NB: A friend sent me this piece a few days ago, and I’m grateful, for I hadn’t read it. It dates back to 2012. It’s a reminder of Kesavan’s brilliance and dexterity as a writer. Our times impose a somber tint to what we feel obliged to say, but every now and then we need… Read More Mukul Kesavan on connoisseurs of the unavailable
Martin Luther King Jr. understood that non-violence is never instinctual. It takes practice. After a year of boycotting the public bus system in Montgomery, King’s community was jubilant when the courts ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. But King knew the tremendous force it would take to withstand the inevitable acts of hatred and… Read More Jan Erkert: How to deal with trolls
NB: The Russian head of state speaks like a cheap street thug. The USSR may have faded away, but the KGB lives on. He and his chum in the White House have a lot in common: a mafia mentality. DS Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Thursday that opposition politician Alexey Navalny “is enjoying the support of… Read More Putin says if Russia wanted to kill opposition leader Navalny, it would have 'finished' the job
Why should their lordships get so infuriated by a couple of sallies targeting them – he spares no one, not even the prime minister or his pit bull anchor. Kamra belongs to a hoary tradition of court jesters – recollect Akbar and Birbal, Patch Sexton in the court of Henry VIII (who inspired Shakespeare’s fool… Read More Kunal Kamra and the Elasticity of Justice. By Avay Shukla
The members of the RSS who control the Union government have subjugated the press, allegedly tamed the judiciary and used bribery and coercion to undermine or overthrow state governments run by other parties. The new laws aimed at curbing NGOs are animated by the desire to reduce to insignificance all voluntary organisations that do not… Read More Ramachandra Guha: Gandhi said RSS was ‘communal with a totalitarian outlook’ – and that’s still true
The protesting farmers at Delhi’s borders have started a new YouTube channel called called Kisan Ekta Morcha. Please subscribe, share and like. Kisan leaders want to challenge the agriculture minister’s claim that only 100,000 farmers are protesting. Please forward and share. Kisan Ekta Morcha Discussion on Indian Agriculture and the ongoing Kisan agitation Amit Bhaduri:… Read More URGENT APPEAL by Kisan Ekta Morcha
In 1976, a momentous six-week visit to India during the Emergency under Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi pivotally fuelled the vehemence of his scathing essay ‘The Poverty of Theory’ (1978) and undid his usual embarrassment about his father. On arrival, EP was warmly welcomed in acknowledgment of his father’s friendship with the late prime minister Nehru. He put… Read More History from below: What shaped the thought of E P Thompson, the great historian of ordinary working people? By Priya Satia
Before India’s “love jihad”, Pakistan found its way to getting rid of its Christians. Blasphemy was pinned on them with the confidence that no judge would let them off the hook, with pious crowds demanding death outside his court. Pakistan’s most humiliating moment is reached every time someone is accused of blasphemy and sentenced to… Read More Khaled Ahmed: Pakistan’s blasphemy law is used to target the Christian community with impunity
Amid an unprecedented agitation against the Centre’s farm laws by farmers across the country and particularly around the nation’s capital, 10 economists of various universities have written to Union Minister for Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar, demanding that the laws be repealed. “We do believe that improvements and changes are required in the agricultural marketing system… Read More 10 economists write to Tomar, cite reasons why Centre should repeal ‘flawed’ farm laws
Der Spiegel, roughly the German journalistic equivalent of TIME – which, coincidentally, just named President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris its vaunted “Person of the Year” – on Thursday published an article entitled “Der Verlierer des Jahres,” or “Loser of the Year” in English. While the piece lacks the shock value of some… Read More Without Decency and Without Dignity: German Newsweekly Der Spiegel Names Trump 'Loser of the Year'
After the truth-shower 