#Statue of Mahatma Gandhi in America

[jcmarchi]

How is the world watching the 2024 US election?

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/how-is-the-world-watching-the-2024-us-election/

How is the world watching the 2024 US election?

No matter the outcome, the results of the 2024 United States presidential election are certain to have global impact. How are citizens and leaders in other parts of the world viewing this election? What’s at stake for their countries and regions?

This was the focus of “The 2024 US Presidential Election: The World is Watching,” a Starr Forum held earlier this month on the MIT campus.

The Starr Forum is a public event series hosted by MIT’s Center for International Studies (CIS), and focused on leading issues of global interest. The event was moderated by Evan Lieberman, director of CIS and the Total Professor of Political Science and Contemporary Africa.

Experts in African, Asian, European, and Latin American politics assembled to share ideas with one another and the audience.

Each offered informed commentary on their respective regions, situating their observations within several contexts including the countries’ style of government, residents’ perceptions of American democratic norms, and America’s stature in the eyes of those countries’ populations.

Perceptions of U.S. politics from across the globe

Katrina Burgess, professor of political economy at Tufts University and the director of the Henry J. Leir Institute of Migration and Human Security, sought to distinguish the multiple political identities of members of the Latin American diaspora in America and their perceptions of America’s relationship with their countries.

“American democracy is no longer perceived as a standard bearer,” Burgess said. “While members of these communities see advantages in aligning themselves with one of the presidential candidates because of positions on economic relations, immigration, and border security, others have deeply-held views on fossil fuels and increased access to sustainable energy solutions.”

Prerna Singh, Brown University’s Mahatma Gandhi Professor of Political Science and International Studies, spoke about India’s status as the world’s largest democracy and described a country moving away from democratic norms.

“Indian leaders don’t confer with the press,” she said. “Indian leaders don’t debate like Americans.”

The ethnically and linguistically diverse India, Singh noted, has elected several women to its highest government posts, while the United States has yet to elect one. She described a brand of “exclusionary nationalism” that threatened to move India away from democracy and toward something like authoritarian rule. 

John Githongo, the Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at CIS for 2024-25, shared his findings on African countries’ views of the 2024 election.

“America’s soft power infrastructure in Africa is crumbling,” said Githongo, a Kenyan native. “Chinese investment in Africa is up significantly and China is seen by many as an ideal political and economic partner.”

Youth-led protests in Kenya, Githongo noted, occurred in response to a failure of promised democratic reforms. He cautioned against a potential return to a pre-Cold War posture in Africa, noting that the Biden administration was the first in some time to attempt to reestablish economic and political ties with African countries.

Daniel Ziblatt, the Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and the director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, described shifting political winds in Europe that appear similar to increased right-wing extremism and a brand of populist agitation being observed in America.

“We see the rise of the radical, antidemocratic right in Europe and it looks like shifts we’ve observed in the U.S.,” he noted. “Trump supporters in Germany, Poland, and Hungary are increasingly vocal.”

Ziblatt acknowledged the divisions in the historical transatlantic relationship between Europe and America as symptoms of broader challenges. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy supply issues, and national security apparatuses dependent on American support may continue to cause political ripples, he added.

Does America still have global influence?

Following each of their presentations, the guest speakers engaged in a conversation, taking questions from the audience. There was agreement among panelists that there’s less investment globally in the outcome of the U.S. election than may have been observed in past elections.

Singh noted that, from the perspective of the Indian media, India has bigger fish to fry.

Panelists diverged, however, when asked about the rise of political polarization and its connection with behaviors observed in American circles.

“This trend is global,” Burgess asserted. “There’s no causal relationship between American phenomena and other countries’ perceptions.”

“I think they’re learning from each other,” Ziblatt countered when asked about extremist elements in America and Europe. “There’s power in saying outrageous things.”

Githongo asserted a kind of “trickle-down” was at work in some African countries.

“Countries with right-leaning governments see those inclinations make their way to organizations like evangelical Christians,” he said. “Their influence mirrors the rise of right-wing ideology in other African countries and in America.”

Singh likened the continued splintering of American audiences to India’s caste system.

“I think where caste comes in is with the Indian diaspora,” she said. “Indian-American business and tech leaders tend to hail from high castes.” These leaders, she said, have outsized influence in their American communities and in India.

[dnaamericaapp]

Pieces Of A Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial In Denver Have Been Stolen

A large Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Denver’s City Park was vandalized, and police are trying to determine if racial bias was involved.

Several pieces of the marble and bronze “I Have a Dream” memorial were stolen sometime Tuesday. The missing pieces include a bronze torch and angel, as well as a bronze panel that depicted Black military veterans, The Denver Post reported.

Vern Howard, chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission, told the newspaper that a community member informed him of the vandalism Wednesday morning.

“You can steal. You can take. You can pull. You can hate. You can do everything that you believe necessary to detour the message of Dr. King and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission,” Howard said. “We’re going to continue to march, to honor and to work toward freedom, toward justice, toward the end of racism, toward the end of hatred and the end of discrimination.”

Artist Ed Dwight created the memorial in 2002. It features a bronze statue of King and smaller statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass.

The Denver Police Department’s Bias-Motivated Crime Unit is investigating. -(source: ap)

DNA America

“It’s what we know, not what you want us to believe.”

#dna #dnaamerica #news #politics

[citizenrecord]

Mahatma Gandhi statue defaced with pro-Khalistan graffiti in Ontario

In the latest in a series of such incidents, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Canada has been defaced and spraypainted with pro-Khalistan and anti-India graffiti

The vandalism occurred in the early hours of Thursday near the City Hall in the town of Hamilton, in the province of Ontario. The statue of the Mahatma has been at that location since 2012.

According to a video of the vandalism, the six-foot tall bronze statue, which had been gifted by the Indian Government, was doused with paint and graffiti written around the base of the statue, including abuse of Gandhi himself, and an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A Khalistan flag was also attached to the walking stick held by the statue.

The vandalism was discovered in the early of the morning and city authorities worked quickly to clean the statue and the graffiti. Hamilton Police confirmed to the Hindustan Times that they received a complaint in this regard on Thursday afternoon and were investigating.

In February, a Hindu temple in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) was desecrated, with anti-India and pro-Khalistan graffiti spraypainted on its back wall, the fourth such incident of that nature within a period of eight months. The target of the vandalism was the Shri Ram Mandir in the town of Mississauga in the GTA.

On January 30, the Gauri Shankar Mandir in Brampton was similarly desecrated. Prior to that, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, located at the Vishnu Mandir in Richmond Hill, was defaced in July last year. The 20-foot tall bronze statue was situated in the temple’s Peace Park. Weeks later, in September, an episode of such vandalisation occurred at the front entrance to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto.

None of these incidents have so far resulted in any arrests. While they have been linked by some to the so-called Punjab Referendum being organized by the secessionist group, Sikhs for Justice or SFJ, Canadian law enforcement has yet to establish that connection.

As with previous episodes, a video of the incident, apparently taken during the night when the vandalisation occurred, was shared on social media by some apparently pro-Pakistan handles.

The September incident had led to India issuing a formal diplomatic communique, called a note verbale to Global Affairs Canada, the country’s foreign ministry.

Even that wasn’t the first time a statue of the Mahatma has been targeted in North America. In February last year, such a statue was decapitated in New York, while in January 2021, another was vandalised in Davis, California.

[thegandhigiri]

अमेरिका में फिर तोड़ी महात्मा गांधी की प्रतिमा, भारतीय ने जताया विरोध

अमेरिका में फिर तोड़ी महात्मा गांधी की प्रतिमा, भारतीय ने जताया विरोध

वाशिंगटन: भारतीय-अमेरिकी समुदाय के नेताओं ने न्यूयॉर्क में महात्मा गांधी की प्रतिमा (Mahatma Gandhi Statue) को विरूपित किए जाने की सोमवार को निंदा की और कहा कि यह गांधी और मार्टिन लूथर किंग का अपमान है। न्यूयॉर्क के यूनियन स्क्वैयर में स्थित महात्मा गांधी की कांसे की आदमकद प्रतिमा को विरूपित किया गया था। भारत के महावाणिज्य दूतावास ने इस घटना की कड़ी निंदा करते हुए इसे ‘‘घृणित” करार दिया…

[robertreich]

Staying hopeful in turbulent times

Friends,

The reason I write is not just to inform (and occasionally amuse) you, but also to arm you with the truth so you can fight more effectively for the common good.

