Dilip Simeon's blog

Dr Mark Lindley of Columbia University, author of outstanding works on Mahatma Gandhi, has criticised Nobel laureate Amartya Sen for 'ignoring' vital ecological aspects in his economic theory and called for a reappraisal of J C Kumarappa's developmental model, saying the latter was a greater economist than Dr Sen. In an interview, he said, ''The late Kumarappa, who was Mahatma's economist and the first organising secretary of All India Village Industries Association, had properly assessed and grasped the risk of ecological factors in technology and development.'' Mark Lindley "Gandhi - Kumarappa Economics & 21st Century Ecological Concerns" He said anyone concerned over human welfare ought to give due attention to the appalling risks of global warming, sinking water tables, threat of extinction of 10 per cent species of birds and 15 per cent of reptiles due to macro-ecological degradation. Having surveyed hundreds of villages in the...

In November 1933, following his fast against a separate electorate on caste lines and the subsequent political settlement known as the Poona Pact, (Mohandas Karamchand) Gandhi embarked on a year-long nationwide campaign against untouchability. Thanks to his extensive travels across the country, he got a first-hand sense of the state of affairs across India. The countryside had not yet recovered from the severe economic dislocation caused by the combined effects of the Great Depression and Britain’s 1931 decision to get off the gold standard. While the agrarian economy was crying for immediate redress, Gandhi was also confronted with evidence that khadi had its limitations as a means of economic sustenance. Thus, at a time when the urban leadership was keen on rapid industrialisation, Gandhi concluded that the needs of rural India could wait no more. He decided to widen the message of self-sufficiency and self-reliance by reviving other village industries. The challenge was to ...

What exactly did Kant say?   To find out what exactly Kant said, Alt News listened to the  recording of the event  and found that he had indeed said India is “too much of a democracy” not once but twice. First, at 25.43, Kant can be heard as saying, “In India we are too much of a democracy so we keep supporting everybody”. He went on to elaborate, “ For the first time in India a government has thought big in terms of size and scale and said we want to produce global champions. Nobody had the political will and the courage to say that we want to support five companies who want to be global champions .... NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant denies what he stated twice Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist? Defying capitalism and socialism, Kumarappa and Gandhi had imagined a decentralised Indian economy - Venu Madhav Govindu & Deepak Malghan Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, found himself in the middle of a controversy when he was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying, “Too mu...

In a recent debate at Oxford, the Congress politician Shashi Tharoor delivered a bravura performance, arguing that Britain owed reparations to its erstwhile colonies. Speaking in front of a small audience, his good-natured verbal joust took wings thanks to the enormous reach of the internet. Indian accolades for Tharoor seem to have little to do with the implications of the argument he made. Rather his speech has been cheered for the vicarious pleasure it afforded. While the sun set firmly on the British Empire many decades ago, we have never lacked in apologists for the Raj who deployed time-honoured tactics in rebutting the argument that British rule was an unwelcome experience for many. Thus, unmindful of the inherent irony, some have mocked Tharoor for delivering his indictment of colonialism in a ‘plummy’ English accent. Others used a play that is straight from the Perry Anderson school of history. They acknowledged the iniquity of Empire, but rapidly moved...

