‘Hind Swaraj’ is one of the finest works of M.K. Gandhi. The book, presented as a dialogue, is written in a very humble and lucid manner. An anthology of Gandhi’s evolved ideas, the book gives a broader perspective of his aspirations, visions, thoughts and apprehensions about various issues like colonialism, self-rule and modernity. It begins with an acknowledgement for the founding members of the congress and the native as well as foreign sympathiser’s, who supported Indian cause both in and outside India.This acknowledgment of the roots, in a way, provides the basis and grounding to Gandhi’s ideology. Taking it forward Gandhi continues by turning to a few instances in the history of Indian struggle for Independence and gives a perspective of how these instances proved better in awakening Indians against the British Raj. One of the important points that Gandhi makes here is the ‘positivity’a ‘discontent’ may lead to.
‘Hind Swaraj’has been written with a liberatory essence. Gandhi while defining ‘swaraj’ went beyond the conventional trends of that time. For him ‘swaraj’ is beyond the ‘absence of foreign rulers’, rather it means ‘learning to rule our own selves’, something that can be achieved only when we don’t let ourselves to be enslaved either by the ‘colonialism’ or by ‘modernity’. Gandhi critiqued colonialism and modernity, to liberate not just Indians but the entire mankind, as for him these are certainly contradictory to the essence of being humans.In a way, Gandhi being a visionary, could see colonialism being embedded in modernity, to maintain the control and dominations by the British, something that can be regarded as relevant in the contemporary times, particularly with reference to the growing technological influence upon the social and religious fabric of the society.
Gandhi being an ardent supporter of the philosophy of self-reliance for self-development, wrote ‘Hind Swaraj’ with the purpose to educate his countrymen, to make them feel empowered by taking pride in their civilisation, which according to him is ‘real’ as against the ‘false’ civilisation of Europe. He aimed their civilisational values to take over their ego and fight against the injustice with honour and peace. Hence, Gandhi presented ‘Hind Swaraj’, based upon the philosophy of non-violent ways of fighting against the injustice, as providing a better and more productive alternative way of achieving ‘swaraj’.
Although being a text to empower the subaltern, ‘Hind Swaraj’ falls into criticism in certain ways, like the neglect of ‘untouchables’, one of the grave concerns of subaltern in India.‘Hind Swaraj’is also critiqued for its use of some derogatory words for women, like ‘sterile’ to counter the unproductiveness of the then British parliament. With the extended critique of ‘modernity’, by particular reference to certain aspects of it, the book is sometimes categorised as a radical text. However, whatever the concerns of the author remained for critiquing modernity to this extent, ‘Hind Swaraj’ is and shall remain a credible and soul-full text upon resistance to subjugation.
Divisional Administration establishes Moharum Helpline in Police Control Room Kashmir
Srinagar Oct 15: In its efforts to get problems of people resolved during holy occasions in Moharum, Divisional Administration Kashmir has established Moharum helpline in Police Control Room Kashmir.
The Police helpline will deal with the specific requirements put across by the citizens with regard to electricity, water, sanitation, health and other issues of emergency. Senior officers from departments of Police, Municipality, PHE, Health, PDD, R&B, CAPD, Fire & Emergency Services have been designated to take call on issues flagged by public. The helpline will remain functional round the clock with effect from October 15-2015.
General public is requested to call up on following numbers to register their grievances. 0194-2506508, 0194-2506509 and 9858222333.
Lady dies after 15 days of her suicide attempt
Srinagar, October 16: A lady who had set herself ablaze in Dooru area of district Anantnag on 03-10-2015 died yesterday.
A 30 years old lady (name withheld) resident of Chenigund in the jurisdiction of Police Station Dooru who had set herself ablaze after pouring kerosene oil on her body at her home on 03-10-2015 breathed her last yesterday evening at SMHS hospital Srinagar. In this regard a Case has already been registered in Police Station Dooru.
Iran considering Sending Troops to Syria
Following a meeting with the Syrian president in Damascus Iran’s high-level security delegate said that his country would consider sending troops to Syria if requested.
“If this issue is requested by Syria we will consider it and make a decision,” Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Iran’s national security and foreign policy committee told the media. “We are serious about fighting terrorism.”
Ahead of a major offensive by Syrian forces against the northern city of Aleppo this week, media reports suggested the deployment of Iranian ground troops in Syria.
A report by Sputnik International said that thousands of personnel had traveled from Iran to Syria to participate in the battle for Aleppo.
But Iran’s foreign ministry rejected such reports Wednesday, saying that Tehran has only sent military advisors to Syria.
