Heat waves have been intensifying over vast areas of India in recent days and there are also many reports of water scarcity making the conditions worse for people. However the situation can differ significantly in various villages depending on whether …

The political maturity of an electorate may be broadly conceptualized along a continuum comprising three distinct levels: personality politics, party politics, and platform politics. These stages reflect a progressive evolution in civic consciousness and engagement, ranging from the rudimentary to …

In traditional farming one of the most important tasks and responsibilities was that of selecting, saving and conserving seeds. In several rural communities women farmers had an important role in this as well as special skills and understanding related to …

If Socialist Party (India) would have been in power it would have pursued a completely different foreign policy. It would have not wasted any more time in trying to prove that Pakistan is a patron of terrorism.

Narendra Modi has …

Various tribal communities constitute about 8.6 per cent of the population of India. Nearly 700 tribal communities with a total population of over 110 million are spread all over the country with their more dense habitation on about 15% of …

Along with growing realization of the various adverse consequences of climate change, there is increasing concern regarding the communities that are more vulnerable and are likely to be more severely impacted by climate change.

This calls for multi-dimensional analysis as …

While the tragic death of about 23 persons in Amritsar district of Punjab and the serious condition of several others has understandably evoked a lot of concern, this must be seen as only a partial although very tragic reflection of …

Abstract

This is a conversation between Japanese artist Mio Okido and art historian Asato Ikeda, centered on Okido’s exhibition Remembered Images Imagined (Hi)stories—Japan, East Asia, and I at the Museum of Asian Art in Berlin. The dialogue examines Okido’s exploration …

India has a good record of standing up for safety of food by opposing GM crops, particularly in the context of food. This is why despite relentless lobbying by powerful corporate groups to introduce GM varieties for food crops like …

It’s a charming British summer for corporations, following the long-awaited UK-India trade deal signed after three years of negotiation. The Labour Party-led British government has hailed the agreement as “the best deal India has ever agreed to, providing businesses with …

On April 22, 2025, in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, unidentified people who emerged from the forest in the vicinity of the city of Pahalgam shot a group of civilians, including tourists, with machine guns. According to estimates by the …

The Resistance Front (TRF) has denied involvement in the deadly attack on April 22, which left 26 tourists dead in the popular Baisaran meadow in Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

In a post on X, TRF stated,

“Any attribution of this act to …

On April 16, 2025, India experienced a deadly terrorist attack in the Pahalgam area of the broader Jammu and Kashmir region, with authorities suspecting that the perpetrators may have passed through Kishtwar to Tajmou and reached Baisaran via Kokernag in …

On April 22 in one of the most inhuman terrorist attacks seen in India, terrorists killed 26 entirely innocent tourists and injured several others in the tourist resort of Baisaran Meadow, located in the famous Pahalgam area of Kashmir.

While …

Since Myanmar’s 2021 coup, lead mining in the country’s southern Tanintharyi region has exploded, with the number of mining sites more than doubling as lawlessness enables rapid expansion.

The environmental impact has been severe, with polluted rivers, dying crops, and …

This study examines recent massacres (April, 22, 2025) in Kashmir through the lens of Quranic teachings, particularly its foundational principles of non-violence, justice, and peace. The Quran unequivocally condemns terrorism, violence against civilians, and unlawful killings, offering an ethical framework …

A very important and much needed rural reform is getting increasingly neglected. This relates to the need for all rural households to have at least some farmland.

While this is being written here mainly in the context of what I …

It was a deal for the cretinous, hammered out by the less than bright for less than honourable goals.  But AUKUS, the trilateral security alliance between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, is now finally receiving the broader …

“Saigon liberated! A victory for all humanity”, was the cover headline of Australian socialist publication Direct Action (DA) on May 2, 1975. DA (forerunner of Green Left) joined the worldwide celebrations for the historic victory of the Vietnamese people and …

The international community is sounding the alarm about the situation in Balochistan, where incidents of violence against intellectuals and activists are reminiscent of the persecutions faced by people of spirit in Bangladesh. According to a United Nations report on March …

China recently approved the construction of the world’s largest hydropower dam, across the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet. When fully up and running, it will be the world’s largest power plant – by some distance.