The forces undermining our democracy, polluting our planet, and stoking hatred and inequality have many weapons at their disposal — lobbyists, media megaphones, and money to bribe lawmakers. But their most powerful weapon is cynicism. They’re betting that if they can get us to feel like we can’t make a difference, we will give up — and then they can declare total victory.

Which is why we have to keep up the fight even when feeling deeply discouraged.

I’m not going to pretend. There’s a lot to be discouraged about right now — from Manchin’s torpedoing of “Build Back Better” to the surging Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the politicization of public health, from the Republicans’ assault on voting rights to environmental disasters all over the world. My message to any of you who feel overwhelmed, disappointed, or ready to drop out: I get it.

I’ve been in the trenches for five decades and sometimes I despair as well. Again and again over the years I’ve seen hard-fought dreams go up in smoke. Or been sidelined. Or ridiculed. Or I’ve watched them succumb to bribery and corruption. Two of the leaders I counted on most in my lifetime were assassinated.

But notwithstanding all this, we are better today than we were fifty years ago, twenty years ago, even a year ago. 

I can point out so many examples in our own country, or all across the world, where movements that were once small and stacked against seemingly impossible odds, ended up winning and making America and our earth a better place to live. From Martin Luther King, Jr., to Mahatma Gandhi, to more recent examples like Stacey Abrams and Greta Thunberg, people have repeatedly changed the course of history by refusing to believe that they couldn’t make a difference.

It’s not only the famous leaders who are agents of change. Movements are fueled by individuals giving their time, energy, and hope. Small actions and victories lead to bigger ones, and the improbable becomes possible.

Nothing strikes fear in the hearts of those who want to prevent progress more than a resistance that is undeterred.

This fight, this struggle, all these big problems, can be exhausting. No one can go all in, all the time. That’s why we need to build communities and movements for action, where people can give what effort they can, and can be buoyed in solidarity with others. Strengthening our resolve. Sharing information and analyses. Fortifying ourselves.

Over the next few years the fight will become even more intense. We are even battling for the way we tell the story of America. There are those who want to go back to a simplistic and inaccurate narrative, where we were basically perfect from our founding, where we don’t need to tell the unpleasant truths about slavery, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and all the other injustices.

But there is another story of America, one of imperfection but progress. In this story, which is far more accurate, reformers have changed this nation many, many times for the better. We got labor rights, civil rights, women's rights, and LGBTQ rights. We got clean water laws and clean air laws, and health insurance for most Americans. We’ve torn down Confederate statues and expanded clean energy. We’ve got a new generation of young, progressive politicians determined to make the nation better. The list goes on and on.

The outcome of the fight ahead will not be determined by force, fear, or violence. It will be decided on the basis of commitment, tenacity, and unvarnished truth.

Here’s my deal. I’ll continue to give you the facts and arguments, even sprinkle in drawings and videos. I’ll do whatever I can to help strengthen your understanding and your resolve. Please use the facts, arguments, drawings and videos to continue the fight. To fight harder. To enlist others.

If at any time you feel helpless or despairing, remember that the struggle is long, that progress is often hard to see in the short term, and that for every step forward regressive forces are determined to push us backwards. Also remind yourself that the fights for democracy, social justice, and a sustainable planet are necessary and noble, that the stakes could not be greater or more important, and that we will — we must — win.

I wish you a restful, enjoyable, and restorative holiday.

Robert Reich

PS: If you’d like to join me on a (nearly) daily basis, please subscribe at https://robertreich.substack.com/

[newsaryavart]

क्या अश्वेत लोगों के साथ रहने पर आदतें बिगड़ने का डर था गांधी जी को?

क्या अश्वेत लोगों के साथ रहने पर आदतें बिगड़ने का डर था गांधी जी को?

[ad_1]

अमेरिका (America) में अश्वेत मूल के नागरिक जॉर्ज फ्लॉयड की पुलिस की बर्बरता के कारण मौत (Death of George Floyd) हो गई. इसके बाद से पूरा अमेरिका सुलग रहा है. प्रदर्शनों की आग वॉशिंगटन तक भी पहुंची, जहां अज्ञात प्रदर्शनकारियों ने भारतीय दूतावास के सामने लगी महात्मा गांधी की मूर्ति को भी नुकसान (vandalized statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Washington) पहुंचाया. वैसे गांधी जी की मूर्ति से छेड़छाड़…

[penhive]

Neutrality of the Text

I became interested in the neutrality of the text after I read the Philosopher Derrida’s concept of deconstruction. Within the theory of deconstruction, there is something called Binary Divide. Binary Divide refers to a text which privileges some and marginalizes others.

From Binary Divide, I have developed the theory/concept/idea of binary fusion. Binary fusion aims to impart textual neutrality. Binary Fusion cultivates on reading the text from the view point of neutrality.

Which are the ways in which Binary Fusion operates?

The first discourse of binary neutrality addresses the idea of gender. Should the text be accentuated towards the masculine or the feminine? Should God the creator be gender neutral? Binary fusion seeks to unravel the neutrality of the text. Its aim is to de-neutralize binary divide readings of a text. Let use an example: Wo/Man is a term that encompasses binary neutrality. Let’s take another term from History. His\her\story combines both genders and makes a text neutral.

Binary Fusion can operate from a cultural, psychological, political, and economic viewpoints.

What is binary fusion in an economic setting? Should we classify nations as being developed, developing and underdeveloped?  Nations classified in that way attain the status of a binary divide. In binary fusion, all nations are grouped into a single umbrella. Binary fusion puts an aim for all nations to be interdependent. All nations are a microcosm of a single microcosm. There is no economic divide and all nations live by helping each other.

What is the cultural aspect of binary fusion? Is there a white culture and a black culture? The murder of Frank Lloyd Wright by a white officer is a dismal act perpetrated by a White police officer and it speaks volumes of cultural racism. This is a classic example of text/narrative working as a binary divide. Are cultures whole or parts? In binary fusion, all cultures are unique and cultures should work to emulate the good in all cultures. Let us take another example from Jazz and Blues. Jazz and Blues were transmitted by black slaves to America and they have become universal symbols in the culture of music. Jazz and Blues in the culture of evolution have become assimilations of Global music.

What is the psychological aspect to Binary Fusion? Is global culture inclusive of gay and lesbian views? Does culture promote the hedonism of heterosexuality? Is marriage the only tool for the procreation of children? Should love, tolerance and peace be globalized? How does the psychology of the citizen be affected by the fetish of mass consumerism?

How can we accommodate binary fusion from a political view point?  Should peace and nonviolence be the hallmarks of a society’s culture? Should political goals favor an egalitarian society? Should we have governments built on strong democratic principles? How does binary fusion address the political problems facing Hong Kong, Myanmar and Palestine? We all know that in Hong Kong, political dissidents became the violence of the Chinese party. In Myanmar the junta has held captive the democratically elected leader Aung San. When will the time come when Palestine be made into an independent country? Binary fusion aims to develop peaceful and tolerant democracies. The non-violent struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi against British colonialism is an example of Binary Fusion. So also, is the peaceful struggle led by Nelson Mandela against the apartheid another example of Binary Fusion.

How does Philosophy come to play in Binary Fusion? Are philosophical texts woman-centric? Do they deal with women’s issues in an unbiased way? Philosophy has a long history of being plagued with men writers. It is only from the starting of the sixties that woman have made utterances of Philosophy. Binary fusion aims to promote women’s interests and principles.

To conclude, I would like to say that Binary Fusion aims at the neutrality of texts, that is texts that does not marginalize or privilege anyone. Binary fusion operates in cultural, political, philosophical, psychological realms.

[thewreckkelly]

An Uncomfortable Truth

It would not be unreasonable to argue a country’s democratically elected leaders reflect the morality of the people who voted for them. A lot of adult Americans have cast their ballot for Donald Trump and his Republican party in this year’s general election – many of those voters for a second time.

I listened to a host of comment from people all over America in the run up to the election who cited clearly that; while they didn’t agree with a lot of their president’s behaviour they did believe he was good for the economy and that was good enough for them. Such an insidious creed is the mantra of more than 45% of American voters and a display of collective individual arrogance by so many must cast the USA from being the world’s policeman to being among the most dangerously unstable countries on earth.

The world, in order to progress, needs leadership with an inherent ability to know right from wrong and an honesty to balance the scales with considered thought and practice. In the event leadership presides with being excused a moral integrity then strength can only be fostered in fear.

Mandela spoke of no child being born evil but rather becoming formed in outlook and behaviour through psychology of environment and influence. Americans have enjoyed the status of superiority in global terms for nearly a hundred years and during the majority of that time their country has served the world well and formed many in their image. 

