#Power Crisis in Delhi

[dailyanarchistposts]

India witnessed the rise of two large protest movements in last 2 years which saw millions taking to streets against the oppressive laws passed by the government. These were the Anti-CAA protests against the discriminative Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the farmers protests against the 3 pro-corporate farm laws. During the Anti-CAA protests, the loudest voices of dissent have been the women, from housewives to grandmothers, lawyers to students, women across India have been at the forefront of this struggle. This female-driven political awakening has been most jubilantly epitomized by the sit-in protest at Shaheen Bagh, drawing a cross-generational, largely female crowd never seen in India before [1]. Then came the farmer protests, where millions of farmers took to streets to fight the anti-farmer legislation that was passed in the Indian parliament and to highlight the issues of agrarian crisis which has been growing in India for the last few decades. In these protests, there is an unprecedented solidarity being displayed in the daily rallies that draw out thousands of people all over Indian cities. There are no visible leaders calling out to people to protest in one mode or another, yet the country has found a way to speak truth to power [2].

The Shaheen Bagh protest was led mostly by Muslim women, in response to the passage of the discriminative and unconstitutional CAA passed by Parliament of India and the police attack on students of Jamia Millia Islamia University. Protesters agitated not only against the citizenship issues of the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), but also against economic crisis, rising inequality, police brutality, unemployment, poverty and for women’s safety. The protesters also supported farmer unions, unions opposing the government’s anti-labour policies and protested against attacks on academic institutions. The protest started with 10–15 local women, mostly hijab wearing Muslim housewives, but within days drew crowds of up to a hundred thousand, making it one of the longest sit-in protests of this magnitude in modern India. The Shaheen Bagh protest also inspired similar style protests across the country, such as those in Gaya, Kolkata, Prayagraj, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. The protesters at Shaheen Bagh, since 14 December 2019, continued their sit-in protest in New Delhi using non-violent resistance for 101 days until 24 March 2020 when it ended due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

Most of the women who came to Shaheen Bagh protest were first-time protesters, mostly homemakers, who were standing up to the government [3]. This was the first time they came out on a national issue which cut across religious lines. Some came with their newborns and children and some were grandparents. The women were center of protests and men supported them from the sidelines. They were creative and strategic. They governed their worlds quietly from the background and knew when a crisis needed them to cross invisible boundaries and step into the foreground. They emerged into the public space to collectively confront a looming crisis [2]. Armed with thick blankets, warm cups of tea and songs of resistance, these women have braved one of the coldest winters Delhi faced in the last 118 years [4]. These women were drivers of this protest, joining in irrespective of caste and religion, taking turns to sit-in at the site. They broke down the historically prevailing gender binary of patriarchy and took control. They also destroyed the popular imagination claiming Muslim women as powerless and lacking agency.

Shaheen Bagh in many ways typifies the protest movement that erupted across India as it was leaderless. No political party or organization could claim to be leading the protest. Instead, it was fueled primarily by these women who were residents of working-class neighborhoods of Shaheen Bagh. Since it was a leaderless protest, it could not be terminated by a few prominent organizers [5]. When they tried to “called off” the protest citing interference of political parties and security threats, the women of Shaheen Bagh rejected it and decided to continue the protests. The movement had no formal organizers and thrived on a roving group of volunteers and the local women’s tenacity alone. The lack of leaders also confused the police who are clueless on whom to approach to make these women vacate the site.

The protesters were supported and coordinated by a diverse group of more than hundred volunteers, including local residents, students and professionals. These volunteers organized themselves around different tasks such as setting up makeshift stages, shelters and bedding; providing food, water, medicine, and access to toilet facilities; installing CCTV cameras, bringing in electric heaters, outside speakers and collecting donations [6]. Donations includes mattresses, an assortment of tables that form the foundation of the stage and endless cups of steaming tea that provide warmth on cold winter days. Local residents formed informal groups which coordinated security, speakers, songs, and cultural programs that happened on these makeshift stages. People distributed tea, snacks, biryani, sweets and other eatables at the protest site. Some donated wood logs to keep the protesters warm. Collection drives for blankets and other essentials were organized through social media. A health camp was also set up beside the camped protesters which provided medicines for them. Doctors and nurses along with medical students from different medical institutes and hospitals voluntarily joined for the purpose [7]. A group of Sikh farmers from Punjab came and set up a langer (free community kitchen) in the area.

The space was decorated with art and installations [8]. Stairways leading to the closed shops in the vicinity of the protest circle were transformed into a public library and art centre by student volunteers from Jamia along with the young children of Shaheen Bagh. Protest art became the voice of resistance and dissent during the event, and the area was covered in murals, graffiti, posters and banners [9]. A reading area called “Read for Revolution” had been set up with hundreds of crowd-sourced books as well as writing materials [10]. A nearby bus stop was converted into the Fatima Sheikh-Savitribai Phule library, which provided material on the country’s constitution, revolution, racism, fascism, oppression and various social issues [11]. Public reading spaces were created for the cause of dissent and to amplify the idea of education amongst the protesters of Shaheen Bagh. Since a majority of women of Shaheen Bagh have stepped out of their homes for the first time, this was an attempt to bring these women closer so that they read and facilitate the social change they exemplify. Besides young children, senior citizens, working people, domestic workers and many from Shaheen Bagh and nearby areas were occupying the area, choosing books or picking up colors and chart paper, while some also come to donate their old books and stationery.

लड़ो पढ़ाई करने को, पढ़ो समाज बदलने को (Fight To Read, Read To Change)

The children who were present alongside parents also participated in the protest. Most of these children would visit school in the morning before joining their parents at the protest site, which became an art space for many children [12]. They would express their thoughts and join in the protest through storytelling, poetry, puppetry, singing and painting. Student volunteers engaged the local children in reading, painting and singing, and held informal reading lessons.

Speeches, lectures, rap and shayari poetry readings were held every day [13]. Activists, artists and social workers came and gave talks on various issues faced by Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, the disabled, LGBTQ people, and all those who are oppressed. The stage is democratic and hosts poets and professors, housewives and elders, civil society groups and civic leaders, actors and celebrities and of course students – from Jamia, JNU to the local government schools. A large number of women participate in open-mics to express their thoughts, many speaking in public for the first time. The protestors read the Preamble of the Constitution which reminds them of their rights of Liberty, Equality and Justice. If the Shaheen Bagh stage had a bias, it is towards women and those, from academia and elsewhere, who can educate them not just on CAA-NRC-NPR, but also the freedom struggle, Ambedkar, Gandhi and the ideas that animate the preamble to the constitution [13]. The chants of “inquilab zindabad (long live the revolution!)”and “save the Constitution” filled the site. At night people would watch films and documentaries which were screened on the site, about refugee crisis, anti-fascist struggles and revolution. Musical and cultural events were also conducted in solidarity with anti-CAA protests. This occupy protest provided an example of how to create a community without government support by voluntary association and mutual aid, make decisions in a democratic way where everyone takes part and decentralize power by having no organizers or leaders who control everything. These elements of anarchist organizing is also visible in the farmers’ protest.

Small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land account for 86.2% of all farmers in India, but own just 47.3% of the crop area. A total of 2,96,438 farmers have committed suicide in India from 1995–2015 [14]. 28 people dependent on farming die by suicide in India every day [15]. India is already facing a huge agrarian crisis and the 3 new laws have opened up door for corporatization of agriculture by dismantling the Minimum Support Price (MSP) leaving the farmers at the mercy of the big capitalist businesses.

The farmers protest began with farmers unions holding local protests against the farmer bills mostly in Punjab. After two months of protests, farmers from Punjab and Haryana began a movement named Dilli Chalo (Go to Delhi), in which tens of thousands of farmers marched towards the nation’s capital [16]. The Indian government used police to attack the protesters using water cannons, batons, and tear gas to stop them from entering Delhi. On 26 November 2020, the largest general strike in the world with over 250 million people, took place in support of the farmers [17]. A crowd of 200,000 to 300,000 farmers converged at various border points on the way to Delhi. As protest, farmers blocked the highways surrounding Delhi by sitting on the roads [18]. Transport unions representing 14 million truck drivers also came out in support of the farmers. The farmers have told the Supreme court of India that they won’t listen to courts if asked to back off. They organized a tractor rally with over 200,000 tractors on the Republic day and stormed the historic Red Fort [19]. The government barricaded the capital roads with cemented nails and trenches to stop farmers and electricity, Internet, and water supply were cut off from the protest sites.

Scores of langars, i.e. free community kitchens have been set up by farmer’s organizations and NGOs to meet the food needs of the hundreds of thousands of farmers in the farmers-camps that have sprung up on the borders of Delhi [20]. The farmers came fully equipped to prepare mass meals in these community kitchens with supplies coming from their villages daily. Tractors and trucks with sacks of vegetables and flour as well as cans of oil and milk arrive daily from villages and towns where pooling resources for community meals is a way of life. These langars work round the clock and provide free food without distinction of caste, class, or religion. Supporters of the farm protest often bring almonds, apples, sweets, and packaged water. They even supplied a machine that rolls out a thousand “rotis” every hour. Social media is used to collect blankets and other essentials for these protests who are braving the harsh winter. Many protestors camp on the roadside in the cold Delhi winter and spending nights curled up in tractor trailers. Volunteers have set up solar-powered mobile charging points, laundry stalls with washing machines, medical stalls for medicines, arranged doctors and nurses, dental camps and brought foot massage chairs for elderly protesters [21].

