Q10 Development and Vision of India
Congress slams Modi, says Gujarat was prosperous long before he became CM https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/congress-slams-modi-says-gujarat-was-prosperous-long-before-he-became-cm "PM claims there's a plot to defame Gujarat. The truth, which he is incapable of saying, is that long before he became CM, Gujarat had already emerged as an economic powerhouse due to its spirit of enterprise." Public sector investments by Congress governments catalysed Gujarat's growth, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said
"Public sector investments by INC govts catalysed the state's growth," he tweeted.
"India & USA are under the gravest threat to their Democracies" | Suketu Mehta Aug 23, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsYUHG7lKFI
Suketu Mehta speaks to Barkha Dutt about the country of his birth, the free speech debate. He is among the 100 writers to come together under PEN-America to write about India at 75, an anthology of essays that examine where the country stands more than 7 decades after independence.
‘As goes India, so goes democracy’ https://scroll.in/article/1030219/suketu-mehta-as-goes-india-so-goes-democracy Aug 15, 2022
To mark India’s 75th Independence Day, PEN America asked authors from India and the Indian diaspora to write short texts expressing what they felt. people of other religions are actively harassed, even lynched on the streets; their freedom to practice their religion in their own way is circumscribed. And when they protest, they are jailed and their houses bulldozed. Most worrying, much of the judiciary seems to be sympathetic to the Hindu nationalist agenda, and issues its verdicts accordingly.
When countries safeguard the rights of their minorities, they also safeguard, as a happy side effect, the rights and wellbeing of their majorities. If a judiciary forbids discrimination against, say, Muslims, it is also much more likely to forbid discrimination against, say, LGBTQ+ people. The obverse is also true: when they do not safeguard the rights of their minorities, every other citizen’s rights are in peril.
Romila Thapar—I don't like Modi's India, it's too Narrow & Limited; History won’t be Kind to Him https://youtu.be/x65z6USSfPQ?t=68 Aug 10, 2022 In an interview about how she views the last 75 years of India’s independence and what sort of country India has become, someone who is considered our foremost historian, Romila Thapar, has said she doesn’t like Modi’s India. Explaining why, she said it’s too narrow and too limited.
Gandhian Politics in Contemporary India https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeZAY7nb0qA Prof Anand Kumar. Aug 18, 2022
Professor Anand Kumar will speak on how to make sense of the relevance of Gandhian politics in contemporary India. His talk will help contextualize Gandhi and his politics, especially his commitment towards an ethical life and society based on the ideals of truth and nonviolence, and his vision of Swaraj (freedom); Swadeshi (indigenous development); and Sarvoday (well-being of all through participatory democracy) — to be realized through a judicious combination of character-building, constructive program,
non-cooperation, and Satyagraha. Professor Kumar charts the evolution of Gandhian politics and the bewildering diversity among his followers in the early post-Gandhi period (1948 – 1979), and traces the multiple struggles faced — and strategies adopted — by Gandhian organisations and leaders as India moved into the era of Globalization and Hindu majoritarianism. He maintains that followers of Gandhian ideals face unprecedented challenges in contemporary India, in their continuing pursuit of nation-building, communal harmony, and a balanced coexistence of nature and humanity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDScaYXMTBk Conversation with Anand Kumar | Story of a Free Thinker, Troublemaker, Socialist Sociologist
https://countercurrents.org/2025/11/new-book-rejecting-the-ideology-of-progress/
The open access book The Agrarian Imagination Development and the Art of the Impossible is a critique of the dominant global economic and political model often termed ‘development’ and based on a warped notion of ‘progress’. In it, through 16 essays, it is argued that this system, driven by the needs of private (finance) capital, leads to widespread injustice, war and ecological destruction.
The book uses real-world examples to expose the enduring human cost of top-down policies, citing the devastating Bhopal disaster and the Green Revolution as concrete proof of the system’s violence and negligence.
The narrative proposes the Agrarian Imagination as a robust ethical and philosophical framework for rethinking human progress. This concept goes far beyond mere farming, advocating for a way of life rooted in soil, community permanence and the dignity of labour over endless consumption and centralised control. In the urban context, the book argues that the city is not a purely post-agrarian space by highlighting how communities, informal economies and enduring networks remain vital in the face of neoliberal capitalism, commodification and consumerism.
Book Review by Colin Todhunter
21/11/2025