Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
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What a week for a curry
PETER FROST is celebrating Indian independence with just one contribution immigrants from the Indian subcontinent have made to the richness of life here in Britain
Curry spices
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
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NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
OVER the last few months I have been studying and celebrating the 70th anniversary of Indian independence and learning a lot more about that turbulent period in Britain’s shameful imperialist history.
Despite what you and I were taught at school and on various boy scout Empire Day celebrations, Indian independence wasn’t a benevolent gift from King George VI, the last Emperor of India or from Lord Mountbatten, last Viceroy of India but was in fact the result of a long-fought battle by the various peoples of the Indian subcontinent to throw off the yoke of British imperialism.
The result of Britain’s hurried and botched independence arrangements saw famine, mass migration, millions of violent deaths and three countries finally emerging from the chaos. Those countries were India and West and East Pakistan. East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971.
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