A makeshift school has been set up at the camp, called “Sanjhi Sathh” (a common place) to recreate a village tradition of holding discussions on important issues. Children from underprivileged families who are unable to attend school due to financial issues and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic come to this tent. It has library, which displays biographies of Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, revolutionary Che Guevara, and other books of various genres and newspapers in English, Hindi and Punjabi languages. Dozens of posters with slogans written on them cover every inch of the tarpaulin tents [22]. Farmers also installed CCTV cameras to keep a watch on the protest site and keep a record of what is happening and counter any narrative to discredit their protest. Farmers protest also saw participation of women coming out to protest in large numbers. Women farmers and agricultural workers were riding tractors from their villages and rallying to the protest sites, unfazed by the gruesome winter.

Just like Shaheen Bagh protest, this is a decentralized leaderless protest by hundreds of farmer unions. Even though the negotiations with the government are being attended by representatives of 32 farmer unions, they act as spoke persons who present the collective demand of all farmers. Whenever Government introduces a new proposal, the representatives come back to the unions where they sit together, discuss, debate and decide the future course of action together in a democratic way. Farmers are conducting Kisan Mahapanchayats (public meetings) which are attended by hundreds of thousands of people in villages around Delhi, UP, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana to discuss strategies and ways to put pressure on the government. It was this decentralization that made the protest robust and overcome the condemnation around violence during Republic day Truck Rally. Even though many farm union leaders called for ending the protest, the farmers remained steadfast in their decision to not go back till the laws were repelled.

The sites of the two protests mentioned above can be compared to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) that was set up in Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington by Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters during the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by Police [23]. CHAZ was a nascent commune, built through mutual aid where no police was allowed and almost everything was free.

CHAZ, Shaheen Bagh and Farmers’ protests were occupation protests where the protestors set up a community themselves and created an autonomous zone. If one was against racism and police brutality, others were against religious discrimination and agrarian crisis. The protests were mostly self-organized and without an official leadership. The sites were filled with protest art, paintings, film screenings and musical performances [24]. Just like the mutual aid cooperative in CHAZ, free food, water, snacks and other supplies were provided to everyone. Areas were set up for assemblies and to facilitate discourse [25].

CHAZ was a leaderless zone, where the occupants favored consensus decision-making in the form of a general assembly, with daily meetings and discussion [26]. They slept in tents, cars and surrounding buildings, relying on donations from local store owners and activists. They collected donations for the homeless and created community gardens [27]. Medical stations were established to provide basic health care.

Anarchism tries to create institutions of a new society “within the shell of the old,” to expose, subvert, and undermine structures of domination but always, while doing so, proceeding in a democratic fashion, a manner which itself demonstrates those structures are unnecessary [28]. Anarchists observe what people are already doing in their communities, and then tries to tease out the hidden symbolic, moral, or pragmatic logic that underlie their actions and tries to make sense of it in ways that they are not themselves completely aware of. They look at those who are creating viable alternatives, try to figure out what might be the larger implications of what they are already doing, and then offer those ideas back, not as prescriptions, but as contributions [28]. They understand that people are already forming self-organized communities when the state has failed them and we can learn a lot about direct action and mutual aid from these communities.

Direct democratic decision making, decentralization of power, solidarity, mutual aid and voluntary association are the core principles of anarchist organizing. Anarchists employ direct action, disrupting and protesting against unjust hierarchy, and self-managing their lives through the creation of counter-institutions such as communes and non-hierarchical collectives. Decision-making is handled in an anti-authoritarian way, with everyone having equal say in each decision. They participate in all discussions in order to build a rough consensus among members of the group without the need of a leader or a leading group. Anarchists organize themselves to occupy and reclaim public spaces where art, poetry and music are blended to display the anarchist ideals. Squatting is a way to regain public space from the capitalist market or an authoritarian state and also being an example of direct action. We can find elements of these in all these protests and that is the reason for their robustness and success. It bursts the myth that you need a centralized chain of command with small group of leaders on top who decide the strategies and a very large group of followers who blindly obey those decisions for the sustenance and success of large scale organizing. All these protests were leaderless protests where people themselves decided and came to a consensus on the course of action to be followed in a democratic way. When people decide to take decisions themselves and coordinate with each other in small communities by providing aid to each other, it creates the strongest form of democracy and solidarity.

The fact that these protests happened, with so many people collectively organizing and cooperating, for such a long duration, shows us that we can self-organize and create communities without external institutions and it can be civilized and more democratic than the autocratic bureaucracy and authoritarian governments which concentrate all power and oppress people. These protests were driven by mostly by uneducated women, poor farmers and people from other marginalized communities, who showed that they can create communities which are more moral and egalitarian, than those that exist in hierarchical societies with the affluent and highly educated. They showed that people who are oppressed and underprivileged can organize themselves into communities of mutual aid and direct democracy which eliminates a need for coercive hierarchical systems of governance which exist only to exploit them.

What these occupy protests show us is that we can form communities and collectively organize various forms of democratic decision making simultaneously providing everyone their basic needs. There protests show us models of community organizing in large scales comprising hundreds of thousands of people. Even though they are not perfect we can learn the ideas these protests emulate – of solidarity, mutual aid, direct democracy, decentralization of power and try to recreate these in our lives and communities.

References

[1]

H. E. Petersen and S. Azizur Rahman, “‘Modi is afraid’: women take lead in India’s citizenship protests,” The Guardian, 21 January 2020.

[2]

N. Badwar, “Speaking truth to power, in Shaheen Bagh and beyond,” Livemint, 17 January 2020.

[3]

B. Kuchay, “Shaheen Bagh protesters pledge to fight, seek rollback of CAA law,” Al Jazeera, 15 January 2020.

[4]

“Shaheen Bagh: The women occupying Delhi street against citizenship law — ‘I don’t want to die proving I am Indian’,” BBC, 4 January 2020.

[5]

K. Sarfaraz, “Shaheen Bagh protest organiser calls it off, can’t get people to vacate,” The Hindustan Times, 2 January 2020.

[6]

“The volunteers of Shaheen Bagh,” The Telegraph (Culcutta), 24 December 2019.

[7]

“Behind Shaheen Bagh’s Women, An Army of Students, Doctors & Locals,” The Quint, 14 January 2020.

[8]

R. Venkataramakrishnan, “The Art of Resistance: Ringing in the new year with CAA protesters at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh,” Scroll.in, 6 January 2020.

[9]

A. Bakshi, “Portraits of resilience: the new year in Shaheen Bagh,” 2 January 2020.

[10]

J. Thakur, “Shaheen Bagh Kids and Jamia Students Make Space for Art, Reading and Revolution,” The Citizen, 11 January 2020.

[11]

F. Ameen, “The Library at Shaheen Bagh,” The Telegraph (Culcutta), 20 January 2020.

[12]

A. Purkait, “In Shaheen Bagh, Children Paint Their Protest while Mothers Hold Dharna,” Makers India, 22 January 2020.

[13]

S. Chakrabarti, “Shaheen Bagh Heralds a New Year With Songs of Azaadi,” The Wire, 31 December 2019.

[14]

P. Sainath, “Maharashtra crosses 60,000 farm suicides,” People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), 21 July 2014.

[15]

R. Sengupta, “Every day, 28 people dependent on farming die by suicide in India,” Down to Earth, 3 September 2020.

[16]

“Dilli Chalo | Farmers’ protest enters fifth day,” The Hindu, 30 November 2020.

[17]

S. Joy, “At least 25 crore workers participated in general strike; some states saw complete shutdown: Trade unions,” Deccan Herald, 26 November 2020.

[18]

“Farmers’ Protest Highlights: Protesting farmers refuse to budge, say ‘demands are non-negotiable,” The Indian Express, 1 December 2020.

[19]

G. Bhatia, “Tractors to Delhi,” Reuters, 29 January 2021.

[20]

“Langar Tradition Plays Out in Farmers Protest, Students Use Social Media To Organise Essentials,” India Today, 2 December 2020.

[21]

J. Sinha, “Protest site draws ‘Sewa’ – medicine stalls, laundry service, temple & library come up,” Indian Express, 11 December 2020.

[22]

B. Kuchay, “A school for the underprivileged at Indian farmers’ protest site,” AlJazeera, 24 January 2021.

[23]

D. Silva and M. Moschella, “Seattle protesters set up ‘autonomous zone’ after police evacuate precinct,” NBC News, 11 June 2020.

[24]

C. Burns, “The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone Renames, Expands, and Adds Film Programming,” The Stranger, 10 June 2020.

[25]

H. Allam, “‘Remember Who We’re Fighting For’: The Uneasy Existence Of Seattle’s Protest Camp,” NPR, 18 June 2020.

[26]

K. Burns, “Seattle’s newly police-free neighborhood, explained,” Vox, 16 June 2020.

[27]

h. Weinberger, “In Seattle’s CHAZ, a community garden takes root | Crosscut,” Crosscut, 15 June 2020.