America has led the world in believing this whole experiment we call the human race can only continue if we collectively accept that living together in relative peace has to be a universal ambition. 

America with its vast wealth and provenance for greatness has held the wheel that steers our world for a time now – and, while anything but perfect, its sentiment has proven to be a driver that more often than not avoided chaos and considers its passengers over and above a desire to leave anyone behind.

I, for one, am grateful.  

However I now believe an overriding and unmitigated fear of money is the terror of too many Americans and as such has been highlighted in excusing the behaviour of their leaders over the past four years.

The God this large section of the American electorate call the dollar is a paper tiger with a terrible immediacy and little substance. Padding ones own pockets has become their only consideration in the short term.

The damage such a philosophy will do in the long term is highly dangerous to any progressive philosophy through its dismissal of morality, integrity or just plain decency – and all in the pursuit of nothing more than individual gain.

History has thought us instinctive individual greed unbridled has yet to prove to be a valid survival trait with any semblance of longevity. But what does Trump know of history and, indeed, learning? 

In playing his peaceful part in destroying an already crumbling empire Gandhi called for the world; ‘to burn everything British except their coal’. The only way to bring back a progressive sense of fairness, to this American monolith of a fading force for good, may be to follow the Mahatma’ advice – should the menace called Trump prevail and money dictate.

[clairebeauchampfan]

Why would you care about statues of slaveholders...?

“

A blogger writes: “Anyone who complains that protestors are destroying “history” when toppling statues knows nothing about actual history.

The Egyptians tried to erase Akhnaten. The Chinese smashed Emperor Qin’s terracotta warriors and stole their weapons. Heaven knows how many religious statues or temples have been destroyed.

Buildings burn. Buildings get bombed. Tapestries erode. Paintings fade. Why don’t these people praise art restoration? Why aren’t they donating to their local museums and historical societies? Why aren’t they talking about the 53 World Heritage sites UNESCO considers to be in danger?

History isn’t just about building things. It’s also about their destruction. Would you say that the statues of Stalin and Hitler should have been preserved? Or the statues of Saddam Hussein? How about the Berlin Wall? No? So why would you care about statues of slaveholders or Christopher Columbus?

Stop using your “academic” concerns to hide your racism.”

Source:

deerhoofandrabbitsfoot

Why indeed? Well, for a majority of living Americans and  Britons, most of the  statues of famous men (and women) are and were  put up to commorate people who made an important, even vital  contribution to national or international life, either as military heroes, or key contributors to the founding or maintenance of these countries, or the defence of these countries against enemies who threatened to destroy them. Names such as Ulysses.S. Grant, defeater of the Confederate armies. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, founders of the American Republic. Andrew Jackson, whose victory at New Orleans made him a national hero. Theodore Roosevelt, who founded America’s system of National Parks. Winston Spencer Churchill, who probably more than any many saved Europe, maybe the whole world, from domination by Fascism and Militarism. Mahatma Gandhi, whose peaceful protests led India to freedom. Admiral Lord Nelson, who saved Britain from invasion. William Gladstone, tireless promoter of Liberalism and the cause of Irish self-determination. Captain Cook, discoverer for the Western World of Australia, New Zealand and the isles of the South Seas. Sir Walter Raleigh, founder of Jamestown, the first English settlement  in North America. And, yes, Christopher f**king Columbus.

None of these great names from history (you know your actual history, don’t you?) was 100% pure from the stain of racism, in some form or other, a stain which now extends, I understand, to those whose fathers were involved in slavery. Barring Abraham Lincoln (wasn’t he President at the time of the Sand Creek massacre, and therefore responsible?) , every single US President owned slaves, (even U.S.Grant, to whom every Afro-American owes a debt of gratitude, you might think). Which for @deerhoofandrabbitsfoot and others like him, or her, means that their memory should be expunged, regardless of their achievements or the good they did in other spheres of life. Their statues - regardless of the wish of the majority of inhabitants of the cities they adorn - should be torn down. No vote, no reasoned debate, no balancing of the good or evil of a man’s life,  just the say so of a small but vocal mob convinced of their own moral rectitude, puffed up with a sense of the own righteousness  and convinced of their right to act independently and without reference to the wishes of the majority of the people and the rule of law. Democracy? F*ck that. ‘I’m right, you’re wrong, nah nah nan nah nah.’ 

But why stop at statues? Hell, let’s let these people do the job thoroughly. A leftist politician in Australia has just demanded that, on her say so, the States of Victoria and Queensland should have their names changed. So.... let’s change the names of the US capital city and the State of Washington. Change the names of cities like Jacksonville, Custer, Reno, Carson City. Flags? The Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes have a blood-stained history- especially as regards Native Americans: bin them both. Land?  stolen. No US citizen should own his house or farm, they should be leased and a rental paid to the nearest Native American tribe. Currency? Too many Presidents, all steeped in blood. Buildings? Every pre-1865 house in the south should be razed to the ground, every ranch in the West destroyed. Mountains? Blow up Mt. Rushmore. Rename Pike’s Peak. 

Yes, the time may well have come, it may well be a time well overdue,  for the removal of Confederate statues....but even the Germans of WWII have their war memorials, even in the countries they occupied. There might be a time and a place for a statue of Irwin Rommel, if not Adolf Hitler. A place for a statue of General Zhukov, if not of Josef Stalin. Even (OMG!) a statue of Robert E.Lee, if not of Jefferson Davis. Let the People, not the mob, decide. Have a vote. 

 If the cause is just, the majority of The People will vote to bring them down;  maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. Government of the people, for the people, by the people, as the Great Emancipist once said. He didn’t say of the righteous people, by the righteous  people, for the righteous people -even if morally they may be, and perhaps are, 100% right. Though I have to disagree on Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and most of the 78+ names on the BLM UK statue  hit list. Even if they weren’t 100% pure when it comes to racism, the racist bastards. 

[laceyspencer]

Post-Modern Feminist Ideology in Nayantara Sahgul Select Novels-A Critical Study-Juniper Publishers

Introduction

The motive of feminist movement strives towards the aim that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men. Though feminism is not a relatively new concept and has always formed part of the women’s liberation movement, its emphasis has been changing, in form and content with gender equality being one of the aspects. There is no doubt that feminism is today a major accepted fact of modern life with women competing with men in all walks of life, and even doing better than them in some areas. Women’s liberation was not merely an endeavor to obtain rights and privileges but the seeking after opportunities to show that though they may be called “the second sex” (the title of Simone de Beauvoir’s book). They are generally not treated on a par with men in all respects of human activity. Whether working in the fields or operating women lag men in any sphere.

Over the years, there has been a positive change in the standpoint of feminism towards humanism. Simone de Beauvoir has set the ball rolling when she explained the relationship of feminism with humanism in a frank, concise manner. The crux and thrust of The Second Sex are based on the emphasis that women should be considered as basic human beings. To her, 2 the expression of women and their status seemed discriminatory, with them being denied the right to be identified as separate entities as such and prevented from choosing their own destiny[1].

Nayantara Sahgal is one of the great Indian women novelists writing in English. She began writing since her childhood and became a professional writer in the post-Independence years. Her novels deal with men and women, especially women struggling against oppression and injustice heaped upon them in the name of tradition and culture. Nayantara was born on May 10, 1927 to Ranjit Sitaram Pandit and Vijayalakshmi Pandit as the second of their three daughters. She lived as a child in Anand Bhavan, a large 3 aristocratic home of Motilal Nehru, a flourishing lawyer in Allahabad along with her parents and with her Marnu (uncle) Jawaharlal Nehru (later to become Prime Minister of India) and her cousin Indira Gandhi (she also became the Prime Minister, after Nehru). Nayantara’s father Ranjit Pandit was a Maharashtrian, a lawyer by profession, erudite, and a scholar, well versed in many languages including Sanskrit. He was a man of abundant love and understanding with a healthy zest for life, indulgent toward his child Nayantara.

He gave up his lucrative profession answering the call of Mahatma Gandhi and entered whole heartedly in the non-cooperative movement against the British regime. He inculcated the literary fervour and noble sentiments of patriotism and an unbending will to fight against injustice and oppression. Jawaharlal Nehru, attracted by the ideals of Gandhiji, involved himself in the struggle for Independence. His father, Motilal Nehru followed the example of his beloved son, espoused Gandhian ideals, eschewed the life of luxury to which he had been accustomed. Anand Bhavan was the meeting place for the great leaders of political movement including Gandhi himself. Nurtured in such a congenial atmosphere for the flowering of an independent spirit the young Nayantara imbibed the spirit of independence with great vigour.

