratic nations doing? Polls have demonstrated that large numbers of people in the US, perhaps even a majority, support a ceasefire in Gaza that is rejected out of hand by the government of Israel. In a democracy, one might expect that the views of the people should be reflected in the policies of their government and elected representatives. However, of the 535 members of Congress, 100 Senators and 435 Representatives, barely 17, i.e. 3%, expressed support for a ceasefire.

NEW PALESTINE PARTY: VISIT OF MENACHEM BEGIN AND AIMS OF POLITICAL MOVEMENT DISCUSSED

To the Editors of the New York Times:

Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.

SCIENTIFIC SCRUTINY – A STITCH IN TIME

Vivek Monteiro

THE recent letter signed by 26 eminent scientists and academics addressed to the principal scientific advisor of the government of India, in response to the 2024 Vigyan Yuva S S Bhatnagar awards is remarkable and important in many ways.

‘BULLDOZER JUSTICE’: IRON IN THE NATION’S SOUL

Ashwani Kumar

The Supreme Court’s interim order of September 17, staying the demolition of properties of persons accused in criminal cases is premised on the unexceptionable principle of constitutional governance that the exercise of state power is accountable to the discipline of the Constitution. It is a reminder to executive authorities that merely paying lip service to procedural niceties is not a sufficient assurance of compliance with the requirements of legal due process.

FASCINATION FOR ‘HINDUTVA LITE’ AMONG OPPOSITION PARTIES

Subhash Gatade

Politics is a strange beast.

It looks incredulous how at times it helps Satans being metamorphosed into Saints and biggest murderers of hapless communities emerging as the defenders or ‘heartthrobs’ of their ‘own people.’

THE 2024 HARYANA ASSEMBLY ELECTION EXPLAINED

Ajachi Chakrabarti

The elections to the fifteenth Haryana Vidhan Sabha, held on 5 October, provided the first opportunity to see if the Bharatiya Janata Party is indeed losing its grip over parts of the Hindi heartland, as indicated by the general election earlier this year. The BJP came to power, for the first time in the state’s history, in 2014, a few months after Narendra Modi was first elected prime minister.

ELITE CAPTURE IS THE REAL ISSUE PLAGUING PAKISTAN’S ECONOMY

Salman Rafi Sheikh

Pakistan’s economy has shown glimmers of hope in recent months. The inflation rate was 9.6 percent in September – the first single-digit reading in three years and a stark contrast to 27.4 percent recorded a year ago. Fuel prices have fallen, largely due to decreasing oil prices worldwide.

EDITORIAL: MODI/BJP LOST THEIR PARLIAMENTARY MAJORITY: DID THEY LOSE THE ELECTION TOO? AND ARE THEY IN POWER COURTESY OF ECI?

Vinod Mubayi

Before the election results were declared on June 4, 2024, Modi and his cohorts had frequently bragged of winning 400+ seats, an overwhelming majority that would have permitted them to make any constitutional change they wished. Even with a simple majority of 300+ in the last Parliament, they had been able to do enough mischief such as abolish the statehood of Jammu & Kashmir, abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution, weaponize all the agencies of government to become foot soldiers of the ruling party, expel opposition members from the Lok Sabha at the whim of the government, and intimidate or suborn many members of the judiciary at all levels into supinely supporting the measures of the regime. Perhaps the most insidious related to the process of appointing members of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the independent constitutional body charged with conducting elections all over the country. The Supreme Court of India had recommended a three-person panel consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and the Chief Justice of India (CJI), to select the members of the ECI. The Modi regime rubbished this idea and got its parliamentary majority to pass a law removing the CJI from the ECI selection panel and substituting a government minister instead, thereby giving the regime an automatic majority in the ECI member selection.

HE WAS BRUTALLY KILLED BEFORE SHE COULD WRITE HER STORY FOR THE WORLD: THE THIRTY-FIFTH NEWSLETTER (2024)

Vijay Prashad

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

On 8 August 2024, a 31-year-old doctor at the RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata (West Bengal, India) finished her 36-hour shift at the hospital, ate dinner with her colleagues, and went to the college’s seminar hall to rest before her next shift. The next day, shortly after being reported missing, she was found in a seminar room, her lifeless body displaying all the signs of terrible violence. Since Indian law forbids revealing the names of victims of sexual crimes, her name will not appear in this newsletter.

