Articles by Sumanta Banerjee

In the debate on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and its violent manifestations, the space has been dominated by those who take a strictly religious position and those who are apologists of the realpolitik of the US-led western alliance. A Leftist perspective has been missing in the whole discourse.

Whatever be the manner in which dalits and adivasis are classified - as belonging to a race or a caste - it is a fact that caste-induced oppression has been as agonising to a large mass of Indians as has been racial violence in South Africa. However, it is also time the intolerance, discrimination and divisions existing among the oppressed castes that have bred a great deal of violence and have thrown up unscrupulous leaders is confronted and acknowledged.

Now that the dust of the elections has settled, several questions need to be addressed by the Left, if it is to seriously think of chalking out its future. After its debacle in Kerala, will the Left now remain content with its electoral power confined to Tripura and West Bengal? In the rest of India, will it reconcile itself to the role of a minor ally of various regional and centrist parties? Shall we see more of spectacles like the CPI and the CPI(M) tying themselves to the apron strings of the likes of Laloo Yadav and Jayalalitha? Will they be seen on the same platform as the Shiv Sena and the RSS-led Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh in anti-WTO agitations, as witnessed recently in Maharashtra?

Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues is an example of a virulence of faith that can only express itself in barbaric practices which should have no place in any society ruled by social norms and aesthetic values of a civilised human mind.

A quick look at media reports in the first weeks of the new year reveals the horrifying diversity of daily conflicts among the varieties of intra-religious, ethinic, political, linguistic, political and pseudo-political groups and parties that are tearing society apart.