From Zohran Mamdani, Nehru and the forgotten thread of freedom   https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-from-zohran-mamdani-nehru-and-the-forgotten-thread-of-freedom-10350358/   the working class — not the privileged elite — that heralded a genuinely open and cosmopolitan society. In contemporary parlance, one might say that the cosmopolitanism of the city is the cosmopolitanism of labour, not of capital... The ideological thread connecting these figures( Debs/Baldwin & Nehru) belonged to a historical moment we have largely forgotten — when civil liberties, anti-racism, socialism, open societies, and decolonisation were all considered part of a single emancipatory movement. Freedom and justice were indivisible...

Civil liberties, in this view, were a cause of the Left — distinguishing it from communism and far removed from today’s libertarian appropriation. What is so resonant about this connection is the reminder that civil liberties once meant defending even the rights of those accused of conscientious objection and treason. In an age when the definition of treason has expanded to the point that the very idea of a “political prisoner” has lost meaning, this history bears remembering.

In a climate of escalating religious polarisation across India, a counter-movement is gaining ground in West Bengal, where hundreds are uniting under the banner of atheism to champion rationalism, scientific temper, and constitutional rights.  .https://thewire.in/society/amidst-countrywide-religious-polarisation-hundreds-unite-in-kolkata-to-champion-ration 

On November 5, approximately 500 people from diverse walks of life, who describe themselves as atheists and rationalists, gathered in Kolkata for a conference, marking a significant consolidation of non-religious thought in the state. 

by Joydeep Sarkar

06/11/2025

 Our Data, Their Wealth — Why Privacy is the New Currency  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2If9-ptKms&pp=ygUdbXVyYWxpIG5lZWxha2FudGFuaSBtb25leWxpZmU%3D