October 20, 2007

The eventual decision by the Congress leadership to bow to the pressure of the Left parties as well as its own allies in the UPA coalition, notably the RJD and NCP, has had a salutary effect. The Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement has, for all practical purposes, been placed in cold storage. Of course, the Congress leadership has not said so in clear terms. That is also the reason why a few contradictory statements have come from the PM himself. While in India he told a major (…)

India inherited a colonial structure created by the British to perpetuate their rule and exploit the native land and its people. The zamindars were created to extract the rural surplus and to act as a bulwark of foreign rulers in the countryside. The prices of agricultural commodities were depressed to provide cheap foodgrains and other raw materials. The peasants were alienated from land as they were unable to pay the land revenue. The traders would also extract the surplus by buying at (…)

Religion is usually considered as a tranquillising force. It dulls the pain and suffering of the teeming millions and leads individuals to a world of mystic glory. But in reality, religion does have a great power—which may even lead to a great turbulence and initiate mighty social change against the commanding heights of an autocratic regime. The recent development in Myanmar and the sustained movement of the Buddhist monks and nuns have exposed the limitations of the apparently strong (…)

[(This article was published before the latest development of the Congress leadership deciding to delay operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal so as to avert early elections. It is being reproduced as its contents are of immense value even today. —Editor )]
Mrs Sonia Gandhi was uncharacteristically aggressive at a rally in Haryana in branding those opposed to the nuclear civil cooperation deal with the United States as ’’enemies of development and enemies of peace’’. Until (…)

[(This article was written before the Congress decided to avert a mid-term poll by not rushing through with the Indo-US nuclear deal. —Editor )]
The US-India Nuclear Agreement has opened a powerful debate about foreign policy before its implications for energy security. ’Strategic partnership with the USA’ was first heard in 2004 at the time of Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee’s visit to the USA. It was not paid much attention to since there was no hint of a broadbased sustainable (…)

The recently concluded two-day India-China Eminent Persons Group (EPG) meeting in Beijing has reiterated the need for a mechanism to ensure “visible implementation” of the memoranda of understanding and other cooperative measures between the two countries. This assumes greater significance in Sino-Indian relations particularly in the backdrop of China’s unhappiness about the growing Indo-US strategic partnership. While many observers see the outcome of the eminent persons meeting positively, (…)

The Middle East peace process, that began with the signing of Oslo Accords (1993), as well as the various peace initiatives which were taken up prior to Oslo and after its collapse (2000), have focussed on the two-state solution to the conflict, based on the notion that partition is the best solution to conflicting territorial claims, nationalisms, or ethno-national conflicts where claim over land is an issue. Partition is firmly entrenched in the theory and practice of international (…)

In the midst of all the demonstration of mourning for Princess Diana to those for Mother Teresa, came Prime Minister Gujral’s refreshing reiteration of India’s nuclear policy. On September 8, addressing in New Delhi a high-powered seminar of nuclear scientists including the representative from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at Vienna, Gujral has categorically repeated the well-known official position of India with regard to nuclear energy, which Parliament under Indira Gandhi (…)

Looking around, we find a great deal of confusion in present-day India, especially in the Hindi press, as regards ’peasant’. Quite often it is used interchangeably with ’farmer’. Technically, these two are different concepts with connotations of their own.
While ’peasant’ has been in existence ever since agriculture began, ’farmer’ has come into being only with the advent of capitalism when profit became the main motive of agricultural work. Strictly speaking, a peasant is one who (…)

Karl Marx had predicted that the revolution of working class against the capitalist state would lead to dictatorship of the proletariat which will, in turn, lead to the establishment of a classless society. His prophesy has, however, proved wrong: The state did not wither away and the classes remained in tact in all types of political regimes.
But the Indian universities did become classless societies to a great extent. This happened, in the first instance, due to the entry of many (…)