Nayantara believes that it is not a serious moral offence in a woman to break away from the “sacred” marriage bond, if she finds the shackles too oppressive to the growth of her inner self. She finds that a woman’s duty to be sincere to her inner self is far greater and urgent than to be for her family and society. Nayantara portrays the inalienable right of freedom in women in many of the characters in her novels, such as Simrit in Storm in Chandigarh, Saroj in The Day in Shadow and Rashmi in Rich Like Us.

Nayantara Sahgal has in fact introduced a considerable number of autobiographical elements in her novels. To a question, she asserts that “all art is autographical”. Her work ranges from factual and emotional autobiography to fictionalized autobiography. In her address to Colloquium at Radcliff Institute (America) she confesses the close links between her own experiences and that of some of the leading characters in her novels. She describes succinctly in an article as to how she grew up moulded by congenial circumstances, she says:I grew up during the National Movement. My parents went to jail repeatedly during our fight for freedom. My father died because of his last imprisonment released too late to be cured of the serious illness contracted in jail. My uncle became our first Prime Minister. I was born and brought up within the atmosphere and hopes and ideals of the Congress Party.

Its leaders were familiar to me. Our home was their meeting place and many decisions momentous to India were taken in it. I became a novelist and a political journalist, and all my writings, fiction and non-fiction, has been about contemporary India. (Voice for Freedom 55). This Time of Morning is another novel, which she completed in Kashmir in 1965[2]. The Day in Shadow was published in February 1971. This novel, acclaimed to be the best by most of her critics, describes her attitudes to marriage and the condition of women in general. She wrote an article “Of Divorce and Hindu Women” in The Hindustan Times (Dec, 18, 1971), which is an example of her liberal and permissive outlook: She stands for new morality according to which a woman is not to be taken as a mere toy, an object of lust and momentary pleasure, but man’s equal and honoured partner, in word and deed, as against the inhuman tradition postures (l8).

Prison and Chocolate Cake (1958) and From Fear Set Free (1962) are autobiographical in which she has given a graphic account of her experiences during the freedom struggle which naturally were responsible in moulding her as a writer. A Time to be Happy (1958). A Situation in New Delhi (1977) and Storm in Chandigarh (1969) are classed as her political novels. Rich Like Us published in 1985, uses Emergency as its backdrop and the theme is about freedom. She won a Fellowship of Woodrow Wilson International Centre, Washington DC for writing it. Sahgal herself has adjudged this novel as her best. Plans for Departure (1986) is an interesting novel in which a foreigner Anna Hansen visits India, takes up an in-depth study of Hindu customs and behaviour and passes dispassionate judgments. Mistaken identity (1988), a historical novel, is the story of Bhushan Singh, the only son of a feudal raja of Vijaygarh, a kingdom of one hundred villages in the Gangetic Plain. Set during the years 1929-32, this novel is a satire on the role of the raja or the British. As it mainly deals with rajah and has no relevance for the present study, this novel has not been included in the thesis. Her latest work, Lesser Breeds, was published in 2003, is not included in this present study simply because of its irrelevant concept regarding this research work.

The present paper is the result of my hard work and dedication. It mainly focuses on Feminism in the of Nayantara Sahgal. Though She works on various themes but here concerns are the pathetic condition of women in the patriarchal society. Nayantara Sahgal’s leanings towards feminism even though mild, are quite marked in her novels Storm in Chandigarh and A Situation in New Delhi. The fact comes and to light when one studies the underserved ill-treatment many her women characters in these novels must undergo in the society and tries to know. Why they are driven to committing suicide or to seeking divorce, or to undergoing torments defenselessly when it becomes unavoidable. The women character who is driven to committing suicide is Madhu in A Situation in New Delhi. The society that Nayantara creates in A Situation in New Delhi is one which fails to protect women even on the university campus in the capital city of the country as here Madhu a student of Delhi University is raped in the Registrar’s office[2].

The boys who rape Madhu clearly consider Madhu only as an object of lust to be used at their disposal and have no regard for her feelings will and self-respect. A society which produces such men and cannot punish them does not deserve to have women in it. One may raise an objection and argue that the whole society should not be disparaged for what three boys do, because if this society has produced these three boys it has also produced Usman Ali the Vice-Chancellor, who only expels the three guilty boys but6 also braves a physical assault and finally resigns as Vice Chancellor in the order to organize people against fights the forces responsible for the rape of the girls, but the fact remains that his efforts bear little fruits and at last, the girl realizes that even her brother would be thankful when he was relieved the responsibility of her” and commits suicide in a state of helplessness by immolating herself. So, it is obvious that this society has failed to create conditions in which women feel themselves safe and out of the reach of immoral men.

The women characters who have opted to move out of the conjugal walls to escape ill-treatment are Saroj in Storm in Chandigarh, and Lydia and Nell in A Situation in New Delhi. Saroj’s husband under ill-treats his wife chiefly for her having lost her virginity before her marriage as is evident from the following piece of conversation between him and his wife:“Well why did do it? That” I keep coming back to why did You do it?” “I was fond of him,” she said wearily “and I was curious. Is that a crime?” “Good God. Didn’t you have Any inhibitions, any Sense of modesty? Couldn’t your curiosity Wait till you got married” (23).Nayantara Sahgal has a central woman character that gradually moves towards an awareness of her emotional needs.

Nayantara Sahgal’s novel reads like commentaries on the political and social turmoil that India has been facing since independence. Mrs. Sahgal’s feelings for politics and her command over English are rather more impressive than her art as a novelist. She is a novelist as well as a successful political columnist for different newspapers. Her writing is generally characterized by simplicity and boldness. Her writing abounds the latest political ups and downs with a tinge of western liberalism. Her novels portray the contemporary incidents and political realities saturated with artistic and objectivity. All her major characters of the novel are drawn towards the vortex of politics [3]. Besides politics, her fiction also focuses attention on Indian woman’s search for sexual freedom and self-realization. As a women novelist, Sahgal recognizes that her primary obligation is that of advocating the emancipation of women. She has probed deep into the female psyche in her novels. She describes in her novel how women exploited even during the modern times by both the individuals and the society. She tried to Portray the sensibility of woman that how a woman looks at herself and her problems [4]. She considers her novels political in content and intention and in her view, each of the novels her contemporary reflects and political era.

The use of the fictional genre is one of the main aspects of her novels, wherein she can explore the problems of women in contemporary society. Though Sahgal has been hailed chiefly as a political novelist, her feminist concern is obvious and her fighter spirit quite vocal in her fiction. In all her works, there is juxtaposition of two worlds: the personal world of man-woman relationship and the impersonal world of politics. The portrayal of her memorable women characters and the feminist tone in her fictional discourse make Nayantara Sahgal one of the most outstanding feminist Indian novelists writing in English [5].

Nayantara Sahgal is not only a novelist of repute but also a journalist by profession. She confesses that fiction is her “abiding love” journalism her “conscience”. Talking to Ram Jha in 1987, Sahgal said that her two kinds of writing experiences-that of a novelist and that of a political journalist-though contrary to each other, are mutually sustained because, her central focus in both areas in the same-the concept of freedom in human beings, national and personal and her increasingly feminist concerns. Most of her characters belong to the affluent upper class, she does not caste-ridden middle class or the poor Indian village just to conform to the accepted image of India. Her range of characters simplifies her technique. She does not have to struggle to present Indian conversation in English as most of her characters are the kind of people who would talk and think in English in real life [6].

Storm in Chandigarh is Mrs. Sahgal’s third novel written after A Time to be Happy and This Time of Morning. It deals with complex human relationships in which love, friendship, honesty, freedom and equality play a vital role. The ‘Storm’ in the lives of three married couples, Inder and Saroj, Jit and Mara, Vishal and Leela is portrayed against the political backdrop of the storm or confrontation between the newly divided states of Punjab and Haryana over the issues of Chandigarh and Bakhra Nangal territory act…Gyan Singh, the ambitious Chief Minister of Punjab has announced a strike in the whole region for the selfish purpose of demonstrating his political strength. He is only concerned with his personal gains and does not even hesitate to use violence as a means for achieving his selfish ends. While Harpal Singh, the Chief Minister of Haryana acts as political counter oil of Gyan Singh as he is a behavior of Gandhi an ideology of non-violence. He has always given priority to the interests of people against his self-interest[7].

The union Home Minister is assigned the task of affecting a rapprochement between the two warring states of Vishal Dubey, an honest and promising central officer. Dubey goes to Chandigarh from Delhi to solve the political impasse but unwillingly involves himself in the private lives of the estranged husbands and wives especially those of Saroj and Inder [8,9].