[28]

D. Graeber, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, 2004.

[fatehbaz]

Sheetal Chhabria sets her finger on the core of a shared problem that her book Making the Modern Slum: The Power of Capital in Colonial Bombay, Yahia Shawkat’s Egypt’s Housing Crisis: Shaping the Urban Space and my own Possessing the City: Property and Politics in Delhi 1911-1947 are outlining. The settings and periods are diverse and the particular histories diverge. But, in each of our work, we point to both the commodification of shelter and the paradoxical histories of efforts to oppose or mitigate that commodification. The Housing Question – how to provide decent and dignified shelter to every human – seems to be hummed to a drearily repetitive tune (with a few varying notes) in the Global South. Indeed, many of the same problems are reproduced in the Global North as well.

The stubbornness with which mass housing initiatives are reinserted into commodity circuits is a key lesson in all three works. This despite a related phenomenon that Chhabria points to the sheer variety of ways in which housing has been used by the state to ‘manage populations’. Chhabria and Shawkat both refer, for instance, to moments in which housing has been utilized as a tool to ensure the immobilization of working populations. Much like in a prison, to use housing as a way to prevent or restrict the mobility of working people.

---

Part of the reason for this is that Chhabria’s work on Bombay culminates at a point of unique labor mobility: the migration away from the city of much of Bombay’s mill labor force in the wake of the late nineteenth century plague epidemic. [...] But it was also a project of housing in which luring workers back to the city and holding them there was an essential component. The Bombay Improvement Trust (BIT), whose trajectory from inception to failure Chhabria meticulously chronicles, bears the marks of exactly such an origin point. The BIT was in the final reckoning a mix of welfarism, state-subsidy for financial speculation, attempts to signal a more sanitary city and immobilising labour. [...] However, this limited decommodification of shelter was a mere sub-theme among the other agenda of the BIT.

Crucially, Chhabria points out, Indian elites and the colonial state joined in their appreciation of the opportunities for profit-making and governing on the cheap, while solving labor supply problems through the BIT’s housing initiatives.

In Shawkat’s Egypt too, both in the late nineteenth century and in the present, the ‘izba recurs as a form of housing designed to immobilize labor – converting peasants more fully into workers. [...]

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The slum must also [...] be an active source of a reserve army of labor. [...] Here the establishment of a Delhi Improvement Trust (in 1937, nearly 40 years after the BIT) was initiated by a piece of bad press. [...] The DIT’s major success was in [...] (something that Chhabria points out happened in Bombay too) participating in a round of speculative development in the Delhi countryside. [...] These and myriad other pathways have tended to return housing – even housing built at subsidized rates for the city’s working poor – to circuits of accumulation and profit.

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Shawkat [...] is clear-sighted about the terminal point – decommodified housing. Any intermediate position, he argues, would prove unstable and return housing to the circuits of capital circulation. [...] As I have been pointing out, each of our three works provides templates by which waves of partial decommodification are clawed back into circuits of profit and loss.

How, then, could a more permanent extrication of shelter from commodification be achieved? The unsuccessful efforts to decommodify housing in colonial Delhi illustrate some potential pitfalls. [...] The weakness of struggles to decommodify housing in Delhi meant that even housing for Partition refugees would become the launchpad for what is today India’s largest private real estate firm -- Delhi Land and Finance. [...]

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The Housing Question, cannot be separated from the much broader question of power. Mobilizations from below which are committed to a vision of broad human emancipation are the only viable way forward. Neither a brilliant urban plan nor the temporarily persuaded ear of a state official can achieve the decommodification of shelter that Shawkat calls for. [...] Stubbornly enough, [...] at the heart of it tends to lie a nexus between industrialists, richer traders, real estate speculators, and the state. Yes, temporary relief might be won [...]. But, as the history of the return of housing to circuits of commodity demonstrates, [...] the battle to provide shelter as a right is first about building [...] [movements] that can fight and win a broad decommodification of everyday life.

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Text by: Anish Vanaik. “Shelter as Capital: Housing and Commodification: Lessons from the Global South.” Borderlines [open-access site mentored by editors of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East]. Published online: 18 February 2021. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[gayhomebody]

Books I've read in 2024

'Bleak House' by Charles Dickens

'Bandits' by Eric Hobsbawm

'Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson' by George Jackson

'The Violence of Britishness: Racism, Borders and the Conditions of Citizenship' by Nadya Ali

'Black Power' by Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton

History Today February 2024 Vol. 74 Issue 2

'The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian' by Nirad C. Chaudhuri

'Booth' by Karen Joy Fowler

'Making Sense of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine' by Paul Le Blanc

History Today March 2024 Vol. 74 Issue 3

'Walter Benjamin's Archive'

Granta 15, Spring 1985, 'The Fall of Saigon' by James Fenton

'Kitchen Confidential: Insider's Edition' by Anthony Bourdain

'End British Support for Zionism, Isolate the Israeli State' by FRFI

'East into Upper East: Plain Tales from New York and New Delhi' by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

'From the Four Corners' by Jan Morris

'Common Sense and The American Crisis I' by Thomas Paine

'Renaissance Europe, 1480-1520' by J. R. Hale

'Reformation Europe, 1517-1559' by G. R. Elton

'Europe Divided, 1559-1598' by J. H. Elliott

'Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography, 1888-1938' by Stephen F. Cohen

[mikeo56]

Princeton, N.J. — As I write this, the sun is a hazy reddish orange orb. The sky is an inky yellowish gray. The air has an acrid stench and leaves a faint metallic taste in my mouth. After 20 minutes outside, my head starts to ache, my nose burns, my eyes itch and my breathing becomes more labored. Streets are deserted. The ubiquitous lawn service companies with their machine mowers and whining gas-powered leaf blowers have disappeared, along with pedestrians, cyclists and joggers. Those who walk their dog go out briefly and then scamper back inside. N95 masks, as in the early days of the pandemic, are sold out, along with air purifiers. The international airports at Newark and Philadelphia have delayed or canceled flights.

I feel as if I am in a ghost town. Windows shut. Air conditioners on full blast. The Air Quality Index (AQI) is checked and rechecked. We are hovering around 300. The most polluted cities in the world have half that rate. Dubai (168). Delhi (164). Anything above 300 is classified as hazardous.

When will the hundreds of forest fires burning north of us in Canada — fires that have already consumed 10.9 million acres and driven 120,000 people from their homes — be extinguished? What does this portend? The wildfire season is only beginning. When will the air clear? A few days? A few weeks? 

What do you tell a terminal patient seeking relief? Yes, this period of distress may pass, but it’s not over. It will get worse. There will be more highs and lows and then mostly lows, and then death. But no one wants to look that far ahead. We live moment to moment, illusion to illusion. And when the skies clear we pretend that normality will return. Except it won’t. Climate science is unequivocal. It has been for decades. The projections and graphs, the warming of the oceans and the atmosphere, the melting of polar ice sheets and glaciers, rising sea levels, droughts and wildfires and monster hurricanes are already bearing down with a terrible and mounting fury on our species, and most other species, because of the hubris and folly of the human race. 

The worse it gets the more we retreat into fantasy. The law will solve it. The market will solve it. Technology will solve it. We will adapt. Or, for those who find solace in denial of a reality-based belief system, the climate crisis does not exist. The earth has always been like this. And besides, Jesus will save us. Those who warn of the looming mass extinction are dismissed as hysterics, Cassandras, pessimists. It can’t be that catastrophic.

At the inception of every war I covered, most people were unable to cope with the nightmare that was about to engulf them. Signs of disintegration surrounded them. Shootings. Kidnappings. The bifurcation of polarized extremes into antagonistic armed groups or militias. Hate speech. Political paralysis. Apocalyptic rhetoric. The breakdown of social services. Food shortages. Circumscribed daily existence. But the fragility of society is too emotionally fraught for most of us to accept. We endow the institutions and structures around us with an eternal permanence.

“Things whose existence is not morally comprehensible cannot exist,” Primo Levi, who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, observed. 

I would return at night to Pristina in Kosovo after having been stopped by Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) rebels a few miles outside the capital. But when I described my experiences to my Kosovar Albanian friends — highly educated and multilingual — they dismissed them. “Those are Serbs dressed up like rebels to justify Serb repression,” they answered. They did not grasp they were at war until Serb paramilitary forces rounded them up at gunpoint, herded them into boxcars and shipped them off to Macedonia.

Complex civilizations eventually destroy themselves. Joseph Tainter in “The Collapse of Complex Societies,” Charles L. Redman in “Human Impact on Ancient Environments,” Jared Diamond in “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” and Ronald Wright in “A Short History of Progress,” detail the familiar patterns that lead to catastrophic collapse. We are no different, although this time we will all go down together. The entire planet. Those in the Global South who are least responsible for the climate emergency, will suffer first. They are already fighting existential battles to survive. Our turn will come. We in the Global North may hold out for a bit longer, but only a bit. The billionaire class is preparing its escape. The worse it gets, the stronger will be our temptation to deny the reality facing us, to lash out at climate refugees, which is already happening in Europe and along our border with Mexico, as if they are the problem. 

Wright, who calls industrial society “a suicide machine,” writes: 

Civilization is an experiment, a very recent way of life in the human career, and it has a habit of walking into what I am calling progress traps. A small village on good land beside a river is a good idea; but when the village grows into a city and paves over the good land, it becomes a bad idea. While prevention might have been easy, a cure may be impossible: a city isn’t easily moved. This human inability to foresee — or to watch out for — long-range consequences may be inherent to our kind, shaped by the millions of years when we lived from hand to mouth by hunting and gathering. It may also be little more than a mix of inertia, greed, and foolishness encouraged by the shape of the social pyramid. The concentration of power at the top of large-scale societies gives the elite a vested interest in the status quo; they continue to prosper in darkening times long after the environment and general populace begin to suffer.

