The Relevance of Bhagat Singh’s Ideas

“The British are rocked, their roots ave been shaken. There will be an agreement and they will leave this land in about fifteen years, but the people won’t be benefited in anyway. Many years will pass in confusion. Then the people will recall me.”
So said Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, a few days before he was
hanged to death in 1931. His prophecy proved true and about sixteen years later,in the year 1947, an agreement was struck and the British moved out entrusting the reins to the ‘Indians’. Thus power got transferred ‘from the whites to the coloureds’. Now many years, nearly six decades, have passed in anarchy. Now,
more than ever the oppressed and exploited people and their true
representatives are evoking him.
This year patriots, democrats and revolutionaries are observing the 75th year of martyrdom of Bhagat Singh,Rajguru and Sukhdev as also Bhagat Singh’s 100th birth anniversary. This year is not only the birth centenary of Bhagat Singh but also of Rajguru (15th May 1907).This is also the centenary year of Chander Shekhar Azad’s birth (27th July1906). The celebrations are not being held
as a formal ritual, as is done by the government of Punjab, every year on the 23rd of March at the Husainiwalla memorial of these martyrs.
Revolutionaries on this occasion are going to the working masses with a variety of mass programmes.Bhagat Singh had said, “They (the British) think that by destroying mybody they will be more secure in this country. They are in the wrong. They can
kill me but not my thoughts. They can cut my body into pieces but cannot suppress my dreams.” In fact, in ourcountry neither the British could be saved nor could Bhagat Singh’s dreams
be destroyed. History testifies that the dead Bhagat Singh has proved more dangerous than the living one. The youth has continued to be intoxicated by his revolutionary ideas making them
mad for revolution and freedom. They braved baton and bullets and kept on joining the lines of martyrs.
read more — peoplesmarch

ILPS: martyrdom of Hrant Dink

Hrant Dink, martyred in the course of peoples’ struggle
for freedom of expression and thought!

On Friday January 19, 2007, Hrant Dink, a progressive journalist in Turkey was murdered by an assassin in front of his office in Istanbul. Hrant Dink,a militant defender of democratic rights and freedom was the general editorof the weekly Agos, and was of Armenian descent. He was a vocal and active defender of human rights and persistently opposed violations of the people’s rights by the authorities in Turkey. For his endeavours he was persecuted by the fascist regime and was hounded and vilified by the racist and the chauvinist media. On numerous occasions his life was threatened by fascist and reactionary thugs attached to the state. His brutal murder by the hands of an assassin adds to the list the crimes and atrocities of the fascist and chauvinist regime in Turkey that perpetuates racial hatred, bigotry and has a total disregard for all democratic rights and freedoms of its citizens.

The reactionary regime, whose history of crimes and atrocities includes ethnic cleansing and genocide of national minorities including Armenians and Kurdish people, by targeting democratic intellectuals and journalists such as Hrant Dink, hopes to incite racial hatred and reactionary violence. At the same time hide the fact that in Turkey, abuse and total disregard for human rights and the denial of freedom of expression and association extends to all progressive and democratically minded sections of society including those of Turkish, Armenian, Kurdish origin or any other national minority.It was only in September 2006 that over 170 progressive journalists, trade unionists and activists were rounded up across the country on trumped up charges by the authorities. Many of those continue to remain in custody and are not allowed to receive legal advice. ……………………..

Sachar Committee on Education

1. Introduction

The role of education in facilitating social and economic progress is well accepted today. The ability of a nation’s population to learn and perform in an environment where scientific and technological knowledge is changing rapidly is critical for its growth. While the importance of human capital and its augmentation for a nation’s development cannot be overemphasized, its micro economic consequences also need to be acknowledged. Improvements in the functional and analytical ability of children and youth through education open up opportunities leading to both individual and group entitlements. Improvements in education are not only expected to enhance efficiency (and therefore earnings) but also augment democratic participation, upgrade health and quality of life.

