Protecting the Himalaya: Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

By Dilip -
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, ICIMOD, is a regional knowledge development and learning centre serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. Visit this site for data and comment ranging from the impact of climate change on the Himalaya to livelihoods, bio-diversity, river waters, flora and fauna, etc etc.





http://www.icimod.org/

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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 -
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The Almond Trees by Albert Camus (1940)

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By Dilip -
For 2,000 years, the peach was the iconic fruit of China, an auspicious symbol of good health and a long life. But from August of 1968 until roughly the fall of the following year, the mango was China’s most revered produce item, whose meaning was unwittingly bestowed upon it by none other than Mao Zedong. Now an  exhibition  about the mango’s short-lived sanctification has opened at Museum Reitberg in Zurich, Switzerland. Continuing through June 16, 2013, the show is organized around more than 60 Mao-era mango items—from Mao mango medallions to textiles bearing mango imagery—donated to the museum by scholar and author Alfreda Murck, who also edited the exhibition’s  catalog  and will be speaking at the  Capital Literary Festival  in Beijing on March 2, 2013. The circumstances leading to the mango’s prominence as a symbol of the working class have their roots in 1958, when Mao Zedong instituted a series of agricultural and industrial reforms...
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Did Stalin poison Lenin?

By Dilip -
Vladamir Lenin, the founder of Russian communism, may have died because of stress, family medical history or of poison given to him by his successor Joseph Stalin.. Dr. Harry Vinters, a neurologist at the University of California in Los Angeles and Lev Lurie, a Russian historian, re-examined Lenin’s personal and autopsy records and clinical history for an annual conference on famous people's deaths at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where the deaths of figures like King Tut, Christopher Columbus, Simon Bolivar and Abraham Lincoln were re-examined. Lenin had died on January 21, 1924 at the age of 53.  The Soviet leader had suffered several mysterious strokes before he died. Lurie, the historian, believes that while Lenin was already experiencing bad health after having suffered several strokes, Stalin may have poisoned him after a bitter argument. Lenin had initially supported Stalin’s rise to power, but he later began supporting Leon Trotsky. Lenin h...
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The Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals: Written by Benedetto Croce (1925)

By Dilip -
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S.A. Aiyar: Declassify report on the 1948 Hyderabad massacre

By Dilip -
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