South Asia Citizens Web

Since July 2016, Pakistani police and provincial authorities have stepped up pressure against Afghans living in Pakistan in what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has called “a concerted push” to repatriate a large number of Afghan refugees before the end of 2016.

In an alarming development, the Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (a body of the Government of Himachal Pradesh) fore with the Chief Secretary of the Government of Himachal Pradesh as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors has preferred an Appeal before the Supreme Court against NGT order of 4th May 2016 in the matter of Kashang HEP.

The path of women’s liberation is through the values enshrined in the Indian Constitution. It is unfortunate that rather than leading the community towards absolute human rights, intellectuals are making the situation for the community worse by resorting to the logic of a religious framework.

Around 18 years ago, taking time off from a seminar on street vendors at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Sharit Bhowmik took a student to a fishery co-operative near Mumbai. He had recently declined the position of director, TISS and the student asked him why. He said had he accepted the offer, he would not be able to do the kind of work that was important to him. The response typified Bhowmik, scholar, teacher, activist, advocate for the rights of working class, mentor, friend and amongst India’s most respected sociologists, whom I have the honour of calling my teacher.

While all authoritarianisms are not fascist, all fascisms are a form of authoritarianism. What is distinctive about fascist authoritarianism is its appeal to forms of mass mobilisation and attempt to create sources of legitimacy among ‘the masses’ – through cultural (e.g. pseudo-religious) and ideological domination