THE COLONIAL ROOTS OF SRI LANKA’S TAX REGIME

Shiran Illanperuma

One of Colombo’s oldest institutions is the ‘Battle of the Blues’—an annual cricket match between Royal College and St. Thomas’ College; two boys schools established under colonial rule and modelled after England’s Eton College. Both have long served as incubators for much of Sri Lanka’s political and business elite.

A LACERATED LAND

Harsh Mander

[Preface to PEACE ELUDES MANIPUR: STATE APATHY TOWARDS THE ONGOING CONFLICT A FACT-FINDING REPORT By Irfan Engineer & Neha Dabhade]

BANGLADESH: HOW THE ‘ECONOMIC MIRACLE’ CRUMBLED

Prabhat Patnaik

A good deal of analysis of the recent political upheaval in Bangladesh has focussed on the high-handedness and authoritarianism of Sheikh Hasina’s government; it has either missed altogether, or generally underplayed, the change that has occurred in the economic situation in that country.

A.G. NOORANI: ARCHITECT OF THE ‘KASHMIR FORMULA’

Iftikhar Gilani

N. Ram, Director of The Hindu Group of Publications, once described Abdul Ghafoor Noorani’s ability to find obscure references and documents within minutes during a book launch in New Delhi. His well-equipped office at The Hindu could not match Noorani’s ability to find a reference or document within minutes, he said.

LONG READ: SHAH’S PLAYGROUND: BJP’S CONTROL OF CRICKET IN INDIA

Sharda Ugra

{ONE}

HOURS BEFORE the fourth cricket Test match between India and Australia for the Border–Gavaskar Trophy, on 9 March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the Narendra Modi Stadium, in Ahmedabad, alongside his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese. Chants of “Modi, Modi” resounded through the stadium. The two took a lap around the ground in a golf cart fashioned into a golden chariot, waving to the half-full stands. They sat on a dais and watched a dance performance. They presented caps to their respective captains and shook hands with the players, but only of their own teams.

EDITORIAL: THE CRISIS OF ELECTORAL DEMOCRACY

Vinod Mubayi

The crisis that afflicts what earlier generations on the left used to call bourgeois democracy is palpable. Despite the claims of ideologues like Francis Fukuyama who proclaimed the end of history when the Soviet Union collapsed and predicted that free-market liberal capitalist democracy would become the final form of human political development, it now appears that electoral democracy itself is in serious crisis. Nowhere is this crisis more pronounced than in the country that considers itself the world’s oldest democracy and a model for the rest of the so-called “free world.”

NARENDRA MODI BOUNCES BACK AS INDIAN PRIME MINISTER FOR THE THIRD TERM

Sumanta Banerjee

Although with a reduced majority in Parliament, Narendra Modi has come back to the seat of India’s Prime Minister, which he will occupy till 2029 – unless his two allies on whom he is depending, decide to unseat him. During his election campaign he followed the golden rule – credulity is the necessary ground for the success of deception.

INSAF BULLETIN MOURNS THE PASSING OF JAVED MALLICK

Jana Natya Manch

[We were very sad to receive news of the passing of our old friend and comrade Javed Mallick. The following obituary was brought out by one of India’s leading progressive theater organizations Jana Natya Manch, Janam, with which Javed was closely associated.-Ed]

MY EXPERIENCES OF WARI

Irfan Engineer

This year I joined the wari (procession to Pandharpur), which is a 250 km and 21 days long procession from Alandi and Dehu to Pandharpur, albeit for a day on Sunday 7th July for an approximately 8 km stretch from Baramati to Sansar. I desire to share the experiences and thoughts that came to my mind.