Iran has been the main backer of the Assad regime since the start of the civil of war in that country in 2011.
Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani, a top Iranian military commander was killed in the outskirts of Aleppo last week.
In Damascus Boroujerdi said that Iran would continue its military support for Syria and Iraq.
“We have sent arms support and advisors to Syria and Iraq and will consider their other requests, too,” he said at a press conference.
Courtesy: Rudaw
Moscow rally against Russia’s Syria strikes unimpressive
Only 150 people have turned up at a demonstration against Russian military involvement in the Syrian war that was sanctioned to gather 300 protesters in Moscow.
The rally that was organised on Saturday by two independent movements, Solidarity and Party of December 5, came after an opinion poll suggested that a large majority of Russians support Moscow’s decision to launch air strikes in Syria.
In the survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center on October 3 and 4 in 46 Russian towns, 66 percent of respondents said they fully or conditionally support the decision to use Russian air force in Syria.
Only about 27 percent conditionally or absolutely disapprove of the involvement, according to the poll.
“While the appetite for deploying troops in Syria is low, Russians are increasingly looking to such displays of military might as a substitute for their country’s economic ills and ostracism in the West,” Peter Zalmayev, a Russian affairs expert and director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative in New York, told Al Jazeera.
Zalmayev said the mood could change, however, if Russia sends ground troops to Syria.
“If that happens and coffins of Russian soldiers, including young conscripts, begin to arrive, Russians will be reminded of the Soviet fiasco in Afghanistan. Their support for further adventurism in the Middle East – especially if the economy doesn’t pick up – will wane,” he said.
Source: Al Jazeera
Zimbabwe fails to curb unemployment
The Zimbabwean government is struggling to deal with a worsening unemployment crisis as companies collapse or are forced to make redundancies.
Zimbabwe looks for more cash loans to solve debt crisis
Officials in the country have tried to stop the trend by passing laws preventing organisations from laying off workers and forcing them to give workers severance pay, but economists warn the number of jobless will continue going up as the economy worsens.
The current rate of unemployment in the country stands at 80 percent and worsening environmental conditions, such as an anticipated drought, will hit the country’s finances harder.
“We are anticipating a serious drought which might affect electricity production through next year as well as crop production … we don’t have the money to pay for the food we now need to import,” said economist John Robertson.
Business owners Al Jazeera spoke to said they felt they had few options other than cutting back on jobs.
Many are operating at less than half their capacity and employers say they have to lay off workers, insisting the only way they can survive is by cutting jobs.
Political stability
Lovemore Madhuku, a lawyer representing workers, said the issue of unemployment posed a threat to the country’s fragile political order.
“In 2008 we had an election that was influenced largely by the economic framework … the government of President [Robert] Mugabe found it very difficult to survive in that election.
“If we have more people losing jobs it will cause more suffering… I don’t see the government being able to deal with that situation.”
Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is worsening and has taken a toll on employment rates and government expenditure.
Source: Al Jazeera
Syrian Army retakes strategic hilltops
Syrian forces have managed to purge strategic hilltops on the northeastern outskirts of the capital, Damascus, of militants as part of what they call ground anti-terror operations under Russian air support.
On Saturday, Syrian army troops established full control over the hilltops overlooking the city of Harasta, located about 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Damascus, as well as those behind Douma, situated about 10 kilometers (six miles) northeast of the capital, Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen satellite news network reported.
The development came a day after Syrian armed forces launched a large-scale military offensive against militants in the southern countryside of Aleppo, located 355 kilometers (220 miles) north of Damascus.
Courtesy : Press Tv
Senior al-Qaeda commander killed in Syria
A senior al-Qaeda commander has been killed along with two other members in an airstrike in Syria, says a UK-based monitoring group.
According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday, Abdul Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al-Charekh, a Saudi national also known as Sanafi al-Nasr, was killed in a strike along with two other members of the Qaeda affiliate group al-Nusra in the northern Syrian town of Dana on Thursday.
It is still not clear if Charekh was killed in a US or Russia strike, said Observatory chief Rami Abdul Rahman, but according to Takfiri social media users, he was killed in a US drone strike.
The group released pictures of a car along with several corpses claiming that they were those of Charekh, who was allegedly a senior strategist and an important power broker for al-Qaeda, and the other militants.
