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

Israel ‘seeking Trump’s support for plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza’

Andrew Roth Global affairs correspondent Israel’s defence minister has said his country is seeking Donald Trump’s support to approve plans to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in what has widely been condemned as a potential war crime. Israel Katz said there was “no real solution for Gaza in the end without thismigration” during a conference… Read More Israel ‘seeking Trump’s support for plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza’

Dilip

Could the man who murdered a Christian missionary and his sons walk free in India?

NB: Neither then (nor, I suspect today), do many people in the justice system pay attention to the fact that along with Graham Staines, his two sons, aged 6 and 10 were also burned to death by the mob led by Dara Singh. Even in the eyes of Dara Singh and his numerous admirers, could… Read More Could the man who murdered a Christian missionary and his sons walk free in India?

Dilip

Leszek Kołakowski (1927–2009): Modernity’s Patching Up

Kołakowski notes, “automatic thought is not really thought: it is the antithesis of thought. Thought, in the strict sense in which we are using the word here, means creative thought—precisely that activity which no automatic mechanism can replace.”…. His observations on “the enormity of material and spiritual desolation caused by the Stalinist system”; and his… Read More Leszek Kołakowski (1927–2009): Modernity’s Patching Up

Dilip

How Vasily Grossman Made Darkness Visible

The Soviet-Jewish writer bore eternal witness to the crimes of totalitarianism by Gary Saul Morson Vasily Grossman, the Russian-Jewish writer best known for the 1959 novel titled Life and Fate, has that book’s protagonist, Viktor Shtrum, express the view that the USSR is remarkably similar to its mortal enemy, Nazi Germany. Both are one-party states; both use… Read More How Vasily Grossman Made Darkness Visible

Dilip

Nepal-Tibet flood: this is the cost of not acting in the face of the climate crisis

George Monbiot: Murderous heat, an endangered food supply and no net zero: the life the radical right wants you to have Nepal’s flash floods expose something more fundamental: the problem is not the absence of a warning system – it is a climate crisis that is producing hazards that behave differently from those the systems… Read More Nepal-Tibet flood: this is the cost of not acting in the face of the climate crisis

Dilip

The dark forest of Katlekan: Why we must stop the plunder of the Western Ghats

To defend the ecology of the irreplaceable Western Ghats entails renewing our ties to the natural world. No trite nostrum along the lines of ‘sustainable development’ will suffice. Sustainability is about what we can go on taking from nature without finding the courage to face our organised, well-disguised greed By Aseem Shrivastava The canopy closes… Read More The dark forest of Katlekan: Why we must stop the plunder of the Western Ghats

Dilip

Thank Trump for This: He Has Exposed the Leaking Guts of the War Machine

War in the Middle East has morphed from the sterile narrative of fighting for freedom and democracy, to the more spectacular notion that US military force has been mobilized to serve Christian prophecy Phil Wilson Common Dreams Forget about Ancient Sparta, Attila the Hun, Hernán Cortés, Julius Ceasar, Alexander the Great, Adolf Hitler, and all of the conquerors that… Read More Thank Trump for This: He Has Exposed the Leaking Guts of the War Machine

Dilip

Mohan Bhagwat’s costly global gambit: From under the radar to under fire

Bharat Bhushan If criticism continues to overshadow RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s overseas visit, it will be a net negative for his stated aims, especially as more officials and civil society organisations abroad speak out against it Bharat Bhushan Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat’s three-nation global outreach tour comes at a difficult time for the organisation. International perception of… Read More Mohan Bhagwat’s costly global gambit: From under the radar to under fire

Dilip

How the deadly Nepal and Tibet flash flood unfolded – a visual guide

US Geological Survey says massive glacial collapse caused catastrophic flash floods in the Himalayan border region of Nepal ⁠and Tibet By Mark Saunokonoko, Nick Evershed, Mike Hohnen, Paul Scruton, Harvey Symons, Glenn Swann and Lucy Swan At 8.37am on Wednesday, an enormous section ⁠of a glacier in the Himalayas sheared free and crashed on to the valley floor in Nepal’s Langtang national park,… Read More How the deadly Nepal and Tibet flash flood unfolded – a visual guide

Dilip