The Underground Activists Who Fought for Freedom Across Asia newrepublic.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newrepublic.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
ILLUSTRATION BY LAYLAH AMARCHIH
In July 2017, Donald Trump gave a speech in Warsaw that seemed, at the time, to herald a new age. In remarks dredged from the imagination of adviser Steve Bannon, the president drew a rhetorical line in the sand and enlisted his host the Eurosceptic, right-wing populist Polish President Andrzej Duda in an epochal fight. “I declare today for the world to hear,” Trump said, as if he were standing behind ramparts and not a podium, “that the West will never, ever be broken. Our values will prevail. Our people will thrive. And our civilization will triumph.”
The shifting political connotations of symbols bear contemporary relevance Swapan Dasgupta | | Published 18.02.21, 02:59 AM
There are many controversies that have a habit of periodically resurfacing. One of the more interminable disputes from history that acquire contemporary political connotations is the one centred on Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s iconic song, “
Vande Mataram”. From the time of the movement against the Partition of Bengal in 1905, the cry of ‘Vande Mataram’ has epitomized nationalist and patriotic impulses in India. Nor did the resonance of Vande Mataram fizzle out with Independence in 1947. Even to this day, both the chant and the song distinguish different political traditions in India.
What the RSS as Vishwaguru Means for India and the World
The RSSâ drive to position India as preacher to the world encapsulates a long-term political programme of eliminating political dissent within the country and, later, establishing control over South Asia.
Mohan Bhagwat speaking on the RSS s foundation day. Photo: PTI
The world paid a heavy price for ignoring Adolf Hitlerâs
Mein Kampf. He, on his part, had suppressed nothing. His agenda, and the outlook which inspired it, were laid bare with perfect candour.
The Italian scholar Marzia Casolariâs classic
In the Shadow of the Swastika:
The Ambiguous Relationship between Indian Nationalism and Nazi Fascism [(2011), I Limri die mil, via Benedetti Marcello F, 40141 Bologna; Italy] based on stupendous research in the archives in New Delhi and Rome, exposes the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and V.D. Savarkarâs attachment to the Nazi-Fascist ideals and the links and contacts between them.
Aide whose pen stopped Bharati writing prose January 26, 2021, 2:21 PM IST
Not many may know that the first book on the life and works of firebrand poet Subramania Bharati as we know it today, 100 years since his death, was by his close associate Va Ramaswami Aiyangar. Va Raa, as he was known, was the first biographer of Bharati. The two met at a time of turmoil and new awakening in Puducherry.
Born in 1889, V Ramaswami Ayyangar was a bright student but had to abandon his studies due to financial constraints. It was at this time that he was drawn towards the national movement. He attended the Congress convention in Madras in 1908, and having heard that Surendra Nath Banerji had started a national college in Calcutta went there to join it. He could neither meet Banerji nor join the college but during the stay there, he started learning Bengali. He wanted to meet Aurobindo Ghose, but couldn’t as he had moved to Puducherry in April of 1910.