Social platforms have transformed how we communicate, often encouraging users to share without reflection. Rather than appealing to our reasoning faculties, these systems exploit cognitive biases, fostering addictive behaviours that erode our capacity for focused thought. This manipulation of attention has far-reaching implications, not only for individual cognition but also for collective autonomy.

https://theleaflet.in/digital-rights/in-the-age-of-algorithm-we-must-revitalise-the-conversation-on-the-freedom-of-thought 

Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court once noted, “Minds are not changed in streets and parks as they once were. To an increasing degree, the more significant interchanges of ideas and shaping of public consciousness occur in mass and electronic media”. This observation underscores a shift from traditional public discourse to algorithmically mediated interaction, where information flows are technology driven.

A darker potential looms in the prospect of technologies capable of influencing, interpreting, or even controlling thought itself—akin to the phenomenon of “Doublethink”, to borrow from  Orwell’s ‘1984’, where individuals were compelled to abandon personal perception in favour of officially sanctioned narratives. In such a world, privacy of thought vanishes, replaced by surveillance so pervasive that even dreams or diary entries could incriminate.

The United Nations raised red flags in 2021 about the ethical risks of emerging neurotechnologies designed to decode, predict, or alter human thought. Companies like Meta and Neuralink are racing to develop brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that can convert neural activity into digital output in real-time. 

These systems could allow users to control devices with their thoughts but they also risk breaching the last bastion of human freedom: the mind itself. 

Despite its critical importance, the right to freedom of thought (‘FoT’) remains underdeveloped in both law and discourse.

Importantly, safeguarding FoT is not just the duty of governments. Citizens, too, must recognise its value. Thinking critically is neither easy nor always comfortable. It requires effort, courage, and openness to uncertainty. 

As noted, “Relatively few people want to think. Thinking troubles us; thinking tires us.” But the cost of neglecting this right may be far greater. If freedom of thought is eroded by invasive technologies, coercive platforms, or passive disinterest we risk losing not only our dignity and democracy, but our humanity itself. As we navigate the complexities of the digital age, we must ensure that the last refuge of freedom “the human mind” remains protected from prying eyes and manipulative hands.

by Mahima Garg

02/06/2025

In the spectrum of himsa and ahimsa, we are free to look at the whole story. The reward may not be complete freedom from fear, but in refusing to glorify the use of fear, we may tap hidden strengths.https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/in-refusing-to-glorify-the-use-of-fear-violence-we-may-tap-hidden-strengths-10025062/ ..(not turning the other cheek ) the worst forms of impotence are a consequence of rage, not nonviolence. The essence of how contemporary practitioners understand “ahimsa parmo dharma” is: If you act from a higher level of awareness, drawing on finer human emotions, you can work out effective, refined strategies to overcome injustice... Nonviolence defines victory as standing firm in your strength and having the willingness to co-exist, co-thrive with the “other”.

It's been 35 years , (1990 to 2025), since we assembled at Bhim, in Rajsamand District to launch the MKSS.  The early years were tumultuous but the path to equality and justice was clear, and the impediments many. 

The minimum wages battles led to the RTI and MGNREGA and later to the Rights based laws. The years have passed packed with the million issues of denial of basic rights to survive, yet the struggle continues,  despite usympathetic structures and governments. 

Work and workers  now operate in  a different paradigm. The laws have changed and work is contract work, without guarantees. The Gig Workers law, a law for old age pension and an urban employment scheme amongst otgers have seen the light of day. 

The few windows of opportunities we  see, have been relentlessly pursued. 

We celebrate today's Mazdoor Mela in Bhim, in the spirit of a celebration of ourselves and our struggles - the right to survive with dignity and joy.

Aruna, Nikhil and Shankar and the MKSS.

https://www.freedominfo.org/2004/06/the-right-to-know-is-the-right-to-live-3/ 

https://youtu.be/-TXSb2ofJLM  Shankar : Hum Kya Mange

Nikhil De On 15 years of RTI  https://youtu.be/1Q_XUnNfHaQ

And I must speak, not softly but starkly:
I am no confessor for a stranger’s sins.
No tribunal sits above my brow.
I owe no one the hippodrome of guilt.
The sun rises without my bidding,
and so too do the madmen fall—without my nod.

I am Indian. Not as an addendum.

https://www.farahdeen.com/2025/04/i-am-not-your-apology.html

Sanjay Singhvi was a signatory to the registration of doccentre as Centre for Education & Documentation in 1978.  Barely out of the Xaverian Union Agitation, where he finally went on a fast unto death for 9 days, he spent hours on the typewriter and cyclostyling machine preparing handouts on the issues of the day.    It is too much to ask him to Rest. We therefore wish him "Amar Rahe"

Indira Jaisingh's tribute https://theleaflet.in/miscellaneous/an-ode-to-sanjay-singhvi-for-whom-life-was-an-unwavering-commitment-to-labour-justice   Sanjay, too, belonged to a disappearing class of labour lawyers who did not represent management for ideological reasons. Today it is fashionable to say: “I will take any case that comes my way.”  It is the cab rank rule but some of us make choices and he made his choices regarding which side of the line he wanted to be on. A friend, who is also a lawyer for management, told me, “He made life hell for employers, but that is what is needed. These people will never change when it comes to the rights of workers.“

https://freespeechcollective.in/par-yaad-rehti-bas-tareekh-gulfisha-fatima-a-saga-of-arrest-and-re-arrest/  Gulfisha has also begun to write very powerful and heart-wrenching poetry to capture the experiences of her incarceration alongwith making beautiful paintings and writing letters to her friends. 
Some links to reports and Gulfisha’s prison poetry, art and letters:

