Publication, Photography, Saswat, Feminism, News Saswat Pattanayak Publication, Photography, Saswat, Feminism, News Saswat Pattanayak

Rally for Abortion Justice Unites Activists against Texas Ban

Thousands of New Yorkers came together in solidarity this weekend to “Rally for Abortion Justice”, and to reiterate that they won’t tolerate any attacks on reproductive freedom. With a goal to fight until we have abortion access for all, marchers gathered at Foley Square…

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Publication, Saswat, News Saswat Pattanayak Publication, Saswat, News Saswat Pattanayak

New York - Bleeding, Dying, Living.

The city which used to make a year seem like a fleeting moment, that made one crave for time to halt because too many things were happening at the same time; now it makes an hour seem like years. The clock of pace has stopped for New York. Its only a tick-tock of death counts. There is no Manic Monday to complain about. There is nothing to thank God for any Friday.

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Communism, History, Media, Political, Publication, Commentary, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Communism, History, Media, Political, Publication, Commentary, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

A Closer Look At “The Enemy of the People”

"With so much recent mainstream press evocation of Joseph Stalin and claims of “enemy of the people” comparisons to Donald Trump we thought it timely to share some recent thoughts on the subject from journalist, professor and writer Saswat Pattanayak. As an additional side note, and given what Pattanayak exposes about the nature and history of the association of a phrase, rather than with Stalin some of us would be more familiar with the play by Henrik Ibsen and further note that this is also where the late Dr. John Henrik Clarke got the inspiration for the spelling of his own middle name." (Dr. Jared Ball, iMixWhatILike)

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News, Political, Publication, Religion, Saswat, Commentary Saswat Pattanayak News, Political, Publication, Religion, Saswat, Commentary Saswat Pattanayak

Brahminism, Patriarchy, Supreme Court And The Justice

It is the patriarchal fixation with fathers and husbands as feudal heads of indian households where sanctities are attached to family units, that leads to normalization of corruption in a judicial system that is unsurprisingly spearheaded by the brahminical chiefs.

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Media, News, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Media, News, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

Donald Trump and the ritual of shock and awe in American duopoly

Trump is the logical apotheosis of humanized capitalism, where the winners take all, where executive decisions are sacrosanct, where we feel it right to sponsor deaths and tortures and waterboarding and drones and assassinations and weaponization of regions that we consider inferior, says Saswat Pattanayak.

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Matter & Consciousness: Revisiting Lokayata

Lokayata did not deny the consciousness so much as it complicated it. Instead of acceding to an assumption that consciousness could be a peculiarity of the spirit, it depicted consciousness as an attribute of the body. This occurred, according to them, because whereas the material elements comprise the living body, consciousness is produced in it.

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Communism, News, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Communism, News, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

Kanhaiya Kumar and Betrayal of Freedom Struggles

Kanhaiya Kumar’s arrest was unfortunate and so his release on bail is a great relief. But beyond that, to seek revolutionary potential in the hoopla surrounding it, is to miss the point entirely. Competing for authentic nationalism to legitimize an oppressive power structure is not what the Communists do. Quite the opposite.

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Communism, Media, News, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Communism, Media, News, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

Rohith Vemula: Indian Left and the Dalit Student Suicides

Rohith Vemula did not just commit suicide – he was murdered. And this murder was not committed by the right-wing ABVP – it was conducted by the left-liberals. The “Dalit problem” citing which Rohith gave up his life, is not the creation of any fringe elements among communal Hindus – it is sustained by the liberal Hindus who tremendously profit from the status quo it provides.

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Eurocentrism as Terrorism

Contrary to what Žižek claims, egalitarianism and personal freedoms do not comprise Western legacy—their suppression in the name of colonialism does. One cannot rule over and plunder another country for decades, if not centuries, and then blame the “backwardness” on the ruled subjects.

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Roots (and prospects) of Justice

Maulana Mohani was concerned that in our anticommunist quest, we were ignoring an emancipatory USSR Constitution, while heavily borrowing from colonial legacies of oppressive Constitutions of the imperialist world, and that, by doing so, we were facilitating prospects for dangerous communal violence in the coming years

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Culture, Media, Philosophy, Publication, Racism, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Culture, Media, Philosophy, Publication, Racism, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

The need for Political Correctness

The censorship argument just as the artistic expressions themselves needs to be politically correct - the position must spring from the point of raised consciousness where the needs of the times - taking into consideration various locations of exploitations and associated struggles for social justice - are well understood and articulated.

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News, Philosophy, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak News, Philosophy, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

Sovereignty, Unity and The State Of Denial

Contradictions abound in the new political landscape. Like Savarkar’s divisive Hindutva excluded other religions, so does Modi’s prescription of Hinduism as the way of life for Indians. To reemphasise my point: Modi did not win the people’s mandate because he opposed divisive politics, but because he profited from it. Not because he spoke against identity politics but because it is the victory of the identity politics – specifically that of the Hindu identity. It is the victory of the idea of a Hindu nation.

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Communism, Feminism, History, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Communism, Feminism, History, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

International Women’s Day: Anti-War, Anti-Capitalist Movement to Emancipate All Workers!

When in 1917, the IWD was first observed in Leningrad, women workers of Petrograd had organized a mass of 50,000, comprising their fellow male comrades in demanding for “bread, peace and land” and to end the imperialistic world war.

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News, Philosophy, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak News, Philosophy, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

The Politics We Deserve

Our social conditioning has manifested in our misplaced patriotic duties to refuse authority to a woman not on grounds of political differences, but solely because she is a ‘foreigner’, despite having been more of an Indian than the countless NRIs whose funds we have voluntarily solicited to fuel hatred in the subcontinent.

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

Fashion Dialectics

Benjamin belonged to the interwar period that witnessed rise of fascism, actively aided by European intellectuals who were hostile to the masses. The bourgeois was disdainful of the “mass society”, and the ways in which new electronic media were displaying potentials for mass liberations. Its high-brow standards were being threatened by the low-brow tastes of American consumer capitalism.

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