Australian bird photographer of the year 2020: See some exquisite photos of birds

By Dilip -

BirdLife Australia’s annual photography awards. From a hungry fairy tern to a thirsty corella, the best images from photographers across Australia have been entered into this year’s prize...


Comb-crested jacana by Adam Blyth

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/jan/13/australian-bird-photographer-of-the-year-2020-vote-in-the-peoples-choice-awards

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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

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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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The Almond Trees by Albert Camus (1940)

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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?

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The Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals: Written by Benedetto Croce (1925)

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

By Dilip -
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