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

Exit Jekyll, enter Hyde: America isn’t polarised; Trump victory shows US is bipolar

Trump’s lewdly playful face now fills our screens as Biden’s frail visage recedes. Not forever; there will always be a Jekyll impersonator in America’s political repertory Mukul Kesavan Donald Trump’s triumph doesn’t show us a ‘polarised’ America. This lazy metaphor for division obscures America’s shapeshifting oneness. When pundits pointed out that Trump’s success in 2016… Read More Exit Jekyll, enter Hyde: America isn’t polarised; Trump victory shows US is bipolar

Dilip

High Court Issues Notice to Delhi Police After Devangana Kalita Accuses it of Tampering with her Case Diary

Kalita has alleged that police have been antedating Code of Criminal Procedure Section 161 statements of witnesses that had been recorded earlier. Tarushi Aswani The Delhi high court has issued notice in response to a plea by activist Devangana Kalita, who had been arrested and jailed in the 2020 Delhi riots ‘conspiracy’ case. Kalita, who… Read More High Court Issues Notice to Delhi Police After Devangana Kalita Accuses it of Tampering with her Case Diary

Dilip

The exodus from X to Bluesky has happened – the era of mass social media platforms is over

Platforms come and go, but this feels different: the final death of the idea that social media could ever be the internet’s town square, a global meeting place for ideas that would broaden all our horizons. Now, the future of social media looks increasingly segregated for users’ safety, like rival fans at football. X for… Read More The exodus from X to Bluesky has happened – the era of mass social media platforms is over

Dilip

Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of mass displacement in Gaza amounting to a war crime

Israel has been accused by multiple human rights groups and UN investigators of military conduct that could amount to war crimes over the past year, which it has vociferously denied. Hamas has also been accused of war crimes. In October, a UN inquiry said Israel had a “concerted policy” of destroying the health care system in Gaza… Read More Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of mass displacement in Gaza amounting to a war crime

Dilip

Pratap Bhanu Mehta: D. Y. Chandrachud, a Chief Justice of his time

His self-defence on civil liberties was: ‘I gave so many people bail, from A to Z’, rather than the ‘law and process was applied consistently and fairly. Umar Khalid got the same consideration as Arnab Goswami’ Supreme Court justices demitting office are often subject to a legal scorecard. Assessments go through their rulings and catalogue… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta: D. Y. Chandrachud, a Chief Justice of his time

Dilip

Israeli Forces Kill 78 More Palestinians in Gaza Over 48 Hours / The Great American Delusion

NB: Simply stated, the rulers of the ‘civilized’ Western powers and their Israeli proxy are genocidal butchers. For the victims of their slaughter, there’s no difference between various political factions. The funny thing is, they don’t even realize how racist they are. The Biden Administration has presided over the cold blooded murder of over fifty… Read More Israeli Forces Kill 78 More Palestinians in Gaza Over 48 Hours / The Great American Delusion

Dilip

Nothing ever dies: Vietnam and the memory of war / Viet Thanh Nguyen and Michael Vann in conversation

All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory: Viet Thanh Nguyen ‘Americans liked seeing people eye to eye, the General had once told me, especially as they screwed them from behind’ – (From Chapter One of The Sympathizer) From the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The… Read More Nothing ever dies: Vietnam and the memory of war / Viet Thanh Nguyen and Michael Vann in conversation

Dilip

Israel’s Scholasticide and the Irrelevance of US Politics: 11,923 Palestinian Students didn’t Go Back to School this Fall because Israel Killed them

Juan Cole Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Palestinian Ministry of Education released a report this week detailing that 11,923 students in Gaza have been killed by Israel’s total war in the past year. In addition, 19,199 have been wounded, many with life-altering injuries. A physician working in Gaza last summer reported to HRW, “We are talking about… Read More Israel’s Scholasticide and the Irrelevance of US Politics: 11,923 Palestinian Students didn’t Go Back to School this Fall because Israel Killed them

Dilip

Why did voters abandon Kamala Harris? Because they feel trapped – and Trump offered a way out

Aditya Chakrabortty Since we’ll hear a lot, again, about “populism”, let’s remember, again, that 19th-century US populism had a healthy strain of leftwing politics. Defending workers, riling up bankers, decrying the “cross of gold” and economic conservatism: look past his Bible-bashing, and William Jennings Bryan was a precursor to Franklin Roosevelt. Yet for much of… Read More Why did voters abandon Kamala Harris? Because they feel trapped – and Trump offered a way out

Dilip