Let us celebrate Chaitra Sangkranti
The word ‘sangkranti’ implies the moment of transition that has no beginning and no end; the notion is not linear, but cyclical. The sun moves through space and every month crosses each of the signs of the zodiac, known as rashi, and completes twelve cycles of the year. So there is no ‘new’ year but return of the cycle, or the ‘chakra’. In the cyclic movement, every point is literally the end of the cycle as well as the beginning. There is no new beginning, and therefore no ‘past’ in the linear sense of the term. The word ‘sangkranti’ captures this notion of the eternal return of (Read More )
Threat to Seeds is Threat to Peoples’ Sovereignty
The Question of "Seeds"
This is one of the most important essays for the readers and activists who are connected to Chintaa. For activists thinking and organising for a post-imperial post-capitalist global community, this essay is fundamentally important because of the emphasis on the question of local and indigenous cultural practices, farming techniques, and strategies for the creation of economies of resistance. This essay shows why Nayakrishi Andolon (New Agricultural Movement) is not about having a rhetorical stance against imperialism based on an E (Read More )
'And seed shall set you free...'
On the politics of seed, handlooms and rural development
[ We are reprinting here a very sympathetic interview of Farhad Mazhar with the national daily 'New Age' to provide our readers a glimpse of how the mainstream thinking views radical and alternative thoughts and practices in Bangladesh. It also demonstrates the difficulty to set a converging space where a more productive dialogue could be set into motion to conceptualise and practice an anti-imperilist and anti-capitalist lifestyle movement such as Nayakrishi Andolon in the era of 'neo-liberalism' (Read More )
‘The Bangladesh government’s position is a betrayal to all these people’
Tipaimukh and Bangladesh-India Relation
Eminent intellectual Farhad Mazhar talks to Mubin S Khan about the Tipaimukh Dam and the role Bangladesh could have played
The Indian government’s plans to build the Tipaimukh Dam which will affect the north-eastern districts of Bangladesh, has now become a major issue of concern in our country. How would you assess Bangladesh government’s response to the issue so far?
The current government, not surprisingly for some of us, does not have the ‘national interest’ of the people of Bangladesh in mind. The (Read More )