महात्मा गांधी के सचिव महादेव देसाई का 15 अगस्त, 1942 को निधन हो गया। अपने अंतिम दिनों में जब गांधी को एक ओर हिंदू-मुसलमान तनाव को दूर करने और दूसरी ओर नेहरू और पटेल की बढ़ती दूरियों को कम करने के प्रयास करने पड़ रहे थे, तब उन्होंने कहा था कि महादेव होते तो यह नौबत नहीं आती। सारे भारतीयों की तरह मैं भी यह सोचते हुआ बड़ा हुआ कि 15 अगस्त वह दिन है, 1947 में जिस दिन स्वतंत्र भारत की पहली सरकार ने शपथ ली थी। हालांकि हाल के वर्षों में इस दिन ने मेरे लिए एक अलग मायने दिए हैं, जिसका पहले से संबंध नहीं है। एक   बात   हमेशा   ज़हन   में   सवाल   खड़े   करती   है   मेरी चेतना में 15 अगस्त, 1947 के साथ 15 अगस्त, 1942 भी जुड़ चुका है, जिस दिन जेल में महादेव देसाई का निधन हुआ था। उनके योगदान के बिना भारत शायद कभी ब्रिटिश राज से मुक्त नहीं हो पाता, और फिर भी इस महान देशभक्त और स्वतंत्रता सेनानी को आज तक वह सम्मान नहीं मिला, जिसके वह हकदार थे।... https://www.amarujala.com/india-news/the-memory-of-the-great-gandhian-if-mahadev-desai-had-been-there-this-would-...

Several of the major central banks are stuck in a trap of their own making. This includes the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and others. The credit-based global financial system we have constructed and participated in over the past century has to continually grow or die. It’s like a game of musical chairs that we have to keep adding people and chairs to in order for it to never stop.  This is because cumulative debts are far larger than the total currency supply, meaning there are more claims for currency than there is currency. As such, too many of those claims can never be allowed to be called in at once; the party must always go on. When debt is too big relative to currency and starts to get called in, new currency is created, since it costs nothing other than some keystrokes to produce.  It’s like this for most major countries...  In other words, claims for dollars (debt) grows far more quickly than the economy’s ability to...

जनवरी 16, नफ़रत  और हिंसा के खिलाफ उपवास का चौथा दिन  13 जनवरी 1948 के दिन महात्मा गांधी ने अपने जीवन का  अंतिम उपवास किया जो उस वक़्त की हिंसा और नफरत के माहौल के खिलाफ शांति बहाल करने की पुकार थी. उनके उपवास के दौरान सर्वधर्म प्रार्थना सभा में गीता, कुरान और गुरु ग्रन्थ साहिब पढ़े जाते, वैष्णव जन और ईश्वर अल्लाह तेरो नाम के साथ जैसे भजन गए गए, लोग बिरला भवन में इकट्ठे होते लोगो ने हिंसा में सहभागी न होने का वचन दिया और शांति स्थापित हुई । गांधी जी का दृढ़ विश्वास था कि नफरत और हिंसा ने धर्म की आत्मा को नष्ट कर दिया है और प्यार और अहिंसा ही धर्म की आत्मा हैं और यही एकमात्र तरीका है जिससे इस दुनिया में शांति फैला सकता है।  गांधी जी के अंतिम उपवास को याद करते हुए , नफरत और हिंसा के खिलाफ खुदाई खिदमतगार लीडर फैसल खान और कृपाल सिंह मंडलोई 13 जनवरी से 18  तक उपवास कर  रहे है। 13 जनवरी  को राजघाट और मज़ार मौलाना अबुल कलम जाकर श्रद्धांजिली के बाद उपवास की शुरू हुए उपवास के चौथे  दिन  हरिद्वार के मातृ सदन के महंत  स्वामी शिवानंद जी महाराज ने समर्...

NB: 42,480 Indian farmers and daily-wage workers dependent on agriculture committed suicide in 2019 ; 28 Indians dependent on farming commit suicide every day  (some estimates are much higher).  About 300,000 famers had committed suicide by 2014; we can estimate how many more have killed themselves since then. There is also the suspicion the figures are higher than various state governments admit.  The government has stopped publishing data on farmer suicides after 2015. In the face of this calamity, our celebrity twits get galvanised into action only when Rihanna notices the kisan agitation. What a pathetic joke.  DS Rihanna and Greta prompt an MEA outburst — and a hashtag firestorm In a highly unusual move that has raised eyebrows, the government Wednesday slammed “celebrities and others” for their comments in support of farmer protests, calling them “neither accurate nor responsible”. This came after pop icon  Rihanna , teenage climate activist  Greta ...