This issue comes to you amidst a massive global financial crisis where suddenly the largest banks, insurance companies and investment houses are going bankrupt and even the largest manufacturing and services companies are joining the brigade. All these were supposed to be healthy, “fundamentally strong” shining examples of ‘free market economics’.
This issue comes to you amidst a massive global financial crisis where suddenly the largest banks, insurance companies and investment houses are going bankrupt and even the largest manufacturing and services companies are joining the brigade. All these were supposed to be healthy, “fundamentally strong” shining examples of ‘free market economics’.
Today they are all asking for tax payers money to be given to them to save them. Governments around the world which used to preach that ‘Market is the King’ for over two decades since the days of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan are willy nilly doling out unimaginable sums (the arithmetic of billions and trillions changes every other day) to help these businesses. At the same time they are advising the people to prepare to bear the pain and tighten their belts! S Udayan in his cover story has explained the issues in a simple jargon free manner and at the same time contrasted this partisan state with the Indian concept of rajadharma.
In peepul ke neeche we carry an interview with Dharma Pal Agrawal a distinguished scientist, who has worked tirelessly to bring to light the achievements of Indian science and technology from Harappan days to the pre-British colonial times. Using his scientific methods and enquiry he has also done yeoman’s service to Indian archeology. Interestingly our readers will notice that he has very different views about Harappans and Vedic culture as against those of our previous interviewee Dr R S Bisht. Both are men of learning and bring different perspectives to complex problems in archeology and reconstructing
India’s past. As we promised in our very first issue, Ghadar Jari Hai will continue to act as a platform for scholarship and civilized discourse in unraveling complex problems of Indian history, philosophy, culture and politics.
R. Chari has highlighted the subtleties of Buddhist causality and its contemporary relevance. Mathew Abraham has vividly brought to life the events of 1908, in the congested mill workers chawls of Mumbai that led to a month long agitation and strike by Indian working class to oppose the political persecution of Lokamanya Tilak by British colonial administration. After painting the picture of agrarian relations in Chola period in southern India, in the last issue, S Raghavan has concluded it with a depiction of what colonial rulers did in the same area and what devastation of agriculture it led to. Ramakrishna has given us a glimpse of that simple weaver from Avadh—Kabir, who wove such beautiful tapestries in his verse against inequality and oppression.
We also carry reports of the First Anniversary of your magazine in Delhi and Ghadri Mela in Canada. We welcome Dr. K. Marulasiddappa, well known writer, critic and theatre personality and former Chairman of Karnataka Natak Akademi as an editorial advisor to the Ghadar Jari Hai family.