A PERSONAL TRIBUTE TO KARAMAT ALI (19 AUGUST 1945 – 20 JUNE 2024)

Mandira Nayar

A journalist in India remembers a Pakistani peace activist who brought home her late grandfather’s ashes

‘VOTE FOR DEMOCRACY’ REPORT ON CONDUCT OF GENERAL ELECTION 2024 RAISES CONCERNS OVER ‘DISCREPANCIES’

Sabrang

The report highlights the alleged malpractices occurred during the Lok Sabha elections 2024 and provides statistical insights into vote hikes and numerical discrepancies in recorded votes.

THE SPECTRES HAUNTING BANGLADESH

Nafis Hasan

Echoes of past anti-authoritarian uprisings reverberate within anti-quota protests.

A BUDGET WITH MANY AUTHORS BUT NO PLOT

Mitali Mukherjee

In the snap TV analysis post Budget, an industry head struggled to find the right adjectives to commend what he had just heard. “Frankly, I like the Budget,” he said, and added, “I think it is a good Budget” before pausing to hit home the central takeaway: “It is time to get back to business.” In the fine dust that settles after a storm of Union Budget coverage, it does seem like there is less and less to discuss around the Finance Minister’s seventh consecutive Union Budget.

MORAL FAILURES: THERE ARE NO MAGIC BULLETS FOR INDIA’S ECONOMIC CRISIS

Ashoka Mody

IN THE DOCUMENTARY The Fog of War, the former US defence secretary Robert McNamara says that if the Americans had lost the Second World War, they—especially, he—would have been prosecuted as a war criminal for fire-bombing Tokyo. His message was that the victor sets the rules and writes the narrative. Today, Indian and international elites, refusing to confront the economic and moral crisis India faces, have established a dominant narrative of a rising India poised to make generational leaps with the power of digital transformation.

EDITORIAL: ELECTION RESULT DERAILED MODI’S FASCIST VANDE EXPRESS; ITS AFTERMATH REVEALS THE CORRUPT UNDERBELLY OF “VIKSIT” BHARAT (DEVELOPED INDIA)

Vinod Mubayi

Many commentators have pointed out the significance of the loss suffered by the ruling BJP in the recent national elections. The loss of 63 seats from an absolute majority of 303 to a minority of 240, despite the many boastful speeches of Modi and Shah promising 400+ seats, have forced the BJP into a coalition with unreliable provincial partners like Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh and Nitish Kumar in Bihar to be able to form a government. More importantly, his diminished status has put a spoke in Modi’s headlong rush into sidelining the secular Indian Constitution to erect a Hindu Rashtra.

KARAMAT ALI: 1945-2024

PIPFPD, India chapter

The Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD, India chapter) extends heartfelt condolences and solidarity to the peace-loving people of South Asia on the passing of Karamat Ali on 20th June 2024

WILL THE SETBACK TO HINDUTVA POLITICS FORCE MODI 3.0 TO RETHINK ECONOMIC POLICIES?

C.P. Chandrasekhar

The election results, which gave both the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance a far fewer number of seats than they had in the previous Parliament, surprised many. But now, attention has shifted to assessing what that would do to this version of a Narendra Modi-led government in terms of its behaviour and policies in different spheres.

200 YEARS OF MALAIYAHA TAMIL LABOUR IN SRI LANKA

SALAM & Maynmai

A brief history of 200 years of involuntary migration, imposed statelessness, exploitation and marginalization of Upcountry or Malaiyaha Tamil tea plantation workers.

HATE SPEECHES AND SPIRAL OF HATRED IN THE BUILD UP TO GENERAL ELECTIONS

Irfan Engineer, Neha Dabhade and Mithila Raut

The month of April 2024, witnessed dramatic rise in communal discourse and targeting of Muslim minorities during election campaign for the 18th Lok Sabha. Even the Prime Minister of India delivered hate speeches in no less than ten occasions, according to the monthly monitoring of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.

CAPITALIST POVERTY VIS-À-VIS PRE-CAPITALIST POVERTY

Prabhat Patnaik

Poverty is taken to be a homogeneous phenomenon irrespective of the mode of production that is under consideration. Even reputed economists believe in this homogeneous conception of poverty.

