On Einstein's Acceptance of Communist Russia and Rejection of Zionist Israel

Einstein was opposed to a separate Jewish state, opposed to a partition of Palestine, opposed even to an establishment of a Jewish government-in-exile, considered the Jewish underground movement a “disaster” and supported a bi-national self-government in Palestine with both Arabs and the Jews ruled with the consent of the Arabs.

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Culture, Feminism, Religion, Saswat, Biography Saswat Pattanayak Culture, Feminism, Religion, Saswat, Biography Saswat Pattanayak

Jab Tak Hai Jaan :: A tribute to Yash Chopra

Unlike all the movies in the past that have taken up such a topic where the god is challenged, in Jab Tak Hai Jaan, the god eventually loses. Jesus would have won, had Shah Rukh died while diffusing the last bomb because Katrina had broken all her divine promises. Chopra deliberately had this unpalatable but a necessary ending where a man openly and unrepentantly challenges the divine plan, and prevails.

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Biography, Communism, Culture, History, Political, Music, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Biography, Communism, Culture, History, Political, Music, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

Gil Scott-Heron :: Revolutionaries Live Forever

As much as his poem reminding us that the revolution will not be televised is indeed truer than before, beloved late brother Gil Scott-Heron’s message that the revolution is going on at the same time is equally relevant a reminder. And the poet might have departed us, but the revolutionary is still alive in spirits…

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Culture, History, Media, Philosophy, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Culture, History, Media, Philosophy, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

A World Without America?

America has witnessed more revolutionary upheavals than any other modern nation. Abolitionism, women suffrage movement, Wobblies, anarchism, anti-McCarthyism, black upsurge against racial segregation, New Left, anti-Vietnam War resistance movement, Stonewall and LGBT movements, Black Panther Party, and anti-WTO protests in Seattle are among hundreds of other small and significant revolutionary sparks which provide important lessons for the global working class solidarity against capitalism, racism and patriarchy.

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Hindu Terrorism :: Scriptures & Roots

Inspired by Savarkar, the Hindu Nation has found its modern day distinct ideology through writings of Keshava Hedgewar and Madhav Golwalkar. Full of hatred and parochial intents, Hindu supremacism has mesmerized the country today. Once, a communal outburst, Hindu nationalism today has gained not only a cultural admissibility in the form of RSS, but also a wide-scale political platform in the form of BJP. The killers of Gandhi are celebrated in the land of the Buddha.

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Culture, History, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Culture, History, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

India vs Indians: Revolution Never Ends in Orissa

Just as the indigenous organizers were correct in their assessment of human values in the past, it is more likely that keeping in view the status quo of power dynamics in independent India, their dissent towards the power this time around, too, is indicative of appropriate impatience towards prevailing rampant social injustice.

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Culture, History, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Culture, History, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

India vs Indians :: Orissa's Freedom Struggle

Our freedom is not about piecemeal compensations as agreed upon by corporate giants of South Korea, Japan and the United States. Our freedom is not open to half-hearted round table negotiations. We are yet to attain the freedom we have been dying for since generations. And we are yet to give up the hope that one day, we shall collectively inhabit the planet, without submitting any portion thereof to any greedy private capitalistic interests, irrespective of geographical territories.

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History, Media, News, Political, Publication, Religion, Culture, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak History, Media, News, Political, Publication, Religion, Culture, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

No Surprise Over Ayodhya Verdict - Religious Bench Favors Religious Terrorism

In fundamentally challenging Ayodhya verdict, Indians also had the opportunity to declare that the people want communal peace and harmony and this can be achieved if they kept their beliefs at homes and not bring them to the roads. Just as they defecate at home and not make a public ceremony out of it.

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Militarist Obama and Corporate Nobel: Peaceful Partnership

Nobel Peace Prize, in reality is an apologist for, and celebration of continued Eurocentric imperialism. Obama is the latest one to have been “humbled”. Amidst his militarist interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, through his announcements for larger US troops for invasions and bigger budget to feed the military-industrial complex, the Nobel committees have yet again perpetuated a reactionary definition of peace. In their world of successes and achievements, they have merely crowned their King.

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Culture, Feminism, Media, News, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Culture, Feminism, Media, News, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

David Letterman: Privileges produce Consensus

What Letterman has done is sheer abuse of his economic power and gender privilege. His unabashed claim that any disclosure of the details would embarrass his women employees he had sex with, evidences blatant sexism. Its a great irony of our times that women continue to not only put up with sexual advances at workplaces, but also are expected to maintain silence in fear of their career prospects. And here is a liberal intellectual who advances this regressive theory in an effort to “protect” his victims.

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Culture, Feminism, Media, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Culture, Feminism, Media, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

Roman Polanski and Euro-American Privileges

For more than three decades (32 years, to be precise), this man was not arrested by the American judiciary. He did not even have to abscond, or flee, as the media reports suggest. He remained in public limelight, continued making movies in Britain, France and Poland. The Oscar jury even shamelessly awarded him with the highest prizes. He could easily have been arrested within three weeks of his departure from the United States. Three decades made him mere immortal.

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Culture, Film Review, Media, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Culture, Film Review, Media, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

Capitalism: A Democrat's Love Story

Moore’s intents at attacking capitalism is much appreciated, and most timely for him to win few more awards from the European jury. But his tools of deconstructing capitalism as necessarily antithetical to political democracy, his analysis of class relations from the standpoint of Bill of Rights, his reliance on Germany, England and Japan as model democracies, and his aspirations to offer the political democracy as a solution to the global economic crisis, instead of isolating it as one of the root causes are worth inspections all over again.

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