Friday, September 15, 2017

CounterCurrents: Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd Explains why he' s receiving death threats




Dear Friend,

Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is one of the fiercest critics of Hindutva. A book in Telugu based on his classic Post-Hindu India has set the hindutva fanatics on rage. They are burning his book all over Telengana and Andhra Pradesh. He has also received death threats. Here in this article "What Is Social Smuggling?" Kancha Ilaiah explains what this controversy is all about. 

The Rohingyas in Myanmar are facing a genocide and thousands are fleeing from their homeland. Meanwhile, India is trying to deport 40000 Rohingya, including UNHCR recognised refugees, in breach of its International human rights obligations.

Don't miss the article Co-Written by Raj Patel    & Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz "How To Feed Ourselves In A Time Of Climate Crisis"

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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org




What Is Social Smuggling?
by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd 


The concept Social Smuggling I coined in my book Post-Hindu India (Sage 2009) has generated a law and order issue, created by the Arya Vysya organizations of the two Telugu States. The Vysya Associations have issued a death threat to me for applying this concept to the Vysya model of caste based business historically leading to a massive amount of wealth being hidden under ground called Guptha Dhana.




How Much India Care For Its Refugees?
by Amit Singh 


Recent threat by the Indian government to deport 40000 Rohingya, including UNHCR recognised refugees, is not only breach of its International human rights obligations-particularly the principal of non-refoulement- but also, violate old tradition of providing shelter to those seeking refuge on the Indian shore.





The Idea of Ethnical Cleansing
by Poornima Laxmeshwar 


You have to run like you want to live
Pack your little feet
Roll like a wheel in motion
Your hands can grab a bit of future
If you can escape
Their knives slitting your throats
Until then run, run, and run!




From Aadhaar To Privacy Right: The Spin-off of The Aadhaar Controversy
by S G Vombatkere 


Over the years since 26 January 1950, the Supreme Court of India has come a long way in interpreting the Constitution of India and the courageous and unequivocal Puttaswamy Judgment is proof of that. Indeed, in a September 10, 2017, New York Times article titled “India’s Supreme Court Expands Freedom”, Menaka Guruswamy writes: “ … the privacy ruling represents a remarkable shift in the Supreme Court from a reticent post-colonial court on matters of individual liberty to an erudite constitutional court safeguarding freedom in the terrifying times of new India”.




How To Feed Ourselves In A Time Of Climate Crisis
Co-Written by Raj Patel  & Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz 


Changing the food system is the most important thing humans can do to fix our broken carbon cycles. Meanwhile, food security is all about adaptation when you’re dealing with crazy weather and shifting growing zones. How can a world of 7 billion—and growing—feed itself? Here are 13 of the best ideas for a just and sustainable food system.




“Capitalism Is Literally Killing Life On the Planet”: Dr. Kim Scipes
by Mohsen Abdelmoumen 


We have to build out of the conditions we face.  It’s that simple.  But we can travel, we can meet, we can talk about our values, what we’d like to see.  There are many paths to take us to where we want to be. If we are determined to reach our destination, one that really “works” for people, we will get there.  But we’ve got to start the journey now.




On The Road To Extinction, Maybe It’s Not All About Us
by Elizabeth West 


It is crystal clear—unlike the smoky skies where I live–to most of us who are willing to consider the facts: this summer’s ‘natural’ disasters have been seeded anthropogenically.  Wildfires in the northwestern United States and Canada, in Greenland, and in Europe are often referred to in the media as ‘unprecedented’ in size and fury. Hurricanes and monsoons, with their attendant floods and destruction, are routinely described as having a multitude of ‘record-breaking’ attributes. No one reading this is likely to need convincing that humans –our sheer numbers as well as our habits—have contributed significantly to rising planetary temperatures and thus, the plethora of somehow unexpected and catastrophic events in the natural world. 




Do You Socialists Have Any Plans? Why We Need Socialist Architects
by Bruce Lerro 


For the first time in well over 70 years, the words “capitalism” and “socialism” can be circulated among the general public in the United States. However, what I am going to claim in this article is that the only way 21st century socialism is going to get any traction or respect from the working class is if socialists collectively develop blueprints for socialism: five years, ten years, fifty years down the road. By way of qualification, my ideas about socialist planning have little to do with Trotsky’s ideas and what his followers have called “socialist transition programs”.




Remembering Ebrahim Yazdi
by Richard Falk 


Dr. Yazdi believed that despite the formal theocratic trappings, the democratic spirit continued to flourish among the Iranian people, and was indeed gradually transforming the Iranian state from within and below. Such a perception is especially important as this positive development has been put at serious risk by the Netanyahu, Salmon, Trump confrontational and warmongering diplomacy that strengthens the hand of hardliners within Iran and correspondingly weakens the positions of those continuing Dr. Yazdi’s brave struggle for a pluralist, tolerant, and progressive future with normalized relations with neighbors and the world.




Rahul Gandhi And Congress Need To Come Clean On 1984 To Prove Their Secular Credentials
by Gurpreet Singh 


Though Gandhi is absolutely right about the alarming situation in India and did a great job by exposing the BJP government, he and his party have to come clean on 1984 to establish their secular credentials. He should have sat down with the protesters and listened to them. Even now he can ensure that his party makes a genuine official apology to the victims’ families and provide all the evidence against several top notch Congress leaders to the investigating agencies so that justice could be served. If not then Congress has no moral right to condemn the BJP on the issue of religious intolerance.




Damaging Damages: Rebel Wilson’s Defamation Case
by Dr Binoy Kampmark 


The Australian actress Rebel Wilson has had a stroke of astonishing judicial luck.  In June this year, a jury of six examined a series of eight articles published in Woman’s Day and Australian Women’s Weekly suggesting, in no uncertain terms, that Wilson was a “serial liar” on matters touching on age, name and other aspects of her background.




Come Forward , A toilers’ Hospital In The Sundarbans Needs Your Help
by Farooque Chowdhury 


Sundarban Sramajeebee Haaspaataal, the Sunderbans Toilers’ Hospital, is the central character in the story. It’s a social organization in all its senses. It has been built up bit by bit with dream-love-labor-sacrifice-patience of many human beings. Farm laborers, poor peasants, working people, aborigines living in villages near and far are indivisible resources of this organization.




The Flyover To Nowhere!
by Mohammad Ashraf 


The bits and pieces of the incomplete flyover of Srinagar in fact reflect the true state of Kashmir’s development in almost all sectors!







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