RALLIED TOGETHER: THE CASTE ALLIANCES THAT WON UTTAR PRADESH

Sunil Kashyap

SWAMI PRASAD MAURYA, wearing a pinstriped Nehru jacket and a broad smile, guided Akhilesh Yadav, the president of the Samajwadi Party, onto a flower-festooned dais. It was a big day for Maurya, a moment representing the culmination of the many political trends in Uttar Pradesh that he had spent his life trying to unite.

‘MODI, BJP, RSS DON’T REPRESENT HINDU SOCIETY,’ SAYS RAHUL GANDHI IN LOK SABHA

Scroll Staff

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party do not represent Hindu society as a whole, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The Congress leader’s comments came in response to the BJP’s claims that he had, earlier in his speech, accused the entire Hindu community of being “violent”.

EDITORIAL: HOW LYING, AUTOCRATIC BEHAVIOR, STUPIDITY AND OFFICIAL MALFEASANCE ARE TENDING TO DESTROY INDIA’S DEMOCRACY

Vinod Mubayi

Whichever result the Indian election delivers on June 4th, the conduct of the entire campaign by the ruling BJP party led by Narendra Modi has seriously shamed the country and diminished the future prospects of electoral democracy in the country if the BJP, as widely forecast, manages to win. As the book How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt reminds us: “Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders—presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power.” One way of subversion these leaders use is to tell outright lies about their opposition, whether politicians or policies, that serve to polarize the electorate and divide them into hostile camps eroding the boundaries of toleration and acceptance needed to preserve a democratic polity. Donald Trump, who served as US President from 2016-2020 was often cited as a champion liar, accused of telling an average of a dozen lies every day. Modi is a close follower of this practice.

RELIGIOUS AMPLIFICATION VERSUS FRAYING CHARISMA: DECODING LOK SABHA ELECTIONS 2024

Arjun Appadurai

As India heads towards the home run of its 18th General Election-with just the last of the seven phases to be held on June 1, the slogans, posturing, and promises held out by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) point to a shifting of what was till recently taken as solid electoral ground beneath the party’s feet. At this stage of the election, Arjun Appadurai, Professor Emeritus, Media, Culture and Communication, New York University, connects the dots between popular political discourse, the approach of the ruling party to governance, its furtherance of its ideological agenda in a plural India, and the manner in which it has read the electorate.

FOR THE LOVE OF LANGUAGE, A MULTINATIONAL QUEST TO KEEP URDU ALIVE AND THRIVING

Abdullah Zahid

The Persian literary masterpiece ‘Gulistan-e-Saadi’, a collection of moral tales and aphorisms by the revered 13th-century poet Sheikh Saadi Shirazi has a new lease of life with the bilingual publication of three of Saadi’s classic tales.

NEHRU’S OTHER INDIAS

Priya Satia

Had Nehru’s commitments to federalism, internationalism, socialism, and secularism been purely principled rather than partly tactical, had they offered a vision of what it meant to be free or to be Indian or to be civilised in a post-colonial world, they might have indelibly defined a culture.

BAIL CONTINUES TO EVADE UMAR KHALID’S NAME

Gursimran Kaur Bakshi

Umar Khalid, an activist and former Jawaharlal Nehru University student, who was arrested on September 13, 2020 sought bail on the grounds of delay and parity with his co-accused who was granted bail in June 2021.

HINDUTVA’S CONSOLIDATION OF A VARNA AUTOCRACY IS DESTROYING THE REPUBLIC

Hartosh Singh Bal

We have never had an election like this before, with the people split between elation and foreboding. The majority eagerly anticipates the result, with many among them unconcerned about what it would mean for India or for the compact under which the country came into being. The smaller fraction hopes for, at best, any possible reduction in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s numbers that might bring a temporary respite to its betrayal of constitutional values.

VIVEKANANDA HELD HINDUISM IN HIGH ESTEEM BUT THE RSS AND SANGH PARIVAR’S CLAIM TO HIM IS MISGUIDED (BOOK EXCERPT)

Govind Krishnan V

The RSS and the Sangh Parivar claim Vivekananda as an inspiration; Vivekananda is most important in the Sangh’s pantheon of cultural figures. However, Vivekananda had no influence on the RSS in its formative years when it developed its political ideology of Hindutva, or in the years immediately following Independence.

