Counterview

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Nepal is a friendly neighbour of India, and people like me have always felt deep cultural affinities with Nepal and the Himalayan societies of South Asia. We share not only borders but also histories, traditions, languages, food habits and kinship ties.  From Uttarakhand to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim, the communities living along the Indo-Nepal border have evolved through centuries of close interaction. Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh share strong similarities with the Tarai or Madhesh region of Nepal. Sikkim and northern West Bengal are linked through Buddhist and Gorkha traditions. 

By A Representative   Human rights activist Kirity Roy has written to West Bengal Chief Minister urging the newly formed state cabinet to reconsider and humanely implement its decision to expedite land allocation to the Border Security Force (BSF) for fencing along the India-Bangladesh border . In a letter dated May 12, Roy appealed to the government to ensure that land between the border fence and the international boundary is legally acquired and that the rights and livelihoods of border residents are protected.

By Deepmala Patel*  Tribal communities in Odisha's Rayagada district are locked in an intensifying confrontation with mining giant Vedanta Limited over a proposed bauxite extraction project in the Sijimali hills — a conflict that erupted into violence in early April when police stormed a village in the dead of night and left dozens injured.

By Palla Trinadha Rao  When forests are diverted for development, compensation is meant to restore what is lost—not only ecologically, but also for the communities that depend on them. In Andhra Pradesh, however, large Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds remain unutilised, delaying restoration efforts and raising deeper concerns about environmental justice, accountability, and the credibility of compensatory afforestation itself.

By Fayyaz Baqir, Mansee Bal Bhargava   Archibald MacLeish in Hypocrite Auteur  mentions that a “world ends when its metaphor has died,” signifying the death of shared meaning. The decline of global governance , augmented and triggered by the rise of imperialism, is challenging the world order and pushing humanity to the threshold of an existential crisis. When the cultural, spiritual, artistic, and humanistic values that structure our reality cease to be believed, the world falls away, creating a “rupture” that demands new meaning.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  Hindutva politics has been described as a political, social, cultural, and economic project associated with higher castes and classes. Analysts note that it has functioned as a framework for consolidating crony capitalism in India.