December 14, 2015 08:51 AM
Lal Bahadur Shastri (born 1904) succeeded Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister of India in 1964. Though eclipsed by such stalwarts of the Congress party as Kamaraj (the Kingmaker) and Morarji Desai, Finance Minister in Nehru's government, Shastri emerged as the consensus candidate in the midst of party warfare.
December 14, 2015 08:49 AM
Sardar Patel was one of Mohandas Gandhi’s closest associates, and he organized and led several satyagrahas during India’s struggle for freedom from British rule. When India achieved independence in 1947, Patel became Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, and he presided over the most difficult task facing the nascent nation-state, namely the integration of over 500 princely states into the Indian Union.
December 14, 2015 08:45 AM
First published by the author in 10 December, 2015
Countercurrents.org
December 9, 2015 08:34 AM
December 9, 2015 08:16 AM
First published by the author on 03 December, 2015 in
Countercurrents.org
December 9, 2015 08:12 AM
Article first published by the author in 29 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org
"Magical language is adept at constructing metaphors that establish symbols and link magical rituals to the world "
Development is a magic word that seems to be really working in India for the last year or two!
We love to believe in magic. And even if we don’t, we want to!
December 9, 2015 08:04 AM
Please keep returning to this URL which will have various conversations being added.
November 26, 2015 08:16 AM
This article was first published by Pratap Antony in the countercurrents.org on 20th November, 2015
You can read more of Pratap Antony's diverse writings at Pratap Antony: Passive activist/Active pacifist writer on ecology and environment, compassion and humanity, dogs, social justice, music and dance - http://pratapantony.blogspot.in/. Management Ideas and Issues - http://reformcommunications.blogspot.in/
It is amazing how we take sides in a conflict between politicians and people of conscience!
November 25, 2015 10:25 AM
This is a video and please use the URL given to see it on You Tube.
November 25, 2015 10:02 AM
What you will find here is a link to a video in which Dr. Peltonen speaks about the topic indicated in the title. If you have problems reading it here, just head to You Tube using the same URL.
November 25, 2015 09:49 AM
Dr. Hannes Peltonen, Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Tampere, Finland, received his PhD from the European University Institute, Italy. He is Associate at the Centre for Advanced International Theory, University of Sussex, and the author of International Responsibility and Grave Humanitarian Crises (Routledge 2013) and a number of international peer-reviewed articles. Peltonen’s recent research has focused on global institutions, justice, and ethics as well as approaches to International Relations including constructivism and pragmatism.
Dr. Peltonen can be reached at hannes.peltonen@staff.uta.fi
One recent development in the field of International Relations (IR) is the so-called pragmatic turn. But what is pragmatism?
October 27, 2015 08:08 AM
Abstract:
Globalisation is likely adversely impact the traditional classes. It also threatens to destroy national market, from which stems the bargaining power of the traditional classes. In spite of this, the paper suggests that the response to globalisation in India has necessarily to be discordant. It argues that the state will be unable to oppose globalisation due to the strategic need for economic growth, new technology, military know-how, and ultimately the survival of India as a nation. Hence the society must protect itself from globalisation, independently of the positions of the Indian state.
The paper argues that class actions will primarily protect the special interests of different classes, but may fail to protect the national market. Yet, since the national market is the basis of the independence of the national classes, it needs to be protected at all costs. For this, a socio-cultural mobilisation to protect the national market is required. The struggle to conserve cultural barriers to the national market is a common struggle of all national classes. However, this struggle can be informed by a knowledge of the labour content of different items sold to the consumers. Protection of the national market from globalisation is urgent, and its loss may put the Indian people at the mercy of forces beyond their national borders and political control.
The Indian market is vast, and recently even the Prime Minister of India attempted to sell it to the west. This raises worrying questions, since the corrosion of the national market will rob the forces opposed to globalisation of their very basis. This paper traces out why the Indian state needs to globalise, while Indian society must not. It examines the nature and threat of globalisation to the national market, and the instruments available to the Indian society to resist it.
October 27, 2015 08:00 AM
First published in Countercurrents on the 12th of October, 2015 and is being republished here with the permission of the author.
Excuses to Ourselves - Learned helplessness, Willful blindness and Amor fati
October 27, 2015 07:50 AM
This article was published in Countercurrents on 22nd October, 2015. Thanks to both Pratap Antony and Countercurrents for allowing to republish it here.
“It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen”. George E. MacDonald
October 27, 2015 07:42 AM
October 23, 2015 10:52 AM
October 23, 2015 10:50 AM
October 23, 2015 10:48 AM
October 23, 2015 10:45 AM
September 24, 2015 02:47 PM
Demographic data has always been used to arouse communal passions by right-wing organisations. The recent release of the 2011 census data on religion is not an exception. Like always, a host of right-wing activists have shown their obsession with numbers. They are trying to engineer a communal distaste over the decadal growth of the Muslim population by 24.6 per cent in 2011. The moral panic is further aggravated when the fall of Hindu population from the sacred 80.5 per cent i.e.
September 24, 2015 02:45 PM
The Bihar elections for 243 Assembly seats will be held in five phases between 12 October and 5 November. The timing is crucial and religiously sensitive because the period coincides with several festivals - Durga Puja, Bakr-Eid, Dussehra, Muharram, Lakshmi Puja, Kali Puja, Diwali and Chatt. The risk of a minor incident escalating to large-scale mobilisation of communities cannot be ruled out. The electorate can be polarised in consequence.
September 24, 2015 02:16 PM
September 24, 2015 02:13 PM
Thanks to Dr. D. Samarender for sending this piece.
"The present difficulty is that the man thinks that he is the doer. But it is a mistake. It is the Higher Power which does everything and the man is only a tool. If he accepts that position he is free from troubles; otherwise he courts them. Take for instance, the figure in a gopuram (temple tower), where it is made to appear to bear the burden of the tower on its shoulders.
September 24, 2015 02:11 PM
