LIBERAL opinion is invariably opposed to “nationalism”. It treats “nationalism” as a homogeneous term that necessarily entails a non-friendly, non-accommodative and rivalrous attitude towards other countries. This view however is completely erroneous; anti-colonial third world nationalism is entirely different from the nationalism that developed in Europe in the seventeenth century following the Westphalian Peace Treaties. This difference appears in the most unmistakeable form...
THE 18th All India People's Science Congress (AIPSC) which is the bi-annual meeting of the All India People's Science Network (AIPSN) was held from December 27-30, 2024, at Kolkata in the West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences. Activists and intellectuals, along with those in academia, together deliberated on the issues at the intersection of science, technology, and society. More than 500 delegates from 43 member organisations which...
THE National Statistical Office has recently released the fact sheet of Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24. It is the second survey report of the annual series that begun in 2022-23 after a long gap since the 68th Round Consumption Expenditure Survey released by the government in 2011-12. The government seems to be comfortable to release this report this time as the Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) has increased...
THE 24th State Conference of the CPI(M) Tamil Nadu resolved to work for alternative policies and actions to safeguard the interests of the working class, peasants, agricultural workers, unemployed youth, students, women, and children in the state. It also decided to strive to unite the Left parties and garnering popular support to establish the Left Democratic Front (LDF) as a guiding...
THE 24th Karnataka State Conference of the CPI(M) was held from December 29-31, 2024, with the slogan “Towards Harmonious, Integral, and Prosperous Karnataka” at the Star Convention Hall, Tumkur. The conference issued a clarion call to build a Left and democratic alternative to challenge the bipolar polity between the Congress and the NDA, into which Karnataka has...
THE 24th Uttar Pradesh state conference of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was held from December 29-31, 2024 at Bulandshahr with the resolve to build a revolutionary communist party with a strong mass base in Uttar Pradesh. The comrades of Bulandshahr had made elaborate preparations for the conference; the entire city was decorated with red flags and four-month long campaign for the conference and rally was conducted in 300 villages. The venue...
THE 12th Andaman and Nicobar State Conference of the CPI(M) was held in Port Blair on December 28-29, 2024, with a resolution to strengthen the Party and its mass organisations in the islands. The conference began on December 28 with a big procession, followed by a public meeting at Tiranga Park. Hundreds of Party workers and sympathizers participated in the procession.
IN early January, most of the major military forces of Iran participated in a large military exercise called Payambar-e Azam (Great Prophet), which started as an annual exercise nineteen years ago. These forces included the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Basij Force, and took place in the air, on land, and in the sea. The exercises began in Iran’s western Kermanshah province, with the Mirza Kuchak Khan Brigade in the lead. The name of this Brigade is interesting....
THE year 2025 has begun on an ominous note, with the shocking murder of a journalist. The National Alliance of Journalists (NAJ), the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), the Andhra Pradesh Working Journalists Federation(APWJF) and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ Delhi unit) send out their first press release of the year on January 4, with grief and shock at the killing of Bastar...
THE historic Janashiksha Divas was observed on December 27 throughout the state, with deep respect for the message of the renaissance initiated by the Janashiksha Samity. This movement aimed to emancipate the impoverished tribal people from the darkness of illiteracy, feudal exploitation, and superstition, and to carry forward its lessons, which remain highly relevant today.