We will frantically construct climate fortresses, like the great walled cities at the end of the Bronze Age before its societal collapse, a collapse so severe that not only did these cities fall into ruin, but writing itself in many places disappeared. Maybe a few of our species will linger on for a while. Or maybe rats will take over the planet and evolve into some new life form. One thing is certain. The planet will survive. It has experienced mass extinctions before. This one is unique only because our species engineered it. Intelligent life is not so intelligent. Maybe this is why, with all those billions of planets, we have not discovered an evolved species. Maybe evolution has built within it its own death sentence.

I accept this intellectually. I don’t accept it emotionally any more than I accept my own death. Yes, I know our species is almost certainly doomed — but notice, I say almost. Yes, I know I am mortal. Most of my life has already been lived. But death is hard to digest until the final moments of existence, and even then, many cannot face it. We are composed of the rational and the irrational. In moments of extreme distress we embrace magical thinking. We become the easy prey of con-artists, cult leaders, charlatans and demagogues who tell us what we want to hear. 

Disintegrating societies are susceptible to crisis cults that promise a return to a golden age. The Christian Right has many of the characteristics of a crisis cult. Native Americans, ravaged by genocide, the slaughter of the buffalo herds, the theft of their land and incarcerated in prisoner-of-war camps, clung desperately to the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance promised to drive away the white invaders and resurrect the warriors and buffalo herds. Instead, followers were mowed down by the U.S. Army with Hotchkiss MI875 mountain guns.

We must do everything in our power to halt carbon emissions. We must face the truth that the ruling corporate elites in the industrialized world will never extract us from fossil fuels. Only if these corporatists are overthrown — as proposed by groups such as Extinction Rebellion — and radical and immediate measures are taken to end the consumption of fossil fuel, as well as curtail the animal agriculture industry, will we be able to mitigate some of the worst effects of ecocide. But I don’t see this as likely, especially given the sophisticated forms of control and surveillance the global oligarchs have at their disposal.

The awful truth is that even if we halt all carbon emissions today there is so much warming locked into the oceans deep muddy floor and the atmosphere, that feedback loops will ensure climate catastrophe. Summer Arctic sea ice, which reflects 90 percent of solar radiation that comes into contact with it, will disappear. The Earth’s surface will absorb more radiation. The greenhouse effect will be amplified. Global warming will accelerate, melting the Siberian permafrost and disintegrating the Greenland ice sheet. 

Melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica “has increased fivefold since the 1990s, and now accounts for a quarter of sea-level rise,” according to a recent report funded by NASA and the European Space Agency. Continued sea level rise, the rate of which has doubled over three decades according to the World Meteorological Organization, is inevitable. Tropical rainforests will burn. Boreal forests will move northward. These and other feedback loops are already built into the ecosystem. We cannot stop them. Climate chaos, including elevated temperatures, will last for centuries. 

The hardest existential crisis we face is to at once accept this bleak reality and resist. Resistance cannot be carried out because it will succeed, but because it is a moral imperative, especially for those of us who have children. We may fail, but if we do not fight against the forces that are orchestrating our mass extinction, we become part of the apparatus of death.

Stop, stop, stop believing America is great. It isn't.

[mariacallous]

The global south seemed to be top of mind for policymakers and diplomats this year, from the halls of the United Nations to leaders’ podiums. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called his country the “voice of the global south,” hosting a virtual summit by that name to start the year that elevated the perspectives of dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In Vietnam in September, U.S. President Joe Biden exchanged the Cold War-era phrase “Third World” for “global south” as he spoke.

For some commentators, the new politics of the global south recalls the heyday of the Non-Aligned Movement, first convened in Indonesia in 1955. The comparison may seem particularly apt when it comes to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Since February 2022, many countries in the global south have avoided criticizing Moscow, including by abstaining from or voting against U.N. resolutions to condemn aggression against Kyiv—and continuing to import Russian oil and gas despite Western sanctions.

In September, more than 18 months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky returned to the U.N. General Assembly, in large part seeking to bolster wider international support for his cause. At the time, FP’s Howard W. French wrote that many developing countries simply had other priorities: “Increasingly, the poor are saying to the rich that your priorities won’t mean more to us until ours mean much more to you.”

Two major meetings underscored the shifting role of the global south in world politics this year: the BRICS summit held in August in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the G-20 leaders’ summit hosted by New Delhi in September. In Johannesburg, the bloc—comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—announced it would add six new members, giving it a bigger share of the world’s GDP than the G-7 in terms of purchasing power parity. Whether the BRICS expansion will lead to more power or less cohesion remains to be seen, but the bloc has at least succeeded in making de-dollarization a talking point.

Meanwhile, Modi used the G-20 summit—and India’s leadership of the group this year—to expand the agenda to include issues of significance to the global south, such as trade, climate change, and migration. He touted the event and the resulting consensus declaration as a success for New Delhi, scoring increased World Bank funding aimed countries in the global south. But tensions and differences within the group were apparent, especially on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The war in Gaza that began in October marked another shift, as countries in the global south pointed to Western support for Israel’s collective punishment of the Gaza Strip after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 as hypocritical—particularly considering the West’s insistence on a so-called rules-based global order. In November, Julien Barnes-Dacey and Jeremy Shapiro of the European Council on Foreign Relations argued that the United States and its allies are bound to lose such a “battle of narratives.”

With the global south now commanding the world’s attention, the fluidity and the imprecision of the term—once relegated to academia—have also become more clear. Even as analysts question the very concept, what is certain is that the global south will remain a central figure in diplomacy and summitry in 2024.

Below are some of Foreign Policy’s top pieces on global south politics and debates this year.

1. The World Isn’t Slipping Away From the West

By Comfort Ero, March 8

More than a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Comfort Ero, the president and CEO of the International Crisis Group, reflected on an increasingly common question: Why have so many countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America sat this one out, offering limited support to Kyiv?

It’s tempting to say that the West is losing the global south. But that is too simplistic, Ero argues, writing that Western countries should look to recent history to better understand what motivates countries with different perspectives: “It’s no wonder that many officials from countries in the global south feel that the West is demanding their loyalty over Ukraine—after not showing them much solidarity in their own hours of need.”

“[N]early all the officials I’ve spoken with seek to define their national policies on their own terms—reflecting their own sovereign interests—rather than framing them as part of a West-Russia contest,” Ero writes.

2. 6 Swing States Will Decide the Future of Geopolitics

By Cliff Kupchan, June 6

In May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky courted the support of Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia—so-called middle powers that, along with other leaders of the global south, including South Africa and Turkey, “have more power today than ever before,” Eurasia Group Chairman Cliff Kupchan writes.

These six “swing states” have already shaped optics around Russia’s war in Ukraine, namely by refusing to fall in line with Western plans for military aid to Kyiv and sanctions against Moscow. The United States needs to “up its game” with regard to these six powers and the global south more broadly, Kupchan writes. “We now have more drivers on every geopolitical issue. That makes predictions of geopolitical outcomes, already a fraught endeavor, even harder.”

3. Can the G-20 Be a Champion for the Global South?

By Darren Walker, Sept. 8

The Group of 20 includes many countries from the global south, but its wealthiest members long wielded the most influence at the table. As India hosted the annual G-20 leaders’ summit in September, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker argued that the group was now “poised to usher in an unprecedented era of not only influence, but also economic justice, for the global south.”

Walker writes that India used its year-long G-20 presidency to highlight issues that disproportionately affect countries in the global south, particularly sovereign debt, and to amplify voices from this global majority. Significant divisions remain among the G-20, but India’s leadership is part of the “establishment of a new standard” led by developing countries, he argues.

“With their upcoming G-20 presidencies, Brazil and South Africa have the chance to build on the momentum created by their predecessors,” Walker writes.

4. Why the Global South Is Accusing America of Hypocrisy

By Oliver Stuenkel, Nov. 2

The war in Gaza exposed a new challenge to the West from the countries of the global south: accusations of hypocrisy. “Many in the developing world have long seen a double standard in the West condemning an illegal occupation in Ukraine while also standing staunchly behind Israel, which has occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1967,” Oliver Stuenkel, an international relations professor in São Paulo, writes.

Stuenkel argues that this perceived inconsistency could damage Western claims of a so-called rules-based global order, especially as civilian casualties rise and calls for a cease-fire grow. “The longer the Israel-Hamas war goes on, the greater the risk to Western credibility in the global south becomes,” he writes.

5. Is There Such a Thing as a Global South?

By C. Raja Mohan, Dec. 9

As the term “global south” has gone mainstream, so to speak, FP’s C. Raja Mohan writes that it has become a “convenient shorthand” in debates over issues as diverse as climate policy and Russia’s war in Ukraine—putting the global majority in a “single category with supposedly similar interests.” But Mohan raises a pointed question: Is there even such a thing as a global south?

Mohan points out several analytical flaws with the concept, which he calls “old wine in a new bottle.” He explains that countries of the global south have divergent economic interests and development paths, and that the group itself has much too fluid boundaries. Given these issues, is “global southism” worthwhile as an explanatory framework? Mohan doesn’t think so, but he acknowledges that it may be here to stay.