Nayantara Sahgal’s contribution about treatment of themes is enormous and varied. She dwells upon contemporary events in her novels like Storm in Chandigarh, Rich Like us and A Situation in New Delhi. Her novels Plans for Departure and Mistaken Identity were a creative vision towards the happenings of India before Independence. The influence of Nehru and Gandhi on Sahgal is clear and she has offered a fresh insight into Gandhism, Nehruism and their impact on the evolution and progress of India. A.V. Krishna Rao [9] succinctly states:“Nayantara Sahgal has inherited and cherished a certain set of values and attitudes towards like which can be best described as a complex of political liberalism, social sophistication, economic moderation and cultural catholicity in continual interaction with the Gandhian idealism” (44).

Nayantara Sahgal’s Storm in Chandigarh depicts the suffering of marital friction apart from the political and social ups and downs. It narrates the life of Inder and Saroj. Sahgal pens the suffocating experience of marriage for both the partners. Most importantly, the writer highlights those wrong features in marriage which causes separation. Sahgal, in this novel, deals with marital as well as political crisis. Division in political front and friction in marital relationships are the main themes of the novel. Duality and deceptiveness are prevalent in politics and marriage. In this novel character come close to each other but without any emotional attachment and sincerity. There is no sensitiveness or loyalty in their relationship; It seems a temporary bond[10].

In the novel Storm in Chandigarh Sahgal narrates how the attitude of dictatorship destroys harmony of marital status. Marriage which strongly needs love and faith of both the partners, can breakdown also in presence of doubt and frustration. The main protagonist of the novel Saroj has committed mistake before marriage. She has her first sexual encounter with one of her friends before marriage. When Inder came to know that, he started tormenting his wife physically as well as mentally. However, Inder himself indulges in an extra marital affair with Mara.

Love and satisfactionare not much prevalent in this affair also. Basically, Inder is a character who always denies individuality of women. He considers woman as a parasite; who could survive only with the support of a male figure. Here the writer portraits the pathetic plight of Saroj who tries to show her love and affection towards her husband but in vain. Throughout their lives, Vishal and Leela remained strangers to each other. He is possessed by a deep sense of guilt for living with her without love and his relationship with Leela abruptly ends due to her death. Vishal’s marriage had been a failure[11,12].

Being a widower, he is deriving satisfaction in a connection with Gauri, a Bengali businessman’s wife who finds security in arranged marriage but who needs and establishes a relationship with Dubey which is based only on sex. Nayantara Sahgal is quite bold in her political approach. She dismantles the age-old notions of women being inferior. She is one novelist who is clear in her perception that man-woman relationship should be based on equality, understanding and love. Man-woman relationship without love is prostitution and nothing else[13].

Go to

Conclusion

Among the women novelists of Indian Writing in English, Nayantara Sahgal emerges as a powerful voice to challenge and question the “received” versions of history. She not only calls the officially-ordered ‘histories’ into question but also exposes the male-dominated and patriarchal power-structures behind them. By delineating India’s history and politics in her fictional narratives, she creates an alternative discourse to subvert them and thereby construct her own writer-specific version. She achieves this purpose by using the various narrative techniques and devices and puts them side by side with the official discourse. Sahgal’s fiction also centers on the political history of India and how it has affected the perceptions of ordinary men and women. Her main interest, however, remains to raise the questions of women and so the basic purpose of envisioning India’s history in her fiction rests on her concerns with the social and individual problems of women and their search for identity. Sahgal herself has overcome her problem of identity-crisis through her writing.

https://juniperpublishers.com/asm/ASM.MS.ID.555583.php For More Articles in Annals of Social Sciences & Management studies Please Click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/asm/index.php For More Open Access Journals In Juniper Publishers Please Click  on: https://juniperpublishers.com/index.php 

[billion-heartbeats]

