The Big Questions
Fighter for Democratic Issues – Rohith Vemula
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On the 17th of January 2016, Rohith Vemula, PhD scholar in Humanities at Hyderabad Central University, committed suicide in one of the hostel room. In his suicide note, he wondered at a society where a person’s value is reducible to his ‘immediate identity and nearest possibility’, while holding no one responsible for his death. Taken with his letter addressed to the Vice Chancellor of Hyderabad University and written a few weeks earlier, it is clear he felt forced to take his life because he was a Dalit. He had faced caste discrimination all his life and the caste discrimination he faced in the University too became unbearable for him.
Between Freedom and Fascism: Speech is really free only when it hurts
Amidst Hindutva’s escalating hysterical-nationalism, raising the question of Kashmir’s right to self-determination was at the same time the most radical and the most blasphemous thing to do
“We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of the majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country”. Quoting Jefferson in his speech on the eve of adoption of the Indian Constitution, Ambedkar went on to say that Jefferson’s observation was not “merely true, but is absolutely true”.
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Lecture on Nationalism at JNU: Nivedita Menon
Nivedita Menon is a noted feminist writer and professor of political thought at Jawaharlal Nehru University
OF AMBEDKARITES AND COMMUNISTS; THOUGHTS ON SOME TENSIONS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR ANNIHILATION OF CASTE
One of my recent weekends has been one of the most joyous as also one of the most disturbing ones in ages. Joy was of meeting long lost friends (husband and wife) after a gap of almost 20 years. The disturbing and most disconcerting experience was of a discussion that I happened to get involved in with another friend who was accompanying me to the place.
The long lost friends are ex-comrades in arms from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences at New Delhi, who as members of the then Delhi Medicos and Scientists Forum (DMSF) had fought with us struggles against commercialization of health care, against WTO and changes in intellectual property rights, struggles for restoring campus democracy and those opposing discrimination against reserved category students. The couple knows me and my senior comrades as dedicated revolutionaries and respect and admire us for same. I will simply refer to them as ‘B’ (the wife) and ‘A’ (the husband). The friend who was accompanying me is an Ambedkarite and a fellow traveler in the discipline of public health. I’ll refer to him as ‘C’ Read the rest of this entry »
TPP and TTIP deals: A peek into how the global economy works
[TPP= Trans Pacific Partnership, trade agreement between US, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam (countries bordering Pacific Ocean)
TTIP= Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership; trade agreement between US and European countries. ]
TPP and TTIP are giant companion trade treaties between big economies around the world. Although India is not a part of TPP yet, it is seen as a potential partner. The contents of both these treaties were kept confidential until Wikileaks started releasing them since 2013. The leaked content shows that these treaties are broadly aimed at handing over all the trade regulation powers and thus political power from the elected governments to the trans-national corporate.
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Changes in Middle East
Old Actors React to Changes in the Middle-East as Turmoil Deepens
Developments in the Middle-East continue to convulse the Arab world. The old order in the region is trying to assert itself against the winds of change brought about by the international and regional developments. This reassertion is leading to a spate of wars in different countries. The old order is waging wars against those forces and factors which they think are upsetting or may upset their domination in the region.
Status of Workers, Labour Laws and Workers movements in India
Status of Workers, Labour Laws and Workers movements in India
We have been trying to emphasize that amongst all the complexities of India’s socioeconomic structure, very
clear class differences do exist. All of the laws as well as the moral parameters are applied differently to different classes. Hereby we are trying to present the lives of the workers, who are the major part of the exploited class, of our country and what role they play in the national scheme of economic growth.
Indian Economic Development: Pre and Post 1991
The British days:
Before the onset of British rule in India, Indian economy was characterized by agrarian base supported by a strong manufacturing sector, especially the textile industry. There were various famous centers of artisans, which are still quite famous, like Kanpur and Moradabad.
British policy of loot and plunder of Indian wealth saw a sustained decline of Indian manufacturing sector. The aim of the British rule was to reduce India to a consumer of British goods, not to promote it as a strong industrial centre and limit the status of India only as an exporter of important raw materials for upcoming modern industries in Britain. For good business, you need cheap raw materials and cheap labor. By making friends with Indian feudal lords, British got it all for almost free.
क्रांतिकारी छात्रों का महत्त्व
छात्र समाज में बदलाव लाने का जरिया होता है। आज हमारा समाज असमानताओं और
अत्याचार से ग्रसित है। इस समाज में बदलाव होना तो निश्चित है। परंतु
निकट भविष्य में बदलाव की दिशा एवम् गति क्या होगी, यह काफी कुछ निर्भर
करता है हमारे आज के समाज के छात्रों की चेतना पर।
The Agrarian Crisis
The recent incident of farmer Gajendra Singh committing suicide at a rally organized by Aam Aadmi Party shocked the nation. The plight of farmers flashed briefly in the headlines of mainstream media. Amidst the usual blame game that took place between the political parties regarding the cause of his death, no one bothered to analyze the bigger phenomenon of the agrarian crisis that engulfs millions of our farmers and pushes their lives into misery and sometimes even to the verge of death. So let us fairly analyze the state of our farmers and check whether this recent suicide wave is really a consequence of some natural event like untimely rain or whether its ultimate cause is related to our economic policies.
Laal Times 