Alexander: How Great?

By Dilip -
The story was that a petty pirate had been captured and brought before Alexander. What drove him, Alexander asked, to terrorize the seas with his pirate ship? “The same thing as drives you to terrorize the whole world,” the man sharply replied. Five new books reviewed..

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The Unreality of Wasseypur: Javed Iqbal

By Dilip -
The ending of the film was shown properly,’ speak unanimous voices, the well-known folklore of Wasseypur, Dhanbad, ‘Gangster Shafiq Khan was really gunned down at the Topchachi petrol pump like it was shown in the first part of the film.’ ‘That’s how it’s done in Dhanbad.’ And there are long lists of assassinations and murders in Dhanbad. MLA Gurdas Chaterjee of the Marxist Co-ordination Committee was gunned down on the highway. Superintendent of Police Randhir Verma was murdered by dacoits during a botched bank robbery. Santosen Gupta of the Forward Bloc was gunned down. Mukul Dev of the RJD was murdered. S K Rai, a union leader is murdered. Samin Khan, a gangster, gets bail and leaves court and is shot to death, while still in the custody of the police. Sakel Dev Singh of the coal mafia is killed at the bypass; his brother who works with him, is killed at Shakti chowk, gunned down by an AK47. Manoj Singh alias Dabloo from Matkuria village, who allegedly terrorised the Muslims of Was...
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History Archive: Communist Party of India's resolution on Pakistan and National Unity, September 1942

By Dilip -
Pakistan and National Unity is an important position paper of the Communist Party of India, and a far-reaching text in the history of the Indian communist movement. The resolution dated September 19, 1942 contains an outline of the CPI's support for what it called the 'just essence of the Pakistan demand'; and the Report by Gangadhar Adhikari is a detailed explanation of the resolution. The resolution was confirmed by the First Congress of the CPI in May 1943.  Its arguments may be contrasted with the pamphlet titled Who Rules Pakistan? published in Bombay in August 1948, as a 'Communist Party publication' - and is one of the earliest position documents of the Communist Party of Pakistan.  The document is titled File CPI-31/1942 ; and forms part of the P.C. Joshi Archives at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The text of the resolution and report is also available in the book entitled Remembering Dr  Gangadhar Adhikari: Selections from Writings, Part 2 ; e...
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Pakistan's First Law & Labour Minister, Jogendra Nath Mandal's Resignation Letter, October 1950

By Dilip -
Mr. J.N. Mandal, Minister for Law and Labour, Government of Pakistan On 8th October, 1950 My Dear Prime Minister, It is with a heavy heart and a sense of utter frustration at the failure of my life-long mission to uplift the backward Hindu masses of East Bengal that I feel compelled to tender resignation of my membership of your Cabinet . It is proper that I should set forth in detail the reasons, which have prompted me to take this decision in this important juncture of the history of Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent. (1)  Before I narrate the remote and immediate causes of my resignation, it may be useful to give a short background of important events that have taken place during the period of my co-operation with the League, Having been approached by a few prominent League leaders of Bengal in February 1943, I agreed to work with them in the Bengal Legislative Assembly. After the fall of the Fazlul Haque Ministry in March 1943, with a party of 21 Scheduled Caste M.L.As,...
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Book review: Thirteen Months in China: A Subaltern Indian and the Colonial World

By Dilip -
Anand A. Yang, Kamal Sheel, Ranjana Sheel: Thirteen Months in China: A Subaltern Indian and the Colonial World.  New Delhi, 2017 Reviewed by Emily Whewell  Printable Version:  http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=53231 Thirteen Months in China  is an annotated translation of Gadadhar Singh’s 1902 self-published book,  Chῑn Me Terah Mᾱs , a British Indian soldier’s perspective and experience in China during the Boxer Uprising. The Boxer Uprising at the turn of the twentieth century was a key moment in Sino-foreign relations. The rebellion ended with the suppression of the anti-foreign Boxers and the liberation of the foreign legations by a military force comprising of eight foreign nations. This “International Expedition” included British forces, with the majority of British soldiers belonging to Indian regiments. The uprising’s suppression also came at a cost to lives, homes, and livelihoods. Singh’s account gives an insight into how one ...
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The Almond Trees by Albert Camus (1940)

By Dilip -
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'Do you know', Napoleon once said to Fontanes, 'what astounds me most about the world?  The impotence of force to establish anything.  There are only two powers in the world: the sword and the mind.  In the end, the sword is always conquered by the mind' Conquerors, you see, are sometimes melancholy.  They have to pay some price for so much vainglory. But what a hundred years ago was true of the sword is no longer true today of the tank. Conquerors have made progress, and the dismal silence of places without intelligence has been established for years at a time in a lacerated Europe. At the time of the hideous wars of Flanders, Dutch painters could still perhaps paint the cockerels in their farmyards. The Hundred Years War has likewise been forgotten, and yet the prayers of Silesian mystics still linger in some hearts. But today, things have changed; the painter and the monk have been drafted - we are one with the world.  The mind has lost that regal certai...
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A Final Warning by George Orwell

By Dilip -
'In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage and triumph: the sex instinct will be eradicated we shall abolish the orgasm, there will be no loyalty except to the party.. but always there will be the intoxication of power always at every moment there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless…   If you want to imagine the future; imagine a boot stepping on a human face forever. The moral of this story is.. don’t let it happen.'    Eric Arthur Blair, (George Orwell) was born in Motihari, Bihar, on  25 June 1903, and died in London on 21 January 1950 Ignorance is Strength-Freedom is Slavery-War is Peace  (George Orwell, 1984) George Orwell: A Final warning (see video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXm5hklbBsA George Orwell statue 'too left-wing' for the BBC Rudyard Kipling: critical essay by George Orwell (1942) ******************************************************************* “There is a substa...
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Albert Camus's lecture 'The Human Crisis', New York, March 1946. 'No cause justifies the murder of innocents'

By Dilip -
The morning after a great historical crisis, you feel as sad and sick as after a heavy night. But there is no aspirin for historical hangovers .. The world is no longer divided into the just or unjust, but into masters and slaves. He who is right is he who enslaves.  Albert Camus     La crise de l'homme : THE HUMAN CRISIS   (Text read by Viggo Mortensen on March 28 2016)   Ladies and Gentlemen: when I was invited to give a series of lectures in the United States of America, I felt some doubt and hesitation. I am really not old enough to give lectures, and I am more at ease with the process of thinking than I am making categorical statements... since I don't feel I have any claim on what is generally called the truth. I shared this reservation and was very politely told that my personal opinion didn't matter. What mattered was that I'd be able to offer some facts about France so that my listeners could form their own opinions. It was then suggested...
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