This is a collection of short and accessible
essays by writers and activists who practiced and wrote about non-violence. The
essays are thought-provoking and hopeful.
They show us alternative ways of
thinking and living that are more critical than ever in a world wracked by
violence. The news can be debilitating and leave people feeling hopeless. These
essays are inspiring and show us how people found alternatives in the past
during difficult historical times.
This book is linked to my own work and
writing on non-violence, which
discusses the spiritual dimensions of non-violence and why this matters for
producing lasting change and justice.
There is no easy way out of the spiraling morass of terror and brutality that confronts the world today. It is time now for the human race to hold still, to delve into its wells of collective wisdom, both ancient and modern.--Arundhati Roy
The Power of Nonviolence, the first anthology of alternatives to war with a historical perspective, with an introduction by Howard Zinn about September 11 and the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks, presents the most salient and persuasive arguments for peace in the last 2,500 years of human history. Arranged chronologically, covering the major conflagrations in the…
This
is considered a classic text by well-known writer Frantz Fanon. I reread it
after many years and still found it thought-provoking. It analyzes the effects of European colonialism in
Africa.
Fanon is known for grappling with both the social and psychological dimensions of colonialism and also
focuses on the problems with emerging nationalist movements in societies that
were fighting for decolonization.
The work is based on Fanon’s experience
working as a psychiatrist in Algeria in the early twentieth century. It compels
us to think about the struggles of subordinated social groups.
First published in 1961, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth is a masterful and timeless interrogation of race, colonialism, psychological trauma, and revolutionary struggle. In 2020, it found a new readership in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and the centering of narratives interrogating race by Black writers. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in spurring historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of post-independence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on…
This is a serious work of academic research that
details the role of the World Bank's funding of development work in India. It is
the most serious and well-researched work on the subject that I have read.
Many
writers bring polemical views to their studies of international organizations
and their impact on countries in the Global South. This book avoids these
pitfalls and presents a serious and in-depth study of the subject.
I found it
especially useful for my own work on the Bank's impact on water governance in
India.
India, one of the founding members of the World Bank, is also the Bank's single largest borrower since its inception. There are natural curiosities to know how the relationship between the two has evolved through fluctuations in India's political and economic scenario. Has the World Bank's work in India aligned itself with the country's own developmental agenda-facilitating or impeding the nation's progress? Based on years of grassroots-level experience in political processes, Nagesh Prabhu charts out a comprehensive assessment of various facets of this relationship.
This book examines the relevance of the World Bank's lending to India across sectors and states,…
Intensifying droughts and competing pressures on water resources foreground water scarcity as an urgent concern of the global climate change crisis. In India, individual, industrial, and agricultural water demands exacerbate inequities of access and expose the failures of state governance to regulate use.
State policies and institutions influenced by global models of reform produce and magnify socio-economic injustice in this "water bureaucracy."
Drawing on historical records, an analysis of post-liberalization developments, and fieldwork in the city of Chennai, Leela Fernandes traces the configuration of colonial historical legacies, developmental-state policies, and economic reforms that strain water resources and intensify inequality.