Yet many are worried the …

Apropos the recent Raisina Dialogue in Delhi, Politico wrote, quoting an Estonian diplomat that “engaging with Russian lawmakers was a waste of time given Russia’s autocratic system.” He disdainfully added, “Why should we? On a list of people who …

There is a widespread feeling in the villages of India that when the national rural employment guarantee scheme is implemented properly as per the provisions of its law called NREGA, it is very helpful, particularly for women. However a frequent …

Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reportedly told members of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on External Affairs last month that the South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (SAARC) “is on pause; we have not pressed a full stop on …

Dear Honorable Member, 

Australians will vote to elect a new Federal Government on 3 May 2025. For decent Australians the major issue is the Gaza Genocide, the US-backed, Zionist Israeli mass murder of about 0.6 million Indigenous Palestinian children, mothers, …

Water scarcity for many months in a year is becoming a significant problem in many rural communities of the world. In many areas it has become a survival issue and several communities are forced to abandon their habitations for a …

SRUTI, associated with several highly creative and useful initiatives for social justice and empowerment of communities through collective action, has recently completed four decades of its eventful existence. 

To coincide with entering its fifth decade, SRUTI (Society for Rural, Urban …

Kindly consider these three facts, also try to imagine the real life situations based on these:

• At the age of 26 a youth from the poorest landless community took upon himself the impossible looking task of breaking a huge mountain

The upcoming visit of newly appointed US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Philippines on March 28-29 undeniably exposes Marcos Jr. as the preferred puppet of US imperialism in advancing its Indo-Pacific Strategy. Hegseth’s visit is not a benign gesture …

I had the good fortune last week to sit in with a Common Law group in Australia called The People’s Lore of Terra Australis. They wanted to hear what I was doing in the States and share with me …

Recently when I was speaking to a group of socially active women from remote villages in Niwari district (Madhya Pradesh) regarding the need for a campaign to reduce consumption of liquor and in fact all intoxicants, one of the women …

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is now facing the most serious legal battle of his life, detained in The Hague after being arrested by Interpol in the Philippines on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal …

The influencer might be defined as a modern, junked cretin of arrested moral and ethical capacity – with specific skills.  Such an individual, for instance, is often able to use technological platforms with aptitude for two mundane purposes: to manipulate …

The recent arrest of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, executed under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and facilitated by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), has ignited significant political unrest in the Philippines.[1] Duterte, known …

By pooling their savings on a regular basis every month self-help groups (SHGs) in many parts of India have improved their economic and social security. However such efforts, particularly of rural women, have been able to achieve more when they …

Australia’s 39 taxpayer-funded universities have endorsed a highly controversial new definition of antisemitism that was drafted by leaders from the Group of Eight (GoE), Australia’s top universities, and is expected to be enforced on all campuses. It is likely that …

Chittodia village, located in Suhagpura block of Pratapgarh district (Rajasthan), is finding sustenance increasingly difficult because of water scarcity during the first half of the year, before the advent of the monsoon rains. It is not just a matter of …

Never allow intelligence chiefs to speak publicly.  Their prerogative lies in lying, their reassurance, cool deception.  While the attractions of transparency are powerful, the result of a garrulous spook is always going to be unreliable.

In Australia, a comically looking …

Probably the most ecologically sensitive area in India, also known for its great cultural and spiritual heritage, is the Uttarkashi-Gangotri area near the origin of the Ganga River in the Himalayas. This is also close to the Gaumukh glacier. It …

The Rohingya refugee crisis remains one of the most urgent humanitarian challenges of our time. Since the mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar in 2017, Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh has become the epicentre of the world’s largest refugee settlement, …

Vimla Bahuguna, who dedicated herself at a very young age to leading her life in accordance with Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings of serving people, breathed her last at her home in Dehradun on February 14. She was 92. She leaves …

Khudai Khidmatgar, an organization founded in memory of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in India in 2011, has been organizing several meetings for inter-faith harmony in various parts of the country in collaboration with various like-minded organizations with continuity. 

Important roads …

The recent announcement that the Philippines is ramping up its military spending[1] has sparked a mixture of concern, intrigue, and heated debate. At the heart of this decision is the nation’s increasingly volatile geopolitical situation, especially in light of its …

Indonesia officially joined the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa consortium) on January 6 — marking a significant milestone in its foreign relations. In a statement released on January 7, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasised that this …

The Albanese government is banning DeepSeek – the Chinese artificial intelligence model – from all government systems and devices on national security grounds.

It says this is in line with the actions of a number of other countries and is …

The White-West notion of peace is largely associated with the absence of war. Even the origins of the peace symbol stem from the denuclearization movement. But what do we mean when we talk about peace?