At the time of adopting the Constitution the Indian state had committed itself to provide elementary education under Article 45 of the Directive Principles of State policy. Article 45 stated that “The State shall endeavour to provide within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.” In 1993, in a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to education is a fundamental right flowing from the Right to Life in Article 21 of the Constitution. Subsequently in 2002 education as a fundamental right was endorsed through the 86th amendment to the Constitution. Article 21-A states that “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age six to fourteen years in such a way as the State may, by law, determine.” The 86th Amendment also modified Article 45 which now reads as “The state shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of 6 years”. However, despite this commitment the number of children in this age group who have remained out of school is alarmingly large. ……………………

Mahasweta:I am after the dreams that have escaped from jail

(This is an excerpt from the fabulous speech delivered by Mahashweta didi in frankfurt book fair.In this speech delivers very passionately she discribes what is the meaning of indian culture for the people.It was published in Tehlaka some months back. - Editor)

At 80-plus I move forward often stepping back into the shadows. Sometimes I am bold enough to step back into the sunlight. As a young person, as a mother, I would often move forward to when I was old. Amuse my son. Pretend I couldn’t hear or see. Make mockery of memory, forget things that had happened a moment ago. These games were for fun. Now they are no longer funny. My life has moved forward and is repeating itself. I am repeating myself. Recollecting for you what has been. What is. What could have been. May have been.

See the tree, the forest, the field lush with crops, a stream dazzling in sunlight. And see, the spotted deer are jumping and fleeing to the forest, the mothers are filling the pitchers from the stream, clutching their children. And the houses are the ones they left behind at Badihatta. The sun is leaning to see the earth. The peasants are irrigating their fields. What an expanse of forest. How green the hills are.

Nothing happens unless you know how to dream. The Establishment is out to destroy, by remote control, all the brain cells that induce dreams. But some dreams manage to escape. I am after the dreams that have escaped from jail. The right to dream is what allows mankind to survive. If you end the right to dream — which the entire world and everyone is doing — you destroy the world. The right to dream should be the first fundamental right. The right to dream. [...]

There’s a story about Nanak — his father made him sit in a shop, told him to sell goods… dus, gyarah, barah, tera… tera, tera, tera… and he gave everything away. Everything is yours. With me, everything became tera… nothing touches the inside. Material things don’t touch me, I remain an outsider, I can’t always be an insider. Genuine warmth, real understanding, some friendship, a few strange things touch me, but I’m an outsider and an insider at the same time. [...]

Since the 1980s, I have been vocal about the daily injustice and exploitation faced by the most marginalised and dispossessed of our people: tribals, the landless rural poor who then turn into itinerant labour or pavement dwellers in cities. Through reports in newspapers, through petitions, court cases, letters to the authorities, participation in activist organisations and advocacy, through the grassroots journal I edit, Bortika, in which the dispossessed tell their own truths, and finally through my fiction, I have sought to bring the harsh reality of this ignored segment of India’s population to the notice of the nation, I have sought to include their forgotten and invisible history in the official history of the nation. I have said over and over, our Independence was false; there has been no Independence for these dispossessed peoples, still deprived of their most basic rights. ………..

People, not armaments decide the War

A Counter-Revolution in Military Affairs?
Notes on US High-Tech Warfare

— Jacob Levich

RUPE’s Introduction
The recent report of the Iraq Study Group appointed by the US Congress, as well as candid remarks by top officials of the US and UK, reveal the depth of the crisis of the US military occupation of Iraq. The crisis has exposed the limitations of the very area which is the US’s forte, namely, its military strength.
The exact shape of things is hard to predict. Yet it is clear that it is not the sophisticated military technology of the US, but the response of people worldwide that will play the crucial role in determining that shape.The following essay shows, with remarkable concreteness, how the people of West Asia have met the world’s most sophisticated military technology, and held their own. This analysis is particularly important in times when the ruling media worldwide project that technology, rather than human organisation, determines the course of historical development. — The Editor.

When Colonel Harry Summers told a North Vietnamese counterpart in 1975 that “[y]ou know you never defeated us on the battlefield,” the reply was: “That may be so, but it is also irrelevant.²

News stories surrounding the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq proclaimed the arrival of a long-promised “Revolution in Military Affairs” (RMA), a new system of warfare that was said to combine innovative battlefield tactics with high-tech weaponry, networked communications, and sophisticated surveillance technology. The US military promoted its latest toys as “force multipliers” — factors that promised dramatically to increase US combat effectiveness without requiring additional troops. Advanced weapons systems publicly acknowledged by the Department of Defense included unmanned spy drones, powerful “bunker buster” explosives, and precision-guided munitions; additionally, the US arsenal was rumored to contain fearsome new weapons from the realm of science fiction: battlefield death rays, “E-bombs”, even devices that would allow GIs to see through walls.