LEAFLET BY LEAFLET, A FEW AGING ACTIVISTS FIGHT INDIA’S TIDE OF BIGOTRY

Sameer Yasir

One recent morning, Roop Rekha Verma, an 80-year-old peace activist and former university leader, walked through a north Indian neighborhood prone to sectarian strife and parked herself near a tea shop.

MAY DAY GREETINGS TO ALL OUR READERS!!!

EDITORIAL: THE MORAL VACUUM AT THE TOP OF LEADERSHIP IN THE TWO LARGEST DEMOCRACIES

Vinod Mubayi

The spectacle of the leaders of America’s elite academic institutions scurrying like suddenly exposed cockroaches, unable to respond clearly to questioning by thuggish McCarthyite politicians in Congress exposes the moral vacuum that exists at the top level of the leadership of institutions in the so-called free world, in the country that boasts of being the world’s oldest democracy. The majority of the students and faculty who are protesting Israeli actions at some of these universities have understood the lies and evasions of the ruling elite of their own institutions as well as of the country more broadly that aim to deny or sidestep the genocide being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.

INDIA’S MIDDLE CLASS IS CAUGHT IN A VORTEX OF ECONOMIC WOES AND DIVISIVE POLITICS

Mitali Mukherjee

India is on track to surpass Japan as the world’s fourth-largest economy in 2025, a year earlier than the International Monetary Fund previously projected. If that is the case, India’s booming economy should be the most important selling point for the country’s incumbent government in the ongoing election. But in the last fortnight, campaigning by the party has travelled the vitriolic arc of “machli” (fish, and dietary choices by individuals), “mangalsutra” (a factually wrong accusation that opposition parties will steal the assets of Hindus ) and Muslims.

MASUM STATEMENT: MEDIA: GLOOMING REALITY IN INDIA

On the eve of the Press Freedom Day on 3rd of May, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) shares its anxiety with the broader civil society platforms as the situation of freedom of any form of expression became grimmer in India day by day. This day was intended to raise awareness on the importance of freedom of press and to pay tribute to pressmen who lost their lives in the line of duty.

FOR PALESTINIAN MARTYRS: URDU LITERATURE AND PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE

Haider Shahbaz

Literary resistance and critique in Urdu has a long and illustrious history of challenging colonial and postcolonial states and their ideological apparatuses in South Asia. This tradition in Urdu literature is often identified with the Progressive Writers Association (PWA), an anticolonial and left-oriented cultural movement that started in colonial India in 1936. Its later manifestations in postcolonial India and Pakistan continued to exercise the imagination of progressive and left movements and revolutionaries.

HOW NARENDRA MODI HAS UNDERMINED THE PRACTICE OF SCIENCE IN INDIA

Ramachandra Guha

In 2009, I was having dinner with two distinguished academics, directors of top-ranked centres of scientific research. Both told me they had been receiving a stream of excellent applications for faculty jobs from researchers based abroad. This was unprecedented; they were far more familiar with Indian scientists leaving for jobs overseas. That was still happening, of course, but now there was also a substantial flow of scientific talent in the other direction, from the West back to India.

THE TYRANNY WILL GET WORSE: HINDUTVA’S CONSOLIDATION OF A VARNA AUTOCRACY IS DESTROYING THE REPUBLIC

Hartosh Singh Bal

WE HAVE NEVER had an election like this before, with the people split between elation and foreboding. The majority eagerly anticipates the result, with many among them unconcerned about what it would mean for India or for the compact under which the country came into being. The smaller fraction hopes for, at best, any possible reduction in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s numbers that might bring a temporary respite to its betrayal of constitutional values.

KAMGAR KARMACHARI SANGATHANA SAMYUKTA KRUTI SAMITI: MAYDAY APPEAL 2024

We pay respectful homage to the memory of the 5 Mayday martyrs of Chicago, the 104 martyrs of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement. Today workers have rights because of their struggle and sacrifice.

