DUTA

Ahmer bhai I totally agree with you and have similar apprehension of privatisation/marketisation of the education by academic bureacracy and malign the teaching community. In-fact I never had any second priority of job and waited till very late and accidently got one, enjoying interacting with batches of young undergraduates.
My problem is with fiefdom of the professors over jobs and paternisation of select band of students on vaious consideration by them , which directlyy-indirectly corrupts the ethics of education. With my long experience of appearing for the interviews, few as part of selection committe as Teacher-in-charge, I am tempted to say that majority of teaching jobs are given on extra-acedemic condsiderations, if one is academically competent also, that is additional qualification.Few get accidently. Sons/daughters/dogs/cats of professors get teaching jobs immediately after their MA if they are not intersted in UPSC etc, otherwise immediately after getting rejected in all the competitive exams. Many of them work to justify themselves and others take it just as a job, where as its a qualitatively different job. I have 13 years experience of appearing in interviews in Delhi university. In case of fiefdom of jobs there is only quantitative difference between rightist and leftist profesors. In fact a friend Dr. Ashokraj had planned a book in mid-eighties but probably didnt go ahead with : Delhi University Academics: The Godfathers and the bastard sons. raising this question in no way to weaken the teachers unity or to claim to be vituous but strengthening it as an exercise of self criticism.
Long live the teachers democratic unity.

arundhati

She is almost correct. Presence of Indian army in such a intense density that treats the people in Kashmir and norteast treating them with atmost contempt and bvarbaric brutality worst than the citizens of enemy country as killing civilians by army is new aspect of war initiated by the US beginning with Vietnam. Indian army has been doing ame thing with the civilian population of northeast since 1958 with AFSPA and in Kasmir where the army presence in civilian area is in more density than the US occupying forces in Afganistan and Iraq. So many cases of fake encounters of innocent people have come to light by Indian investigation agencies. Dont you remember the manipuri elderly women staging stripped demobstartion daring the army to rape them, after the rape and brutal murder of Manorma. Thousands of such heineous crimes are the pattern of army presence who are trained to kill. Sopian rape and murder, just think what you will think if the victim is your kinswoman/man? has any army man been prosecuted? thpousands of people have just "disaapeared' after being apprehended by Police/CRPF/army. Just think of those mothers who have been waiting for their Godots. Just think of the plight of tribals who are beeing perpetually subjected to uinhumant treatment , forced to flee in jungles and neibhouring states. Think of Laxman Jamida of kalinganagar who was killed by tata sponsored Police as kalinganagar peasants are democratically opposing displacement and till now more than 30 people have died and 35 are behind the bars on concocted charges. The entire area has benn blockaded. What about killings of Narayan Ptna tribal peasants leading peaceful struggles and continuous harrasment? Whats about cwardly kiling og Azad on the instance of Corporate agent, traitor Chiudambaram who was advocate of enron against Indian state?

Therfore Arundhati has been right in transcending zingoist nationalism and daring to call sapd a spad. salutes to you Arundhati. Indian state is behaving llike an expansionist state that wants to keep its civilian under eternal threat of power and oppression living under the continuous threat of sudden death. Hell with such a democracy which in subsevience to imperialist powwrs contiunuously is uprooting its peasnats and poor by armed might. Down with comprador Indian state that is acting as occupying force over its geographical areas, supposed to be its integral part. In such a situation AZADI from armed occupation is the only solution for freedom from bruatl oppression and humiliation.

