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: AS THE ILLEGAL WAR ON IRAN ENTERS ITS SECOND MONTH TRUMP-NETANYAHU THREATEN BIGGER WAR CRIMES WHILE MODI CONTINUES TO OBFUSCATE ITS CRIMINALITY
Vinod Mubayi
The illegal Israel-US war on Iran now grinds on to a second month of conflict with no clear end in sight. Trump’s dream of doing a Venezuela-type operation has proved to be an illusion as Iran has shown itself to be a more formidable opponent. As this editorial is being written (April 5, 2026), Trump has issued an obscenity laced post on his Truth Social account threatening to commit bigger war crimes destroying Iran’s infrastructure of power plants and bridges unless the Strait of Hormuz is opened to shipping by Tuesday April 7. He wrote: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F**kin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.” This is the rant of a frustrated narcissist who considers himself as the world’s monarch. General Mark Milley, who was Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2019-2023 during Trump’s first term, described Trump to author Bob Woodward in the following words: “He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person to this country.”
Read more…NOT IN THE CHURCH’S SHADOW, BUT IN THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS
Vijayan MJ
Every year, when Maundy Thursday returns and Good Friday gathers over us, I find myself going back, not first to the Church, but to the people through whom faith first became real.
I think of my father, late Rev. M. J. Joseph—priest, liberation theologian, public dissenter—who helped shape the Janakeeya Vimochana Viswasa Prasthanam, the People’s Liberation Faith Movement in Kerala.
Read more…MAHAD TALAB MOVEMENT (1927) AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF DALIT REVOLT IN MODERN INDIA
SR Darapuri I.P.S.(Retd)
Introduction
The Mahad Talab (Chavdar Tank) Satyagraha of 1927, led by B. R. Ambedkar, stands as a watershed moment in the history of Dalit emancipation and anti-caste struggles in India. More than a localized protest over access to water, the movement represented the first organized, mass-based assertion of civil rights by Dalits, transforming centuries of passive oppression into active resistance. Scholars such as Gail Omvedt, Anupama Rao, and Anand Teltumbde have interpreted Mahad as the inaugural moment of modern Dalit politics, marking the transition from petitioning to direct action.
Read more…FEARING THE NAKED EMPEROR: POWER, SILENCE, AND THE URGENCY OF POLITICAL AWAKENING
Dr Suresh Khairnar
Yesterday, after hearing Donald Trump’s statement about causing Cuba’s current energy crisis—and now expressing a desire to take over Cuba—the proverb “Even God fears the naked one” came to mind. Yet today, the anger of those exploited by this “naked one” is visible to the world through the Epstein files. Stopping such a figure is perhaps the greatest threat looming over human civilization. Why, then, does no one have the courage to speak openly? This question returns to me again and again.
Read more…FROM HYDERABAD TO RICHMOND: DR. GHAZALA HASHMI’S HISTORIC RISE IN VIRGINIA
Zafar Iqbal
Dr. Ghazala Firdaus Hashmi’s journey from the storied streets of Hyderabad to Virginia’s executive office is a powerful reflection of America’s evolving diversity. On January 17, 2026, she made history as the 43rd lieutenant governor of Virginia—becoming the first Muslim woman, the first person of Indian origin, and the first South Asian American to win statewide office in the Commonwealth. Nationally, she is also the first Muslim woman ever elected to statewide office in U.S. history.
Read more…THE SETTLER COMPLEX AND UNREQUITED EMBRACE: HOW ISRAELIS LOOK DOWN ON INDIANS
Ganpy Nataraj
In 2015, a young Indian woman walked into theFreekasol café in Kasol, Himachal Pradesh, and sat down. She asked for a menu. Nothing came. The staff walked past her. Her British companion, seated beside her, was served promptly. The café, Israeli-themed, run by those with deep Israeli connections, operating on Indian soil — had an unspoken but apparently firm policy: Indians need not apply. A video of the incident went viral. An Israeli patron, interviewed on camera, explained without embarrassment that Indians “can’t be trusted” to pay.
Read more…SADDLING THE INDIAN PEOPLE WITH A (RADIOACTIVE) LAW
Bahaar Abbas and M V Ramana
—Historical patterns reveal that ambitious nuclear energy targets in India have consistently been unmet, suggesting a disconnect between policy aspirations and practical outcomes; the fresh impetus may not end differently.
Read more…THE POLITICS OF INDIGENEITY IN POST-HASINA BANGLADESH
Laleh Bergman Hossain
‘Everything implemented on the Hills will be implemented on the plain lands,’ warned Kalpana Chakma, an Indigenous activist allegedly abducted by plainclothes Bangladeshi military officers in 1996 and still missing nearly 30 years later. Her slogan, a reminder that political transformation in Bangladesh cannot be separated from the struggle of the Adibashis in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), reappeared across Dhaka’s walls in the weeks surrounding Sheikh Hasina’s overthrow in August 2024.
Read more…KASHMIRI PROTESTS OVER IRAN AND PALESTINE ARE ALSO PROTESTS OVER KASHMIR
Anuradha Bhasin
When news broke that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, had been killed in a US-Israeli airstrike on 28 February, thousands of Kashmiris poured into Lal Chowk in the heart of Srinagar, scaling its iconic clock tower to drape it with his portrait and Palestinian flags.
Read more…ANDRÉ BÉTEILLE (1934-2026): SOCIOLOGIST WHO MADE INDIA SEE ITSELF CLEARLY
Abhijit Dasgupta
André Béteille passed away on February 3, 2026, after five decades of teaching and research at the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. His contributions to sociology include several books on theories and methods, caste, class and power, affirmative action, social inequality, ideologies, and intellectuals. He held administrative positions, including Chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, Chancellor of North Eastern Hill University, and Chairman of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata.
Read more…PUNITIVE ACTIONS AGAINST PRISONERS ARE SEEN AS A DEMONSTRATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL
Anand Teltumbde
In The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir, the scholar and activist Anand Teltumbde writes about his incarceration in Taloja Central Prison. He spent 31 months in prison, as an undertrial in what is broadly termed the Bhima Koregaon case, before being released on bail in November 2022.
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