Courtesy: Press TV
KASHMIR Scars of Pellet Gun By Mannan Bukhari
By Mannan Bukhari
Reviewed by Farzana Mumtaz
- Paperback:298 pages
- Publisher:Partridge India (28 July 2015)
- Language:English
- ISBN-10:1482850079
- ISBN-13:978-1482850079
- Product Dimensions:7 x 1.6 x 20.3 cm
Kashmir Scars of Pellet Gun by Mannan Bukhari is an awesome book on the plight of the pellet victims of pain hit valley of Kashmir and has been appreciated by one and all .
As Amazon writes – “Kashmir – Scars of Pellet Gun, compiled and written by Mannan Bukhari, is about the horror caused by the use of Pellet Gun in Kashmir. After the worldwide acrimony over the high number of fatalities during protests in 2008, 2009, and 2010, pellet gun was introduced in Kashmir as a “nonlethal” alternative to bullets. But though the government introduced it as a nonlethal alternative to minimize the damage to life, however, it failed to produce the desired results and proved deadly at many times, leading to deaths and fatal injuries. This new weapon not only killed people but affected the physical as well as the psychological persona of the victims in such a manner so as to make them and their families suffer for the whole life. This volume deals with the pain and pangs of the victims and its overall impact on their families and the society in general.
Amazon adds – “The significance of this book “Kashmir Scars of Pellet Gun”, lies in collection and collating of data acquired through RTI, medical practitioner’s experiences and observations on pellet caused injuries and fatalities, stories of some of the survivors, accounts of family members and others that recalls real life happenings as they unfold and their aftermath.”
Pertinently, the book offers heart wrenching details on the overall trauma faced by the victims of notorious pellet gun as it has totally ruined their worlds. The loss of eyesight has entailed that the victims have unfortunately lost the meaning of life and the book has showcased this reality very aptly .
The book has also in a very detailed manner shown that how since past many years pellet gun horror has struck the nook and corner of Kashmir and has thus made a very dreaded impact on the psyche of Kashmiris. Though authorities may claim pellet gun as the non lethal weapon but as the book clearly describes this weapon more lethal than anything.
The book scars of pellet gun by Mannan Bukhari offers a complete package on this burning issue of pellet gun as it has taken into account all the microscopic and macroscopic details into account. Painful accounts, Statistics, aftermath all the needed details and above all what other authors from time to time have written over this issue have found a place in the book.
The book scars of Pellet Guns is definitely a must read book especially for those who have keen urge and aptitude towards human rights issues.
X Ray Image showing multiple pellets in different body parts of victims who became target of pellets fired upon them by the government forces in Kashmir Valley have also been efficiently used by the author.
This must read book is easily available . Apart from local book sellers, the book Kashmir Scars of Pellet Guncan also be purchased online from Amazon, Flipkart and Ebay. (
Hind Swaraj review by Syed Tajamul Imran
Written in 1909 Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule by Mohandas K. Gandhi still holds its own important place in the struggle of India against imperialism and has message for humanity as well.
The moral, civilized message of Hind Swaraj by Gandhi Ji is worth appreciable and as a book it serves as a good role model for revolutionaries seeking to maintain their own optimism and civilization while fighting with imperialist. These lines which I will quote are quiet moving-“India can fight like Italy only when she has arms. You have not considered this problem at all. The English are splendidly armed; that does not frighten me, but it is clear that, to pit ourselves against them in arms, thousands of Indians must be armed. If such a thing be possible, how many years will it take? Moreover, to arm India on a large scale is to Europeanize it. Then her condition will be just as pitiable as that of Europe. This means, in short, that India must accept European civilization, and if that is that we want, the best thing is that we have among us those who are so well trained in that civilization. We will then fight for a few rights, will get what we can and do pass our days. But the fact is that the Indian nation will not adopt arms, and it is well that it does not.”
These beautiful lines gives us idea to maintain sanity even during revolution.
In quiet emphatic manner, Gandhi Ji has also very well argued very well that India will never be free unless it rejects Western civilization itself. In the entire text he is deeply critical of western civilization, claiming, “India is being ground down, not under the English heel, but under that of modern civilization.” He speaks about civilization not just in relation to India, though. He also argues that “Western civilization is such that one has only to be patient and it will be self destroyed.” It is a profound repudiation. Not only is western civilization unhealthy for India, but western civilization is by its own virtue unhealthy. As Gandhi Ji puts it, some “want English rule without the Englishman … that is to say, [they] would make India English. And when it becomes English, it will be called not Hindustan but Englishtan. This is not the Swaraj I want.”
In nutshell, GANDHI’s Hind Swaraj (HS) is surely a foundational text for any understanding of the man and his great mission.
Overall, I enjoyed reading of Hind Swaraj as book and the lessons drawn from this small but effective book are definitely inspiring.