Bharat Bhushan Union Home Minister Amit Shah pressed the “refresh” button on the Gujarat communal riots of 2002 in his campaign speeches in the state. In several public meetings – at Deesa (Banaskantha district), Mahuda (Kheda), Vagra (Bharuch) and Naroda (Ahmedabad) – Shah claimed that those responsible for the riots in 2002 had been “taught… Read More What ‘teaching a lesson’ in Gujarat means
For the first time in decades, thousands of people have defied Chinese authorities to protest at universities and on the streets of major cities, demanding to be freed not only from incessant Covid tests and lockdowns, but strict censorship and the Communist Party’s tightening grip over all aspects of life. Across the country, “want freedom” has become a… Read More China’s young people cry for freedom
Sara Tor A biographer researching the German philosopher Hegel has uncovered a massive treasure trove of previously undocumented lectures that could change perceptions regarding one of the leading figures of modern western philosophy. More than 4,000 pages of notes on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s lectures were found by Klaus Vieweg in the library of the archdiocese of Munich and… Read More Newly discovered manuscripts may offer fresh understanding of Hegel
Webinar Link: https://youtu.be/m16ytCnXfBg About the Lecture: Ours is an age of ideology. Ideology is a means of submerging everyday existence into a dream-like waiting room. Ideologically-sustained life is a relentless deferral of presence on behalf of a hoped-for glorious future. Our gaze is prompted backward and forward, the future being the domain wherein the past may be… Read More The Disappearing Present: Reflections on Ideology: Webinar on October 16, 2020
William Yang “The Communist Party, step down. Xi Jinping, step down!” Those were the slogans chanted by hundreds of protesters in China’s commercial capital, Shanghai, on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, as they gathered to demand the Chinese government end the strict pandemic control measures that have been imposed on several cities across the world’s second-largest economy. The protest… Read More Protests spread across China amid zero-COVID anger
Shabnam von Hein More female journalists are behind bars in Iran than ever before. Among them are Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, both of whom have been accused of “conspiring against national security.” For a long time, Niloofar Hamedi was a sports reporter. She loves soccer, her colleagues write on social media, posting photos of… Read More Iran launches smear campaign against jailed journalists
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729 – 1781) An uneasy peace ruled in Jerusalem. Saladin’s victory against the Crusaders had cost the Muslims dearly, both in the loss of troops and in the depletion of the royal treasury. Saladin was resolved to rule with civilized humanity as far as possible. But it was an uneasy peace, with… Read More The Parable of the Three Rings
(This is a selection of Gandhi’s observations on consistency and changing one’s mind) My Inconsistencies I DECLINE to be slave to precedents or practice I cannot understand or defend on a moral basis. (YI, 21-7-1921, p228) I must admit my many inconsistencies. But since I am called ‘Mahatma’, I might well endorse Emerson’s saying that… Read More Mohandas Gandhi: My Inconsistencies
First posted October 03, 2019 NB: This article appeared today in the Deccan Chronicle, as part of a series commemorating Mahatma Gandhi’s 150 birth anniversary. This is an audio-visual recording of a talk with the same title, given on October 4, 2019, under the auspices of the Raza Foundation. DS The Compass Gandhi’s life-work combined a complex of ideals, concepts and practical… Read More The Compass
Rachel Cooke In this cultural moment, The CaseAgainst the Sexual Revolution could hardly be more radical. It is an act of insurrection, its seditiousness born not only of the pieties it is determined to explode, but of the fact that it is also diligently researched and written in plain English. Did Perry, I wonder, struggle to find a home… Read More The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry review – a potent, plain-speaking womanifesto
After the truth-shower 