By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Ram Narayan Baghel, 31, was a migrant wage worker from Chhattisgarh who had travelled to Kerala in search of livelihood. Like millions of people from marginalised communities—particularly Dalits—he moved across states for work because opportunities at home are limited. On December 17, in Walayar village of Palakkad district, Kerala, Ram Narayan was surrounded by a group of people, subjected to interrogation, and brutally assaulted. He later died from the injuries inflicted on him.

By Raqif Makhdoomi*  Following an incident in which the Chief Minister of Bihar was seen pulling aside the niqab of a Muslim woman doctor during a public interaction, the episode drew widespread attention and debate across India. Public reactions were divided, with some defending the action and others criticising it as an infringement on personal autonomy and dignity. The incident was widely circulated on social media and reported by national and international media outlets.

By N.S. Venkataraman*  The Government of India has introduced a revised rural employment programme by fine-tuning the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which has been in operation for nearly two decades. The MGNREGA scheme guarantees 100 days of employment annually to rural households and has primarily benefited populations in rural areas. The revised programme has been named VB-G RAM–G (Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission – Gramin). The government has stated that the revised scheme incorporates several structural changes, including an increase in guaranteed employment from 100 to 125 days, modifications in the financing pattern, provisions to strengthen unemployment allowances, and penalties for delays in wage payments. Given the extent of these changes, the government has argued that a new name is required to distinguish the revised programme from the existing MGNREGA framework. As has been witnessed in recent years, the introdu...

By Harsh Thakor*  Since Independence, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] largely functioned within parliamentary opposition frameworks. Critics have argued that their adherence to Marxism-Leninism remained largely theoretical, with limited articulation of an alternative democratic revolutionary programme, particularly in the rural and agrarian context. Their engagement with questions of land redistribution, capital concentration, and resistance to neoliberal economic structures has also been contested.

SA Dange  By Harsh Thakor*  The Communist Party of India (CPI) was founded in Kanpur on 26 December 1925. The year marks a century since an event that formally inaugurated the communist movement in India. The emergence of the CPI must be located within a period of profound social and political churn. India was still under British colonial rule, marked by widespread poverty, economic exploitation, and growing political mobilisation against imperial authority.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Mob lynching has increasingly acquired social legitimacy across large parts of South Asia. Minorities in many countries are made to feel unwanted, as a wave of majoritarian hatred sweeps through the subcontinent. This is happening at a time when political leaderships should have been focused on addressing pressing issues such as hunger, poverty, and discrimination. Instead of investing adequately in education, schools, hospitals, and housing for all, governance priorities appear skewed.  Unplanned urbanisation is compounding these failures. Cities such as Delhi, Dhaka, Kathmandu, and Karachi have become virtually unliveable due to pollution, congestion, and infrastructural collapse. The political class shows little urgency in resolving these everyday crises. Religion, rather than policy, has increasingly become the dominant idiom of public life. New “messiahs” are manufactured daily, amplified by prime-time television debates that now openl...

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  This year, the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj is organising a two-day PESA Mahotsav in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, on 23–24 December 2025. The event marks the passage of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), enacted by Parliament on 24 December 1996 to establish self-governance in Fifth Schedule areas. Scheduled Areas are those notified by the President of India under Article 244(1) read with the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, which provides for a distinct framework of governance recognising the autonomy of tribal regions. At present, Fifth Schedule areas exist in ten states: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana. The PESA Act, 1996 empowers Gram Sabhas—the village assemblies—as the foundation of self-rule in these areas. Among the many powers devolved to them is the authority to take decisions on local matters, including the regulation...

By A Representative   Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch (MAKAAM), a national platform of women farmers and rural workers, has strongly condemned the Union government for introducing and passing the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Grameen) Bill, 2025 (VBGRAMG), describing it as anti-women, anti-worker and anti-poor, and terming it a “deathblow” to rural livelihoods. 

By Bharat Dogra  I have been visiting villages in India regularly for several decades so that my writings on development, peace, and the environment can benefit from what I learn from local communities and activists. Despite all my reading and writing of books and scholarly papers, wherever I go I find that I still have so much to learn from villagers and grassroots workers.