“Wired” or “postmodern” warfare, it was widely claimed, would transform the 21st-century battlefield and assure American supremacy for generations to come. As one television commentator gushed: “It is hard to imagine a technological change that has had a similar impact on international affairs. The development of the tank? The first flight of a military aircraft? The invention of gunpowder? It is somewhere at that level.”³

This degree of enthusiasm for RMA did not long survive the first flush of triumph. After several years of grueling guerrilla warfare in the Middle East, US strategists are now re-learning the fundamental lessons of Vietnam: that guerilla war is a political, not merely a military, struggle; that technology, no matter how sophisticated or lethal, cannot defeat a determined popular resistance; that resistance fighters draw their power from the sympathies and co-operation of the people.⁴

The following, a re-evaluation of RMA’s most highly-touted weapons in light of the realities of combat, reaffirms that it is people, not armaments, that remain decisive. ……………..

Narayan Sanyal

Narayan Sanyal is a veteran maoist leader of india,was arrested in Chattisgarh and falsely charged in many criminal cases by the AP Police.He is being deprived from basic needs and rights of a political prisoner.We express full solidarity to his rights as a political prisoner and demand immediate withdrawl of all the false cases.

No Displacement; No Rehabilitation; Only People’s Development

(The following is a press Note released in a Press Conference on 21^st Jan 2007 soon by the Anti- Displacement Conclave in Ranchi, Jharkhand attended by scores of organisations from several states)

Today the vast sections of the people have been subjected to the worst kind of socio-economic crisis in the name of development. Today more and more tribals, dalits, minorities and the poorest of the poor are brutally removed from their forests, fields, lands, homes and cultures. They are being evicted in thousands from their lives and livelihoods. The powerful imperialist forces and their lackeys in the sub-continent are on their bid to capture the natural resources and perpetrate ruthless exploitation of labour. The people are rendered defenceless in the process of the dreaded Ds–Displacement, Disorganisation, Destitution and Decimation.

It is at a time that the need to unite and bring together all the fighting forces at the ground level against all forms of displacement under a single platform was mooted. And hence this preparatory meeting being held in Ranchi on the 20, 2tst of January, 2007. In this meeting, representatives of organizations and individuals from various states such as Jharkhand, Bengal, Haryana, Orissa, Delhi, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh deliberated on the strategies to carry forward the movement against displacement at the sub-continent level. ‘No to Displacement in any form’, was the firm resolve of the Meet.

The loot of the Indian people started after the advent of British rule with the super-imposition of the principle of Eminent Domain that virtually extinguished the natural right of the communities over their habitat and livelihood. This imperialist paradigm continued even post-1947 and despite the adoption of a new constitution. The special provisions for recognition and honouring the tribal people’s right under the constitution has been blatantly ignored that has sharpened the resentment of the people against the exploitative state. ………………

Bastar:where war is a way of life

Dandakaranya – Where war is a way of life for Adivasi women

(A Paper presented in a seminar by Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Mukti Manch)

Portrayal of the life of Adivasi masses

Our Dandakaranya is a vast area. Once upon a time we Adivasis were its majority inhabitants. But since the inception of outsiders’ rule in DK (14^th century AD), in the protracted period of the past 700 years, our Adivasi population gradually diminished. This pace increased during the aggression of British imperialists and ‘after independence’ in some places we even became a minority. For the area we call Dandakaranya the Sileru, Godavari and the Pranahita rivers form the borders in the East and South, with Raipur in the north and Chandrapur on the west. The vast forest area in between comprising parts of Maharashtra, Chattisgarh and Orissa is in the form of a contiguous area. Many types of tribes with different traditions are residing in this area. The majority of them belong to Dorla, Madia and Muria tribes. We call ourselves ‘Koyathur’ in our language and call our language ‘Koya’. In academic books we are referred to as ‘Gonds’. In this vast area covering more than 55,000sq.km our population is more than half a crore.

