The article examines the long-running debate over how children learn to read, placing Kerala’s literacy policies within a broader global history of the “reading wars.” Drawing connections between constructivist pedagogy, phonics-based instruction, global education policy, and social inequality, Asokakumar V...
Panthi begins a special series of excerpts from Seeds and Herbs – Walking in the Land: Its People, a book born from a decade-long journey of artists, poets, theatre practitioners and cultural activists walking alongside the Forest Fringe Farmers’ collective...
Hidden in the forests of Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, the village of Bom has become the center of a quiet but extraordinary people’s movement. Led by fearless Adivasi women, indigenous communities have reclaimed their ancestral forests and farmland through years of...
The selection of V. D. Satheesan as Kerala’s Chief Minister after the UDF’s sweeping electoral victory became more than an internal Congress decision. It revealed a changing political mood in Kerala, one shaped by demands for democratic transparency, secular leadership,...
In this critical essay, author Asoka Kumar V examines Kerala’s recent return to minimum pass marks in written examinations and situates it within the broader global crisis of constructivist, child-centred education. Tracing the rise of educational reforms shaped by international...
India’s clean cooking transition is often measured through rising LPG connections, but for millions of poor migrant families, access to clean fuel remains uncertain and unaffordable. This article by Prof. A. M. Jose and Aishwarya examines how poverty, insecure housing,...
In this in-depth conversation, social anthropologist Prof. A.R. Vasavi reflects on the structural roots of India’s agrarian crisis and the continuing tragedy of farmer suicides. Drawing on decades of field research, she critiques the government’s “contradictory approach” to agriculture marked...
At a time when war, ecological collapse, and economic distress define our global reality, the very idea of “happiness” seems distant, even irrelevant. Yet, as the documentary Economics of Happiness powerfully argues, this crisis is not accidental. It is the...
Kerala’s elderly are increasingly embracing smartphones and social media, finding in them new avenues of connection, memory, and independence. Yet beneath this digital inclusion lies a growing concern: excessive use is quietly reshaping mental health, social habits, and vulnerability among...
A student from TISS reflects on a troubling shift within academic spaces, where the legacy of B. R. Ambedkar is invoked even as his core ideas are undermined. Through a firsthand account, the piece questions the growing normalization of ideological...
