TORCH-BEARER OF REFORM
In the centennial year of the Justice Party, its service to the downtrodden and its objectives to strive for an egalitarian society need a fair appraisal
It is indeed remarkable that 2015, a year that witnessed much of a ballyhoo against reservation, is also historic for the Justice Party, an organisation that sowed the seeds of social justice in the socio-political conscience of the country. It now quietly marks its centennial (1916-2015).
Lovable Life – 53
FAME – A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD?
Human beings yearn for one other thing even if they have enough and more money, position and power. It is to gain fame so that one should honour and appreciate an individual for his very name. He desires when he enters a room where many are gathered, instant silence should be restored because of his importance! This is the kind of fame people in general expect.
A FEMINIST READING OF THE MAHABHARATA
Arundhuti Dasgupta
If the mute spectators of carnage in the Mahabharata had spoken, what would they say? Would the women, rendered silent by a stroke of the author’s pen, express rage, condemnation and regret? And most importantly, what did they feel as women, caught inside an epic full of battles, bloodshed and chauvinistic hotheads? Such questions drove Karthika Nair to write her book,
-Prof.Dr. Palany Arangasamy
Director, Center of Periyar Thoughts, Periyar Maniammai University
Horrible to think of a young woman forced to lie along with the deal husband in the funeral pyre. This is a glaring example to say how far the idiotic orthodoxy was playing havoc in the society. Women who lost their husbands were drugged and forced to fall on the burning bodies of their husbands. Even though this practice was prevalent in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madya Pradesh in the north of India only in Bengal it was seriously and dogmatically followed.
MANDAL LEGACY IN BIHAR TO STOP HINDUTVA'S HARSHNESS
The historical verdict of the Bihar 2015 election results have sent shock waves in the Hindutva camp while gladdening the heart of every Indian who believed in inclusive secularism and protecting the idea of India as enshrined in our republican constitution. The hero of this verdict is Lalu Prasad Yadav, a man mocked by the urban elite, even of the ‘secular’ variety.