VIOLENCE AT UCLA: OPEN LETTER TO CHANCELLOR GENE BLOCK

Vinay Lal

Chancellor Gene Block

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

EDITORIAL: THE MOTHER OF DEMOCRACY ON TRACK TO BECOME THE FATHER OF AUTOCRACY

Vinod Mubayi

The current Indian regime led by the BJP and its leading figure Mr. Narendra Modi never tire of bragging about India/Bharat, as the mother of democracy. Although the record of the last decade that the BJP has been in power casts serious doubt on the veracity of this claim, recent events of the last week leave little doubt that India is fast becoming the Father of Autocracy. Freezing the bank accounts of the largest opposition party and jailing an opposition Chief Minister of Delhi (the National Capital Region) on flimsy, if not non-existent, evidence on the eve of national elections are not democratic actions to say the least. Rather, they are more like the acts of a despot who wants to prevent any chance of his opponents dislodging him from power.

ELECTORAL BONDS: WHY IT IS A GIANT SCAM

Meghnad S

Highlights

Electoral bonds will ensure anonymity. Since it is a bearer bond with no names on it, donors can be assured that their names will never be revealed. Even loss-making entities can donate infinite amounts to political parties. Donations to political parties through foreign sources are now allowed.

THE AFGHAN QUESTION AND THE CONTRADICTIONS OF PAKISTANI IDENTITY

Zehra Hashmi

On October 3, 2023, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry announced that all migrants living without legal status in Pakistan had twenty-eight days to leave voluntarily or face deportation. This announcement was primarily directed at the four million Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan, of whom 1.7 million are undocumented.

THE BHIMA KOREGAON CASE AND WHAT IT TELLS US ABOUT DEMOCRACY

Ziya Us Salam

At a raid on Bagaicha, the training centre and home of Jesuit priest and activist Father Stan Swamy in Ranchi, in August, 2018, the Pune police told him that he was a suspect in the Bhima Koregaon case. This shocked him, recalls Prakash Louis who has put together details of Swamy’s subsequent arrest and death in custody in a book, Fr Stan Swamy: A Maoist or A Martyr?.

SAVARKAR: INVENTING HINDU SUPREMACY

Mihir Dalal

To understand Narendra Modi’s India, it is instructive to grasp the ideas of the Hindu Right’s greatest ideologue, the world of British colonial India in which they emerged, and the historical feebleness of the present regime.

DECODING MODI’S STATEMENT ON MUSLIM LEAGUE ‘IMPRINT’ ON CONGRESS MANIFESTO

Modi’s Statement Aimed at Polarising Electorate

Now, in 2024, Modi is curiously discovering the ‘imprint’ of Muslim League in Congress manifesto. It is indeed beyond comprehension to see any link between the Muslim League of pre-independence period and the Congress manifesto.

LONG READ: CHEQUES AND IMBALANCES: THE TAMING OF THE ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA

Eram Agha

ON THE EVENING of 22 March, there was unusual activity at the Election Commission of India’s headquarters, on Delhi’s Ashoka Road. At about 5 pm, various representatives of opposition parties had started trickling onto the premises. A team of television reporters was already in place. Various leaders of the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance arrived, including Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress, Derek O’Brien of the All India Trinamool Congress, P Wilson of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

IF THE Z.A. BHUTTO TRIAL COULD BE DECLARED UNJUST, WHY NOT BHAGAT SINGH?

Chaman Lal

The Pakistan Supreme Court recently ruled that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was unjustly tried and executed, A similar case to be made to re-open the trial of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, hanged in Lahore on 23 March 1931 – a story that continues to capture the attention of rights activists and researchers in India, Pakistan and the South Asian diaspora.

EDITORIAL: WILL THE BJP’S PROCLAIMED FUTURE 1000-YEAR RAM RAJYA REPEAT ITS 10-YEAR RECORD OF RULE?

