LINDA PENTZ GUNTER reports from the one of 2,700 protests against the Trump government’s power grabs, on a day when seven million people defied fear-mongering in a outpouring of joy and hope in what might be the biggest protest in US history
Bollywood and the Indian right
The superstars of Indian cinema are flirting with the far-right, Hindu-supremacist ideology of the ruling BJP party, warns BHABANI SHANKAR NAYAK
ndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addresses the media as he arrives to attend the opening day of the winter session of Parliament in New Delhi, India, Monday, November 29
ALEX HALL interviews PAUL HOLDEN, whose bombshell book uses leaked documents to expose how the Starmer faction used systematic dishonesty to seize power and reopen the door to the corrupting ecosystem of corporate lobbying and sleaze
Our trust makes 3,200 home visits caring for 227 patients despite 198 Israeli checkpoints around Bethlehem; this compassion which transcends boundaries has lessons for the debate on end-of-life care in Britain too, writes FATHER GEOFF BOTTOMS
There is no chance of defending and renewing an NHS which is still savagely undermined by having to pay mark-ups of up to 23,000 per cent to Big Pharma — let’s take control of pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution, writes DREW GILCHRIST
The polling is looking good for the left’s choice, writes ERNEST WALKER, but there are farcical electoral oddities that are throwing up dangers to the campaign
Lewisham People’s Assembly organiser BEN WOODWARD reports on uproar in south London as campaigners condemn an ‘undemocratic stitch-up’ after the council waved through redevelopment of a vibrant shopping centre into ‘luxury flats’
THE Hindi film industry in Bombay has in the past contributed immensely in the growth of peace, solidarity and secular nationalism and progressive popular culture in India. The actors, directors, singers, artists, producers and writers of Bollywood have challenged power and stood behind people and their citizenship rights by upholding highest traditions of art and cinema.
However, the market-driven commercial culture motivated by profit has diminished such noble traditions within the India’s tinsel town. Commercialisation has dehumanised, distilled and alienated actors from the people and their issues.
The profit-driven advertisement industry helped this process to grow to sell dreams and alienate people from their everyday realities. The market and religious forces have used popular culture of art and cinema to promote and propagate their ahistorical and reactionary ideology to capture power in the name of culture, religion and nationalism. Such transformations have produced celebrities like newly inducted Padma Shri Kangana Ranaut.
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