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

Milan Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being author dies aged 94

The Czech novelist found himself silenced by the communist regime at home, but achieved international fame with playfully philosophical fiction Czech writer Milan Kundera, who explored being and betrayal over half a century in poems, plays, essays and novels including The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has died aged 94 after a prolonged illness, Anna Mrazova, spokesperson… Read More Milan Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being author dies aged 94

Dilip

Pirates + Madagascar = Egalitarian Utopia? David Graeber’s “Pirate Enlightenment”

 By Edward Carver WHEN HE died unexpectedly in 2020, American anthropologist and left-wing activist David Graeber was best known for his 2011 book Debt: The First 5,000 Years, a revisionist history of money, and his involvement in Occupy Wall Street. He helped coin the catchphrase “We are the 99 percent.” But before he became a swashbuckling public… Read More Pirates + Madagascar = Egalitarian Utopia? David Graeber’s “Pirate Enlightenment”

Dilip

The spirit of the university under threat

as India is fast moving towards some sort of electoral autocracy, we are witnessing a new kind of crisis emanating from the virus of ‘anti-intellectualism’. Don’t think critically. Don’t question the establishment. Accept the dominant discourse of development, nationalism and religion. Is it, therefore, surprising that even the slightest trace of dissent is criminalised? Avijit… Read More The spirit of the university under threat

Dilip

Touch me not

Witness to the Resurrection, saint, sinner and feminist icon By Anna Della Subin Why was it first to a woman / that he showed his resurrection, and not to men?” asked the fourth-century poet Ephrem the Syrian. “Here he showed us a mystery.” The risen Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene first, at a time when, under… Read More Touch me not

Dilip

New Roma writing

New writing by Czech Roma authors: different takes on the story-telling tradition; memories of growing up as a Roma after ’89; mainstreaming Roma writing and the decline of the Romani language. A2 devotes an issue to writing by Czech Roma authors, featuring samples from their works, reviews and interviews. Saša Uhlová provides a short history of… Read More New Roma writing

Dilip

SC cancels ED chief Sanjay Mishra’s 3rd extension, says it was illegal

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the Union government’s decision to grant a third extension of tenure to Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra and termed the mandate “illegal”, even as it affirmed the 2021 amendments in the pertinent laws to extend the tenure of the directors of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)… Read More SC cancels ED chief Sanjay Mishra’s 3rd extension, says it was illegal

Dilip

The recovery of cuneiform, the world’s oldest known writing

Louise Pryke For over 3,000 years, cuneiform was the primary language of communication throughout the Ancient Near East (roughly corresponding to the Middle East today) and into parts of the Mediterranean. The dominance of the cuneiform writing style in antiquity has led scholars to refer to it as “the script of the first half of the known… Read More The recovery of cuneiform, the world’s oldest known writing

Dilip

Chris Hedges: They Lied About Afghanistan. They Lied About Iraq. And They Are Lying About Ukraine.

The U.S. public has been conned, once again, into pouring billions into another endless war The playbook the pimps of war use to lure us into one military fiasco after another, including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Ukraine, does not change. Freedom and democracy are threatened. Evil must be vanquished. Human rights must… Read More Chris Hedges: They Lied About Afghanistan. They Lied About Iraq. And They Are Lying About Ukraine.

Dilip