real utopias

The countdown has begun. The Scottish Independence Referendum on Thursday the 18thof September provides the Scottish people with the opportunity to once more experience democracy in its most traditional form; at the ballot box, one person, one vote. However, on this occasion, rather than giving the polling station a modest reception, as seen in the AV referendum in 2011, or a distinctly lukewarm response, like at this year’s European Parliamentary election, engagement has surged dramatically with 97% of eligible citizens registered to vote, that’s 4,285,323 people! As a result many are predicting a turnout that will surpass Sweden’s commendable 83% showing in yesterday’s national election.

Elected a Labour Party MP for South Ayrshire in 1970, he shifted away from mainstream Labour Party politics due to his commitment to setting up a Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.

In the book; Arabs at the Crossroads: Political Identity and Nationalism, Hilal Khashan, an associate professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, provides a vivid description of Arab political performance since the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century and the subsequent formal abrogation of the Islamic Caliphate in 1924 amidst rising European colonialism and Zionism. The book is small (149 pages of text) but concise and well written. Despite raising some very controversial issues, Khashan has combined the coolness of scholarship with intellectual rigor and political concern. His dispassionate perspective is refreshing and makes the book unapologetically independent and provocative.

It is the ethos of the Hindu nationalist that the RSS and its kindred bodies would like to see prevail in India today although they swear by the Constitution. Time will help us judge if PM Modi furthers the cause of Hindu nationalism or of Indian nationalism.