What has most drawn me to Singh’s work are the photographs collected in her books File Room and Museum of Chance. In these, we find black and white images of India’s vast state archives, storerooms and registry offices. As we leaf through these books, we become filled with an idea of poetic decrepitude and a… Read More Orhan Pamuk on Dayanita Singh’s mesmerising photos of India’s disintegrating archives
The English journalist John Diamond, shortly before his death from throat cancer in 2001, wrote that ‘there is really no such thing as alternative medicine, just medicine that works and medicine that doesn’t’. Ecological knowledge might be thought of as similarly indivisible. There are no alternative birds, non-traditional plants, complementary ecologies. More often than not,… Read More Richard Smyth: Nature does not care
The Central government has been caught unawares by violent agitations against Agnipath, its short-tenure recruitment programme to the armed forces. The navy chief is on record saying that he had not expected “protests like this”. Perhaps his counterparts in the Army and the Indian Air Force didn’t either. The government itself is surprised. Yet attempts… Read More Bharat Bhushan: The nation on Agnipath: Perils of a government that does not listen
NB: The attack on a Gurdwara in Kabul is a tragedy. The communalisation of political culture all over South Asia does not manifest a love for the Divine but an expression of evil, and the impulse to violence. Here is a story of love for humanity in a Gurdwara: Secularism in a house of God Aik… Read More Bas kari oh yaar
Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper hold that while “empires” are often seen now as haunting specters of tyranny and oppression, it has not always been so. Instead, they posit that empires have taken many different shapes and have been the most influential form of political rule over the last two millennia. The authors seek not… Read More Book review: Empires in World History
Several of the major central banks are stuck in a trap of their own making. This includes the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and others. The credit-based global financial system we have constructed and participated in over the past century has to continually grow or die. It’s like a game of… Read More Lyn Alden: The credit-based global financial system we have participated in over the past century has to continually grow or die
The horrifying photograph of children fleeing a deadly napalm attack has become a defining image not only of the Vietnam War but the 20th century. Dark smoke billowing behind them, the young subjects’ faces are painted with a mixture of terror, pain and confusion. Soldiers from the South Vietnamese army’s 25th Division follow helplessly behind. Taken… Read More 'Napalm Girl' at 50: The story of the Vietnam War's defining photo / “Because Our Fathers Lied”: Craig McNamara Reveals the Lies of His Father, Robert McNamara
Questioning the basis of the entire process, Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram tweeted: “Will the learned spokespersons for the BJP please answer the following questions: 1. Which is the ‘scheduled offence’ under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) that has triggered an investigation by ED? 2. Which police agency has registered an… Read More National Herald case: No crime, no FIR, says Randeep Surjewala
Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, June 18, June 25, 2022 Now Is The Time To Say Goodbye | T J S George Jammu and Kashmir: ‘Muscular Policy’ or Policy Paralysis | M A Sofi Naga National Assembly: Foreboding of a cold Peace | Kumar Sanjay Singh A Spark May Lead to Fire: Could India… Read More Mainstream, June 18 & June 25, 2022
Convening of the Emergency National Assembly on 31 May 2022 marks the apogee of the most torrid fortnight of the talks. Apparently, the fraught issue of Naga flag and constitution is at the root of the current instability. That trust has been a casualty is borne out in the statements of those involved in peace… Read More Kumar Sanjay Singh: Naga National Assembly: Foreboding of a cold and ungenerous peace
