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First celebrated on May 8, 1948, the Red Cross Day or the Red crescent day commemorates the birth anniversary of Henry Dunant, the recipient of the first Noble Peace prize and the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross. This day celebrates the principles of the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent Movement. The principles had been reviewed and revised over a period of time and in 1986, the seven principles were adopted in the 25th International conference of the Red Cross. They aimed to alleviate human suffering, promote humanitarian activities, protect lives, ensure health and enable people to live with dignity. The Red Cross Society aims to bring assistance and aid without discrimination on the basis of nationality, race, class, political belief or religious belief. They prioritize cases that need urgent attention. Anyone providing help must remain neutral and unbiased in every sense of the term.
It is an independent movement wherein national societies play an integral role by offering humanitarian services, they abide by the laws of their respective countries but at the same time ensure their autonomy in order to lay their actions in consonance with the principles of the movement. Therefore, only one Red Cross Society exists within a country; it induces a voluntary and non-profit relief movement which welcomes everyone. The society encourages the masses to engage with the Red Cross and donate blood, which in turn enables the society to support emergency cases. These National Red Cross societies function within the International Red Cross and are attributed with equal status and equal share of responsibilities to help people affected by conflict and armed violence, worldwide.
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“What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree” – Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in Freiberg, Austrian Empire. He was an Austrian neurologist who is perhaps most known as the founder of psychoanalysis. He received his medical degree in 1881. As a medical student and young researcher, Freud’s research focused on neurobiology, exploring the biology of brains and nervous tissue of humans and animals. He developed psychoanalysis, a method through which an analyst unpacks unconscious conflicts based on the free associations, dreams and fantasies of the patient. His theories on child sexuality, libido and the ego, among other topics, were some of the most influential academic concepts of the 20th century. Freud also developed a set of therapeutic techniques centred on talk therapy that involved the use of strategies such as transference, free association, and dream interpretation. Freud believed dreams represented a disguised fulfilment of a repressed wish. He believed that studying dreams provided the easiest road to understanding of the unconscious activities of the mind.
Regardless of the perception of Sigmund Freud’s theories today, there is no question that he had an enormous impact on the field of psychology. His work supported the belief that not all mental illnesses have physiological causes, and he also recognized that cultural differences have an impact on psychology and behaviour. His work and writings contributed to our understanding of personality, clinical psychology, human development, and abnormal psychology. Freud developed the psychoanalytic theory of personality development, which argued that personality is formed through conflicts among three fundamental structures of the human mind: the id, ego, and superego.
Though his ideas were controversial, Sigmund Freud was one of the most influential scientists in the fields of psychology and psychiatry. It has been over 100 years since Freud published his theories, yet he still influences what we think about personality and the mind.

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Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, the agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole.- Karl Marx

Karl Marx was born in 1818 in Trier, Germany. From a young age, he was motivated less by religion and more with the critical and radical social policies of the enlightenment, which his Jewish background exposed him to. Hence, prejudice and discrimination led him to question the role of religion in society and gave him a reason to go for social change.

Therefore on his 203rd birth anniversary, it will be prudent to delve on how relevant Marx is, in our present generation. In the wake of World War II, various economists indicated the narrowing of the gap between the richest and the poorest as evidence of the disappearance of class antagonisms. However, it would seem that Marx was correct when he wrote that capitalism keeps the working class poor. To say that there are strands linking the present to a possible future of universal human emancipation is not to suggest that capitalism will collapse by itself. People have to strive to make this materialize.
Those who want to witness the world move through and past its present condition, face massive challenges, both theoretical and practical. Not least among these challenges is the necessity to construe what thrived and what failed in the past century’s endeavours to create egalitarian societies.
But Marxism does not tantamount to everything that has been performed in its name. Marx’s work remains to be the most captivating framework for analysing how the contradictory tendencies in present-day society hold the key to a more humane future.
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The Prisoner's Dilemma game is a deceptively simplistic 2x2 matrix game that can be
used to demonstrate both the importance and drawbacks of game-theoretic thinking.
In other words, the prisoner's dilemma is a common example of a game studied in
game theory that demonstrates why two perfectly rational individuals can refuse to
cooperate even though it appears to be in their best interests to do so. Its simplicity
makes it appealing as a model for explaining human actions. It is easy to experiment
with and the very simplicity of this game poses a danger. It was framed by Melvin
Dresher and Merill Flood while being employed at RAND. Analogies between it and
human affairs are better used to research their shortcomings and identify what has
been left out, rather than claiming how much of the universe can be crammed into a
2x2 matrix.
It is suggested that the prisoners will have no other opportunity to reward or threaten
their partner other than the prison sentences they get and that their decision will have
no long-term impact on their image. Since betraying a partner provides a better
payoff than collaborating with them, all solely rational self-interested prisoners will
betray the other, which means that the only realistic outcome for two purely logical
prisoners is that they will betray each other.