nationalism1

Where have they used civilizational units? India prior to British rule was never a political unit in the sense of modern nation sate, also there has been no Indian civilization but civilizations. Both the books, I have suggested, if you have read deal with the development of Aryan tribes from the Sapt aindhav region - present staes of Sindh (Pakistan) and Punjab and Haryana, before they moved beyonbd that. Also their influence was limited to north of Vindhya region till about Budha's time, If you already know, then I dont engage into debate for debatte sake, agreeing with Chekhov that 'art for art sake ' is crime. Also, as a lifelong learner, I dont want top engage into debale with all-kanowlegeables, whose Pravachans are futilr for me. Take Care.
The debate was on a wriers's or ordinary citizens right to freedom to expression in a democracy. Some people have suggested, she shouild be killed by terrorists like Sadhvi Ritambhara; some others have suggested to publically stone her to death. This is a fascist idea, unable to fight the intellectuals on the level of ideas on the basis of facts and logical arguemeents, try the eliminate the person embodying thoise ideas. That is what happened with Scratese. Galleleo, Antoniuo Gramsci, Bhagat Singh, Che, Shankar Guha Niyogi; Chandra Shekhar... and lately Cherikuri Rajkumar (Azad). You kill the Arundhati, the spectre of her ideas woul haunt you forv generations. Anyway Police has already registerd case against her, but who stand with the people arew not afraid of Police and death.

arundhati 1

@ Akhilesh:The peole who are supporting Arundhati's right to freedom to express her opinions that bare well substantiated were also opposed to baning salman Rushdi oir Taslima.Presence of Indian Security Forces in such a high density in Lashmmier mocks at the ploymics of "kashmir is intefgral part" of India where Indian army treats the "Indian" people with barbaric brutality, Is only geography is integral part of India or its people also? Indian army in the valley is doing all that sports in kashmir what the US occuying forces are doing in Afganistan and Iraq. Why can we not have a south Asia with freeborders like Europe and the huge bdgets on army in both the countries (India and Pakistan) can be spent on pverty elvation, health and education programmes? if Kashmir isue is resolveed Indian and Pakistani governments will be deproived from their instrument of Pakistan-bashing and India-bashin. On facebook all the Pakistani frieds we interact agree with us that this ahistoric partition was engineered by coloialism with the vested poiltcal intersts as their agents. To quote Habib Jalib: "NA MERA GHAR HAI KHATRE MEN, NA TERA GHAR HAI KHATRE MEN; VATAN KO KUCHH NAHI KHATRA, NIZAM-E-JAR HAI KHATRE MEN"
"HINDUSTAN BHI MERA HAI, PAKISTAN BHI MERA HAI; DONO HI DESHON ME LEKIN AMREEKA KA DERA HAI.

arundhati 1

@ Akhilesh:The peole who are supporting Arundhati's right to freedom to express her opinions that bare well substantiated were also opposed to baning salman Rushdi oir Taslima.Presence of Indian Security Forces in such a high density in Lashmmier mocks at the ploymics of "kashmir is intefgral part" of India where Indian army treats the "Indian" people with barbaric brutality, Is only geography is integral part of India or its people also? Indian army in the valley is doing all that sports in kashmir what the US occuying forces are doing in Afganistan and Iraq. Why can we not have a south Asia with freeborders like Europe and the huge bdgets on army in both the countries (India and Pakistan) can be spent on pverty elvation, health and education programmes? if Kashmir isue is resolveed Indian and Pakistani governments will be deproived from their instrument of Pakistan-bashing and India-bashin. On facebook all the Pakistani frieds we interact agree with us that this ahistoric partition was engineered by coloialism with the vested poiltcal intersts as their agents. To quote Habib Jalib: "NA MERA GHAR HAI KHATRE MEN, NA TERA GHAR HAI KHATRE MEN; VATAN KO KUCHH NAHI KHATRA, NIZAM-E-JAR HAI KHATRE MEN"
"HINDUSTAN BHI MERA HAI, PAKISTAN BHI MERA HAI; DONO HI DESHON ME LEKIN AMREEKA KA DERA HAI.

