Living in a locality, which is more heavily gated, quieter, and not very intrusive does not let you realise the impact that Corona pandemic is having on the informal labour. Ever since the pandemic hit the human race and more so after the Indians developed a true fear of this unforeseen phenomenon my neighbours have… Read More Corona Narratives II:Informal Labour in Exceptional Times
An image is a powerful medium of pedagogy – it teaches without formally teaching us. It prepares a generation, which develops a particular understanding of the world through it. Images have the power and potential to not reveal the fundamental characteristics of the system in whose belly lie these truths but paints the canvas with another… Read More Corona Narratives I:Being Democratic, Sensitive and an Unabashed Accumulator at the Same Time
Ravi Kumar I remember those faceswhich wanted proofof me getting killed,of 16 fractures in my bodyafter they took me out of the hostel room,tied me to a treeand broke my bones I remember those faceswhich wanted oil radiator in their officesforgetting that I was being dragged out in the cold winter nightand beaten upwhen I… Read More Don’t Doubt Us, We have been your students
A newspaper reported that 18000 people offered namaz in Srinagar on Friday (the Jumma before Eid). The population of Srinagar as per 2011 census was around 11.8 lakhs. And one wonders why the number of people offering prayers was too low generally and secondly, why does one want it as the news headlines. Muslims offering… Read More Celebrating Eid in Kashmir and the Growing Insensitivity of Our Times
I am not a psephologist, neither do I owe the ability to perfectly predict what goes on inside mind of Indians. Social scientists of variety have been at it to tell us who will win, whose winnability is it this time in Indian Parliamentary elections. Facebook’s, WhatsApp and so on, they are all over it.… Read More Ifs and buts of Elections 2019
There are a lot of anti-BJP intellectuals who have not been writing why people should vote for Kanhaiya Kumar. And I understand the predicament. For them, dilemma emanates from the fact that either of the anti-BJP candidates – RJD or CPI – would work. I also understand why both are put at the same plane… Read More The Battle at Begusarai: More than loss and win it is about what kind of politics we want
A thirty two year old is pitched against a senior, seasoned politician in an otherwise non-descript constituency called Begusarai. But it does not seem non-descript at all. Initially, it was RJD’s insistence to not have CPI on its alliance (largely because of this candidate) and now it is because of an interesting battle on cards.… Read More Begusarai – Has BJP made it a prestige issue?
Wars have been fought historically to control territories in physical sense as well as in non-physical economic sense. In contemporary times these wars are not doing anything different. They have only acquired different weapons – from military stockpiles to the power of media, which presents to the world what the powers that be want to… Read More Afghanistan: Can it emerge out of its Darkness with External Assistance?
To begin with, I must say that the fact that we are discussing EWS and access in school etc., is a reflection of the way in which discourses get shaped and defined. It would seem politically incorrect in a liberal framework to reject such a provision on the grounds that it does not allow us… Read More Inequality in School Education: Are we Asking Right Questions
अजीब हैवानियत है इसमें कहता है अपने आप को प्रशासन हमे सिखाता है कैसे पढ़ाया जाए कैसे किया जाए रिसर्च जैसे हम है नादान खुद नहीं पढ़ता कुछ खुद नहीं लिखता कुछ लेकिन शिक्षा की बागडोर है उसके हाथ में प्रशासन के नाम पर छात्रों की छात्रवृत्ति बंद कर दे मजदूरों की तनख्वाह रख ले… Read More The University Administrators
I remember long long back Avijit Pathak wrote a piece after his interview for promotions in Mainstream and described how the people sitting on the other side of the table behave. He was right and anyone who has appeared in an interview would agree to his observations. The fact is that the two sides of… Read More The Managers Want to Write An Obituary for Higher Education
An university where students did not require to register their presence through an attendance system or whether the teaching and examinations will be held in the most unusual manner rather than the mechanised form of examinations and pedagogical transactions prescribed by a centralised examination branch that most universities had. Imagine a class happening not in… Read More The King and his Court gives a new farman: Attendance for JNU teachers
BJP regime still needs to learn how to frame a document of governance. It messes it up and makes it look unprofessional and infantile. The HECI Act is an example of it, as it is full of contradictions and incomplete facts. Here is an Act, which is clear about the intentions of the government but… Read More HECI: Inevitable Product of the Corporatised Capitalist Education
The Failure of the Haryana Government Why the Haryana government failed to ensure that the violence that Panchkula and Sirsa witnessed is more than merely a law and order question because law and order is as much a political as social question. As pointed out by courts despite section 144 thousands of supported marched into… Read More When Haryana Burnt: Religion, Politics and Lumpenism
In 2012 Nitish Kumar had said, “The leader must be secular and have an abiding faith in the democratic values“. In 2013 JD(U) executive had criticised Narendra Modi’s candidature for Prime Ministership on the grounds that he failed in discharging his duties as the head of the state to check communal riots in Gujarat in… Read More Ghar Vaapsi for Nitish Kumar and Project Bihar of BJP
When the 2015 assembly election campaign was in full swing central locations such as Dak Bungalow road had massive posters pointing to the way BJP fomented communal riots. The history of Laloo Prasad Yadav and the memory etched in the popular imagination of a leader who arrested Lal Krishna Advani when the ascendant BJP had… Read More Political Turmoil in Bihar and the Future of Anti-Communal Politics
the counter-narrative 