The Punjabi farmer has found it hard to escape the whirlpool of an ecologically unviable cropping pattern and its commercial entrapments created by the history of its past six decades. Despite Punjab’s meagre size, the region has remained an important constituent in the self-imagination of the Indian nation. The imprints of Punjab’s agrarian economy and… Read More Surinder S. Jodhka: Changing Modes of Agriculture in Punjab
The arrest in February of Disha Ravi, a 22-year-old member of the climate change organisation Fridays for Future (FFF) India, on charges including sedition and criminal conspiracy, and warrants issued against two members of Extinction Rebellion (XR) India, Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk, have severely jolted innumerable climate activists, students, and other young people in… Read More Nagraj Adve: Coming of Age of India’s Youth Climate Movement
Social activists who were part of the JP movement, led by the political activist Jayaprakash Narayan in the 1970s, see echoes of that movement in the ongoing farmers’ protest. In March 1974, the JP movement began as a student-led protest in Bihar against unemployment, which soon gained Narayan’s support. The movement subsequently fought against corruption… Read More AKHILESH PANDEY – The farmers’ protest may grow into a second “total revolution”: JP movement activists
During its first decade as the globe’s great hegemon at the close of World War II, Washington quite self-consciously set out to build an apparatus of awesome military power that would allow it to dominate the sprawling Eurasian landmass. With each passing decade, layer upon layer of weaponry and an ever-growing network of military bastions… Read More Alfred McCoy: The crumbling delusion of Washington's endless world dominion
First posted March 22, 2021 NB: Appended below are documents which appeared in the public domain between March 17 and March 21. (The Joint Statement is curious for bearing the signatures of the two departing scholars, who apparently refer to themselves in the third person). The contrast between the content of the first three letters… Read More Ashoka University: Correspondence on Professor P. B. Mehta’s Resignation (2021)
The Chinese government’s alleged actions in Xinjiang have violated every single provision in the United Nations’ Genocide Convention, according to an independent report by more than 50 global experts in international law, genocide and the China region. The report, released Tuesday by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy think tank in Washington DC, claimed the Chinese government “bears state responsibility… Read More First independent report into Xinjiang genocide allegations claims evidence of Beijing's 'intent to destroy' Uyghur people
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the extraordinary experience of the Paris Commune, it is fundamental to draw a number of lessons from it. The measures a government takes regarding its Central Bank, the debts of working class people, public debt and private banks are decisive. If a popular government does not implement… Read More Eric Toussaint on 150 years of the Paris Commune of 1871
Oil companies knew 50 years ago the huge damage they were doing. Their motive to ignore it is the same now as it was then. Capitalism is on a collision course with human life and the future of our planet. Each year, air pollution takes more lives than smoking: the last estimate suggests 8.8m deaths across the… Read More Owen Jones: The planet cannot survive our remorseless pursuit of profit
Exclusive: Large payments to Johnson and ministers have been kept secret for months – fuelling controversy over lavish Downing Street refurbishment, and much more.. Boris Johnson’s government is breaking its own transparency rules by allowing large payments to the prime minister and other ministers to be kept secret for up to eight months, openDemocracy has… Read More Boris Johnson government in ‘scandalous’ breach of Ministerial Code. By Seth Thévoz
NB: These are democratic and justifiable demands. The founders must relinquish direct control of the University’s academic affairs. Ashoka University is an educational institution, not a private limited company. DS The student government at Ashoka University has called for a two-day boycott of classes starting Monday to protest the resignation of their teachers, Pratap… Read More Ashoka students call for class boycott next week, demand university reinstate Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Arvind Subramanian // Over 150 international academicians come out in support of PB Mehta
After the truth-shower 