Trial of Socrates

Ish Mishra Thanks, Ahmer sahab for beginning discussion on the crisis of democracy in its historical Context. Inn fact we are talking from the same pemises, similar concerns and social aspirations. I just wanted to point out the ironies of an exclusi...onist classical democracy based on slave labour, (the only model of a participatory democracy ) and look for the continuities of those ironies. The crisis in Athenian restored democracy arose due to fear of political insecurity in the minds of the democratic leadrs and lack of vision resulted into restricting the freedom of expression and crushing the dissent. Demogogues and "free from vision" leaders were able to paly upon the fear-cum-insecurity- psychosis of an Athens wrecked by long drawn 2 wars and internal strife. The crisis of democracy witnessed in Ethens around 300 BC had been imanently innate in modern democracies proved by legislation of "extra ordinary laws" due to exceptional situation in all the modern democracies. If Arundhati Roy or Varavara Rao talk about inhuman barbarism meted out to Kashmiri people at the hands of Indian security Forces, she becomes a traitor and large sections are demanding her prosecution under the colonial acts of sedition. On certain links peope have demanded vrious kinds of punitive actions against her to the extent of stoning her to death. One girls dared them by standing with Arundhati to riducule RSS kind of thinking she was immediately condemned as a Pakistani hacker. if you talk against Muslim obscurantism you will be leveld pro-Hindu and if I talk against Bajrangi lumpenism and RSS kind of "modern' obscrantism, will be immediately turned pro-pakistani. That is why we, folloewing Marx, call it a formal democracy with innate contradiction of praxis, in the sense that it never does, what it says and never says what it does. Utising this contradiction, we have to move on towards raising a scietific conciouness to carry on the march to the final goal of "human emancipation." Lal salam.

Socratic Trial

The Democratic Athens was a colonial power also in the same way as the process democratisation in European countries in modern days was accompanied by colonisation of non-Eurpean world. But Athenian democracy was more democratic in essence than modern democracies despite the exclusion of women, slaves and aliens as the modern democracies essentially exclude the entire working population from the decision making process in the garb of giving them periodic opportunity to choose, in Leni's words, 'which section of the ruling classes are going to oppress them for the next 5 years.

Had it been Periclean democracy, probably Socratese might not have been accused of corupting the youth and impeity. It was a restored democracy.During its long drawn war with Sparta, there was a strong pro-Sparta oligarchiacl group within Ethens that unsuccessfully tried to overthrow the democratic government in 411 BC. many of the oligarchical leaders were Socrates's pupils and were talking in the same language such as the virtue is knowledge......... The anti democratic oligarchical forces were successful in overthrowing the democracy and establishing the 'reign of 30 tyrrants' that lasted for less than a year. During tyranical rule, many Athenians left Athens and went into exile in hospitable environs. Socrates preffered to stay back and was considered by the leaders of the restored democracy, Anytus and others as pro-oligarchical, Hence the trial was basically a political tral in the same way as in modern democracies political prisoners are tried for criminal charges. In the democratic court consisting of 1000 elected judges, Socrates was convicted by a marginal majority of 501. The illogical prejudices acquired majority over the logical reason, as Socratic arguements in his defence were impeccable, in the same way as reactionary illogical prejudices get majority over logically reasonable options in modern democracies, as it is easier to arouse passion than reason. The solution is not the destruction of democracy, as Plato had vowed but to make it reasonale and more representative, eventually into the ral democracy of a classless society in which governance becomes unneessary.

Religion and Politics

All the ruling classes have alwys used religion as instrument to perpetuate theoir domination. Kautilya, Aristotle, Machiavelli... all these secualr political philosophers have advised the rulers to use religion including its suoerstitions, as an instrument for political ends as it is most effective to keep people loyal and united, But times have changed and been changing, people are becoming more and motre aware of the ruling class designs and the tactic will no more succeed for any longer.

rape in Iran

In all the bloodsheds on the earth -- the wars;racial/religious/communal pogroms; war on people as is happening in Iraq;Afganistan and "distuturbed" areas of India; the red hunts, the green hunts....... -- it is alwys proleteriat v/s proleteriat. That is why they recruit soldiers in their late teenage and indoctrinate them with duty to kill keeping them away from society............... The fascist government, "having God(s) on their side, rely on scaring people in conformity or inaction. Rape along with killing has been the chief weapon of the regomnes/groups "fighting for religious causes". Down with Iran's fascist government and down with Basijis. We, the radical intellectuals can contribute ourbit by working in the direction of changing the class in itsef into the class for itself by imbibing the class conciouness, to defeat such forces and move towards socialism. Radical intellectuals of the world unite to build. the revolutionary working class conciouness.

