NB: This article is a clear-headed analysis of the crucial change wrought in the Indian polity by the current government. Sahay is also forthright about the axial role of the RSS, the patron-in-chief of the BJP. For all their talk of moral purity and ‘maryada‘ it clear that this band of ideological fanatics has only one aim… Read More Anand K. Sahay: The idea behind capturing power in any kind of way: fair or foul
On Tuesday, as the second wave of Covid-19 continued surging across India, Gujarat reported 6,690 new cases and 67 deaths across the state – the highest single-day tallies since the start of the pandemic last year. These official figures are grim in themselves, but the reality on the ground is much, much worse, video footage, news… Read More As the dead pile up in Gujarat, the state’s media is on a warpath with the government over Covid-19 // Soutik Biswas: How India failed to prevent a deadly second wave
National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) condemns in the strongest possible terms the high-handed manner of ‘raids’ by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) at the homes of over 16 activists of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, acting on dubious FIRs registered a couple of months back. We express our solidarity with all these activists and advocates… Read More NAPM – Condemn Arbitrary Raids on Activists’ Homes in AP and Telangana
One might refer to the fascist movements as the wounds, the scars, of a democracy that, to this day, has not lived up to its own concept: Theodor Adorno First things first: to speak of ‘Bolsonarismo’ is not the same as speaking of Bolsonaro voters. Evidently, whatever we can call ‘Bolsonarismo’ must have been a factor… Read More Rodrigo Nunes: Of what is Bolsonaro the name?
Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century is an indispensable book for anyone interested in learning more about the unequal distribution of wealth in the world today. As I read this major 950-page study, which is supplemented by a large amount of statistical data and tables available on Internet), it became obvious that the Occupy Wall Street movement… Read More Concentration of wealth in the hands of the 1% // The evolution of wealth inequalities over the last two centuries
Miguel de Beistegui’s new book is one of the most important contributions to the study of desire since the publication of René Girard’s Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (1987). The central argument of the work is that the creation – through specific rationalities of knowledge and technologies of power – of a type of… Read More Book review: The Government of Desire
NB: Our establishment is more concerned about India’s image than about the reality of Indian life, the reality of shambolic mis-governance. Incidentally, the word image – a favourite with our media and politicians, means appearance, a perception, something other than the reality. Why are we so bothered about our ‘image’? Why not change social reality rather than… Read More Bharat Bhushan: Fixing India's global image
The woman took Johari and lifted her frock while her mother held her down on a mattress on the floor; minutes later her clitoral hood had been cut, in accordance with the ancient tradition of khafz, or female genital cutting (FGC). “I was in a lot of pain and I remember crying inconsolably,” says Johari,… Read More RUCHI KUMAR: In India’s Bohra community, a battle over genital mutilation
Twenty years ago the United States decided to relieve its 9/11 agony not just by blasting Osama bin Laden’s base in the Afghan mountains, but by toppling the entire Afghan regime. This was despite young Taliban moderates declaring Bin Laden an “unwelcome guest” and the regime demanding he leave. The US then decided not just to… Read More Simon Jenkins: What did 20 years of western intervention in Afghanistan achieve? Ruination
Very few among us can crawl or climb to the depths and heights of deep time… And so today, when there is no snow on the ground, I am thinking again about icebergs. Along with the work of Bishop, Stevens and several contemporary poets, I’ve often turned to Underland during the past year as an alternative to… Read More John Palattella – Earthly Anecdotes: an alternative to the doom-saying of our times
After the truth-shower 