‘These Walls Around Me’: Gulfisha Fatima’s Prison Poetry https://thewire.in/rights/these-walls-around-me-gulfisha-fatimas-prison-poetry 

‘Days Become Like A Ladder’: Gulfisha Fatima’s Letters from Prison https://thewire.in/rights/days-become-like-a-ladder-gulfisha-fatimas-letters-from-prison 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VLQlLH35dgk 

The full long version of this story is  behind a paywall. https://www.thenewsminute.com/long-form/rss-and-bjps-quiet-takeover-of-auroville

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/aurovilles-dream-turns-into-legal-chaos-land-encroachment-and-drug-allegations-surface/articleshow/113437250.cms ,,In September 1988, the Union govt took control, enacting the Auroville Foundation Act to resolve internal disputes between community power centres and representatives of the Sri Aurobindo Society. By January 1991, the Auroville Foundation was formally established. The Mother had laid out Auroville's vision in its charter, comprising four key tenets: "Auroville belongs to nobody in particular; it belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the divine consciousness. Auroville will be a place of unending education, constant progress, and youth that never ages."..

The Union govt's recent involvement in Auroville's administr ..The lands are held by the Auroville Foundation under the Auroville Foundation Act of 1988. "These are not govt lands, and the GB and secretary's office alone do not constitute ‘the Foundation' to exchange lands without due process or consultation with the RA and IAC. It is troubling that, instead of addressing the issue, the education ministry has simply asked the Foundation's administration to investigate, essentially tasking those involved in the land mismanagement to investigate themselves. No honest outcome can be expected from such a process," they said.
The committee has urged the Union govt to appoint an impartial and independent inquiry panel to engage with all stakeholders, including committees recognised by the RA, and conduct an investigation.  ,, With the working committee alleging that since 2021, the new administration of the Auroville Foundation (AVF) has systematically undermined decades of progress through authoritarian measures and arbitrary actions, one can only wonder what lies ahead for Auroville, the "first and only internationally supported experiment in human unity". 

https://thesouthfirst.com/news/why-the-idyllic-auroville-township-is-split-down-the-middle-by-a-facelift-programme/ 

Auroville Under Existential Threat  https://auroville.media/crisis/  There has been a systematic takeover by the AVFO of all of Auroville’s major internal working groups and committees that manage the key areas of administration, media, and finances, resulting in the concentration of power in a handful of people who were not appointed by the residents and who do not represent the needs and aspirations of the majority... In June 2024, 98% of 945 residents voted to halt, review, and reverse land deals undertaken by the Secretary, yet these concerns were dismissed and more land exchanges were approved by the Governing Board in October 2024.

https://auroville.media/auroville-in-crisis-report/ 

Shillong Press Club Condemns Arrest of Journalist Dilawar   https://assamtimes.org/node/23377 Mazumdar, the chief reporter of Crosscurrent Digital Media, was first arrested on the night of March 25. Although he was granted bail on March 26, he was rearrested on March 27 based on a complaint filed by the managing director of the Assam Cooperative Apex Bank. . SPC President D L Syiemlieh stated that the rearrest of Mazumdar shortly after being granted bail is deeply concerning and represents a shocking misuse of legal processes. He emphasized that this action constitutes a direct assault on the freedom of the press and the fundamental right to free expression

PCI Slams Assam CM for Questioning Journalist Authenticity in Re-Arrest Case https://assamtimes.org/node/23378 By AT News | Friday, Mar 28, 2025 

पत्रकार जेल में है, कॉमेडियन बेल पर है, ये कैसा भारत है, प्रधानमंत्री मोदी कहाँ हैं?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Blv9jiS3OE असम के पत्रकार सड़क पर उतर गए हैं। साथी पत्रकार की गिरफ्तारी के विरोध में। मुख्यमंत्री कहते हैं कि दिलवर हुसैन मज़ूमदार पत्रकार नहीं है। लेकिन कोर्ट के एक मामले में ज़मानत देते हुए कहा कि गिरफ्तारी के लिए कानून का दुरुपयोग हुआ है। सरकार को कहां पीछे हटना चाहिए था तो चोरी डकैती के आरोप में जेल में डाल दिया। आप ही बताइये। एक बैंक के बाहर प्रदर्शन हो रहा है। उसे कवर करने पत्रकार गया है। पुलिस केस करती है कि किसी का  जातिगत अपमान किया है। इस केस में बेल मिलती है तो चोरी के आरोप में जेल में डाल जाता है।  पहले चोरी का केस दर्ज होगा या अपमान का? क्या ये पुलिस की दादागीरी नहीं है?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Ankita_Bhandari  

https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/A-Fact-Finding-Report-on-the-Murder-of-Ankita-Bhandari.pdf 

(Open Letter of Supreme Court Advocate Colin Gonsalves On Supreme Court's Refusal to Entertain Petition for CBI Enquiry into murder of Ankita, a young girl who was killed while employed in a hotel run by a BJP leader's close relative in Dehradun.)

I’m sorry, Ankita that your case in the Supreme Court seeking a CBI investigation into your murder was disposed of and we have not yet managed to catch the main culprit. I’m sorry Ashutosh, fearless journalist and Petitioner before the Court that you have had to suffer victimisation for investigating this case and had FIRs filed against you and also suffered the victimisation of your wife by way of her transfer. I’m sorry Soni Devi, for the death of your darling daughter by a VIP who asked for “special services” from Ankita, a young girl working in the hotel. Her refusal led to her murder. 

Read more …