Burma, says anonandon, is disappearing:
A friend of mine has a favourite joke about Indian media. He says, the country of Japan could cease to exist but our newspapers would be far more concerned about the pretty young Bollywood starlet who stares out of the page with mascara heavy eyes, pouting next to a headline that [...]
Archive for the 'Democracy' Category
Burma?
Published by May 10th, 2008 in Democracy, Geopolitics, Human Rights, Media and Women. 0 Comments‘Despicable Separation’
Published by May 10th, 2008 in Democracy, India, Patriarchy, Religion, Society and Women. 0 CommentsNiven Charvet tells his Indian friends why he prefers China to India:
My belief in humanism, my love of my own language, a certain libertarian cast of mind – none of these could really explain why I am more comfortable in China than in India.
To me India is a land of separation, China a land of [...]
Women’s reservations bill
Published by May 7th, 2008 in Democracy, India, Patriarchy, Policy, Politics and Women. 0 CommentsSome early reactions:
Premasri asks- who represents Indian women?
On average, Indian women work longer hours than men, as their day consists of a more diverse array of tasks relating both to the maintenance of their livelihoods (public sphere) and homes (domestic sphere). In rural India, this could take the form of both working in the fields [...]
An Antidote for Extremism
Published by April 13th, 2008 in Democracy, Politics, Religion and Secularism. 0 CommentsManas attempts to craft an antidote for extremism, a crisis that has plagued our country;
Hinduism as it is, is a diverse range of cultures and ways of living. That, unless forced into one single mold, will not lend itself to a common identity. We need to solve this identity crisis from a wholly different angle. [...]
Conflicts of caste
Published by April 8th, 2008 in Caste, Cinema, Dalit, Democracy and Society. 0 CommentsOut-caste analyses the ‘portrayal of the conflicts of caste’ in a few Indian films and documentaries:
In Arohan we witness the continuing struggle, symbolic of the endless battle of the underprivileged and the landless, for justice. Parai reveals the status of Dalit population in India with the South Indian village Siruthondamadevi as a classic example. “An [...]
The fallacy of school choice
Published by April 3rd, 2008 in Democracy, Education, Human Rights, Policy, Politics, Poverty and Theory. 0 CommentsDweep Chanana joins the debate on privatization of education and vouchers:
The argument for privatization is at once political and ideological. It is political because it reflects how societies feel about the role of the state in providing “public” services such as healthcare and education. It is ideological because proponents often supplement demands for privatization [...]
Sirensongs writes more on the Tibetan protest in Nepal and the crazy way ‘democracy’ functions in many parts of the world.
His comments, and those of several other Nepalis who spoke frankly, reminded me how very inured the average Nepali has become to organized violence, how little sense of moral outrage there is and how regular [...]
A walk down the Red Corridor
Published by March 30th, 2008 in Activism, Capitalism, Democracy, Development, Economy, Human Rights, India, Policy, Politics, Poverty and South Asia. 0 CommentsFire on the Mountain has been posting a series of in-depth interviews with revolutionaries from South Asia. The interviews, it appears, were conducted by the Norwegian Revolutionary Socialist party (Red!) for their party magazine. The first of the interviews, with G.N.Saibaba, Deputy Secretary of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), an All Indian Federation of [...]
Gautam has interesting views on democracy and the state of our nation;
Witnessing a momentous period in the rise of our nation, I would like to know what result we should expect from all that seems to happening in our country.As Henry Thoreau said, “our government needs to represent more of what the country is [...]
‘Saala ek machhar aadmi ko hijra bana deta hai’
Published by March 23rd, 2008 in Art, Books, Democracy, Feminism, Government, Human Rights, Literature, Patriarchy, Personal, Politics, Religion, Secularism, South Asia and public space. 2 CommentsThat line from a Nana Patekar film, says, Aman Kumar, captures his ‘rage and frustration’ over the Taslima Nasreen episode:
So has mine! Sadly, I no longer consider India a secular country after watching and analyzing the political developments in last 15-20 years. Right from Shah Bano case to Babri demolition, and from Gujrat massacre to [...]
Five Years of Democracy in Iraq
Published by March 23rd, 2008 in Democracy and Geopolitics. 0 Comments
Madhukar compiles a pictorial history of the five years of US invasion and occupation of Iraq. One can only wonder at anyone who is impressed by this “democracy” that the champions of the “free world” are bent upon conferring to what was, and remains, the third world.
…To me, it is also a time to reflect, [...]
Talking around Tibet
Published by March 20th, 2008 in Culture, Democracy, Geopolitics, Human Rights, India, Justice, Media, Politics and Religion. 0 CommentsKaran ponders on what India should do:
The Tibet issue is bound to remain in the headlines given the scrutiny the world has thrown on every aspect of Chinese existence. From levels of pollution, to dealing with dictators in Africa, to poisoned toys being exported, the lack of free speech and media and their crackdown on [...]
Naxalism and conventional politics
Published by March 18th, 2008 in Adivasi, Dalit, Democracy, Development, Government, Human Rights, Justice, Policy, Politics and Poverty. 0 CommentsGautam Sen says he doesn’t support Naxalism but he doesn’t seem to believe in the efficacy of ‘conventional politics’ either:
Despite these differences, my answer to my brother’s imprisonment is not the advocacy of violence. It is a waning and tenuous hope that perhaps the system does work, as Pai thinks it does. Perhaps my brother [...]