We are Hindus, Muslims, Christians! When are we becoming Indians? When all citizens follow the rule of law in letter and spirit the unity is right there. The Indian state and the constitution mandates everyone to follow the rule of law and not the laws of the caste and community they belong to. Indian first, Indian next and a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian or whoever, last! I thought we are a rainbow nation. A rainbow is beautiful not because it has different colours. It is beautiful because these different colours shine together. There is harmony. There is amalgamation- one blends into the other. They don’t go away from each other. They don’t boast of their supremacy. They don’t try to overwhelm each other. They complement each other to create beauty through the gloomy sky. That’s the power and magic of unity in diversity! And that’s what used to make India so special. That is precisely what appears to be missing these days. Hinduism! Hinduism is not a religion, but a set of common values and an emotional attachment to a particular idea of India- says the supreme court! The term “Hindu”, even today, stands for Indians in general. In foreign countries all Indians are sometimes described as “Hindus”. Acceptance of Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means to salvation are diverse. The number of gods to be worshiped is large, that indeed is the distinguishing feature of Hindu religion. This definition brings out succinctly the broad distinctive features of Hindu religion. The Supreme Court has effectively erased the otherwise celebrated heterogeneity within the Hindu religion. Ram has found his place in Ajodhya. Now its time to usher in Rama Rajya. It was in post-colonial India, when Mahatma Gandhi first projected Ram Rajya, as the ideal state. By Ram Rajya, he meant a divine state where values of justice and equality prevail, where every citizen is treated respectably. It’s one of Righteousness and integrity! When we examine the history of elections fought since 1951, we observe a very prominent slogan—used almost customarily—till the early or mid-1970s. This slogan was the promise by aspiring candidates to usher in Rama Rajya in contemporary India. After seventy years, no party in our political class have managed to usher in Ram Rajya. Now the slogan of Ram Rajya has disappeared from the electoral politics! Ram has been confined to the temples. Muslims: Muslims have a trust problem. The Indian state and the constitution expect the minority community to follow the rule of law in letter and spirit and not the laws of their community! Muslims in America obey all the rules, regulations and American laws. Muslims in UK and Australia follow National laws of UK and Australia. They follow the laws of the nation of domicile elsewhere. But in India they want to follow the laws of Saudi Arabia and oppose anything Indian. Their refusal to accept Vandemathram is glaring and adds to suspicion in the minds of fellow citizens. This does not speak well for their commitment to unity of the Indian nation.   A Muslim is one who Surrenders to the will of Allah! Islam means to achieve peace – peace with God, peace within oneself, and peace with the creations of God – through wholly submitting oneself to God and accepting His guidance. Partition has dealt a deadly blow to the harmony of India. Creation of Pakistan has instilled a perpetual doubt in the majority about the commitment of the minority community to the cause of India. There are 180 million Muslims in India. The Indian Muslims must rewrite their victim mindset to be indispensable in India’s rise. The refusal of the minority community to accept and practice Family planning sowed the seeds of the community’s expansionism in the minds of majority community. There was an existential concern in the major community. They feared that one day they would be reduced to a minority in their own country. That has changed Contemporary India fundamentally. what’s the reason for their frustration:  a short answer is they are not so powerful as they were in the mythical past? All the political parties were playing into the theory of vote bank politics for their political harvest. It took almost three decades for the consolidation of majority community. The entire electoral logic of minority consolidation propelled a majoritarian consolidation, as reflected in the 2014 and 2019 national elections. Muslims today have the least political representation at the national level than at any point in Indian history. Muslims should think twice before going whole hog with vote bank politics. It may be counterproductive! The Pandemic was a wrong issue to register their opposition. Tablighi Jamaat is a hard-line Islamist organisation headquartered in Delhi. Muslims have been accused of waging “corona jihad” or sometimes “corona terrorism”. Even as the government was firefighting, ordering social distancing and wearing masks, banning mass gatherings, TJ hosted a congregation of more than 3,000 people at its headquarters in Delhi. Hundreds of participants, many of them foreign nationals, then travelled to different nooks and corners of India. This event has emerged as one of the biggest vectors responsible for the spread of the novel coronavirus in the Indian Union. corona infection went out of gear and there was a palpable surge in the corona numbers as corona positive TJ members moved into all nooks and corners of India without the mask and not maintaining the distance. This heralded the community transmission of the virus with disastrous consequences. In many cases, the doctors and front-line workers who reached them were met with hostility, even violence. Videos emerged of the group’s leader Maulana Saad, telling his followers that the virus was azaab — divine punishment — and they should ignore calls for social distancing and reject ban on mosque visits. The misinformation was that they have been prevented to go mosques to break them. First and foremost, it requires strict law enforcement. People should never feel emboldened to take the law into their own hands, whether it is those assaulting Muslims or Muslim groups assaulting health workers. Well the brighter side is that, now the Indian Muslims are better off than ever before.   They haven’t lost anything, neither has Islam. However, vote bank advantage has been neutralised. May be this is the reason for frustration! Indian Muslims wove a false narrative, and immured themselves into it. There could be another. The one of India’s rise. They would be indispensable to the plot if they could rewrite victim mindset and be a part of the success story of the nation. Muslims in India must embrace modern education and an Indian identity based on humanism. Triple Talaq and talaq-e-bidat - “void and illegal The Act passed by the parliament and upheld by supreme court, declares the talaq-e-bidat to be “void and illegal” and also makes the offence punishable with imprisonment. The Triple Talaq Bill, was met with vehement opposition from some leaders of the opposition parties and Muslim leaders. The Supreme Court, in 2017, had dubbed the process of triple talaq unconstitutional. This is a historic bill that gives justice to the Muslim women. Citizenship Amendment Bill Citizenship Amendment Bill- applies to migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. CAA grants Indian citizenship to non-Muslim illegal immigrants. The Muslims of this country don't have to worry about anything. Why Should Muslims from Bangladesh and Afghanistan and the rest of the world be given citizenship? The country cannot run like this. The citizenship will be given only to persecuted religious minorities only from these three countries. The Uniform Civil Code: A case for Equality and non-discrimination This will be a historic event in the modern history of India to join the civilised world! The pandemic has delayed the process. Part IV of the Indian Constitution lists out the Directive Principles of State Policy, under which, in Article 44, the UCC is mentioned. The Article states: "The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a UCC throughout the territory of India." In essence, the UCC would replace personal laws which are enforced in India, based on scriptures and customs of major religious communities, with a common set of laws applying to every citizen equally. These laws would deal with issues pertaining to marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and maintenance. Abrogation of Article 370. Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, which was administered by India as a state from 1954 to 31 October 2019. Kashmiri Hindus were thrown out of Kashmir lock stock and barrel, overnight. They were subjected to inhuman treatment. Article 35A of the Indian constitution, which gave some special privileges to the people of the state, has been scrapped. The government has revoked Article 370, which 35A is part of and which has been the basis of Kashmir's complex relationship with India for some 70 years. Kashmir will no longer have a separate constitution and will have to abide by the Indian constitution much like any other state. All Indian laws will be automatically applicable to Kashmiris, and people from outside the state will be able to buy property there. The government says this will bring development to the region. The political problems that the Prime Minister has yet to deal with are every bit as serious as the economic problems. The consecration of the temple in Ajodhya happened by coincidence on the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370. While the community needed to address the elephant in the room and could not be absolved of its responsibility for wrongful acts by the Tablighi Jamaat — the polarised discourse that was unleashed in mainstream media impacted the psyche of the general population. The Muslim community has to find good leadership and integrate itself into the mainstream of Indian society, rather than reverting to separatist tendencies, demagogy, and conspiracy theories. Most importantly, inter-faith dialogue and communal cooperation at every level of society needs to be facilitated. Governments can do a lot but it is up to the ordinary people to work at peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding, by building trust and confidence and knowledge of each other. Without this, nations cannot progress. Unfortunately, in the past many Muslim kings have not left us with pleasant memories. Christianity in India Demographically, Christian believers comprise only a tiny portion – about 2.3 percent of India's enormous population of 1.3 billion. Christianity is India's third-largest religion after Hinduism and Islam, with approximately 28 million followers. Critics should perhaps listen to the sociologists who say the educational and social success of a community could lead to a fall in its population. The fact is, the story of Christianity in India is not a success story. Even though the overseas missionaries are gone, the image and culture of Indian Christianity retain strong elements of foreignness. Most Christians are in line with the Indian mainstream. When the iconic Catholic figure Mother Teresa died in 1997, she was awarded a full state funeral. The gun carriage that bore her body was the same as that used to carry India’s founding father, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister, to their cremations. It’s difficult to imagine many other overwhelmingly Christian societies in which a Christian would be accorded that kind of treatment. Are we just diverse with no unity? India, the land that gave birth to four religions and enshrined both secularism and free speech in its constitution, has been having a curious debate these past few weeks about secularism and free speech. The pseudo secularism is making headlines! we must realise we have the power to say “no” to thoughts of resentment, jealousy, anger and greed. We must choose thoughts of love and accommodation and amalgamation instead. A responsible citizen abides by all the law and order of the country. Is there unity with diversity in India? We are just diverse. Where is unity? Even in COVID times we just proved that we are not united. Many of us were ready to infect others and risk their lives by our fraudulent behavior. We attacked the medical and para medical warriors who were trying their best to treat you, test you and prevent you from infection risking their own lives. India believes in” live and let live concept”. Every single person is guaranteed of his constitutional rights. The very idea of India is revolving around ‘unity in diversity’ and ‘diversity in unity’. It guarantees equality, liberty and freedom to every citizen of the country. India has emerged as a major player in the global arena. Besides being a major economic power, India is globally acknowledged as a soft superpower. Its Diaspora is the most successful ethnic group across the globe. Way Forward. Education will bring Muslims to the mainstream. Disrupt Radical Networks Foster Madrassa and Mosque Reforms Expand Economic Opportunities Support “Civil Islam” Engage Muslim Diasporas One nation. One India Law of justice for all! A country can flourish when its citizens are responsible enough to build a strong and powerful nation. We are all responsible for the protection and development of our country. Let us be Indians first, Indians next and Indians last! Dr N Prabhudev Former Director Sri Jayadeva institute of Cardiology Former VC of Bangalore university Former Chairman Karnataka state Health Commission nprabhudev@gmail.com

[go-redgirl]

Fact Check: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Did Not Support Riots

In the wake of the riots and looting that broke out with protests over the killing of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis, Minnesota, police last month, supporters of the cause have cited Dr. Martin Luther King’s quote on riots.

For example, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told Fox News Sunday last week: “Martin Luther King [Jr.] said many years ago that riot is the way that the unheard get heard.”

Ellison added, however — correctly — that Dr. King “didn’t condone it, but he said to the nation — as a person who always protested peacefully — that don’t just dismiss that and ignore it, and relegate it to just criminality and bad behavior.”

The quote comes from a speech that Dr. King delivered at Grosse Point High School in Michigan in March 1968, just weeks before he was assassinated.

King said that he could not condemn riots without condemning the “intolerable conditions that exist in our society.” But he made clear that he did not support rioting.

The full quote, in context (emphasis added):

Now I wanted to say something about the fact that we have lived over these last two or three summers with agony and we have seen our cities going up in flames. And I would be the first to say that I am still committed to militant, powerful, massive, non-violence as the most potent weapon in grappling with the problem from a direct action point of view. I’m absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt. And I feel that we must always work with an effective, powerful weapon and method that brings about tangible results. But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. 

It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. 

And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.

The term “militant” has lately been used as a euphemism for “terrorist,” so the idea of “militant” non-violent action may be difficult to understand today. What Dr. King meant was that even radical change had to be pursued non-violently.

Dr. King’s principle of non-violence drew from Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of “satyagraha,” which relied on non-violence to appeal to the common humanity of the person against whom the protest was directed.

[tapaspaul16-blog]

WORLD HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 2019

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on 10th December. The date was chosen to honour the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption and proclamation, on 10th December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first global enunciation of human rights. The commemoration was established in 1950, when the General Assembly invited all states and interested organizations to celebrate the day as they saw fit. Many governmental and nongovernmental organizations active in the human rights schedule special events to commemorate the day.

Human rights may be said to be those fundamental rights to which every man or woman inhabiting in any part of the world should be deemed entitled merely by virtue of having been born a human being.

WORLD HUMAN RIGHTS DAY,2019:-

71 st Human Rights Day will be celebrated this year on 10th December Tuesday. The country will commemorate human rights month under the theme:- “The Year Of Indigenous Languages: promoting And Deepening A Human Rights Culture”

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION:-

Since human rights cover people all over the world irrespective of their social, cultural, racial, ethnic, religious and communal differences, it is natural that they have become a matter of international and multinational concern in the present century.

The charter of the United Nations framed in 1945 underscored the principle of individual human rights. The merit of the charter is that it affirms faith in fundamental human rights, in the worth and dignity of the human person, in equality of persons of all nations and its resolve to promote social progress and better standard of life.