vishnu

sabhi dharma manyataon ki buniyad par khde hote hain aur sabki buniyaden hil rahi hain. @ dharmendra. Vishnu ka bhi koi iman-dharm nahi hota aksar to raj gharanon me hi paida hote rahe, lekin avsarvadita ke tahat jab mauka laga to hathi ya sukar yoni me janm lene chale gaye inki bhagwani itni doyam darje ki hai ki dushmano ko (vaise bechare bali ne inka to koi nukshan nahi kiya tha), chhupne ki isi aadat ke chalte khambe me chhip gaye jisase dushman par dhokhe se var kar saken. aur-to-aur sabse jyada badshaluki to inhone Gautam Budha ke sath kiya. Jab Budh ko parast nahi kar paye jinhone inke brahmanvadi karmkandi 'super structure' kjo dhwast kar diya, to inke chamche inhe budha ke sharir me ghusane me tul gaye, aaj tak koshish kar rahe hain Budh ko manane ka ki vishnu ka avtar ban jao, budh inhe laga tar dutkar rahe hain ki mujhe itni gandi gali mat do.

bihar

kaun darta hai arajakta se? absolutism ke smarthak darshnik arajkata ka dar dikha kar hi tyrrany ko bhi defend karte rahe hain. khair maine to kaha ki janta ek jantantrik vyavastha ke vikalp talash aur taiyar kar rahi hai, lad bhi rahi hai apne haq ke liye amanviya daman ke bavjood(Niyamgiri, kalinganagar, narayan patna, anti-posco; nandigram;......... Julm badhta hai to mit jata hai apne aap nahi, mitana padta hai. is jantantra me jan gayab hai sirf tantra bacha hai, janata jan samet jantantra ki khahish rakhti hai. buri hai aag pet ki, bure hain dil ke dsag ye; na mit sakenge ek din banege inqilab ye.

colonialism

Shiksha Saxena I didnt want to enter this dual but as I am working on the Culutural rvolution when all kinds of excesses are reported to have happened. I have read the Peguin book youn reffered to, many of the reported ecceses are fictional and many palc...ed out of con text. For an authentic account you should read Jean Chesneaux and George Thomson. I goot more intersted in the cultural revolution by an article written in1976 by a US professor, who had gone to China to ivestigate into human Rights violations during the cultural revolution and ended up writing a critical appreciation.His article began with, "there are no sky-scrappers and there are no slums." He was shockingly surprized not to find Policemen all around except the traffic police. when he asked his guide, active through the cultural revolution about leaving the historic monuemnt like the great wall, he was stunned by her reply that all of them were guarding it from no one. Chinese children were the healthiest children of the world. The country-side had primary health centres at evry kilometer. As far as excesses are conncerned, cultural revolution was meant at creating socialist conciousness, and people were forced to be free. Those who considering their priviledges as rights were reluctant to part with. Rousseau a 18th century vagbond philosopher write, "no one shall be allowed to disobey the general will, in other words they shall be forced to be free" as unfreedom can not be a right.See More

humanity

Friends, it is not an error that scoundrels rein but inate into the system based on the principles of profit and private property, as liberal political economist adam Smith puts it, "historical progress is inadvertent consequence of profit making activities". And profit can not be maximised by cherishing humanity and democracy but by inhumanaly plunder and exploitation; land grab and fake encounters of those who oppose. It is not coincidence that Manmohans and Chidambarams are so desperate to facilitate profit making of corporate by uprooting its own peasantry and killing the protesters in the name of devewlopment but it could not have been any other way around. Its not coincitental that they kill people in cold blood and declare it to be encounter but duality is innate in the system -- capitalism, it never says what it does and it never does what it says. Therefore if we really wish to cherish humanity and humanism we must continuously contribute our bit, in each of ours acts and words, to weaken this inhuman system and eventually to end it and create a new one where the planet earth ioozes out with humanity.