10 years of heading a gang
Published by March 17th, 2008 in Culture, Democracy, History and Politics. 0 CommentsV.Isvarmurti writes a letter full of good counsel to Sonia Gandhi:
Dear Mrs.Gandhi,
Today is March 14 and it nice to write to you and congratulate you for having completed the President ship of the Congress for 10 long years.
This is a great accomplishment by any measurement and in politics this is something unusually a long [...]
In democracy, there is hope
Published by March 11th, 2008 in Community, Culture, Democracy, Development, Economy, Government, History, India, North East, Personal and Politics. 1 CommentRelating four stories of people he spoke to, Mishti believes there is hope for the country, if the NDA Government comes back to power.
For the sake of the aam aadmi, for the sake of the immigrant workers in Mumbai, for the sake of our highways, for the sake of our pride as Indians, for [...]
Letter to a Young American Hindu
Published by March 5th, 2008 in Caste, Culture, Democracy, Indiaspora, Politics, Religion and Secularism. 2 CommentsYou might find this letter on other blogs and sites. As I am not sure about where it was orginally published I am linking to the blog where I first found it. One of the more memorable arguments Vijay Prashad, Professor and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, makes in the letter is [...]
‘When it hits somewhere near home…’
Published by March 2nd, 2008 in Culture, Democracy, Economy, India, Language, Politics, Religion, Secularism and Society. 0 CommentsBVN muses on diversity, language, religion and politics:
…in Mumbai we are comfortably silent when the Shiv Sainiks take on the valentines or muslims or the touring Pakistan cricket team or M.F Hussein. They are like that, we know they are crazy. But when the Sena turns to North Indians, there is news value, and perceivable [...]
Budget 2008
Published by March 1st, 2008 in Business, Democracy, Development, Economy, Education, Government, Health, India, Policy, Politics and Regulation. 0 CommentsJagdish Madan in a pre-budget summing up of the economic and political situation in the country, looks at some crucial issues:
…rural employment plan, which guarantees 100 days of work for one person in every poor household, was the priority of the government. The plan was the government’s attempt to address some of the countryside’s biggest [...]
Whither Prosperity?
Published by February 26th, 2008 in Democracy, Development, Economy, Education, Geopolitics, Globalisation, Government, India, Indiaspora, Policy, Poverty and South Asia. 1 CommentUnable to defend himself from a Singaporean hotelier’s comments, Swaroop seeks out answers at Churumuri. Illustrating with real examples, he rakes up enormous dirt on a gamut of issues.
Education. Immigration. Public Safety. Harassment. Rowdyism and brawn. Health services. Bribery. Brain drain.
He concludes his comparison of India to Singapore (unthinkable by size, but still) with an interesting analogy to claims [...]
Blaming Capitalism
Published by February 25th, 2008 in Capitalism, Democracy, Development, Economy, Media and Policy. 1 CommentRohit reacts to an article in Economic and Political Weekly:
One of the constant themes of public debate in India is to link the post 1991 reforms to problems faced by the Indian society. According to this intellectually lazy line of thinking, capitalism is responsible for all of India’s social and economic challenges. That despite reforms, [...]
Raval makes a call for Purna Swaraj on the present state of affairs,
We need the independence that the protagonists of our freedom struggle left for us. It is our right and the time has come to stand up to claim it, to stand up for our beliefs, to stand up for what we believe [...]
More on the Gulabi gang
Published by February 23rd, 2008 in Activism, Adivasi, Caste, Dalit, Democracy, Feminism, Government, Justice and Patriarchy. 2 CommentsBecky B devotes some (much needed?) attention to the gang:
What is so amazing to me is the anomaly that the leader figure represents. Not only that one woman could be so unabiding to the expected norm, but also that she can mobilise hundreds of women to fight for her causes. As I said in my [...]
Rural Poor- Human Rights, Inhuman State?
Published by February 22nd, 2008 in Adivasi, Business, Caste, Community, Culture, Dalit, Democracy, Development, Environment, Human Rights, India, Justice, Policy, Poverty and Spotlight Series. 7 Comments[ This is Essay # 18 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
Rural Poor- Human Rights, Inhuman State?
Theory and Practice in a Liberal Democracy
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Rahul Banerjee
Over the past two years or so the normally un-newsworthy rural poor in India have time and again made the headlines with their vehement opposition to the forced acquisition [...]
Shande writes about the conductors in Bengaluru’s Volvo city buses. One-off incident? Maybe, but we wouldn’t be discussing it if it were a normal bus.
Passenger says: “You are not supposed to do like this, you are a public servant, I will complain about this”
Conductor: “Go and do whatever you want, I don’t care. I am [...]
Will India apologize too?
Published by February 18th, 2008 in Caste, Democracy, Development, Economy, History, Human Rights, India and Racism. 0 CommentsAditya applauds the Australian government’s apology to the aborigines and wonders whether this would ever happen in India:
The incident in Australia marks an important revelation in the progress of a welfare state. To understand that the state program must secure the rights of all is one of the most important facets of the democracy. But [...]
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