Igor Ilyash: How Lukashenka declared war on Belarusian journalists

Independent media outlets in Belarus have been through a lot during the past 27 years of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s dictatorship. Newspapers have been closed down and websites blocked, while journalists have faced civil and criminal prosecution, beatings. Several have even been murdered. Yet Lukashenka’s relationship with the country’s media has varied over time. Frosty periods have been… Read More Igor Ilyash: How Lukashenka declared war on Belarusian journalists

The Modi Government Is a Regime of Low-Intensity Terror. By Ullekh N.P.

Not many academics have studied Hindu nationalism with the intensity of Stanford University anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen. The 63-year-old’s new book, The Law of Force: The Violent Heart of Indian Politics, argues that anger and brutality have become mainstream in public life and politics in India. The 176-page volume delves into what Hansen calls “the emergence of… Read More The Modi Government Is a Regime of Low-Intensity Terror. By Ullekh N.P.

Radiation from atomic testing in Marshall Islands still too high for human habitation (2019 report)

A team of researchers from Columbia University has found that radiation levels from atomic testing in the Marshall Islands are still too high for human habitation. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes radiation readings of soil samples from four of the islands, and what they found. Over the… Read More Radiation from atomic testing in Marshall Islands still too high for human habitation (2019 report)

Surinder S. Jodhka: Changing Modes of Agriculture in Punjab

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

Nagraj Adve: Coming of Age of India’s Youth Climate Movement

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

AKHILESH PANDEY – The farmers’ protest may grow into a second “total revolution”: JP movement activists

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

Alfred McCoy: The crumbling delusion of Washington's endless world dominion

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