On 16 February, 1946, the Security Council of the United Nations set up a Commission on Human Rights under the chairmanship of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt to prepare the text of the Declaration. The Commission did its job and the General Assembly adopted it on 10 December, 1948. Known as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it contains a long list of civil or social, political, economic and cultural rights as equality before law, protection against arbitrary arrest and detention, right to a fair trial, freedom of thought and expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, freedom of conscience and religion, right to own property, prohibition of slavery and inhuman treatment, right to public hearing, right to own nationality, right to marry and keep family, right to vote, right to social security, right to free education and free participation in cultural life, right to rest and leisure, and above all, prohibition of any activity, against this Declaration.

Three More Declarations:-

On 16 December, 1966 the General Assembly of the UN adopted three more declarations in the form of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant On Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and International Covenant on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination. It was a. positive step in the direction of giving protection to the case of human rights. The covenant on economic, social and cultural rights imposed on the member-states the duty to submit reports on their progress in the protection of human rights. Human Rights in India Fundamental human rights in the sense of civil liberties with their modern attributes and overtones are, however, a development more or less parallel to the growth of constitutional government and parliamentary ‘institutions from the time of British rule in India. Right from its inception in 1885, the Indian National Congress  struggled for the rights of the Indian people. The early moderate leaders appreciated British sense of justice and fair play, they also criticized the alien rule for depriving the Indian people the rule of law that prevailed in England.

In 1897, Surendranath Banerjee denounced the British rule on the ground that while it prided itself on the Magna Carta and the Habeas Corpus, it denied to the Indian people the inestimable right to personal liberty. At the call of Mahatma Gandhi, the people of the country went on strike against the Rowlett Act of 1919 that became the cause of the tragedy of the Jallianwala Bagh of Amritsar on 13 April 1919. All great leaders like Motilal Nehru, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, C.R. Das etc. strongly argued for the rights of the Indian people and condemned the British rule for depriving the people of the rule of law in our country:’

The list of fundamental rights to be incorporated into the Constitution of India found its conspicuous place in the Nehru Report of 1928. It included (a) personal liberty, (b) freedom of conscience and profession and practice of religion subject to public order or morality, (c) equality before law, (d) right of every citizen to Habeas Corpus, (e) no discrimination in matters of public employment, (f) equality of rights in matters of sex etc. The declaration of complete independence adopted by the Congress at its Lahore session in 1929 said: “It is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life so that they may have full opportunities of growth.

The adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the U.N. General Assembly in December 1948 had its definite impact on the making of the Indian Constitution. The makers incorporated a host of such rights in part III of the Constitution relating to equality, freedom, non-exploitation, religion, education and culture, and constitutional remedies.

Moreover, the Constitution has empowered the Supreme Court and High Courts to issue prerogative writs for the Protection and enforcement of these rights termed as Fundamental Rights’. Some rights, which could not be accommodated in Part III, have been put into Part IV of the 

Constitution termed as Directive Principles of State Policy. The point of distinction between the two parts is that while the former is mandatory and justifiable, the latter is not. It is well commented: “The two parts of the Constitution-the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles between them covered almost the entire field of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (Parliament and Human Rights by S.C. Kashyap)

NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION:-

National Human Rights Commission However, the most important development in this regard is the creation of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on 12 October 1993. In pursuant of the implementation of one of the promises given in the election manifesto of 1991 and also keeping in view the urgency of the matter in the light of wild allegations and propaganda of Pakistan and America, including some non-governmental agencies as the Amnesty International and the Asia Watch about gross violation of human rights in Punjab, Kashmir, and some other parts of the country, the Government of India thought it expedient to set up such a body in the national interest through an ordinance promulgated by the President on 28 September 1993 which became an Act in the following year. This body has a statutory status, given by the protection of Human Rights Act,1993(TPHRA)

FUNCTION:-

1. The functions of the NHRC are as under:

2. To inquire on a petition presented to it by a victim or any person in this behalf into complaints of violation of human rights or abetment thereof, or negligence in the prevention of such violation by a public servant;

3. To intervene in any proceedings involving any allegation of violation of human rights pending before a court with the approval of such courts;

4. To visit, under intimation to the state government, any jailor any other institution under the control of the state government, where persons are detained or lodged for purposes of treatment, reformation or protection to study the living conditions of the inmates and make recommendations thereon;

5. To review the safeguards provided under the Constitution or any law for the time being in force for the protection of human rights and recommend appropriate remedial measures;

6. To review the factors, including use of terrorism, that inhabits the enjoyment of human rights and recommend appropriate remedial measures; The Commission has the power to visit or enter a place for the seizure or recovery of some important documents or information as it deems necessary for the purposes of prosecuting an inquiry and it may request the services of the staff of Central or state governments.

No doubt, the establishment of the NHRC is a bold and momentous step taken by Government of India. Nevertheless, a critic may fear that it would not be able to discharge its functions effectively due to some limitations.

First, it cannot look into the complaints of torture and harassment done by the armed forces. Second, it has not been Provided with its own machinery of investigation. For such a task, it Would depend upon the staff of the Central and state governments who may not be prompt and impartial in helping, in a situation where their brethren are involved. Last, in the main, its functions are of a recommendatory nature. It may approach the Central or state government or the Supreme Court and the High Courts without having the power to do something of its own, in according relief to the victims of atrocities.

Indisputable is the fact that India’s stand in respect of the protection of human rights has been quite straightforward. Several non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International and Asia Watch operating at the international level sought to tarnish it for the sake of their vested interests. Ours is an open society with a democratic system. For this reason such atrocities cannot be done in our country by the police, paramilitary and military forces as we find in China and Pakistan. Stray cases of ‘State terrorism’ may not be ruled out. It is a fact that some authorities misused the provisions of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (prevention) Act. However, the draconian law lapsed on 23 May 1995. At the same time, it should not be lost sight of that the excesses were only stray cases.

Thus, we may safely endorse the view of the Nobel Peace Laureate, H.B. the Dalai Lama: “In India there may be stray outbursts of human rights violations. These tend to occur in comparatively isolated pockets where extremists and terrorists themselves engage in acts that violate human rights. There is genuine freedom in this country and a healthy flourishing democracy, India can truly take pride in this.”

-:HUMAN RIGHTS DAY QUOTES:-

“The real struggle for us is for the citizen to cease to be the property of the state.”

“Many of us persons of the tinted persuasion care about human rights and artistic freedom too.”

“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.”

“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”

“Laws are silent in times of war.”

“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”

“Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must — at that moment — become the centre of the universe.”

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

“We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.”

“No matter how pathetic or pitiful, every human is fated to have one moment in their lives in which they can change their own destiny.”

“Please use your freedom to promote ours.”

“The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don’t agree with.”

“Today’s human rights violations are the causes of tomorrow’s conflicts.”

“We believe that human rights transcend boundaries and must prevail over state sovereignty.”

“An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.”

“Together we can prevent genocide from happening again. Together we can make a better future for our children.”

-:THEME OF HUMAN RIGHTS DAY OF LAST FEW YEARS:-

Human Rights Day is celebrated with a special theme every year and the main purpose of these themes are to raise awareness amongst the people and to convey the message about the importance of Human Rights.

*Theme of 2012 was “Inclusion and the right to participate in public life” and “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”

*Theme of 2013 was “20 Years: Working for Your Rights”

*Theme of 2014 was “Celebrating 20 years of changing lives through Human Rights”

*Theme of 2015 was “Our Rights. Our Freedoms. Always”

*Theme of 2016 was “Stand up for someone’s rights today”

*Theme of 2017 was “Let’s stand up for equality, justice and human dignity”

*Theme of 2018 was “Stand Up For Human Rights”

*Theme of 2019 is ,“The Year Of Indigenous Languages: promoting And Deepening A Human Rights Culture”

[averycanadianfilm]

This Land is Our Land

A PLANET ON THE MOVE

One day in the 1980s, my maternal grandfather was sitting in a park in suburban London. An elderly British man came up to him and wagged a finger in his face. “Why are you here?” the man demanded. “Why are you in my country?”

“Because we are the creditors,” responded my grandfather, who was born in India, worked all his life in colonial Kenya, and was now retired in London. “You took all our wealth, our diamonds. Now we have come to collect.” We are here, my grandfather was saying, because you were there.

* * *

These days, a great many people in the rich countries complain loudly about migration from the poor ones. But as the migrants see it, the game was rigged: First, the rich countries colonized us and stole our treasure and prevented us from building our industries. After plundering us for centuries, they left, having drawn up maps in ways that ensured permanent strife between our communities. Then they brought us to their countries as “guest workers”—as if they knew what the word “guest” meant in our cultures—but discouraged us from bringing our families.

