Some Contextual Reflections on Hind Swaraj
by Alok Bajpai“It is unjust to a writer to quote against him passages from his writings without reference to the context.”1 Here at the very outset I wish to state my vantage point about Hind Swaraj....
View ArticleForest-dependant People, their Livelihood Challenges and Forest Rights Act: A...
by Madhusudan BandiExperts are yet to reach consensus on the continued poverty of the natural resource users. However, it appears that the social systems from which they arise are structured so...
View ArticleReflections On Our Time
From N.C.'s WritingsThe concluding functions that brought the curtain down on the year-long celebrations of the golden jubilee of the ‘Quit India' struggle of 1942, presented in sharp relief the slump...
View ArticleProposal for a Self-contained New Wakf Act for Normal Situation
The Select Committee Report on the Wakf (Amendment) Bill, 2010 along with a draft law has been circulated. An Amendment Bill, one presumes, shall now be placed by the government before the Rajya Sabha...
View ArticleLegislation Ensuring Basic Right to Food
by Suranjita RayA Historic InitiativeThe National Food Security Bill (NFSB), 2013, passed after a long debate in the Lok Sabha, and after a longer wait, is indeed a historic initiative to make the...
View ArticleAnatomy of Kishtwar
The recent outbursts of communal violence in Kishtwar, a remote town in Jammu and Kashmir, amply bear out the pathologies of our modernity. Rekha Chowdhary's reading of the genesis of the town (The...
View ArticleA Macroeconomic View of the National Food Security Bill
The National Food Security Bill (NFSB) has been contentious. Economic arguments have been presented against it confusing the public. The rich farmers are worried that farm prices would fall because...
View ArticleUS General Wants to Learn from India
General Raymond T. Odierno was in an upbeat mood. He had just returned from a visit to India. He was profuse in his praise for the Indian Army. He said the US Army had to learn a lot from its Indian...
View ArticleConvicted MPs Should Quit
Parliament is a temple of democracy. Members are its pujaris (priests). Their purity affects the temple's purity. If the Members defile it, the reputation of temple goes down in the eyes of the people....
View ArticleDamaging a Basic Institution of Democracy
by S. Krishnan and B.P. MathurMontek Singh Ahluwalia, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, has recently made a statement that the CAG is ill- equipped for conducting performance audit and...
View ArticleHope Flickers in Dismal Setting
EDITORIALAs the latest developments in Syria threaten to snowball into another major crisis in the Arab world with the prospects of Western (read US) intervention in the country increasing with every...
View ArticleAnother Demarcation on the Map
The sparking of chaos and protests across the country with the announcement to divide Andhra Pradesh is not surprising. Protests in the streets of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema region against the...
View ArticleWho Sows the Wind? And who Reaps the Whirlwind?
How does one explain the widespread trepidation that prevails in many countries over the fast-approaching date (end-2014) for the withdrawal of the NATO troops and Inter-national Security Assistance...
View ArticleAssassination of an Activist: Who Killed Dr Narendra Dabholkar?
TRIBUTE“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”—Albert EinsteinWords have an uncanny ability of impinging on...
View ArticleFreedom Day at Amritsar
From N.C.'s WritingsThree landmarks to cover in a single day—that was how some of us spent our fiftieth Independence Day.The first of the pilgrimage was to the Indo-Pak border post at Wagah to...
View ArticleOn the 100th Birth Anniversary of Parmeshwar Narain Haksar
I have always thought of Parmeshwar Narain Haksar as Papa; a father I loved deeply and whose views influenced me in many ways even though we spent so much time arguing and disagreeing on many basic...
View ArticleThe Making of an Indian
In the citation which the Vice-Chancellor has just read out, some flattering things have been said about me. I was rather pleased hearing it all. At the same time doubts began assailing me. I asked...
View ArticleRemembering P.N. Haksar on his Birth Centenary
P.N. Haksar's birth centenary fell on September 4 this year. It was marked by a meeting at the Auditorium of New Delhi's Nehru Memorial Musuem and Libary on the same day, organised by the Director of...
View ArticleObama Dips Toe in Syrian Rubicon
For the first time through the two-year old Syrian conflict, the United States has mentioned the holy cow—“boots on the ground''. The Secretary of State, John Kerry, has pleaded that the US Congress...
View ArticleNo War! Hands off Syria!
The threat of imminent war hangs over the entire Middle East. This is bound to have unforeseen consequences in many parts of the world. The US President, Barack Obama, has announced that he is willing...
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