Monthly Archives: April 2020

Davida and Goliath

One of the people who have consistently sought justice for the victims of the 2002 Gujarat pogrom is Teesta Setalvad. As one would expect, she faced harassment at the hands of the government. Fortunately, she didn’t give up. In this extract from Foot Soldier of the Constitution: A Memoir (also available in Hindi), she talks about the treatment meted out to her. Being their Target I had a premonition on 24 July 2015, the day of the hearing before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) c[...]

Putting a lid on it

Calamities feel like calamities only when the citizenry above a certain class deems them to be so. Earthquakes, tsunamis, epidemics – these do not discriminate, and hence become topics of 24-hour news coverage. But there are other calamities that claim far more lives. Surprisingly – or unsurprisingly – we hardly ever hear about them. Subhash Gatade, in this extract from Modinama: Issues That Did Not Matter (also in Hindi), talks about one such, reminding us in the process that apathy kills[...]

Overcoming the Hyphenation in Marxist-feminism

Marxists and feminists have long debated the question of strategy, among other things. That common goals call for a common struggle turns out in practice to not be all that obvious. University of Toronto professor, Shahrzad Mojab, in this extract from her essay in Red October: The Russian Revolution and the Communist Horizon (LeftWord, 2017; also available as an eBook), argues for the need to keep both short-term and long-term objectives in sight. Overcoming the Hyphenation in Marxist-feminis[...]

A letter to Anand Teltumbde

Dear Anand, On Monday, there will probably be a knock on your door. Police officers are likely to arrive to arrest you. They will carry with them a range of papers, a file overflowing with notes that refer to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Indian Penal Code. There will be plenty of references to the village of Bhima Koregaon near Pune. These papers will make hallucinatory accusations against you and others. It is hard to keep up with them: you incited violence in Bhima Koregaon[...]

Strong Centre, Weak States?

There is a reason India has a federal structure. We’re too big and too diverse. While one ought to be wary of those who want to centralize authority, in India’s case we need to be doubly concerned now that there’s a fascist government at the Centre. In the extract below, taken from Challenges to Indian Fiscal Federalism (also available as an eBook), the authors outline how the structure of decentralized autonomy has been undermined, especially since liberalization. Quasi Federalism? Su[...]