Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
FEMALE INFANTICIDE: THE WAY INDIA WILL END
Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi
South Asia has many political, economic, social and cultural problems. While much is written and talked about the political and economic issues, which can easily be attributed to laxity or failure of governmental policies, less is said about social and cultural issues to which every one is a party in varying degrees. One such issue is the relegation of women to a secondary status. This is true among all religious communities and all castes of South Asia. Female infanticide is the extreme expression of anti-women prejudice. Read more…
INDIA LOSES THREE MILLION GIRLS IN INFANTICIDE
Source: Liberation News Service, October 9, 2012
In an alarming trend, girl child numbers in India have shown a sharper decline than the male children in the decade beginning 2001, leading to a skewed child sex ratio. Read more…
THE GIRL WHO CHANGED PAKISTAN: MALALA YOUSAFZAI
Shehrbano Taseer
Over the screams and tears of the girls, a teacher instructed the bus driver to drive to a local hospital a few miles away. She stared in horror at Malala’s body, bleeding profusely and slumped unconscious in her friend’s lap, then closed her eyes and started to pray. Read more…
FAITH VERSUS SANITATION
Jairam Ramesh’s Remarks On Temple, Toilets
Ram Puniyani
The Union Rural development Minister’s remark that “toilets are more important than temples” (October 2012) was met with diverse responses. Ramesh was speaking at a launch of campaign to sensitize people about the ill effects of open defecation, a practice very common in rural areas and city slums, where sanitation facilities are poor or non-existent. Ramesh said that open defecation was the main reason for the hygiene related problems and that there are more temples than toilets in the country. Read more…
LETTER FROM LUCKNOW PRISON
Tarique Quasmi,
A prisoner in Lucknow Prison has released the following letter dated 22nd September, 2012. Read more…
THREE THOUSAND SIKHS TO VISIT PAKISTAN ON NANAK’S BIRTH ANNIVERSARY
Sikh pilgrims from India and other countries across the globe will start reaching Pakistan on Tuesday (tomorrow) to celebrate the birth anniversary of the first Sikh Guru, Sri Guru Nanak Devji. The authorities concerned have finalised the arrangements to accommodate the visiting pilgrims, security arrangements and other facilities. Read more…
FOREST RIGHTS RALLY AND MASS EDUCATION PROGRAMME IN BIHAR
October 11-12, 2012 Kaimur Bihar
More than 5000 tribal, dalit and other forest dwellers did a historical rally in Adhoura Block of Kaimur district Bihar jointly by Kaimur Mukti Morcha (Jan Mukti Andolan) and National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers (NFFPFW). Read more…
INDIAN GOVERNMENT TO ADDRESS DEMANDS OF LANDLESS & HOMELESS
(Liberation News Service; October 14, 2012)
Landless and Shelterless Poor to get agricultural land, homestead rights, fast track courts, free legal aid, effective implementation of PESA and Forest Rights Act through a time bound program!! Read more…
POLICE AND COMMUNAL VIOLENCE
Asghar Ali Engineer
It seems quite a stale topic as we know how police behaves during communal disturbances or even before and after that. Recently Prime Minister of the country also expressed serious concern about increasing incidents of communal violence in the country during his inaugural address to one-day conference of Directors General and Inspectors General in Delhi along with intelligence officers. The Prime Minister of the country expresses concern and draws their attention to a problem it could be nothing but very serious indeed. Read more…
ATTACK ON FAIZABAD MOSQUE CONDEMNED
On 24 October 2012, when the immersion procession of Durga was going on, a girl was molested by few miscreants. Making this as a pretext few people started stone throwing in the nearby areas. A rumor also spread in Faizabad that Muslims are doing the stone throwing. The mob went on to burn nearly 25 shops of Muslim traders. They also rampaged the office of bilingual (Urdu and Hindi) paper Aap Ki Takat. This paper is continuously giving the message of Peace and calling for Hindu-Muslim unity. They also rampaged the mosque. Read more…
BODOLAND : THE KILLING FIELD
Santosh Rana
Santosh Rana was a leading member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) [CPI-ML] formed under the leadership of late Charu Mazumdar. He left CPI-ML in 1971 and constituted PCC CPI-ML in 971. He contesting as an independent, won the Gopiballavpur seat in West Bengal in 1977. Below he presents a detailed history of BODO people who are recently targeted by Assamese chauvinists. Read more…
JAPANESE MILITARISM & DIAOYUTAI (SENKAKU) ISLAND
Kiyoshi Inoue
Based on history, there should be no dispute on the ownership of these islands (they belong to China). Read more…
SIXTY-FOUR COMMUNIST PARTIES OPPOSE ISRAELI THREAT AGAINST IRAN
In the mostly widely supported joint declaration for decades, 64 communist and worker’s parties across the world join forces to declare “We are totally opposed to any military action against Iran!” Read more…
SWEDISH SHIP TO GAZA
(Press Release Oct. 22, 2012 from Adam Keller Gush Shalom: otherisr@actcom.co.il)
The Israeli activists detained on board the “Estelle” were released Elik Elhanan: excessive force was used against us, without any reason. Read more…
HARI SHARMA MEMORIAL LECTURE 2012
Speaker: Jan Myrdal
Topic: “Neoliberalism and Revolution: the Task of Solidarity with the Peoples of India”
Time and Place: November 17, 2012: 2 pm; Simon Frazer University Harbour Centre Room 1900. Read more…
OBITUARY: ERIC JOHN ERNEST HOBSBAWM (1917-2012)
Martin Kettle and Dorothy Wedderburn
Had Eric Hobsbawm died 25 years ago, the obituaries would have described him as Britain’s most distinguished Marxist historian and would have left it more or less there. Yet by the time of his death at the age of 95, he had achieved a unique position in the country’s intellectual life. In his later years he became arguably Britain’s most respected historian of any kind, recognised if not endorsed on the right as well as the left, and one of a tiny handful of historians of any era to enjoy genuine national and world renown. Read more…
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