Among our Adivasis the ratio between women and men is almost equal. The outside rulers who know only to exploit us and to pillage our areas never aspired for our development. Exploiting our labour cheaply and looting the wealth of our forests has been increasing with each advancing year ever since the British ruled. It never came down. They have confined us to interior (remote) forest areas and to medieval lifestyles and as each day passed our lives became increasingly unbearable. The recent statistics from South Bastar-Dantewada show that literacy rate is not more than 25 percent and among women it is even lesser – 17 percent. The number of our children who die due to malnutrition is more than those who survive. The government record itself shows that the rate of infant mortality is very high. For a woman to be alive after child birth is like rebirth. We have no cloths to cover our entire body and no food to provide at least two meals a day. Our life is a continuous struggle for production and our reproductive activities are leaving us emaciated. ……………….

A Report on communalisation of education

we are posting a link of very important report on the communalisation of education.and impact of differant pedagogical approaches on education.the report analyses the text books of RSS VHP communal schools.please click on the following link–

REPORT ON COMMUNALISATION OF EDUCATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. SUMMARY
Notes/Recommendations

2. PART ONE: The Constitutional Mandate and Education
(a) Impact of Pedagogy Of the Approach, Teaching Textbook and Curriculum.
(b) Ekal Vidyalaya.
(c) Madarssas.
(d) State and Private Funding.

3. PART TWO: Text of the State-run schools Textbooks
(a) Caste system receives generous treatment in Indian textbooks.
(b) Demonising Christianity, Islam.
(c) Sati was a virtue.
(d) Fascism and Nazism in Indian Textbooks.
(e) RSS-run Vidya Bharati schools blatantly use communal ideas.
(f) Hinduisation of ostensibly secular, state–run schools in BJP–ruled U.P.

4. ANNEXURE I – Gujarat: Situating the Saffronisation of education .

5.ANNEXURE II – History – through the prism of constructed identity

Science and Freedom

By D D Kosambi
(Prof. D D Kosambi was a Mathematician, historian, political theorist ,commentator and a very original marxist thinker.In this very less known article he sums up the marxist view on science.We are posting this article specially for the science students as we think in india studieng science and having scientific temper are two very different things. We will try to post some more excellent but forgotten articles on Education and pedagogy in upcoming days – Editor )

In 1949, I saw that American scientists and intellectuals were greatly worried about the question of scientific freedom, meaning thereby freedom for the scientist to do what he liked while being paid by big business, war departments, or universities whose funds tended to come more and more from one or the other source. These gentlemen, living in a society where he who pays the piper insists upon calling the tune, did not seem to realize that science was no longer ‘independent’ as in the days when modern manufacturing production was still expanding at the lower stage of technical development, and the scientist who made the most essential discoveries was looked upon as a harmless individual toying with bits of wire, chemicals, perhaps collecting odd specimens in out of the many places. The scientist now is part of a far more closely integrated, tightly exploited, social system; he lives much more comfortably than Faraday, but at the same time under the necessity of producing regular output of patentable or advertising value, while avoiding all dangerous social or philosophical ideas. As a result, the worthies I mention were quite worried about tlle lack of scientific freedom in a planned society, but only indirectly and perhaps subconsciously as to what was actually happening to their own freedom in an age and time of extensive witch-hunting, where being called a communist was far more dangerous than being caught red handed in a fraud or robbery.

These considerations, however, are mentioned only because they lead one astray from the main facts. There is an intimate connection between science and freedom, the individual freedom of the scientist being only a small corollary. Freedom is the recognition of necessity; science is the cognition of necessity. The first is the classical Marxist definition of freedom, to which I have added my own definition of science. Let us look closer into the implications.

As an illustration, consider the simple idea of flying. I am told that our ancestors in India had mastered some mysterious secrets of yoga whereby they could fly hundreds of miles in an instant. I don’t believe it; these are flights of the fancy rather than of the body. Attempts to imitate the birds had very limited success, but gliders were more successful. Then came the posing of the elements of the problem, namely sources of power, methods of propulsion, laws of aerodynamics- all scientific and experimental truths. Mankind was not free to fly till the flying machine was invented. Today, anyone can fly without yoga- provided he has the means to enter an airplane. This, as society and its property relations are constituted, implies that either he owns the plane, or someone who does allows him admission; ultimately, the question is whether or not our flying human has money, i.e. the necessary control over means of production. In the abstract, nothing prevents him from sprouting a pair of wings and flying off like a bird; nor from becoming a yogi and soaring into the atmosphere by mere exercise of will-power. Such freedoms nevertheless, are illusory; necessity compels man to find other, more feasible technical methods. …………………………….