Having built up their economies with our raw materials and our labor, they asked us to go back and were surprised when we did not. They stole our minerals and corrupted our governments so that their corporations could continue stealing our resources; they fouled the air above us and the waters around us, making our farms barren, our oceans lifeless; and they were aghast when the poorest among us arrived at their borders, not to steal but to work, to clean their shit, and to fuck their men.

Still, they needed us. They needed us to fix their computers and heal their sick and teach their kids, so they took our best and brightest, those who had been educated at the greatest expense of the struggling states they came from, and seduced us again to work for them. Now, again, they ask us not to come, desperate and starving though they have rendered us, because the richest among them need a scapegoat. This is how the game is rigged today.

My family has moved all over the earth, from India to Kenya to England to the United States and back again—and is still moving. One of my grandfathers left rural Gujarat for Calcutta in the salad days of the twentieth century; my other grandfather, living a half day’s bullock-cart ride away, left soon after for Nairobi. In Calcutta, my paternal grandfather joined his older brother in the jewelry business; in Nairobi, my maternal grandfather began his career, at sixteen, sweeping the floors of his uncle’s accounting office. Thus began my family’s journey from the village to the city. It was, I now realize, less than a hundred years ago.

I am now among the quarter billion people living in a country other than the one they were born in. I’m one of the lucky ones; in surveys, nearly three-quarters of a billion people want to live in a country other than the one they were born in, and will do so as soon as they see a chance. Why do we move? Why do we keep moving?

* * *

On October 1, 1977, my parents, my two sisters, and I boarded a Lufthansa plane in the dead of night in Bombay. We were dressed in new, heavy, uncomfortable clothes and had been seen off by our entire extended family, who had come to the airport with garlands and lamps; our foreheads were anointed with vermilion. We were going to America.

To get the cheapest tickets, our travel agent had arranged a circuitous journey in which we disembarked in Frankfurt, where we were to take an internal flight to Cologne, and then onward to New York. In Frankfurt, the German border officer scrutinized the Indian passports belonging to my father, my sisters, and me and stamped them. Then he held up my mother’s passport with distaste. “You are not allowed to enter Germany,” he said.

It was a British passport, given to citizens of Indian origin who had been born in Kenya before independence, like my mother. But the British did not want them. Nine years earlier, Parliament had passed the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, summarily depriving hundreds of thousands of British passport holders in East Africa of their right to live in the country that conferred their nationality. The passport was literally not worth the paper it was printed on.

The German officer decided that because of her uncertain status, my mother might somehow desert her husband and three small children to make a break for it and live in Germany by herself. So we had to leave directly from Frankfurt. Seven hours and many airsickness bags later, we stepped out into the international arrivals lounge at John F. Kennedy International Airport. A graceful orange-and-black-and-yellow Alexander Calder mobile twirled above us against the backdrop of a huge American flag, and multicolored helium balloons dotted the ceiling, souvenirs of past greetings. As each arrival was welcomed to the new land by their relatives, the balloons rose to the ceiling to make way for the newer ones. They provided hope to the newcomers: look, in a few years, with luck and hard work, you, too, can rise here. All the way to the ceiling.

It was October 2—Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. We made our way in a convoy of cars carrying our eighteen bags and steamer trunks to a studio apartment in Jackson Heights where The Six Million Dollar Man was playing on the television. On the first night, the building super cut off the electricity because there were too many people in one room. I stepped out and looked at the rusting elevated train tracks above Roosevelt Avenue and wondered: Where was the Statue of Liberty?

* * *

At McClancy, the brutal all-boys Catholic high school where my parents enrolled me in Queens, my chief tormentor was a boy named Tschinkel. He had blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and a sadistic smile. He coined a name for me: Mouse. As I walked through the hallways, this word followed me: “Mouse! Mouse!” A small brown rodent, scurrying furtively this way and that. I was fourteen years old.

One Spanish class, Tschinkel put his leg out to trip me as I was walking in; I kicked hard at it as the entire class whooped. “Mouse! Mouse!”

As I left the class and walked to the stairwell, I felt a hand shoving me forward. I flew straight down the small flight of stairs and landed on my feet, clutching my books; I could as easily have not, and broken my neck. When I complained to the principal, I was told that such things happen. It was within the normal order of the McClancy day.

Four decades later, another German American bully from Queens became the most powerful man on the planet. The 2016 election particularly struck home for me. Donald Trump is like the fathers of the boys I went to high school with. He grew up in Jamaica Estates, then a gated white island in the middle of the most diverse county in the nation. That explains everything about him, his fear and hatred of people different from him.

According to Trump, Haitians “all have AIDS.” If Nigerians are allowed into the United States, they would never “go back to their huts.” Mexicans? “They’re bringing drugs; they’re bringing crime; they’re rapists.” About immigrants in general: “Everything’s coming across the border: the illegals, the cars, and the whole thing. It’s like a big mess. Blah. It’s like vomit.” All this was shocking to many people, but familiar to me, because I’d heard it from the McClancy boys—and some of the teachers.

Copyright © 2019 by Suketu Mehta

Copyright © 1925 by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Copyright renewed © 1953 by Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan

[bitcofun]

Any originality instantly deals with the opposition of the facility, stated previous Member of the European Parliament, Nigel Farage, on a panel at Bitcoin Amsterdam on Thursday. That argument worked as the intro to Farage's point throughout the discussion, as he drew parallels in between Bitcoin and his experience pressing the then-unpopular concept of Brexit, the exit of the U.K. from the European Union." I led a political revolt, I handled the facility," Farage stated. "What I believe is occurring with Bitcoin is we're seeing a comparable kind of revolt, a financial revolt that is being driven and led by individuals who are stressed over the large size and scale of huge federal government." The topic was sparked by fellow panelist and "What Bitcoin Did" podcast host Peter McCormack's preliminary concern. "What are you doing at a Bitcoin conference?" Farage concluded that since of the links in between his previous experience and the Bitcoin motion today, it was "a best and natural location to be." The political leader broadened on his argument, detailing more of his views of the facility and why it can be tough to challenge it. Those who belong to and keep the facility, he argued, "own and set the status quo, they are really comfy ... and they do not desire anything to come along and interrupt."" And I believe Bitcoin is seeing that." The parallels in between Farage's previous leading the Brexit motion and today truth of the blossoming innovation kept being broadened upon as he started to go over liberties and liberty. Farage talked about the EU Commission and its relationship with legislators, declaring that the reality that bureaucrats are the ones guiding the ship does not paint a lovely image for the EU in his mind. " I think in flexibility, I think in liberty, and I think the nation-state represents the very best method to do it at the minute," Farage stated. "I'm definitely happy with marketing for Brexit, accomplishing Brexit, and I think it is the very first brick out of the globalist EU world." Similarly, Farage thinks that bitcoin can assist people reclaim control of their financial resources and eventually their lives." Governments can not come near [Bitcoin]," he reasoned. "They can not inform me what I can and can refrain from doing with bitcoin and, because sense, it is the supreme flexibility, it is the supreme liberty." Another factor Farage thinks in Bitcoin is due to the fact that "the innovation has actually been shown to work, and it's improving." In order for Bitcoin to reach its complete capacity, Farage argued, people need to motivate legislators to effectively comprehend the innovation and its ramifications so they can craft suitable legislation." If we work skillfully, with legislators ... there's a likelihood in America, the U.K. and maybe South America too, that we can in fact get a reasonable level of guideline." The obstacle, Farage described, keeps being education as he stated when he was young and saw legislators voting on pieces of legislation on topics they weren't well notified about." The level of understanding of those who will be managing [Bitcoin] is extremely, extremely low. Legislators require some genuine education, which's not a simple thing to do," he stated. The absence of appropriate understanding is most likely what leads many world leaders to think about CBDCs, which he stated is among his primary worries." [They] will remove our financial liberty." But do not feel prevented, Farage stated, describing Mahatma Gandhi's popular stating that "very first they make fun of you, then they combat you, and after that you win."" You understand you're winning when they truly begin getting nasty," he stated. Disclaimer: Bitcoin Magazine is owned and run by BTC Inc, the organizer of Bitcoin Amsterdam. Read More

[jobssok]

New York: Demolition of Mahatma Gandhi's statue probably a hate crime

New York: Demolition of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue probably a hate crime

Highlights Mahatma Gandhi’s statue vandalized in America New York City incident, police investigate CCTV footage revealed, search for 6 people New York. A group of six unidentified people may have harbored hatred after a statue of Mahatma Gandhi installed outside a Hindu temple in the US city of New York was damaged earlier this month. India has strongly condemned this heinous act and has taken…