“Despite my and others’ calls to retire the category global south, it is unlikely to disappear from the international relations vocabulary anytime soon,” Mohan writes. “For many in the West, it is a way of othering the rest; for the chattering classes in the rest, it is a way of channeling deep reservoirs of resentment against continuing Western dominance.”

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.29 (after 1950)

1953 – BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco. 1955 – The Soviet battleship Novorossiysk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol. 1956 – Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal. 1957 – Israel's prime minister David Ben-Gurion and five of his ministers are injured when Moshe Dwek throws a grenade into the Knesset. 1960 – An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio. 1964 – The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed to the United Republic of Tanzania. 1964 – Biggest jewel heist; involving the Star of India (gem) in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City by Murph the Surf and gang. 1967 – Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors. 1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. 1972 – The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of the hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. 1980 – Demonstration flight of a secretly modified C-130 for an Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in a crash landing at Eglin Air Force Base's Duke Field, Florida, leading to the cancellation of Operation Credible Sport. 1985 – Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced as the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia. 1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway. 1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid. 1994 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill U.S. President Bill Clinton. 1998 – In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities. 1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space at that time. 1998 – ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission. 1998 – While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of six and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant who orders the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricked the hijacker into thinking that he is landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel. 1998 – Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras. 1998 – The Gothenburg discothèque fire in Sweden kills 63 and injures 200. 1999 – A large cyclone devastates Odisha, India. 2002 – A fire destroys a luxurious department store in Ho Chi Minh City, where 1,500 people are shopping. More than 60 people die and over 100 are unaccounted for in the deadliest peacetime disaster in Vietnam. 2004 – The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election. 2005 – Bombings in Delhi, India kill more than 60. 2008 – Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five. 2008 – A pair of deadly earthquakes hits Baluchistan, Pakistan, killing 215. 2012 – Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing 148 directly and 138 indirectly, while leaving nearly $70 billion in damages and causing major power outages. 2014 – A mud slide; the 2014 Badulla landslide, in south-central Sri Lanka, kills at least 16 people, and leaves hundreds of people missing. 2015 – China announces the end of its one-child policy after 35 years. 2018 – A Boeing 737 MAX plane crashes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia killing 189 people on board.

[vsparkindia]

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[shinexpr]

PR AGENCY in Delhi – Shine X PR

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At Shine X PR, we recognize that a one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn't work in public relations. Every brand has its own unique story, target audience, and business goals. That’s why we take the time to understand your brand inside and out. We craft customized PR strategies that align with your specific objectives, ensuring that your message resonates with the right audience. Our tailored approach sets us apart as a leading PR agency in Delhi.

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Our expertise in media relations is one of the cornerstones of our success. We maintain strong relationships with top-tier media outlets across Delhi and beyond, ensuring that your brand's story is told by the most influential voices in the industry. From securing press coverage to arranging interviews and media briefings, Shine X PR knows how to position your brand in the spotlight. As a trusted PR agency in Delhi, we leverage these connections to maximize your brand's visibility.

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In today’s fast-paced digital world, a brand’s reputation can be compromised in an instant. Shine X PR is adept at managing crises swiftly and effectively. We have a dedicated crisis management team that works proactively to identify potential risks and develop strategies to mitigate them. If a crisis does arise, our team is ready to act immediately, ensuring minimal impact on your brand. Our reputation as a reliable PR agency in Delhi is built on our ability to protect and preserve your brand's image.

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5. Content That Captivates

In the digital age, content is king. Shine X PR’s content creation team excels at producing high-quality, engaging content that tells your brand’s story in a compelling way. From press releases and articles to social media posts and multimedia content, we ensure that your message is communicated effectively across all platforms. Our focus on quality content reinforces our reputation as a leading PR agency in Delhi.

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Contact Us

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[warningsine]

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/bangladesh-awaits-installation-interim-government-after-weeks-strife-2024-08-08/

DHAKA, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge of Bangladesh's caretaker government on Thursday, hoping to help heal the country that was convulsed by weeks of violence, forcing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to quit and flee to neighbouring India.

Known as the "banker to the poor", Yunus is the pioneer of the global microcredit movement. The Grameen Bank he founded won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for helping lift millions from poverty by providing tiny loans to the rural poor who are too impoverished to gain attention from traditional banks.

As chief adviser of the caretaker government, he is, however, tasked with bringing stability back to the country which witnessed some of its worst violence in decades and then hold fresh parliamentary elections.

"The brutal, autocratic regime is gone," Yunus said in a televised address to the nation after taking charge. "Tomorrow, with the rising sun, democracy, justice, human rights, and full freedom of fearless expression will be enjoyed by all, regardless of party affiliation. That is our goal."

Earlier on Thursday, on his arrival in Dhaka following medical treatment in Paris, Yunus said he would govern it with the guidance of students who backed him for the role in the caretaker government.

A harsh critic of Hasina, Yunus became emotional and seemed to hold his tears back at the airport as he referred to a student he said had been shot during the protests and that sacrifice could not be forgotten.

Hasina's flight from the country she ruled for 20 of the last 30 years after winning a fourth term in January triggered jubilation and violence as crowds stormed and ransacked her official residence.

Many Hindu homes, temples and businesses were vandalised after Hasina's departure, and hundreds in the minority community have tried unsuccessfully to flee to India this week. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council said a schoolteacher was killed and 45 other people hurt.

Many Hindus have traditionally supported Hasina's Awami League party, which identifies as secular.

POWER VACUUM

Yunus' swearing-in plugged the power vacuum in the South Asian country of 170 million people with the fourth-largest Muslim population in the world, created after Hasina resigned and flew to India on Monday.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oath of office to  Yunus and 13 advisers who will help him govern, at a brief ceremony in the official presidential residence.

Three more advisers will be sworn in at a later date, officials said. Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, two student leaders who are both in their mid-20s and led the protests, were among the 13 who joined the caretaker government.

The ceremony started with a minute's silence to honour the hundreds who were killed in the protests and clashes that erupted in July.

The army played a critical role towards the end of the crisis, conveying to Hasina that troops would not open fire on civilians to enforce a curfew declared on Sunday, sealing her fate, Reuters reported.

Hasina's Awami League party does not figure in the interim government. In a Facebook post, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy said the party had not given up, and was ready to hold talks with opponents and the interim government.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted two national elections after the arrest of its leaders and has demanded fresh elections in three months.

PROTECT HINDUS, INDIA URGES

Hasina is sheltering in the New Delhi area, a development that Yunus said caused anger at India among some Bangladeshis. India's foreign ministry said it had no update on Hasina's travel plans and it was up to her to "take things forward".

The neighbours have longstanding cultural and business ties and New Delhi played a key role in the 1971 war with Pakistan which led to the creation of Bangladesh.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Yunus and said New Delhi was committed to working with Dhaka to fulfil the "shared aspirations" of the people of both countries for "peace, security and development".

"We hope for an early return to normalcy, ensuring the safety and protection of Hindus and all other minority communities," he said.

The student-led movement that ousted Hasina grew out of protests against quotas in government jobs that spiralled in July, provoking a violent crackdown that drew global criticism, though the government denied using excessive force.

The protests were fuelled also by harsh economic conditions and political repression. The COVID-19 pandemic damaged the $450 billion economy after years of strong growth, leading to high inflation, unemployment and shrinking reserves.

It pushed the Hasina government to seek a $4.7 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

[citizenrecord]

Tinder Date Gone Wrong: Man Scammed To Pay ₹ 1.2 Lakh Bill At Delhi Cafe

Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi fielded three key questions to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during the all-party meeting on the situation in Bangladesh after Sheikh Hasina's ouster as Prime Minister amid violent protests.

Mr Gandhi asked what is the government's short-term and long-term strategy in dealing with diplomatic ramifications of the power shift in Dhaka, sources have said. The minister replied that it is a developing situation and the Centre is analysing it closely so that it can fine-tune its next move.

The Congress leader also asked if there could be an involvement of foreign powers, specifically Pakistan, in the dramatic developments in Dhaka over the past few weeks that culminated in Hasina's ouster, the sources said. The Centre replied that it is investigating this angle. A source also pointed out that the government had said that a Pakistan diplomat had been constantly changing his social media display picture to reflect the situation in Bangladesh amid violent protests. The Centre said is probing if this points to anything bigger.

He also asked if New Delhi had foreseen the dramatic turn of events in Bangladesh. To this, the External Affairs Minister replied that India is monitoring the situation.

Congress and the other Opposition parties have pledged their full support to the Narendra Modi government in its handling of the neighbourhood crisis.

Following the meeting, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar put out a post on X, appreciating the Opposition's unanimous support. "Briefed an All-Party meeting in Parliament today about the ongoing developments in Bangladesh. Appreciate the unanimous support and understanding that was extended," he wrote.

At the meeting, also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah, the Centre told MPs from all parties about the background to the crisis in Bangladesh and how it reached this point. They were also briefed about the situation there and how Ms Hasina escaped to India as her residence was stormed by protesters.

Ms Hasina is still in India and is likely to fly to the UK for political asylum. The Centre also told the all-party meet how it plans to respond to Ms Hasina, known to be New Delhi's old friend. Sources said New Delhi wants to give her time to decide her next course of action.

