On David Miliband's blog in Reuters, 25 August 2011 "America still needs to engage the world"

From history I remember Ralph Miliband writing in The Socialist Register in 1967 about US getting engaged into Vietnam and the consequences of the direct engagement which are part of the history of dominance every body trying to forget as unpleasant memory but no one succeeds as the ghosts of the past have an afterlife to keep on coming back and making formation of a stable multipolar world political economy difficult as the advanced countries face more financial troubles and the talk of 'poles'exchanging places gains momentum.

Today's direct engagement is based in identifying the new forms of conflicts but its strength lies in (1)return of support to groups of democratic struggle begetting support from these very struggling groups or at least a large scale applaud from many quarters and sections of the world for variety of reasons and (2)return of moving forces getting support from victims of terror and applaud from its universal haters. It is,therefore, a new version of engagement as 'socialist takeover' or 'imperialist sweep over' is no more feared, and its consequences hurt the people of the advanced world. Beyond USA, Europe, other developed regions, the peoples are no less scared of the consequences. If history has any takers, given the course of melt down and the economic state just short of double dip, the act of engagement is in direct proportion now with the next recession and that is a question being asked. The question of disengagement brings more worries to the governments of USA, NATO and other military and political alliances and global and regional economic fora. In this piquant state of affairs, I think that there is a chance of gradual, cautious and slow reduction of 'direct engagement' with far more political and economic measures getting strengthened, innovated and experimented with more and more countries and people joining in such effort as equal stakeholders. Economic compulsions will change the future course of events.

Einstein & Subhas Bose on Mahatma Gandhi the Father of the Nation

18th August 2011

Mahatma is a philosopher of new and complete way to change every bit of society and each of its members. His non-violence course of movement brought democracy in many nations and sensitized human consciousness all over the world. Gandhiji was a deep intellectual and so much read as author of many writings including his autobiography. He was a grass root activist and a leader at the same time who kept fast at quiet ashramas and spots of turbulence and organized the national movement which ended the British imperialism. He is Father of the Nation!

19thAugust 2011

When Ba died, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose first addressed Mahatma as Father of the Nation in a condolence message on radio on 4th June 1944.On 30th January 1948 Pandit Nehru addressed the nation "The light has gone out of our lives....the Father of the Nation is no more....". Scientist Einstein spoke,"He has demonstrated that a powerful human following can be assembled not only through the cunning game of the usual political manoeuvers and trickeries but through the cogent example of morally superior conduct of life". Later Indian government declared Mahatma's date of birth 2nd October as national holiday every year and has been using the term Father of the Nation on many occasions. No citizen of India living or dead is a step child of the motherland.

15th August 2011

This is our Independence Day today on 15th August 2011.

This Independence matters for all inclusive remembrances. Millions of people and their families who won this by their sacrifices remain unhonoured and unsung, even great numbers unknown, I know that history, even subaltern history, has a sense of vacuum for these ordinary women, children and men. I will light a candle when the sun sets today and keep it burning till the midnight hour when our nation continues to celebrate its 65th Independence Day. I consider that only light can undo the darkness. So keep your lights on, from dusk to dawn.

A place in a yoga tent is a commodity

June 9, 2011

The capitalist path of development is necessarily infested with corruption which essentially is a product of human greed which causes a functional nexus between the state, the corporate, and in some cases part of civil society organizations.

The question that happens to be is about the role of of 'open society media' exercises and its impact in icon construct ( ofcourse without disclaimers ) through imagery which receives great interest of a diverse mass. The question that also happens to be is how fast the common rationality is becoming a casuality.

Sri Anna Hazare : Why?

Today on 23rd August 2011, Inidia

by Manjeet Chaturvedi on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 7:34am

Many sides are opening up.Democracy has differences but equality, fraternity and liberty are its guiding principles. Let us have a deeper analysis of the people and their behavior for Sri Anna Hazare's fast. Unfortunately what media serve is the only major source of information. Of course some observations are also reported by primary sources but all this is insufficient to explain this upsurge. I think that if the sociologists get involved on there own as objective researchers only then a reliable and valid conclusion can be drawn about this phenomenon. In my personal opinion, the state response to the classic problems shall be quicker. The political parties shall also realize that this is 21st century and more than a decade has gone by,the youth is restless and unemployed,especially the rural youth, and the older people have had seen their Indian dream shattered. In this era of electronic and colorful print media, the social media, the judicial activism and surely the structurally disadvantaged castes, gender and communities, the tribal people, the slum dwellers, the spontaneous settlers now receiving disappointments after disappointments, the Kafkaian bureaucracy, criminalization of politics, corruption in public life among many other things make the Indian social reality and not just corporate success stories or least effect of the melt down, rise of malls, colonization of suburb/rural areas which are in no way superior in social fabric. India lives in villages, in small-medium towns also. How far have we gone from Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali? Not much, I think when I look at the social scientific studies of poverty and underdevelopment in India.