Vinod Mubayi

In a resolution passed by its national council on Sunday February 19, the BJP proclaimed the establishment of the Ram temple in Ayodhya heralds the advent of Ram Rajya in India for the next 1000 years. “The construction of a grand and divine temple of Lord Shri Ram at his birthplace in the ancient holy city of Ayodhya is a historic and glorious achievement for the country. This heralds the establishment of Ram Rajya in India for the next 1,000 years with the beginning of a new Kalachakra” (event cycle), said the resolution.

DECOLONISATION FOR THE HINDU NATIONALISTS: TOWARDS AN AUTHORITARIAN STATE

Irfan Engineer

Hindu nationalists pin their partisan acts favouring the majority community on the ‘decolonisation of ideas and culture’ hook. Decolonisation is often used interchangeably with de-Westernisation. Enactment of the three laws pertaining to criminal justice system in 2023 – Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniya, and Bhartiya Nagarik Surakhsha Sanhita – with more than 85% of the contents from the earlier legislations were also brought in with the plea of decolonisation.

WHY SHOULD DOMESTIC LABOUR BE FORMALISED IN SRI LANKA?

Devana Senanayake

Domestic labour is one of the most precarious forms of work, whether in Sri Lanka or in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Workers are at risk of exploitation, abuse and in many instances, death. In 2022, R. Rajakumari died from the physical abuse she experienced inside the police station.

FARMERS’ PROTEST: IT’S A BATTLE AGAINST SERVITUDE

Utsa Patnaik

Jawaharlal Nehru had written that once Britain obtained political control over India—which started effectively from 1765 with the East India Company wresting the right of tax collection in Bengal—our country’s economic development could no longer be understood in isolation, without considering its relation to international capitalism.

ANTI SEMITISM, PALESTINIANS & THE WEST

Kannan Srinivasan

The Hamas attack as well as Israel’s response might be placed in the context of the history of Zionism.

RESULT TAMPERING IN PAKISTAN’S ELECTION

Dawn Editorial

THE botched conduct of the Feb 8 election continues to haunt the Election Commission of Pakistan. After failing to meet the legal deadline of Feb 22 to publish all Form 45s, the Commission finally released the documents on Tuesday, in the process triggering another storm of complaints regarding blatant and, in some instances, rather crude manipulation of electoral results.

LONG READ: LEFT BEHIND: HOW THE SOCIALISTS ENABLED THE HINDU RASHTRA

Qurban Ali

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AT A PUBLIC MEETING IN DELHI, on 2 February 1948, the general secretary of the Socialist Party of India, Jayaprakash Narayan, reacted to the recent assassination of Mohandas Gandhi. Narayan demanded a ban on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha, believed to be behind the plot to kill Gandhi.

EDITORIAL: RAM MANDIR: THE UNHOLY UNION OF GOD AND GREED

Vinod Mubayi

Caught up in the incessant drumbeat of publicity created by the godi (lapdog) media that masquerades as Hindu religiosity, the goal of the consecration (pran pratishthan) ceremony on January 22 at the partially-constructed Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was always nakedly political – to manufacture the one Nation, One Leader image with Modi cast as the mythical Ram in preparation for the forthcoming national elections. The fact that this political goal was sought to be concealed under layers of religious myth pointedly illustrates the distance a supposedly secular state has drifted from its constitutional mooring.

ANNUAL REPORT OF BANGLAR MANABADHIKAR SURAKSHA MANCHA (MASUM)

Overview

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Indian government continued with state policies that discriminate and stigmatise religious and other minorities resulting in increasing incidents of communal violence in many parts of the country. In Manipur more than hundred were killed in ethnic clashes. The police in many states have failed to properly investigate crimes against minorities on the other hand police and administrative officials responded by summarily punishing victims.

MODI GOVERNMENT’S CRACKDOWN ON FCRA CRIPPLES CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS

T.K. Rajalakshmi

As prominent NGOs face suspension and cancellation of foreign funding licences, activists see worrying trend of government silencing critical voices.

RECASTING RAM: THE RAM TEMPLE AT AYODHYA IS A VEHICLE TO PROMOTE BRAHMINICAL SUPREMACY

Sagar

On 25 November 2023, Rambhadracharya, the high priest at a temple in the pilgrim town of Chitrakoot, in Madhya Pradesh, told a news channel that the Hindu god Ram had granted him a divine visitation one morning. He had woken up to relieve himself, he said, when Ram appeared before him in the form of a toddler, walked him to the bathroom and then back to his bedroom.