Socialism and Democracy

This mass genocide is all impeialist propaganda. Firstly Stalin and Mao can not be placed on the samw pedastal because both were confronting different situations. Genocide is Bhopal and other such mass killings, so many innocent people are being killed and raped by Indian Armed forces everyday in northeast, kashmir,Chattisgarh, Orissa; so many innocent academicians, intellectuals, writers and commoners were killed, tortured, maimed, imprisoned by US armed forces in the spat of "red scare" and 'red hunting' (green Hunt is planned on the same pattern. Millions of civilians are killed in Iraq and Afganistan by Us and NATO occupation forces, scores of Pakistanis are being killed almost everyday by US Drons in Balochistan and north west Frontier Province. These are genocides. Well some excesses were done by Stalin in the name of consolidating the gains of socialism in USSR surrounded by hostile imperialist forces. Had Stalin been visionary like Lenin many such things could have been avoided. Nothing of the sort happened in Mao's Chinma, that is happening now in liberalised China. Capitalism is world system based on domination and exploitation where as socialism is a world system based on equality and fraternity. Russian and Chines revolutions were jolts on capitalism whose history runs into 500 years and has been errected by entombing millions and has not been able to prove its superiority. History of experiments in socialism is not even 100 years, more over transition from feudalism to capitalism was transition from one class society to another clas society. Transitiuon from capitalism to socialism is qualitatively different kind of transition from a class society to a classless society, for which no time table can be fixed. Let us continue our bit in the progress of human history and in the continuing class struggle by our words and deeds.

atheism

Though the term 'secularism' was first used by George jacob Holyoake for the firsdt time in England in 185 to describe a social order separate from religion witjhout actively criticising the religious belief, but its idea as a noyion of free thought draws its roots from classical Greek and
Roman philosophers such as Marcuse Aurlius; Epicurus, Antiphone, Democritus ; Heraclitus .....; Indian Materialist traditions of Lokayat-Charvak philosophy; Kabir and the Sufi traditions; the enlightenment philosophers such as Denis Didero; Voltaire, Madison, Thomas Pain.......; freethinkers, agnostics, atheists like bertrand Riussel, Marx, Che and Bhagat Singh, Rahul Sankrityayan.........

Holyoaken, though himelf an agnostic, wrote, "secularism as an arguement is not agaist christianity but independent of it; it does not question the pretensions of religion (read christianity) but advances others". It does not say that there is "no light or guidance elsewhere" but there is one in secular truth "whose conditions and sanctions exist independently and forever. " Secular knowledge is "manifestly that kind of knowledge, which is founded in this life" , relates "to the conducts of this lifeand conduces the welfare of this life and is capable of being tested with the experience of this life." truth must be proved in practice.
In political terms secularism is a movent towars separation of religion and government.
Unfortunately in India, secular stae dowes not keep equi-distance from all the religions but promotesd the ob scurantism of all the religion.

tear off the veil

as a result of protracted women's struggles there has been great advance in the realm of Feminist assertion and scholarship, though not yet emancipation from patriarchy and changes are evolutionary and quantitative, moving in the direction of revolutionary qualitative changes. Gender is an ideology and has to be fought on that lavel too. Men realize thgis change tough with cultural shock and would not dare to try to make women prey. Khomeini prescribes a dress code to reveal minmum of the body and modern consumerism propogates the a dress style to coneal the minimum but both are driven by the same genderised, sensuous notion of female body and female sexuality. Tear off the veils and confront the consumerism innate in capitalism by joining the revolutionary, emancipaory novements world over. To fight the patriarchy one has to tear off the veil and break all the taboos and inhibitions created by patriarchy to circumscribe women's role and to control female sexuality.

Fourth International

Com Zulfi! Its dialectical law of historical progress as to 'certain stege' of the development of social production corresponds a 'certain level of conciousness' contiually being inFormation of the First International, in the aftermath of the 148 French Revolution and subsequent ascendence of Bonapartism was a great, historic event.It highlighted the need of a classless society and disinegrated under its own contradictions between Marx and the anarchists, particularly Bakunin. it did perform its historic role. The social democrates in second international could not transcend the contradiction between nationalism and imperialism and succumbed to the naist pressure during the imperialist war after its historic role of highlighting the ant-war issues and exposing the imperialist charecter of the war.And Third International degenerated into a hegemonic tool of CPSU bureacracy, more particularly in the wake and aftermath of the second world War. Neverthe less Commintern acomplished its historic task of spreading the ideology of Communism.
Now in the 'globalization' atege of finance capital which is entirely global in the sense that it is not geocentric eithe in terms of the origin or investment. With our experiences of the past 3 internationals ( the 4th founded by Trotsky failed to get wider acknowledgement), Lets us found the Fourth International that does not break untill the acomplishment of its historic role of world socialism that eventually paves the way for the withering away of the states.

