Rustic Rumblings urges a re-examination of Ambedkar and Gandhi, but while doing so ‘the sameness and differences in Gandhi and Ambedkar have to be dealt with together’ because ‘the complex and profound dialectics between them can be understood only then but not when one is foregrounded ahead of the other’:
In the context of a world [...]
Archive for the 'Politics' Category
Retrieving Ambedkar and Gandhi
Published by May 16th, 2008 in Caste, Dalit, Democracy, History and Politics. 0 CommentsWhy the nuclear deal promotes evil
Published by May 13th, 2008 in Caste, Geopolitics, Policy and Politics. 0 CommentsAtin Basu presents a novel argument against the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal- a short but very stimulating post. And his argument, in my view, is perhaps the most convincing i’ve read until now.
So who will it make more powerful? The ruling elites. Who are these ruling elites? The ritualistic brahminical upper castes — irrespective of political [...]
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 [...]
Bush, India and global food prices
Published by May 5th, 2008 in Economy, Food, Globalisation, India, Media, Policy and Politics. 1 CommentRay Titus finds nothing wrong with what Bush said:
What the President was an economic fact. There was no ‘blame’, in fact his statement was a compliment to a country that is demanding better products and services for consumption. Judge for yourselves.
Arun checks reactions from across the world, including a news report from Arab News, which [...]
Indian women aren’t politically aware?
Published by May 3rd, 2008 in Personal, Politics, Theory and Women. 0 CommentsBrijesh Nair says American women are more politically ‘conscious’ than Indian women:
If we take 5 Indian men and women each, at least 2 men will be politically conscious but I am sure 4 of the women will never take any interest in understanding the various political issues around them. They hate talking about politics. I [...]
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. [...]
Mandal lives!
Published by April 11th, 2008 in Caste, Human Rights, India, Justice, Policy, Politics, Prejudice, Society and public space. 6 Comments I started out with the intention of linking to both sides: blogs that oppose reservations and those which support them. Less than two pages of Google Blog Search results yielded these reactions:
Jasdeep feels reservations won’t undo the damage done by a poor public education system:
Revolutionary changes needs to be done in Education system, But [...]
Madhukar treks through the road that leads to the hamlet of Naxalbari. Nowadays it passes through Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh.
When I asked the sister the same question, she said, “No, we never had any problems with them (the Naxalites). Maybe, we are not in “The Corridor”. But even if we were in their area, why [...]
In Bihar, do not drop surnames
Published by April 9th, 2008 in Caste, Politics and Society. 0 CommentsAvinash Kishore tells you why people do not use surnames (that indicate caste) in a ‘place like Bihar where caste-identities are so strong’:
Now, it is neither the inspiration to create a casteless society nor the fear of caste discrimination that motivates people not to give their family names to their kids. It is just the convention in Bihar and [...]
String theorist/ Physicist Sunil Mukhi writes on ‘Marxism and Intelligence’, check out the comments on his previous post too.
Further to Cheeta’s comment on my previous blog “Communists and freedom”, about the distinction between communists and Communists, I was reminded of the late D.D. Kosambi (a colourful personality who was a TIFR mathematics professor as well [...]
Conservative and Reactionary
Published by April 7th, 2008 in India, North East and Politics. 2 CommentsIn politics, how would you characterize people who desperately try to preserve an old order and protect the privileges of the lucky few at the top of the order? And what would call you them if they wish to preserve the old order not just in their own country but also in the neighbourhood? Revolutionaries?! [...]
The Man that Hindutva Forgot
Published by April 5th, 2008 in History, Politics and Secularism. 0 CommentsMuch before I became a Marxist and an ideological opponent of Hindutva, I had read an article about England being actually a corruption of “Angulistan” (thus called because of its shape). I did not know that P.N. Oak was from Indore and that he has passed way on the eve of the demolition of the [...]
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 [...]
Common School System
Published by March 31st, 2008 in Education, History, Human Rights, India, Policy, Politics and Poverty. 0 CommentsAnil Sadagopal advocates a Common School System:
The role of Common School System in forging a sense of common citizenship and nationhood is yet to be appreciated. This becomes a critical nation-building function in a geo-culturally diverse country like India. How can the present multi-layered school system fulfill this requirement? Today, the school system is like [...]
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 [...]
Poverty is a political issue
Published by March 27th, 2008 in Adivasi, Caste, Dalit, Development, Economy, Human Rights, Policy, Politics, Poverty and Religion. 0 CommentsAnalysing a paper published in the Economic and Political Weekly, John Samuel suggests poverty isn’t just about incomes, it is also about identities :
The notion of impoverisation (or the process of the active creation of poverty with in society or economy) needs to be seen in the context of social, economic and political inequality. Such [...]
Now, the bill
Published by March 27th, 2008 in Economy, Government, Politics and Poverty. 0 CommentsGaurav Shukla emphasizing the need to link salaries to performance, calculates the bill:
The pay hike will bring about massive strain on the exchequer. With the implementation of the fifth pay commission’s recommendations, the central government’s wage bill shot up by nearly 99 per cent. The present recommendations, when implemented, are expected to cause an additional [...]
Sukhpreet Kaur, the heroine
Published by March 25th, 2008 in Human Rights, India, Politics, Recommended Links, South Asia and Women. 0 CommentsAt a time when the debate on Sarabjit Singh is heating up, his wife declared that her daughters and she don’t want the Indian government to set free some terrorist to get her beloved back. JK at Varnam contrasts this with the genuflection of the Indian government in the recent handling of the Tibet issue.
[...]
‘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 [...]
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 [...]
Tibetan Protest in Nepal
Published by March 19th, 2008 in Activism, Politics, Prejudice and South Asia. 3 CommentsSirensongs posts an account of a monk protesting against China getting attacked in Nepal. A sad account by all counts and some disturbing pictures.
I looked down for just a moment to adjust my camera. Out of nowhere I heard a sickening thud and people started running. I ducked under the porch of the Nyingma Temple [...]
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 [...]
Why Indians love to hate Nehru
Published by March 18th, 2008 in History, Personal and Politics. 0 CommentsVishal thinks Ramachandra Guha is right when he suggests that Nehru and Gandhi are easy targets because neither was a sectarian leader:
In his fascinating essay Ramachandra Guha calls Nehru and Gandhi “Shock Absorbers”. He points out how we Indians are quite lenient and often eloquent when it comes to criticizing Gandhi and/or Nehru. But for [...]
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 [...]
‘Creating’ history
Published by March 17th, 2008 in Caste, Dalit, Education, History, India and Politics. 0 CommentsPardeep examines how history is ‘created’ in India:
Brahmin scholars have ignored all the Dalit- Bahujan revolutionaries like Ayyankali from Kerala who fought for the poor Dalits rights. Birsa Munda – Tribal leader from Bihar, Mahatma Joytiba Phule – father of social revolution, EVR Periyar – Great revolutionary from Tamil Nadu, but where all these stands [...]
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