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).
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.
Read more…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.
Read more…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.
Read more…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.
Read more…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.
Read more…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.
Read more…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.
Read more…VIOLENCE AT UCLA: OPEN LETTER TO CHANCELLOR GENE BLOCK
Vinay Lal
Chancellor Gene Block
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
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