July 07, 2007

Long years ago at the height of the Cold War John Foster Dulles had in his characteristic style spewed venom at the non-aligned worldview and decreed the concept of non-alignment as ‘amoral’.
Today the Dullesian Cold War lies buried in the dust-heap of history. Yet in essence the attitude of the American leaders has not undergone the slightest change. Thus US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, while addressing the US-India Business Council meeting in Washington, displayed the same (…)

“We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.” —Swami Vivekananda
In reel life, if a don (Munnabhai) had taken on the mantle of ethics in medical practice in the film Munnabhai MBBS, Manapparai in the outskirts of Tiruchi (…)

In my last offering (“India Steals a March”, Z-Net, June 19, 2007) I expressed my delight at the prospect that the next President of the Indian Republic was likely to be a woman.
That, even as I qualified the delight by stating: “I must confess I have never shared the sentiment that a world led by women must necessarily be a better world, or a worse one for that matter.”
It was (and remains strongly) simply my democratic contention that “where abilities and aspirations (as among men (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Maintenance of Public Order by Samar Singh; published by National Book Trust, India; pp. 153; Price: Rs 60.
The author of this book reminds the reader of the horrible events of Narendra Modi’s Gujarat 2002 when thousands of innocent citizens were cruelly done to death and many more were forced to live in camps, refugees in their own land. It was perhaps the worst case of communal violence in the history of free India, putting a question-mark on the secular character of (…)

The fortieth anniversary of the Naxalbari revolt has been recently observed. On this occasion the following piece by the editor of this journal (published at the time of the revolt’s twentyfifth anniversary) is being reproduced—even after 15 years its relevance remains undiminished. The author, however, wants to only add that he wishes to greet some of his surviving CPI-ML friends, still in search of the elusive revolution, on this anniversary.
Twentyfive years ago, in the first half of (…)

Introduction
The India-US nuclear deal has been projected as a turning point in the relationship between the two countries. The deal has been the subject of intense debate and discussion among strategic experts, the scientific community and the mass public of both the US and India. It signalled the end to the isolation of the Indian nuclear industry. perhaps it is also a recognition of India as a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology. The July 2005 “Joint Statement” on (…)

India Steals a March Epigraph
Here is what we say: recognise the altered night and day; men and women must together find an honest will to put behind a habitually distorted humankind. (Badri Raina, Our Share of the World, Museindia.com)
Since all evaluations nowadays of India’s standing in the world must be made in relation to America, we say “America, eat your heart; we win you lose.”
Who knows when, or if, dear Hillary will ever make it to the Whitewashed House; but here, where all (…)

The land acquisition drive of the Left Front Government for promoting industries is at present the most controversial public issue in West Bengal. Recently (on April 20), the Centre for Studies in Social Science, Calcutta, organised a one-day workshop on the topic: Agriculture to Industry: The Problem of Transformation.
In his opening remarks, Sugata Marjit, the present Director of the Centre, made it clear that the “CSSSC has no institutional and official position on the policy of (…)

IMPRESSIONS
Perhaps there is some absence of irony in celebrating the uniquely American festival of Thanksgiving, but at the moment it is not visible. If there is one thing Americans do not need to do, then it is give thanks. There is enough hypocrisy in America, in the world, without adding a national holiday to it.
The Mayflower pilgrims who escaped to America after facing oppression in their native land, England, celebrated a bountiful harvest in their new country by giving thanks, (…)

With the change of era, the old people and classes occupying the positions of power and influence give way to new ones. This happened in England in the 17th century and in France after 1789 when capitalism began pushing out feudalism. During the feudal era it was the various strata of lords, ranging from kings and princes to lowly landlords that occupied the positions of power at various levels. Their importance was directly proportional to the amount and the nature of rights in land. What (…)