NB: For any mass campaign to focus on love and harmony is a welcome change from the atmosphere of communal animus and the non-stop sneering which has become the hallmark of Indian politics under the Modi government. Thanks are due to everyone involved in the Bharat Jodo Yatra. DS The Bharat Jodo Yatra began on… Read More T. M. Krishna on Bharat Jodo Yatra
Patrick Wintour Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s most famous actors, has been detained by security forces in Tehran days after she criticised the state’s use of the death penalty against protesters. She had previously posted a picture of herself on her Instagram page in which she was not wearing the hijab and holding a piece… Read More Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti arrested after criticism of death penalty
A new report by an American forensic firm shows that multiple incriminating documents were planted in the computer of Father Stan Swamy, the 83-year-old activist-priest who was arrested for alleged terror links in 2020 and who died in custody a year later. The report blasts a hole in the National Investigation Agency (NIA)’s charges against… Read More Evidence Planted On Activist Stan Swamy’s Laptop, Claims US Report
Stanislav Markelov First posted February 21, 2019 When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish: Lao-Tzu, Chinese Philosopher (601-531 BC) This is the last article written by Russian activist lawyer Stanislav Markelov before he was shot dead in central Moscow a decade ago. On 19 January 2009, as Markelov and Baburova walked… Read More Patriotism as a diagnosis
First posted May 26, 2013 By Dilip Simeon; published in Hindustan Times, 28 April 2008 The Supreme Court’s observations (March 31) regarding the armed group named ‘Salwa Judum’ affect not only the state of Chhatisgarh, where this group operates, but pose questions to major actors across the political spectrum. Admitting two public interest petitions on… Read More On the Salwa Judum (2008)
by Bees, Desert Aid workerfrom the Winter 2022 newsletter – read it here! I have mixed feelings about writing this piece about death in the desert. Our organization is named No More Deaths; our stated mission is “to end death and suffering in the Mexico-US borderlands.” Death is central here, I know. But so much has… Read More Caring for the Deceased, Caring for the Living
AATHIRA KONIKKARA “MAJOR RUCKUS IN THE village right now,” Tanushree Pandey, a correspondent with India Today TV, tweeted at 1.44 am on 30 September 2020. “UP cops & officials forcing kin to cremate body overnight. Family begging that let us at least take the girl home one last time.” Pandey was in the village of Boolgarhi,… Read More Today’s truth
Murali Krishnan Although over 8% of India’s population belongs to a tribe, according to the latest census, tribal communities are increasingly being squeezed to the margins of society. “Despite more than two decades of impressive GDP growth, India’s growth has remained confined to enclaves of prosperity surrounded by vast hinterlands of deprivation,” an excerpt of… Read More India’s tribes living on the margin of society
By Allegra Goodwin, CNN Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yan Rachinsky blasted President Vladimir Putin’s “insane and criminal” war on Ukraine in his acceptance speech in the Norwegian capital Oslo on Saturday. Rachinsky, from Russia’s human rights organization Memorial, claimed resistance to Russia is known as “fascism” under Putin, adding this has become “the ideological justification… Read More Russian Nobel Peace laureate slams Putin’s ‘insane and criminal war’ on Ukraine
By Sahar Maranlou Iran’s execution of protester Mohsen Shekari is the first after a huge wave of unrest swept around the country in the autumn of 2022. Shekari was found guilty by a Iranian Revolutionary Court of “moharebeh” (enmity against God), news sources reported. Human rights groups say Shekari and other protesters who have been arrested are not… Read More Iran executes first Protester as Human Rights Abuses come under International Scrutiny
After the truth-shower 