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

Farooq Tariq – The US occupation took only human lives: Taliban victory is not a sign of peace // The leader of the anti-Taliban resistance speaks out

The Taliban’s victory is bad news for the progressives around the world. The victory is not a sign of peace but a message of perpetual civil war. The establishment of another religious fanatic state in South Asia will promote religious sectarianism throughout the region… Soviet forces stay lasted 10 years and failed. For 20 years,… Read More Farooq Tariq – The US occupation took only human lives: Taliban victory is not a sign of peace // The leader of the anti-Taliban resistance speaks out

Dilip

Go back to Afghanistan? Men like McMaster and Panetta are addicted to war / How the American empire dug its own grave / Let’s Take the Profit Out of War

All empires die. The end is usually unpleasant. The American empire, humiliated in Afghanistan, as it was in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, the Bay of Pigs and in Vietnam, is blind to its own declining strength, ineptitude and savagery. Its entire economy, a military Keynesianism, revolves around the war industry. Military spending and war are… Read More Go back to Afghanistan? Men like McMaster and Panetta are addicted to war / How the American empire dug its own grave / Let’s Take the Profit Out of War

Dilip

Goodbye Saleem / सबके मेंटर थे सलीम किदवई

NB: Saleem was a dear personal friend and colleague at Ramjas College, in the University of Delhi. Both of us were also alumni of St Stephens College, albeit separated by a couple of years. He was a gentleman to his core and a brilliant historian. On the rare occasions he spoke in Staff Council meetings,… Read More Goodbye Saleem / सबके मेंटर थे सलीम किदवई

Dilip

Kamala Thiagarajan: The mysterious disappearance of the world's longest shrubbery

The natural living barrier was described as “utterly impassable to man or beast”, and snaked across India from the Indus River to the Mahanadi. But why doesn’t anyone remember it?    In a second-hand bookstore in London, in late 1994, author Roy Moxham made a discovery that would consume the next three years of his… Read More Kamala Thiagarajan: The mysterious disappearance of the world's longest shrubbery

Dilip

Bhaskar Sunkara: The media is lambasting Biden over Afghanistan. He should stand firm

NB: Will someone ask America’s spin-artists a simple question: who gave the American establishment the right to carry out ‘nation-building’ projects wherever and whenever they deem fit? Have they noticed that this ‘building’ more closely resembles a wrecking ball? DS During the Trump years, publications like the New York Times and Washington Post presented themselves… Read More Bhaskar Sunkara: The media is lambasting Biden over Afghanistan. He should stand firm

Dilip

Robin McKie: Is deep-sea mining a cure for the climate crisis or a curse?

Trillions of metallic nodules on the sea floor could help stop global heating, but mining them may damage ocean ecology   In a display cabinet in the recently opened Our Broken Planet exhibition in London’s Natural History Museum, curators have placed a small nugget of dark material covered with faint indentations. The blackened lump could easily be mistaken… Read More Robin McKie: Is deep-sea mining a cure for the climate crisis or a curse?

Dilip

Thom Hartmann: Myths and lies about Afghanistan's role in 9/11 live on, Bush and Cheney escape justice / Karen Greenberg: The Endless Shadow of the War on Terror

NB: For many decades now, the world has been held hostage by the American election cycle, and the criminal tendencies of American Presidents. Our short memories, our weakness in resisting propaganda; and the degeneration of journalism into op-ed commentary by spin-doctors have contributed to this. The rise of violent Islamist movements has a great deal to… Read More Thom Hartmann: Myths and lies about Afghanistan's role in 9/11 live on, Bush and Cheney escape justice / Karen Greenberg: The Endless Shadow of the War on Terror

Dilip

Feminist Dissent statement in solidarity with Afghan women and all those fighting fundamentalism: Fear is their weapon, Courage is yours

Feminist Dissent views with horror and dismay the betrayal of the people of Afghanistan and all those fighting fundamentalist movements everywhere. Before and since the August 15th 2021 takeover of the country by Taliban, we have watched news of protest marches and heard Afghan women speak out. We are in awe of their steadfast courage in the… Read More Feminist Dissent statement in solidarity with Afghan women and all those fighting fundamentalism: Fear is their weapon, Courage is yours

Dilip

Vanessa Andreotti: If we lose the Amazon, our world will lose its future

Brazil is voting to legalize the destruction of the Amazon forest and the extermination of Indigenous peoples, the forest’s last line of defense.    It is not just the people of Brazil who will suffer in the face of their government’s smartly coordinated attack on humanity’s future. All of us, across the world, are set to… Read More Vanessa Andreotti: If we lose the Amazon, our world will lose its future

Dilip