Tag: History

Files reveal Nixon’s role in plot to block Allende from Chilean presidency

John Bartlett in Santiago Days before Salvador Allende’s confirmation as Chile’s president in 1970, US President Richard Nixon met with a rightwing Chilean media mogul to discuss blocking the socialist leader’s path to the presidency, newly declassified documents have revealed. The documents, published in a new Spanish edition of the Pinochet files by archivist and writer Peter Kornbluh, include… Read More Files reveal Nixon’s role in plot to block Allende from Chilean presidency

Dilip

The Niger crisis shows France’s quasi-empire in Africa is finally crumbling

France has retained a quasi-empire in Africa by stealth, and it is under threat like never before. Nabila Ramdani Retreats from crumbling empires are inevitably characterised by hastily arranged evacuations. Panicked civilians make their way to rickety airport terminals, in the hope of an emergency flight out of the chaos. This was the postcolonial scene… Read More The Niger crisis shows France’s quasi-empire in Africa is finally crumbling

Dilip

Sri Lanka, thirty one years after: Burning of the Jaffna Public Library, May 1981

NB: Meanwhile the JNU History Centre collection, one of the most valuable in the country, is being dismantled by the authorities to make room for a new centre of Tamil studies. I am sure lovers of Tamil language and culture do not wish for the university’s history collection to be removed. This is nothing but… Read More Sri Lanka, thirty one years after: Burning of the Jaffna Public Library, May 1981

Dilip

Appeal & Signature Campaign to Save the Centre for Historical Studies Library in JNU

NB: The temptation of our day is to accept the intolerable, for fear of still worse to come: Hermann Rauschning, The Revolution of Nihilism (1939). DS This is an appeal to the national and global academic community at large, including JNU alumni as well as teachers’ associations, student bodies and individual professors and students across the world.… Read More Appeal & Signature Campaign to Save the Centre for Historical Studies Library in JNU

Dilip

Gurugram’s is a hard-won economic gain. But Nuh violence shows it’s imploding

PRAVEEN SWAMI Erased from our memory by high-rise buildings and malls, Gurugram, and the Mewat region that sprawled to its south, imploded into a macabre carnival of killing during Partition. “Whole villages were razed; scores of mosques desecrated; thousands killed or forced on pain of death to convert to Hinduism”, historian Ian Copland writes, “and many… Read More Gurugram’s is a hard-won economic gain. But Nuh violence shows it’s imploding

Dilip

Were the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings “nuclear tests”? The U.S. government said so

By NORMAN SOLOMON In 1980, when I asked the press office at the U.S. Department of Energy to send me a listing of nuclear bomb test explosions, the agency mailed me an official booklet with the title “Announced United States Nuclear Tests, July 1945 Through December 1979.” As you’d expect, the Trinity test in New Mexico… Read More Were the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings “nuclear tests”? The U.S. government said so

Dilip

On 78th anniversary of atomic bomb, Hiroshima mayor says nuclear deterrence ‘folly’

Japan has marked the 78th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima where the mayor urged the abolition of nuclear weapons and called the G7 leaders’ notion of nuclear deterrence a “folly”. On Sunday a peace bell tolled at 8.15am, the time the bomb was dropped. About 50,000 participants in the outdoor memorial ceremony… Read More On 78th anniversary of atomic bomb, Hiroshima mayor says nuclear deterrence ‘folly’

Dilip

Pakistan’s First Law & Labour Minister, Jogendra Nath Mandal’s Resignation Letter, October 1950

First posted November 19, 2011 NB: The historic significance of this document should be apparent to those who take the time to read it. I have cited it in an essay on the history of Indian fascism written in 2013, so I will not repeat myself here. I will make just two observations: 1/ Pakistan’s… Read More Pakistan’s First Law & Labour Minister, Jogendra Nath Mandal’s Resignation Letter, October 1950

Dilip