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The Press and media is not just the fourth pillar of democracy; it provides information to people both residing in and across nations. The more informed the masses, the easier it is to check the levels of inequality, discrimination and different forms of violence across the globe. In times of ever-increasing rigidity imposed by states on the freedom of expression and the increasing number of journalists being victimized for doing their jobs properly, it is significant to remember the principles laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”. We face a global retrogression of our hard-fought-for freedoms today as media houses cower down to back the state’s interests, journalists are detained or even killed for publishing their opinions and government laws seek to interfere with individual privacy in order to check dissent and criticism. On the 3rd of May, we celebrate World Press Freedom Day, keeping in mind the objectives of the United Nations in declaring this day as such.

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Hello, everyone. We know these are extremely tough times to live through and our minds and bodies has suffered a lot in this pandemic. As many of us, quarantined in our own rooms, battle with COVID even today, we believe that if we come together in solidarity we can help save lives and support those in need.

One plasma donor, one oxygen cylinder or one injection can save a life today. Those in serious condition need your help, our help to find those leads. As helpline numbers go unattended and cries for help go unanswered we want to form a collective of people who want to share contacts of donors, pharmacies, hospitals, doctors and more. If you want to help people in these extraordinary times, please join this whatsapp group in order to find useful contacts and help those in need.

We plan to set up a registration link where a student can register- a volunteer contacts the recipient, gets details of location, symptoms, severity, other concerns and tries to locate the nearest and fastest centre alongside other kinds of assistance if possible and getting back to our recipient with helpful information.

This volunteership will be online with simple of work of surfing the internet, building contacts, verifying sources and collecting information from similar collectives.

Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble is a teacher, Marathi author and activist who produced the groundbreaking narrative of ‘Mazhya Jalmachi Chitarkatha ‘(1983), later translated as ‘The Kaleidoscope Story of my Life’ (1988). This was the first ever autobiography published by a Dalit woman; considered to be an integral contribution to the Dalit literary canon. Her autobiographical narrative presents to us, a deep insight about the prevalent marginalization she had surfaced and observed over time, and sexual division of labour.
After the Upper Caste Women’s movement ceased to acknowledge the rights of what they attributed as lower caste women, Shantabai’s works served as an eye opener in the discourse on Dalit feminism. A symbol of strength, Shantabai was a Dalit activist who was an ardent advocate of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s opinions.

Jhalkari Bai was an astounding Dalit woman warrior who played a critical role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 during the battle of Jhansi in the women’s army of Queen Laxmibai of Jhansi. She was also Laxmibai’s trusted advisor. While she is commemorated for her courage and sacrifice, her act of disguising herself as the queen and fighting to let Lakshmibai escape safely out of the fort is considerably remembered. However, the mainstream discourse has, for aeons, neglected several accounts of resistance against the colonial rulers and the social system of the country.
Jhalkari Bai, in multiple narratives, is portrayed as an evergreen martyr of 1857, belonging to the Kori caste. She became friends with Laxmibai and was entrusted with the charge of leading the women’s wing of the army, known as the Durga Dal. Jhalkari Bai’s story is not only a severe critique of the hegemonic knowledge production of Indian history but also revealing the innumerable erased Dalit figures in the nation’s history.

