PART - III

[Our plan was to conclude the article in this number, but we have had to split the last instalment into two parts in order that we can cover some important political developments. -- Ed.]

- Part II -

If 1949 marked the culmination of New Democratic Revolution (NDR) it also meant, by definition, the simultaneous initiation of the socialist revolution/transformation. Yes, by definition, because here lies its uniqueness - - its distinctive feature - - that separates it from the bourgeois democratic revolutions. In part one of this article we revisited the legacy of the Chinese revolution up to 1949, in this part we shall outline what followed next.

In early May, Baljeet Asthana was recording a video message -- an open letter in audio-visual format -- standing outside the upscale Fortis Hospital, where her 82-year-old mother was slowly dying. Because there was no intensive care unit bed available in the hospital, in fact in no hospital in Delhi.

(Part II)

The pandemonic scenario in our country -- indeed on our planet -- is stubbornly refusing to move out of dangerous territory.

Part I

8 August, 2020. A piece of good news greeted Indians in the midst of a morbid milieu marked by growing Corona cases and fatalities and a  palpable economic paralysis. Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani is at the moment world's fourth richest person.

WITH the initiation of the actual construction of Ram Mandir on the ruins of the Babri Masjid, and that on the first anniversary of the imposition of the longest – and still continuing – period of brutalization of the lone Muslim majority state in India, the temple town on the bank of Sarayu has been given a fresh coat of political saffron.

It’s really a sad irony of history. We shall be observing the forthcoming Independence Day -- for the seventh year in a row -- under the auspices of those who were avowed enemies of our freedom movement and all the progressive, democratic and secular values it stood for.

Yes, avowed enemies. Just see how the ideological-political forefathers of the present rulers – and the organisations they represented -- conducted themselves during the decisive decades of our struggle for independence.