Articles by Achin Vanaik

The “Organisation question” necessarily devolves into two others—Organisation for What? Organisation by Whom? This question is faced by those whose goal is to carry out, in perhaps the very long term, the project of dramatically reducing, even seeking to completely eliminate, various human relations of oppression and exploitation while establishing an ecologically stable balance between human society and nature. Then, how are we to go about this given that our current context is marked by a dynamic and interacting economic-political duality of a capitalist process of globalisation and a persistent multiple nation states system? Since the nation state is and will remain for the foreseeable future the most important political unit, progressive transformations in some major countries are necessary to kick-start and accelerate the desired transformation at the global level.

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We, as social scientists, scholars, teachers and concerned citizens, feel extremely concerned about the lynching at Dadri, and the murders of scholars and thinkers like M M Kalaburgi, Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and others, and wish to register our strong protest.

For departed Labour Party leader Tony Benn, a liveable society could only be one which transcends capitalism and institutionalises a much more radical popular democracy in all aspects of life. He charted his own path based on this belief but was isolated by a Labour Party that was taken over by the right wing and still remains so to this day. Benn's passing away is also symbolic of the state of the democratic left in Great Britain today.

Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital by Vivek Chibber (New Delhi: Navayana Publishing), 2013; pp 306, Rs 450 (paperback).