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

Rafale Papers: France opens judicial probe into fighter deal with India, new revelations emerge // Opposition Parties Say it's Time for Investigation in India Too

A French judge has been appointed to lead a judicial investigation into suspected “corruption” and “favouritism” over the 7.8-billion-euro sale to India of 36 Dassault Aviation Rafale fighter aircraft, Mediapart can reveal. The highly sensitive probe into the inter-governmental deal signed off in in 2016 was formally opened on June 14th. It was following Mediapart’s “Rafale Papers”… Read More Rafale Papers: France opens judicial probe into fighter deal with India, new revelations emerge // Opposition Parties Say it's Time for Investigation in India Too

Dilip

Daniel Immerwahr: The Strange, Sad Death of America’s Political Imagination // AV Lecture: How to Hide an Empire

The world didn’t expect much from Edward Bellamy, a reclusive, tubercular writer who lived with his parents. Yet if he lived small, he dreamed big, and in 1888 he published a phenomenally successful utopian novel, Looking Backward, 2000-1887. It told of a man who fell asleep in 1887 and awoke in 2000 to electrified cities,… Read More Daniel Immerwahr: The Strange, Sad Death of America’s Political Imagination // AV Lecture: How to Hide an Empire

Dilip

Chandan Gowda: The humanism of Siddalingaiah (1954-2021)

Poet, folklorist, orator, teacher, legislator, administrator and co-founder of the Dalit movement in Karnataka, Siddalingaiah’s many-layered engagement with the life of the state defies easy characterisation. Indispensable for a historian of contemporary morality in Karnataka, Siddalingaiah’s work is an elaboration of a rich vision of humanism. His debut book of poetry, Holey-Maadigara Haadu (The Song of… Read More Chandan Gowda: The humanism of Siddalingaiah (1954-2021)

Dilip

Hindus for Human Rights USA. Interactive conversation for young people July 10, 2021; 8:30 pm IST.

An extra-special event coming up in one week, July 10th 8:30 pm IST. Rajmohan Ji joins with Sikh American community leader Simran Jeet Singh and Indian actress Richa Chadha to engage with kids and youth. Young people in India, South Asia and the diaspora are most welcome to join. We hope you will all help us spread the word so that many kids and… Read More Hindus for Human Rights USA. Interactive conversation for young people July 10, 2021; 8:30 pm IST.

Dilip

Peter Ronald deSouza: The Intrinsic Limits of Hindutva as an Ideology of the Indian State

NB: This is an instructive article: members of the establishment who retain the slightest capacity to think rationally beyond their career interests, should read it carefully. I have argued elsewhere that ideologies have an inbuilt tendency toward implosion: the process whereby prevailing doctrines of political hegemony fail to maintain the minimal coherence required for self-perpetuation, and… Read More Peter Ronald deSouza: The Intrinsic Limits of Hindutva as an Ideology of the Indian State

Dilip

Aseem Shrivastava and Rupert Read – Does globalisation make ‘Covidisation’ inevitable?

For more than a generation of economic globalisation, to turn the old adage on its head, it seemed to many that ‘wealth is health’. In the bargain, as everything, including health, came seemingly to rest on the willing shoulders of money, huge fortunes were made and all but universally sought, in what has come to… Read More Aseem Shrivastava and Rupert Read – Does globalisation make ‘Covidisation’ inevitable?

Dilip

Rana Mitter: China’s Communist party has rewritten its own past – but the truth will surface

A new museum commemorating the history of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) opened in June in Beijing as part of the runup to the party’s 100th anniversary. Online images of its collections show reverential black-and-white photos of the dozen or so young men who gathered at the party’s founding meeting in Shanghai in 1921. Those activists, one of… Read More Rana Mitter: China’s Communist party has rewritten its own past – but the truth will surface

Dilip

Rumsfeld’s much-vaunted ‘courage’ was a smokescreen for lies, crime and death. By Richard Wolffe

It is customary, at times like these, to gloss over the failures and foibles of recently deceased officials: to paint a portrait in broad brush strokes about their achievements and qualities and public service. In the case of the newly departed Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary who led the catastrophic war in Iraq, this would be… Read More Rumsfeld’s much-vaunted ‘courage’ was a smokescreen for lies, crime and death. By Richard Wolffe

Dilip

Oxford University’s South Asian Studies Programme’s comments on Venkat Dhulipala

First posted September 12, 2018 I will open this comment with an anecdote. Some months ago, whilst exercising in the gym I visit, the senior trainer was talking politics with someone. He is a friendly individual and I normally do not converse whilst exercising. He happens to be an admirer of Narendra Modi. On this… Read More Oxford University’s South Asian Studies Programme’s comments on Venkat Dhulipala

Dilip

‘It feels good’: Kashmir folk singer’s rise from dusty street to music star

Noor Mohammad Shah had always happily lived a life of obscurity. Born in a small village in the conflict-ridden state of Kashmir in India, Shah had been introduced to the mystical world of Sufi music as a child and for decades since had made a meagre but fulfilling living singing traditional songs and performing on… Read More ‘It feels good’: Kashmir folk singer’s rise from dusty street to music star

Dilip