The government also told the meeting that it is in touch with Bangladesh Army, which has announced the formation of an interim government. The government told the Opposition parties that it is watching the developments closely and will take appropriate action at the right time.

There are about 20,000 Indian nationals in Bangladesh and about 8,000 have returned. The government is in touch with them and the high commission is functioning. The Centre, sources said, is also tracking reports of attacks on minorities in Bangladesh.

Speaking to NDTV after the meeting, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said that India's primary concern is the safety of Indian nationals in Bangladesh and the situation at the borders. Asked if the Opposition is satisfied with the way the government is handling the situation, he said, "The fact that the External Affairs Minister briefed all party leaders is a very welcome step. And we are with the government as far as national security is concerned."

[bridgers321]

Crafting Your Story: Partnering with a Premier Public Relations Agency in Delhi

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Conclusion: Elevate Your Brand with Premier Public Relations in Delhi

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[aire560]

From Desk to Dinner: Elevating Casual Cool with Aire’s Polo T-shirts

1. Introduction

Tired of the dreaded ‘desk to dinner’ outfit dilemma? It’s about time you bid adieu to the stuffy suit and say hello to a versatile wardrobe essential: the Polo T-shirt.

The struggle is real: you leave the office after a long day, waiting to unwind, but tonight’s plans call for a more relaxed look. Well, are you gonna put on those stained and uncomfortable dress pants, or just trade style for some comfy sweats? Oh precious, there’s a better alternative – the polo tee. Bridging the gap between professional polish and casual cool, this versatile piece allows you to move from a formal work meeting to a crazy night out – without any fashion crisis. Aireselect takes you through the pedestal as your one-stop shop, designed to make effortless style a reality.

In this blog, we’re going to discuss Aire select’s polo t-shirt collection, along with some chic style inspos. So, hop on the trend with us and rediscover the polo’s power–a sophisticated and relaxed garment, perfect for the modern man on the go.

2. Aireselect’s Polo Collection For Men: A Cut Above the Rest

Not all men’s polo shirts are of the same quality, and we know that damn well. Aireselect, reinterpreting the polo at its best, fully redefines it as their own. Bearing the pain to curate different styles, colors, and fits for men, our mesmerizing and detail-oriented polo collection will be a sweet-on for you. Whether you want the timeless pique weave or a more textured fabric – voíla, we have it all!

Just as our clothes elevate our everyday attire, they also go beyond what the eye can see. Aireselect offers a multitude of styles in trending hues and neutral tones to coordinate every wardrobe. Customers can proudly wear their perfectly fitted polo shirts designed for each individual’s body shape. We have plenty to offer, ranging from slim and fitted to comfortable and relaxed fits.

What’s more, Aireselect’s polos might also include some special design elements, such as subtle embroidery or contrasting trims that will give you a personal and sophisticated touch. The result? A brand of polo shirts that not rarely go out modestly and yet emphasize your masterful look, whether it is for just checking mail or for a more formal occasion.

3. Men’s Fashion Inspiration: From Workwear to Weekend Chic

Set on a style route as you glide from the onset of professionalism in the office to the leisure and weekends – with Aireselect! Aireselect, founded by the creative minds of NIFT Delhi isn’t just a brand; it’s a living testament to the fusion of high-quality apparel and technology.

Here’s how you can achieve effortless style with Aireselect’s polos:

Workwear Chic:

For a classic office-wear, choose a polo shirt in a neutral color that rhymes with the outfit like a navy or light blue polo shirt, made of pique and matched with a well-tailored pair of chinos or dress pants. Add to the overall look with a blazer in a shade that matches your drip. This style showcases a blend of professional attitude with ample traces of relaxed elegance; it can complement any client meeting as well as a networking event.

Weekend Ready:

For casual wear, go for a polo in a bolder shade or a textured material to make it more casual. Put it on with loose-fit jeans or jeans with dark rinse for a comfortable yet fashionable appearance. Wrap the look up with sneakers or boat shoes, on condition that you decide to be casual or formal. This mix is the perfect recipe for brunch with friends, an afternoon spent in the open air, or a laid-back evening.

4. The Aireselect Experience: Your One-Stop Shop for Style

The process of online shopping for men should be relaxing, instead of front-loaded difficulties. Hence, Aireselect’s upsurge website will make shopping extremely convenient, as you will be able to browse the whole polo collection in no time, on your home couch. With high-resolution photos, elaborate descriptions and a user-friendly size guide, you will for sure find the polo shirt that fits your shape and style. Therefore, give up the malls and their long lines. As Aireselect is the brand you can trust, renew your look by browsing through the web and begin to experience stress-less online shopping.

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Original Source: From Desk to Dinner Elevating Casual Cool with Aire’s Polo T-shirts

[weather-usa]

Delhi experiences extreme weather whiplash as heat waves transition to record rainfall and deadly flash floods.

Sudden heavy rains have caused deadly flash flooding in India’s capital, replacing one of the worst heat waves in Delhi’s history, which had pushed temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

An observatory in New Delhi reported 228.1 millimeters (nearly 9 inches) of rainfall in a 24-hour period on Friday, the highest recorded in a single June day for 88 years, and exceeding the city's average for the entire month, according to the Indian Meteorological Department.

See more:

At least 11 people died from the rain and flooding last week, including four who drowned in submerged underpasses, Reuters reported, citing local media.

Heavy rains flooded roads, submerged cars and subways, and cut power to parts of the city. Videos posted on social media showed waterlogged streets in Delhi, with residents wading waist-deep through the floods.

The Delhi capital region “is becoming home to extreme weather every season now,” said independent weatherman Navdeep Dahiya on X.

On Friday, heavy rain caused a section of the roof at New Delhi’s airport to collapse, crushing one man to death and injuring eight others. Photos released by the fire service showed the large white canopy of the roof had fallen to the ground, crushing several cars. One person was seen slumped under twisted metal in the driver's seat of one of the cars.

The heavy rains have brought some relief from weeks of blistering heat, with one part of Delhi reaching 49.9 degrees Celsius (121.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in late May — the capital’s highest temperature on record. This year’s scorching heat wave persisted even after sunset, with high nighttime temperatures providing little relief.

The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a weather warning until July 4 as heavy rains hit much of India’s northeast, east, and northwest coast.

Red alerts, indicating the highest level of threat, were issued for parts of the northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar, and Arunachal Pradesh on Sunday.

“Heavy to very heavy rainfall is very likely over northwest, east, and northeast India over the next four to five days,” the Indian Meteorological Department stated on Sunday.

In Uttar Pradesh, which borders the Indian Capital Territory, two women reportedly died after a water tank collapsed in the heavy rain, according to ANI News. In Uttarakhand, video posted by ANI News shows vehicles being hauled out of floodwaters after being swept away by heavy rain. CNN cannot independently verify these reports.

On Friday, five Indian army personnel died after their tank got stuck in flash floods while attempting to cross a river during training in northern Ladakh, the army said in a post on X.

“Rescue teams rushed to the location, but due to high current and water levels, the rescue mission didn’t succeed, and the tank crew lost their lives,” the army stated.

Heavy monsoon rains have also caused damage in neighboring countries. In Nepal, at least nine people, including three children, were killed after rains triggered landslides in the country’s west, Reuters reported, citing an official from the National Disaster Rescue and Reduction Management Authority.

Climate and Average Weather Year Round in 02842 - Middletown RI:

From no water to too much water

India, the world’s most populous nation, is one of the countries worst affected by the human-caused climate crisis, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, potentially affecting 1.4 billion people nationwide.

The climate crisis is making extreme weather events more frequent and severe, scientists say, and this can be seen playing out in climate-vulnerable India, which is suffering from extremes of heat, rainfall, and other disasters such as cyclones.

While India often experiences heat waves during the summer months of May and June, in recent years, they have arrived earlier and become more prolonged, with scientists linking some of these longer and more intense heat waves to climate change.

New Delhi topped a recent list of hottest capital cities, recording 4,222 days above 35 degrees Celsius in the past three decades — more than any other city analyzed. Between 2014 and 2023, just under half (44%) of days in the Indian capital met that threshold, compared to 35% from 1994 to 2003, and 37% from 2004 to 2013.

Delhi, like many cities in India, is suffering from a water crisis, with acute water shortages and lack of groundwater supply leaving many people to rely on water tankers for their supply of fresh, clean water.

"We get water only once a day, and it’s scalding hot. Unless you fill up a bucket and let it cool off all day before using it, you can’t bathe in this water," said 60-year-old Kalyani Saha, a resident of the Lajpat Nagar neighborhood in the capital city, recently told CNN.

Weather Forecast For 42431-Madisonville-KY:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/200190733/Weather-Forecast-For-42431-Madisonville-KY

Meanwhile, seasonal monsoon rains usually start in June and continue until September, bringing bands of heavy rains from the southwest that quench fields, nourish crops, and replenish reservoirs. However, recent studies have shown that India's monsoons have become more erratic over the past decade due to the climate crisis, posing significant risks to critical sectors such as agriculture, water, and energy.

Last June, nearly half a million people in northeast India were affected by severe flooding after heavy rains battered the region.

"Because of climate change, you will get more extreme rain events, which means more rain in fewer rainy days or hours," Sunita Narain, director general of the Indian research body Centre for Science and Environment, said in a video post on YouTube last week.

