Whenever I see kohl-lined eyes, I am reminded of Latif Lone wearing a pathani suit on his well-built body. Latif looked at you, his eyes rimmed with kohl, and the world looked more beautiful.  Read More

It is a Friday night. In a village, some 40 kilometres from the state capital, Aizawl, over a dozen women, young and old, are loading an Aizawl-bound bus with fresh vegetables. They are small farmers who grow vegetables on their jhum land. They must reach the capital early and reserve a spot for themselves in the Bara Bazaar for the weekly haat. The women will sleep overnight on the pavements of the capital braving adverse weather conditions.  Read More

Mrs. Nandi Bhandari, a matriculate, belongs to the Thakur (Hindu Rajput) community. She has three married daughters and two employed and unmarried sons. Her husband, who was in the Indian Army, played a vital role for her entry into politics and social work. Ms. Bhandari’s family supported her in getting elected as chairperson (Sarpanch) of Galai Panchayat (in Garud block, Bageswar district, Uttaranchal) on two occasions, in 1991 and 1996, from the unreserved seat. As a woman, she had never felt any constraints from her family members and as a mother there were no constraints as her own daughters were employed. Read More

Rajendra Bandhu 

Gritty land, dry wells and indebted farmers: this is how the tribal area of Udaipur in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh has been known to the world around. Growing a crop in the fields of this area has been like milking a dead cow. Some who dared to make their lands yield harvest using high-priced fertilizers and seeds and pesticides could not even repay the loans with the resultant harvest and had to sell their lands. Read More

ON January 26 while the countrymen all around celebrated R-Day with zeal and fervour, Sakina Bi (48) of Palma, Rajouri celebrated her empowerment. For the first time, Bi did not have to ask her husband to lend her some money to get clothes for children back home. Her joy knew no bounds when she, along with other local women of the area, opened their purse strings to purchase some clothes and eatables for their children. The money these rural women earned for preparing ladoos – a famous Indian sweet considered auspicious by many – had helped them get this feeling of self-sufficiency, something they had been dreaming about for all these years. Read More

RETREATING HIMALAYAN GLACIERS: A GATEWAY TO SUFFERINGS

Pradeep Dutta

Former US Senator Paul Simon

WHILE many analysts believe that the addition of resource-based conflicts and disputes emanating from environmental issues represent a significant departure from the traditional approach to security, this indeed is an extension of the already long list of security dilemmas. In the context of the complex and multidimensional history of India-Pakistan conflicts vis-à-vis Kashmir, the addendum of an issue which has long been considered as that of ‘low politics’ has recently transformed the ever-existing disputes over water-sharing into a ‘high politics’ realm. Read More