Indian Opinion

Mukesh Devrari Whether you like it or not, Diwali is definitely not a thing which we have made out of it. This madness about fire crackers define and describe Diwali other than anything else in India. Bhagwan Shri Ram and ancient sages of his time who are known for their internal peace would not have sanctioned this madness about the use of fire crackers during Diwali. For most Indians, nature and environment is not important at all. Most of the Indian population is still struggling to make two ends meet. Majority of population is somehow surviving. In the name of religion and ritual this country did not shy away from burning women on the funeral pyres of their husband, it would be insane to imagine that this society would abdicate the use of fire crackers for the sake of environment and nature without any resistance. There are two specific problems with fire crackers. First, burning fire crackers insert poisonous gases in the air which we all inhale. Second, people s...

Mukesh Devrari The question of access to the information world cannot be seen in isolation. It is impossible for the nation-state to provide universal access to the internet and to various services through it with changing the wider situational realities of the common masses.  Is it possible to provide smartphone and computer to a population which does not have anything to eat? Is it possible to provide access to the internet to the 25 per cent population which is illiterate? Is it possible to provide access to the internet for free of cost to each and every citizen? Even if universal access to the internet is ensured for free in third world countries like India, what purpose it will serve if more than 90 of the content available on the internet is in non-Indian languages. These are the hard questions which need hard answers. Recent reports in newspapers also highlight another disturbing report. Indian railways provided free internet services in many railway platforms ac...

 Photo Courtesy - Nirmal Poddar Mukesh Devrari Modernization is a series of transitions from primitive subsistence economies to technology intensive industrialized economies, from subject to participant political cultures, from closed ascriptive status systems to open achievement oriented systems, from extended to nuclear kinship units, from religious to secular ideologies and so on. (Tipps, 1973, 204) In other words, every characteristic of the modern western nation-state is a symbol of modernity. Modernization is generally referred as an ongoing process to improvise the lives of people in third world countries. But another section also interprets it as a conspiracy against the impoverished population of third world countries. Acceptance of modernization is interpreted as accepting western superiority and dominance. Photo Courtesy - Nirmal Poddar Max Weber in his book, ‘Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’ held Asian cultural values responsible for t...

Mukesh Devrari What do cities represent and signify? This question needs to be answered to evaluate the role of cities in social transformation. The common denominator among people living in cities is principally a way of life, a frame of mind, and perhaps a manner of thinking, speaking, and behaving. It is a spirit that makes a city. Again what is that spirit? The spirit of the city arises from its social heterogeneity. The city is culturally and even racially is a heterogeneous place. It’s a place where different languages are spoken, different customs practised and different gods worshipped. (Friedman, 1961, p.88). The central idea of this article is that the cities play a key role in transforming human relations, which in turn influences society at large. The impact of creation and expansion of cities resulted in the individualism in our society. Here the term of the individual means the changes in the aims, objectives, fantasies and dreams of people. Generally, t...