I am quite optimistic about it. Lal Salam Com. tervened and coerced by ideological aooaratuses of the state, as Marx said, "the ruling class ideas are the ruling aideas also.

Spanish Cvil War (1936-39)

Spanish civil war also reminds us of Cristopher Caudwell, a live answer to the theory of dichotomy between communism and democracy. Caudwell was a communist, who had been wSpain, he put down the pen and picked up the gun to fight for democraticriting for the democratic freedom in his own country, England, and when tthe democratic freedom war under attack in another country, freedomand become a martyr.Com Caudwell ko lal salam. lal lal lal salam

bewakuf bada aadmi

जो लोग ग़म-ए दिल ko gam-e- jahan me villen kar dete hain, unke pas zero-balance ki lutf uthane ka hunar hota hai aur badappan unke pichhe bhagta hai, aur log mane na mane ve apne cko bada mante hain, ve khud itne bade hote hain ki kisi ko chhota dikhane ki koshish nahin karte, ve mant doo ki tarah bade hote hain, jo kahte hain: "khuda kabhi maf nahi karta, khuda se bhi bada hai saadat hasdan manto". 2. aise log jinke bare men ek bhutpurva communist (Soviet Union ke vikhrao ke bad bahut se communist bhutpurva ho gaye, lekin ye sajjan antaryami the aur uske kafi pahle hi bhutpurva ho gaye) ki ek achhi kavita hai, "bade log bahut bade hote hain, angreji school ke padhe hote hain. ..................." ye log kafi well-connected hote hain, inke sources satta ki tah-dar-tah hote hain, sanjay gandhi indira gandhi nkre kan men kya kahte hain inhe sunaii dete hain, ye roj bikte hain, itna bik chuke hote hain, ki samajh nahi pate ki press conference men bmw se jayen, ya .. (aur kisi mahangi car ka nam hi nahi yaad).

orakash bhai inse kahiye sponsored op-ed page articles likhen, tata-vedanta ki 5-staR "INTELLECTUAL MEETS ATTEND KAREN" SAMMAN KE RUP MEN KEEMTI TOHFE SWEKAR KAREN, SWYAM AGRAWAL YA TATA SE MILNE KA SUIABHAGYA PRAPT KAREN, DUNIYA KE BADE-SEE BADE PATRAKAR UNKO BAHUT BADA PATRAKAR MANENGE, SIRF PAHLE KISM KE SWAGHOSHIT BADE AADMI KO CHHODKAR. MARNE DO BEWAKUF KO.

Ayodhya

Issues raised by one of the judges (comments of others are just little less theological, compared to one in question), Justice(...?) Sharma in a VHP kind of tone and connotation, appear not to be legal judgement based on evidences but a theological sermon addressed to religios audience on the basis of so-called beliefs, epics and mythology. How such miseducated people become judges?? Any way the charecter of judiciary is always the same as that of the state


ruling class ideas are ruling ideas also and are echoed by ruling class professional intellectuals who have vested interests in serving the intersts of ruling classes. though the part of working people harbpour the illusion of being part of the ruling class. That is why Antonio Gramsci invokes the need of organic intellectuals.By the which intellectuals you are refering to? Those who are critical of the judgement by the theologically oriented, populoist judges, who should be ion some Ashram to deliver irrational emotive sermons instead of being in law courts. This is historical judgement in the sense as it ignores all the historical facts and delivers judgement on the basis of self-percieved popular belief? Those people who encourage relious superstitions and cash on peoples' religiosity are infact poisoning the society not those who are demanding the truth to be proved on the basis of facts and logical arguments. This judgement also legitimates the historic crime of demolishing the mosque and spreading the communsal venomn through it.