*

If someone were to …

Civil Society magazine has recently published a series of interviews with eminent persons who are very well-informed regarding the Himalayan region. One of them, Sonam Wangchuk, the famous environmentalist from Ladakh, told the magazine how even really needed steps like …

Various countries are building large dams on Himalayan rivers. Apart from local factors this often gets discussed in terms of the conflicting interests of various countries. In the process the wider reality of dams in Himalayan region being inherently risky …

As 2025 ASEAN Chair, Malaysia faces significant challenges, including Myanmar’s crisis, South China Sea tensions and geopolitical shocks from the US–China rivalry. To ensure ASEAN makes it through the year not only unscathed but even stronger, Malaysia should use its …

The forests around the ancient Lake Poso in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province are being lost to mining, oil palm plantations and smallholder farm expansion, threatening both unique species and local residents.

The lake and its surroundings are designated as an …

No one can say with confidence what’ll happen other than predict that the conflict might pass a turning point later this year, though it’s unclear whether that would be in the Tatmadaw’s or the anti-government forces’ favor.

President of Myanmar’s …

Bugging, in the context of intelligence, is natural for the buggee.  Those who approve it and engage in such a practice, however, get riled when the favour is returned in all its rich naturalness.  In the murky stock exchange of …

Patha,  the plateau  area of Chitrakut district in Uttar Pradesh, is an area that has been often in news due to water scarcity. When I visited this area over four decades back at the time of a severe drought there …

China’s exports grew 10.7% year-on-year in December, outpacing November’s 6.7% gain and beating analyst forecast of 7.3% growth.

Restocking in anticipation of tariffs accounted for a small part of the gain, but the main driver of Chinese exports remains the …

The roots of the agricultural crisis in India lie in a variety of factors that collectively make the situation more challenging for the country’s farmers. Despite agriculture being the backbone of the Indian economy, it often receives inadequate attention. The …

Over the past few months China has achieved several breakthroughs in terms of military power in both quantity and quality including the introduction of new aircraft, increased production rates of existing aircraft, and the launching of a new amphibious assault …

Abstract

On 3 December 2024, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, the first time such an order had been given since the country democratized in 1987. Koreans and international observers alike are puzzled as to why Yoon …

Viswamitra sage: (Addressing Beas and Satluj rivers)—You move like chariots to the sea, through the power of Indira. You are full of water and wish to unite with each other.

The rivers: we, who are full of water, move along …

The future of Indo-US relations under Trump 2.0 will ultimately play the largest role in determining the degree of tumult that South Asia experiences next year.

South Asia is generally thought of as a comparatively stable region whose primary problems …

China has unveiled a hyper-fast machine gun that could revolutionize defense against hypersonic missiles, posing a bold challenge to conventional missile defense systems.

This month, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that Chinese scientists are developing a groundbreaking machine gun, …

There is increasing realization that while various countries have varying levels of success in their food and farming policies, on the whole, at world level, the existing farming and food system is going more and more under the control of …

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan’s announcement on December 17 of “strong action” supposedly needed “to fight hate” is a declaration of war against all supporters of free speech and the right to protest.

It is the latest in Victorian Labor’s attempt …

The US state department disclosed on Thursday in an accounting of gifts received from foreign leaders during 2023 that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s was the “priciest” gift that President Biden received, rather, his wife Jill Biden received — a diamond …

The largest number of workers in Delhi are construction workers. Women are also employed in construction work in significant numbers. However their presence in more skilled work like that of masons is negligible.

Recent interviews with several construction workers in …

In the 1959 Hindi movie “Dhool Ka Phool” (Flowers of the Dust), there is a song written by Sahir Ludhianvi and sung by Mohammad Rafi, which can be translated as: “you will neither become a Hindu nor a Muslim; you …

Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency (2016–2022) marked one of the darkest periods in modern Philippine history. His aggressive war on drugs, touted as a necessary step to save the nation from the clutches of narcotics, left an indelible mark of violence and …

Mining magnates seem to have it all.  Far more significant than royalty, such figures are the unelected captains of industry who know that governments will do whatever they can to accommodate their wishes and whims.  True, the official rhetoric might …

Bindu Art School in Chengalpattu, a couple of hours by road from Chennai in South India, was set up in 2005 in the Bharatapuram leprosy colony. It was started by Austrian artist Werner Dornik and activist Padma Venkataraman. 

Werner, …

This being the birth centenary year of Raj Kapoor many writings remembering his contributions have appeared recently and the most frequent tribute paid to him has been to remember him as the greatest showman of the Hindi film industry. In …