"If you look at the data from across India, you will find that many weather stations are already reporting that they are breaking the record of 24-hour rainfall, which means that a city or region can get its annual rainfall, as much as a whole year’s rain, in a matter of a few days or even one day."

Going from water scarcity to floods is a "cycle that we are beginning to see more and more," Narain said, adding that it was an opportunity "to make a change."

See more:

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-90021

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-90022

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-90023

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-90024

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-90025

In a separate video post on the importance of rainwater harvesting, Narain said, "The only way we can manage floods is by building drainage systems so that our rivers are drained into channels and ponds, allowing excess rain to be held and recharge groundwater for the dry season that comes after."

[mariacallous]

India’s Middle East policy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is often seen as both successful and perplexing. The governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to which Modi belongs, has a nationalist Hindu-right bent, and yet India’s outreach toward the Persian Gulf region under the current government, particularly to the Arab world, has been a defining success over the past decade.

The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the latter’s audacious strike on Oct. 7, has brought under the spotlight New Delhi’s diplomatic balance between a “new” Middle East and its traditional support for the “old.” The new is defined by New Delhi’s increasingly close proximity to the security ecosystem of the United States, while the old is highlighted by a visible shift away from the idea of nonalignment. India’s participation in new tools of economic diplomacy—such as the I2U2 minilateral between India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States, as well as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC) announced on sidelines of the G-20 summit in September—are evidence of these not-so-subtle changes in posture, led by a burgeoning consensus between New Delhi and Washington to push back against an increasingly aggressive China.

India has been a steadfast supporter of the Palestinian cause since its independence, viewing the crisis through moral support for Palestinian sovereignty and as an anti-colonial struggle. In 1975, India became the first non-Arab state to grant full diplomatic status to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Its then-chief, Yasser Arafat, regularly visited New Delhi. That relationship has become more complicated.

Last month, Modi condemned Hamas terrorism just weeks before the youth wing of Jamaat-e-Islami in the southern state of Kerala, which has close ties with the Gulf, hosted a virtual talk by former Hamas leader Khaled Mashal—showcasing the wide range of views that have long existed within India.

After decades of leaning toward the Arab world, in 1992, then-Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao established full diplomatic ties with Israel. This was done at a time of great change in the across the subcontinent, marked by the country’s economic liberalization following years of crisis. However, Israel was quietly building a strong foundation for this eventuality over the previous decades, supplying India with military aid in two crucial wars that it fought against Pakistan in 1971, before normalization, and then again in 1999, after full diplomatic ties were established.

This normalization forced India to perform a balancing act between three poles of power in the region: the Arab world, Israel, and Iran. All three remain important to Indian interests. The larger Arab world hosts more than 7 million Indian workers, who send back billions of dollars into the Indian economy as remittances; Israel remains a critical technology and defense partner; and Iran’s strategic location helps promote Indian interests in both Central Asia and a now much more volatile Afghanistan under a Taliban regime.

Fast-forward to 2023, and Indian foreign policy toward the region increasingly looks more pragmatic in design, balancing opportunities and challenges in an increasingly fractured global order, or what scholars Michael Kimmage and Hannah Notte have aptly termed “the age of great-power distraction.” As India’s economy rapidly grows, setting its sights on becoming the third largest in the world by 2030, so does its desire for influence. And the Middle East, from a foreign-policy perspective, is where a lot of this influence is being tested.

A recent spat between India and Qatar offers an interesting example for managing inflection points. In October, Doha announced a verdict of death sentences for eight former Indian Navy officials who were working for a private contractor involved with Qatar’s defense modernization. They were charged, according to reports, of spying on behalf of Israel. Since then, New Delhi has responded legally, appealing the Qatari court’s verdict while both countries continue to keep the judicial verdict confidential.

This is not the first time New Delhi has become embroiled in the regional fissures of the Middle East. In 2012 and 2021, Israeli diplomats were targeted in bombings in the capital, and in both cases, India hinted at Iranian involvement and having to delicately manage the situation behind closed doors—effectively telling Iran and Israel not to let their conflict spread to Indian soil.

Today, India is becoming more of an economic stakeholder in the Middle East, and by association, its security postures. This is not just the result of New Delhi’s reoriented foreign policy designs, but also depends on the personal involvement of Modi himself.

In 2017, Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel. Considering his brand of politics, he also visited Ramallah in the West Bank in 2018 to maintain India’s diplomatic consistency. He hosted Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2019 at the height of the Jamal Khashoggi murder scandal, when the Saudis were not welcome in most capitals. And finally, Modi has visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) five times since taking charge in 2015, and is often found referring to UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as “brother.”

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Modi has talked to six regional leaders to put India’s position across, from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. The Modi government has attempted to walk a fine line between Israel’s counterterrorism aims against Hamas and the Palestinian humanitarian crisis. Countering terrorism has been an important tool for Modi’s international diplomacy, coming from India’s efforts to isolate Pakistan internationally for its state-sponsored terrorism.

But Indian diplomacy in the Gulf also has another objective: strengthening India’s position on Kashmir, which defines the India-Pakistan conflict, and weakening Islamabad’s case within organizations such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In February 2019, India’s then-Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj became the first Indian minister to be invited to speak at the organization since 1969, an event hailed as a major victory of Indian diplomacy; Pakistan was represented by an empty chair during Swaraj’s speech.

New Delhi’s other expanding relationship has been with the United States. In Asia, the institutionalization of mechanisms such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue has brought Washington and New Delhi closer than ever before as both look to work together to counter an increasingly erratic China. India’s buy-in with the United States has not been just about the Asian theater, but the Middle East as well, with measures such as the I2U2 and IMEEC taking shape.

However, India’s own domestic politics have often also presented a challenge. In 2022, comments made by a BJP spokesperson against the Prophet Mohammed invoked widespread condemnation by Islamic nations, including those building close partnerships with India. Previously, in private, Anti-Muslim narratives in Indian domestic politics have been an area of discussion between Arab states and New Delhi. During this period, India has also pushed back against reports by the U.S. State Department on what the department described as the country’s deteriorating religious freedoms, criticizing them as “biased.” Despite these differences, strategic cooperation has remained steadfast.

The establishment of I2U2 was a direct result of the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2021. Both Israel and the UAE have been quick to establish a strong economic bilateral relationship since then. The accords have also helped countries such as India to increase economic and political cooperation with greater ease.

It is important to note here that while the I2U2 is seen as an economic cooperation platform, all member states, have taken part in expansive military maneuvers in the region in some shape or form. And this includes India, where all three services of its armed forces, the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, have increased their outreach and participation.

Beyond the I2U2, the announcement of the IMEEC is New Delhi’s latest sign of alignment with U.S. geoeconomic objectives. Already positioned by some as a counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the idea is to connect the Middle East with Europe and India through a trade corridor that can rival the centrality of the Suez Canal.

But countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, central to IMEEC, are also members of the Belt and Road Initiative and have interest in developing close partnerships with Beijing. Propaganda outlets of the Chinese Communist Party have already labeled IMEEC as a mere “castle in the air” The European Union, the United States, and India alike have marketed the corridor as the next intracontinental highway for digital and economic connectivity. However, IMEEC is in nascent stages of development, and no blueprint is currently on offer on how it is going to function.

These new economic highways, minilaterals, and reoriented geopolitics are transforming Indian foreign policy from one that has always been risk-averse to one that is willing to be a little more adventurous. Today, India is much closer to the United States than it has been at any point in its independent history.

Between its increasingly West-centric defense and technology shopping list—a historical break away from having a predominantly Soviet-era military ecosystem that continues to rely on Russian know-how even today—and the India-U.S. 2+2 dialogues regularly setting new precedents, it is not that surprising to see India partner with the United States in theaters such as the Middle East, where the Abraham Accords have leveled the playing field in a limited fashion between Israel, the United States, and a part of the Arab world.

Simultaneously, a counterargument against deeper U.S. collaboration from India also comes from the time that India helped the United States with the Iran nuclear deal prior to its unceremonious end in 2018. New Delhi had let go of significant diplomatic access to align with U.S. requirements by ending nearly all oil imports from Iran, which has vast reserves, offers good deals, and is geographically conveniently located. This fed into the then-U.S. policy of strong sanctions against Tehran to push it to negotiate with the U.N. Security Council’s group of permanent members. Experiences such as the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the deal continue to fuel a strong undercurrent of distrust toward Washington in Indian political circles.

India’s own position of upholding its strategic autonomy and self-styled leadership of the global south may find it often at odds with its strategic role in the Middle East as a partner of the United States. One of India’s longest-serving successes in this region has been its embrace of nonalignment. The fact that the I2U2 was almost immediately identified by some observers as the Middle East Quad gave it a texture of being an extension of a core U.S. interest—that of containing China. While India has never officially used such terminology, these portrayals in the media were detrimental to the kind of neutrality that New Delhi still hopes to preserve.

Finally, India’s outlook toward the Middle East is looking beyond the traditional centrality of energy and migration. Today, from the beginning, it wants to be a partner in the region’s post-oil growth designs. Indian diplomats in the region, earlier almost exclusively bogged down with migrant matters, are now tasked to secure foreign direct investments from the large Arab sovereign wealth funds. Modi’s majority government, in power since 2015, has been palatable to Arab monarchs who do not have to navigate a labyrinth of India’s coalition politics looking for fast decision-making, which they are accustomed to.

