Author: Dilip

I'm a scholar, writer and teacher; and my blog is designed for intellectual exploration. It carries no advertisements and requires no cash subscription

Sonam Wangchuk Does Not Deserve the Establishment’s Silence / This IIT professor died after a 111-day fast to save the Ganga

The environmentalist has had a tough year to say the least. He did not deserve to be preventively held under the NSA. He does not deserve to be ignored now. NB: Preventive detention was a colonial measure introduced as long ago as 1818. It was then named Bengal Regulation III of 1818. It was retained… Read More Sonam Wangchuk Does Not Deserve the Establishment’s Silence / This IIT professor died after a 111-day fast to save the Ganga

Dilip

Ayodhya’s holy scandal

Saba Naqvi I am in a cab in the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh, where our family village home is located. Ayodhya is 100 km away, the road signs say. The vehicle is clean, the driver courteous and clearly deeply religious. His telephone declares “Jai Shri Ram” a thousand times during our drive because it is set… Read More Ayodhya’s holy scandal

Dilip

Economic Inequality & Separation of the Economic & the Political in Modern Constitutionalism

Gautam Bhatia The author has won the Ran Hirschl Prize for the Best Article in Constitutional Studies This essay argues that the relationship between constitutionalism and economic inequality must be understood in the context of the relationship between constitutionalism and political economy. In particular, the concept of the separation of the economic and the political—which… Read More Economic Inequality & Separation of the Economic & the Political in Modern Constitutionalism

Dilip

‘This process has turned into a form of torture’: inside the trial of Erdoğan’s challenger. The demolition of justice in Turkey

He was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019, and had announced his candidacy for the 2028 presidential elections. But Ekrem İmamoğlu is now behind bars, and his trial, on charges including fraud and organised crime, could take 12 years By Kaya Genç – This piece first appeared in the Dial For decades, Silivri was considered a “sayfiye… Read More ‘This process has turned into a form of torture’: inside the trial of Erdoğan’s challenger. The demolition of justice in Turkey

Dilip

The Two-Faced Present – A conversation about the “short twentieth century” – and the paradoxical twenty-first with Wang Hui

Adam Tooze April 17, 2026 In March in Beijing I had the privilege of meeting and talking with Professor Wang Hui of Tsinghua. This edited transcript is published in cooperation with Equator Magazine (many thanks to the editorial team there) with an introduction by my friend Kaiser Kuo. Introduction by Kaiser Kuo To sit in Beijing in… Read More The Two-Faced Present – A conversation about the “short twentieth century” – and the paradoxical twenty-first with Wang Hui

Dilip

Women’s quota stir from July 20 with call to delink reservation from census, delimitation

Women’s quota stir from July 20 with call to delink reservation from census, delimitation Pheroze L. Vincent Multiple women’s rights groups on Friday jointly announced nationwide protests from July 20, coinciding with the start of the monsoon session of Parliament, to push for a constitutional amendment delinking the 33 per cent women’s quota from the… Read More Women’s quota stir from July 20 with call to delink reservation from census, delimitation

Dilip

‘More postmodern than ancient’: why the Odyssey is everywhere, from Oz to Westeros

Imagine then, for a moment, not the darkness of the cinema so much as the darkness of the king and queen’s pillared hall, where guests are gathered for feasting and for telling stories. Against the flickering fire, the bard strikes up with his harp and starts to sing, performing tales of adventure and loss, return… Read More ‘More postmodern than ancient’: why the Odyssey is everywhere, from Oz to Westeros

Dilip

The Quiet Dismantling of Liberal Education at Delhi University

Pravin Raj Singh At its core, a literature syllabus is more than a list of prescribed texts. It is a pedagogical contract, a space where students and educators commit to engaging with the world’s complexities, however uncomfortable. This contract enables critical engagement with power, history, caste, gender and the structures that shape our lives. It… Read More The Quiet Dismantling of Liberal Education at Delhi University

Dilip