THE STRUGGLE FOR PRISON REFORM IN PAKISTAN

Zille Huma, Maira Mumtaz and Johar Imam

Pakistan’s prisons remain terribly overcrowded and under-resourced, and nascent efforts at progressive reform are stymied by ingrained attitudes of discrimination, including against religious and ethnic minorities.

A SINGLE HOLD-ALL MEASURE LIKE GDP IS A CAMOUFLAGING DEVICE

Prabhat Patnaik

It serves to hide the structural dichotomy introduced by imperialism — of growing urban-rural divide, gap between upper middle-income and working people, and large sector and MSMEs.

ON PUNJAB: AN INTERVIEW WITH TARIQ ALI

Gurshamshir Singh Waraich

Tariq Ali discusses the place of Punjab — its partition, its politicians and activists, and its poetry and languages — in the history of the subcontinent.

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Punjab’s partition, Chandigarh-based journalist Gurshamshir Singh Waraich conducted a video interview with British-Pakistani activist and writer Tariq Ali.

Greetings for the New Year!

EDITORIAL: AS 2024 DAWNS, INDIA SETS FIRM ON AUTOCRATIC COURSE

Vinod Mubayi

India has recently been dubbed an “electoral autocracy.” As 2024 arrives, the autocracy portion of that description acquires greater significance as every organ of the state from the police to the nominally independent investigative agencies, to the two national legislative bodies are being constantly weaponized by the ruling regime to target, attack and disempower all forms of dissent, whether political, social, or even cultural.

ISRAEL KILLED THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN IN GAZA. HOW CAN SO MANY ISRAELIS REMAIN INDIFFERENT?

Amira Hass

The Gaza Strip is gradually being erased, along with its families, its people, its children, their smiles and laughter. What enables the majority of Jewish Israelis to support this systematic and mass erasure?

INDIA TARGETS APPLE OVER ITS PHONE HACKING NOTIFICATIONS

Gerry Shih and Joseph Menn

A day after Apple warned independent Indian journalists and opposition party politicians in October that government hackers may have tried to break into their iPhones, officials under Prime Minister Narendra Modi promptly took action — against Apple.

IN BANGLADESH’S SHAM ELECTION, THE ONLY REAL CONTEST IS GEOPOLITICAL

Kamal Ahmed

On 7 January, Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, is set to claim re-election in what some observers have called “staged polling”, the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has termed a “dummy election” and The Economist has described as a “farce”. Desperate to avoid a genuine democratic exercise, Hasina’s government has preemptively removed its only real challenger from the field. More than twenty thousand BNP activists are behind bars, as are key BNP leaders, and the opposition party has decided to boycott the election rather than contest an unfair vote.

RECOLONISING YOUNG MINDS VIA NEP

Prabhat Patnaik

Imperialist hegemony over the Third World is exercised not just through arms and economic might but also through the hegemony of ideas, by making the victims see the world the way imperialism wants them to see it. A pre-requisite for freedom in the Third World, therefore, is to shake off this colonisation of the mind, and to seek truth beyond the distortions of imperialism.

MUZZLING THE PRESS

Kalpana Sharma

According to the 2023 report of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), India’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index fell from 150 out of 180 countries to 161, a drop of 11 points within one year. What does this noticeable decline mean on the ground, in how media and journalists function, and what readers and viewers are served as news? And what are the actions of the government that have contributed to this decline?

THE BJP’S FAR-FETCHED CONSPIRACY THEORIES ARE ENDANGERING THE SAFETY OF INDIANS ABROAD

Raju Rajagopal

The assassination of a Canadian Sikh citizen – allegedly at the behest of the Narendra Modi government – and its alleged plot to kill an American Sikh citizen are sending shock waves across the Sikh community and the larger Indian diaspora. Many believe that these two instances are merely the tip of the iceberg in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to silence critics abroad, which now includes frontal attacks on Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR).

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