Whether its own leaders like it or not, India has bought into aspects of future security architectures with its membership of the I2U2 and IMEEC in one of the world’s most flammable regions. This is a bold and commendable posture for an economy that will require significant global input for its challenging future economic goals. It is also palatable for the Middle East to have India as a major energy market to diversify its exports and offset Chinese influence over critical commodities such as oil and gas.

[pooma-inspiration]

Incredible India தமிழில்

The Unsung sung heros of Indian History

Seth Ramdas Ji Gudwale - The great revolutionary of 1857, monster who was hanged by the British left hunting dogs on them who survived their bodies.

Seth Ramdas ji Gudwala was Delhi's billionaire Seth and banker. He was born in an Aggarwal family in Delhi. Their family had established the first cloth mill in Delhi.

There was a saying of his richness, "Ramdas ji Gudwala has so much gold and silver jewelery that he can stop Ganga ji's water from his walls"

When the spark of revolution started from Meerut in 1857 reached Delhi.

After the British defeat from Delhi, Indian forces of many states camped in Delhi. Their food and salary problem created. Ramjidas was a deep friend of Gudwale Badshah.

Ramdas ji did not see this condition of the king. He handed over his wealth worth millions to the king and said, "If the motherland is protected then money will be earned again".

Ramjidas did not only give money, he also arranged fodder for soldiers, sattu, flour, grain bulls, camels and horses. Seth ji, who had only done business till now, started the work of the organization of the army and intelligence department, even the English commander was surprised to see the strength of his organization.

He laid the net of spies all over North India, secret contacted many soldiers camps. They built a powerful army and intelligence organization within. Send spies to every corner of the country and pray to the small minded and kings to unite in this crisis and set the country free.

British government and officials are very upset with this kind of revolutionary activities of Ramdas ji. For some reasons, British started recapturing Delhi. One day, they placed poison bottles boxes of mixed liquor in front of the shops of Chandni Chowk, English army would quench their thirst and laid down there. British understood that if India wants to rule then Ramdas ji's end is very important.

Seth Ramdas ji Gudwala was caught by cheating and the way he was killed is an example of cruelty. First they were tied to a pole with ropes, then they were freed of hunting dogs, then they were hanged in the same midst of Kotwali in Delhi's Chandni Chowk. Famous historian Tarachand has written in his book 'History of Freedom Movement', "Seth Ramdas Gurwala was the richest Seth in North India. They had countless pearls, diamonds and jewels and unnecessary properties from the British's thought.

Many revolutionaries like Seth Ramdas are lost from the pages of history. Can we repay the debt of the sacrifice of revolutionaries like Seth Ramdas?

Don't you think that the country has got freedom just like that.

Every bud of this garden has bloomed after drinking some blood.

For the sake of the country, the fort in the walls are erased.

The palaces of their freedom are standing on the chests of the martyrs.

பாடப்படாத இந்திய வரலாற்றின் நாயகர்கள்

சேத் ராம்தாஸ் ஜி குட்வாலே - 1857 ஆம் ஆண்டின் மாபெரும் புரட்சியாளர், ஆங்கிலேயர்களால் தூக்கிலிடப்பட்ட அசுரன், அவர்களின் உடலில் இருந்து தப்பிய வேட்டை நாய்களை அவர்கள் மீது விட்டுச் சென்றான்.

சேத் ராம்தாஸ் ஜி குட்வாலா டெல்லியின் கோடீஸ்வரர் மற்றும் வங்கியாளர் ஆவார். டெல்லியில் அகர்வால் குடும்பத்தில் பிறந்தவர். அவர்களது குடும்பம் டெல்லியில் முதல் துணி ஆலையை நிறுவியது.

"ராம்தாஸ் ஜி குட்வாலாவிடம் அவ்வளவு அதிகமாக தங்கம் மற்றும் வெள்ளி நகைகள் இருந்தன, அதன் அளவு கங்கையின் நீரை அவர் சுவர்களில் இருந்து தடுக்க முடியும்" என்று அவரது செல்வம் பற்றிய ஒரு பழமொழி இருந்தது. 1857 இல் மீரட்டில் இருந்து புரட்சியின் தீப்பொறி டெல்லியை அடைந்தது.

டெல்லியில் இருந்து ஆங்கிலேயர் தோல்வியடைந்த பிறகு, பல மாநிலங்களின் இந்தியப் படைகள் டெல்லியில் முகாமிட்டன. அவர்களின் உணவு மற்றும் சம்பளப் பிரச்சனை உருவாகியுள்ளது. ராம்ஜிதாஸ் குட்வாலே பாட்ஷாவின் ஆழ்ந்த நண்பர்.

ராஜாவின் இந்த நிலையை ராமதாஸ் கண்டுகொள்ளவில்லை. லட்சக்கணக்கான மதிப்புள்ள செல்வத்தை அரசனிடம் ஒப்படைத்து, "தாய்நாடு காக்கப்பட்டால் மீண்டும் பணம் கிடைக்கும்" என்றார்.

ராம்ஜிதாஸ் பணம் மட்டும் கொடுக்கவில்லை, வீரர்களுக்கு உணவு, சத்து, மாவு, தானிய காளைகள், ஒட்டகம் மற்றும் குதிரைகளுக்கும் ஏற்பாடு செய்தார். இதுவரை வியாபாரம் மட்டுமே செய்து வந்த சேத்ஜி, ராணுவம் மற்றும் உளவுத் துறையின் அமைப்பின் வேலையைத் தொடங்கினார், ஆங்கிலேய தளபதி கூட அவரது அமைப்பின் வலிமையைக் கண்டு ஆச்சரியப்பட்டார்கள்.

அவர் வட இந்தியா முழுவதும் உளவாளிகளின் வலையை அமைத்தார், பல வீரர்கள் முகாம்களை ரகசியமாக தொடர்பு கொண்டார். அவர்கள் ஒரு சக்திவாய்ந்த இராணுவத்தையும் புலனாய்வு அமைப்பையும் உருவாக்கினர். நாட்டின் மூலை முடுக்கெல்லாம் உளவாளிகளை அனுப்பி, இந்த நெருக்கடியான சூழ்நிலையில் ஒன்றிணைந்து நாட்டை விடுதலை செய்ய சிறு மனம் படைத்தவர்களையும் அரசர்களையும் வேண்டிக்கொள்ளுங்கள்.

ராம்தாஸின் இத்தகைய புரட்சிகர நடவடிக்கைகளால் பிரிட்டிஷ் அரசும் அதிகாரிகளும் மிகவும் வருத்தமடைந்துள்ளனர். சில காரணங்களால், ஆங்கிலேயர்கள் டெல்லியை மீண்டும் கைப்பற்றத் தொடங்கினர். ஒரு நாள், சாந்தினி சௌக்கின் கடைகளுக்கு முன்னால் விஷ பாட்டில்கள் கலந்த மதுபானப் பெட்டிகளை வைத்தனர், ஆங்கிலேயப் படை தாகத்தைத் தணித்துக்கொண்டு அங்கேயே இறந்து போனது. இந்தியா ஆட்சி செய்ய வேண்டுமானால் ராமதாஸ் ஜியின் முடிவு மிகவும் முக்கியமானது என்பதை ஆங்கிலேயர்கள் புரிந்து கொண்டனர்.

சேத் ராம்தாஸ் ஜி குட்வாலா ஏமாற்றப்பட்டு பிடிபட்டார், அவர் கொல்லப்பட்ட விதம் கொடுமைக்கு உதாரணம். முதலில் அவர்கள் கயிற்றால் ஒரு கம்பத்தில் கட்டி வைக்கப்பட்டனர், பின்னர் அவர்கள் வேட்டை நாய்களிடமிருந்து விடுவிக்கப்பட்டனர், பின்னர் அவர்கள் டெல்லியின் சாந்தினி சவுக்கில் உள்ள கோட்வாலியின் நடுவில் தூக்கிலிடப்பட்டனர். பிரபல வரலாற்றாசிரியர் தாராசந்த் தனது 'சுதந்திர இயக்க வரலாறு' புத்தகத்தில் இவ்வாறு எழுதியுள்ளார், "சேத் ராம்தாஸ் குர்வாலா வட இந்தியாவின் பணக்கார சேத் ஆவார். அவரிடம் எண்ணற்ற முத்துக்கள், வைரங்கள் மற்றும் நகைகள் மற்றும் ஆங்கிலேயர்களின் சிந்தனையில் இருந்து தேவையற்ற சொத்துக்கள் இருந்தன.

சேது ராமதாஸ் போன்ற பல புரட்சியாளர்கள் வரலாற்றின் பக்கங்களில் இருந்து தொலைந்து போனார்கள். சேது ராமதாஸ் போன்ற புரட்சியாளர்களின் தியாகத்தின் கடனை அடைக்க முடியுமா?

எளிதாக நாட்டுக்கு சுதந்திரம் கிடைத்து விட்டது என்று நினைக்காதீர்கள்.

இந்தத் தோட்டத்தின் ஒவ்வொரு மொட்டுகளும் கொஞ்சம் ரத்தம் குடித்து மலர்ந்திருக்கின்றன.

நாட்டின் நலனுக்காக, சுவர்களில் உள்ள கோட்டை அழிக்கப்படுகிறது. அவர்களின் சுதந்திர அரண்மனைகள் தியாகிகளின் மார்பில் நிற்கின்றன.

[vsparkindia]

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