ON July 2, the state of Tamil Nadu witnessed massive protest actions involving more than 20,000 cadres belonging to CPI(M) Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, Thamizh Puzhigal, Adhi Thamizhar Peravai, Adhi Thamizhar Katchi, Thanthai Periyar Dravida Kazhagam, Diravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam and  65 other Dalit, Periyarist, Minority welfare organisations functioning at state, district and local levels.

SOCIALISM has collapsed over large tracts of the globe. Where it still exists, the economic regimes have undergone considerable reforms. Not surprisingly therefore the old socialist regimes are objects of much vilification these days.

EVEN as the AIADMK is drawing flak for Tuticorin massacre, the Tamil Nadu government has embarked on another step of its anti-people measures by announcing an 8-lane national highway connecting Chennai and Salem.The proposed 8 lane highway, with a width of 900 meters for a distance of 277.3 kms at a cost of about Rs 11,000 crores, the highway, totaling about 2,343 hectares of land is proposed to run across five districts namely Kancheepuram, Tiruvannamalai, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and Salem districts in Tamil Nadu.

A MEETING of the central office bearers of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) held on June 26 in New Delhi decided to support the idea of a long march of the dispossessed to Delhi to demand a special session of parliament called entirely to discuss the serious agrarian crisis in the country.This unprecedented agrarian crisis is reflected in the lakhs of suicides of debt-ridden peasants; the thousands of deaths of children and women due to starvation and malnutrition; the abysmal state of rural education and public health; the massive increase in rural unemployment and landlessness; and the un

ALMOST everybody has a theory on health and very often commonly held beliefs that underline such theories are irrational and unscientific. People will, however, cling to their pet beliefs with the argument that they know something works (or doesn’t work) from personal experience. Beliefs and practices are socially constructed and change over time as material conditions change.Thus, for example, in large parts of Eastern India it is believed that when a person is ill a change in the staple cereal (from rice to wheat) is beneficial.