Savitribai Jyotirao Phule was an influential Indian social reformer, educator, and poet
who was active in the education and emancipation of women during the nineteenth
century. Savitribai, one of the few literate women of her time, is credited with
establishing the first girl's school in Pune in Bhide Wada with her husband Jyotirao
Phule. She worked hard to educate and emancipate child widows, opposed child
marriage and sati pratha, and called for widow remarriage. She is regarded as a
symbol of the Dalit Mang caste, alongside B. R. Ambedkar and Annabhau Sathe, as a
leading figure in Maharashtra's social change movement. She vigorously fought
against untouchability and sought to end caste and gender inequality.
Education for women was considered a punishable offense at a time when women
were mere objects to be used; she dared to speak out against the unforgivable limits
set on women in Indian society and she ignited millions of lives. Women in Indian
culture are unaware of Savitribai Phule's greatness, who dared to follow the noble
career of teaching in the "Dark Age".

14 th April commemorates the birth anniversary of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and has been
designated as Ambedkar Jayanti or ‘Equality day’ in India since 2015. Dr. Ambedkar played
a key role in various revolutionary social movements that advocated the protection of Dalit
rights. He stringently proposed annihilation of caste and any such impediment that might be a
hindrance in the functioning of a successful democracy; he therefore suggested for a strict
moral order to be upheld.
He was a celebrated civil rights activist who strived for proper political representation and
upliftment of the depressed classes. Dr. Ambedkar proposed the idea of a Veto democracy
which facilitated a strong opposition to maintain checks and balances on the government. He
had an egalitarian and liberative approach towards his perception of the nation and his actions
worked in consonance with the idea of building a social democracy. Thus, he rooted for a
power balanced society to be instated.
Ambedkar was the chairman of the drafting committee in the constituent assembly and was
therefore responsible for defending the values of the draft constitution. He often made
insightful arguments regarding various aspects of the constitution and was designated as the
father of the Indian constitution.
A man of principles, Dr. Ambedkar was also dearly known as Babasaheb. He left an indelible
imprint on the law and administration of India and vehemently supported reform. His
contribution to the country is beyond measure, therefore on this day it is established for
national leaders and major political party representatives to pay homage to the statue of Dr.
Ambedkar in the Parliament.

Starting today, Coeus will be covering Dalit History Month. We plan to bring out explainers, articles, interviews, audiobooks and much more to commemorate the Dalit History month, covering a vast range of topics in the Dalit-Bahujan discourse. Keep an eye on our Instagram page and check out coeusresearch.org for more.

April 13 marks the 102nd anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. The incident transpired in 1919 at Amritsar’s Jallianwala Bagh, in which British troops opened fire against thousands of people who had gathered to mark the occasion of Baisakhi. In the massacre, several hundreds were killed and numerous more were injured. The incident is seen as a major turning point in the national freedom movement of India. The colonial rulers had imposed the Rowlatt Act on March 10, 1919, as per which the government could imprison or confine any person who was associated with any seditious activity without any trial. The passing of this Act led to widespread protests across the country, with Mahatma Gandhi initiating a Satyagraha to oppose the Act. The British authorities in Punjab were seeking to suppress all opposition against this Act. Amidst this, Brigadier-General Dyer issued orders prohibiting unlawful assembly of people. On April 13, 1919, however, people gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh to celebrate the festival of Baisakhi, but the British authorities deemed it as a political gathering.
The Jallianwala Bagh only had one exit, and General Dyer ordered his troops to block it, effectively trapping all the people, including women and children, at the Bagh itself.
The troops retreated from the location as soon as the firing ended, leaving the dead and the wounded untended, something that General Dyer also admitted, unapologetically, in his interrogation by the Hunter Commission.
As news about the massacre spread across the country, people across the country became outraged, and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood. Subsequently, Mahatma Gandhi also launched a large-scale satyagraha, the non-cooperation movement, which made him prominent in the freedom struggle.
While Sir Winston Churchill, the Secretary of War, condemned General Dyer’s action in the House of Commons in 1920. However, Dyer was praised by the House of Lords, which gave him a sword which had the motto ‘Saviour of the Punjab’. Since Dyer was told to resign from the military after the Hunter Commission censured his actions, a large number of sympathisers of Dyer raised a huge fund and presented it to him. Meanwhile, the Jallianwala Bagh became a key point in the history of India’s struggle for independence and it is now an important monument in the country. The monument still contains the holes that the bullets had made during the open fire, and they have manifested for years to highlight the severity of the situation.

#1919

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