Bharat Bhushan Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has come under criticism for commenting on V D Savarkar’s repeated mercy petitions to the British colonial government while incarcerated at the Cellular Jail in the Andamans. Some cautious voices rue that it has allowed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to attack him and fear that voters in Maharashtra… Read More To criticise Savarkar or not: A false dilemma
First posted January 17, 2018 NB: Amidst the fanfare of the Israeli Prime Ministerial visit to India, and the warmth being displayed towards him by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it may be of interest for Israeli citizens to know the ideological roots of India’s current ruling dispensation. DS Briefly put, it’s simple: their icon, V.… Read More Some information for Israelis (and the rest of us)
First posted February 19, 2019 NB: This is an important commentary. Carl Schmitt’s elevation of animosity to a metaphysical dimension is much admired by intellectuals across the political spectrum, and commands influence (sometimes unacknowledged) left to right. An example of Schmitt’s ‘the political‘ as applied to the historiography of communal politics in colonial India may be… Read More Julian de Medeiros: Trump’s wall isn’t a state of emergency but a state of exception (2019)
Annie Lord Dating apps have changed us and in reality there’s probably no going back. When people don’t use apps, it doesn’t mean they start meeting in person, it just means they don’t meet anyone at all. A friend of mine recently compared the situation to Uber and the way the ride sharing app monopolised… Read More Swipe fatigue, or the rise and fall of dating apps
His projects were so reliant on public money for survival that in the days before he discovered the necessity of voting Republican to provide “balance” to American politics, conservatives derided the degree of state support for his ventures. Kenan Malik Trussonomics trashed within eight weeks. Donald Trump’s anointed candidates cut down in the US midterms. Sam… Read More Beware self-made ‘genius’ entrepreneurs promising the earth. Just look at Elon Musk
Clara Mattei Austerity, like trickle-down economics, has been relegated to the list of things economists don’t talk about anymore. Austerity’s core policies – hikes in interest rates, downward pressure of fiscal spending and wages – had their last stand with the European sovereign-debt crisis a decade ago, and the resulting public outcry made the “a-word”… Read More Don’t be fooled: policymakers are quietly invoking austerity by other names
Clara Mattei discusses her new book The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism “A must-read, with key lessons for the future.”—Thomas Piketty A groundbreaking examination of austerity’s dark intellectual origins. For more than a century, governments facing financial crisis have resorted to the economic policies of austerity—cuts to wages,… Read More Clara Mattei: How Economists Invented Austerity / Anwar Shaikh: What Happens When Economics Doesn’t Reflect the Real World?
The One Word Guaranteed to Make the Corporate Pundit Class Squirm Neoliberalism is not particularly hard to define. It’s not only an ideology or a set of principles; it’s a system of practices, and an era, the one we’re living in now. What it means, over and above everything, is untrammeled ruling-class power, an end… Read More Sam Kriss: ‘Neoliberalism’ isn’t a left-wing insult but a monstrous political system of inequality
BY WILLIAM D. HARTUNG Here’s a seldom commented-upon reality of this century and this moment: the United States remains the number-one arms-exporting nation on the planet. Between 2017 and 2021, it grabbed 39% of the total global weapons market and there’s nothing new about that. It has, in fact, been the top arms dealer in every year but one for… Read More Joe Biden, the National Security State, and Arms Sales
Bidisha Mamata Last month, Elon Musk walked into Twitter and then all the good people left. I quit, too. It was a time-sink, a brain drain and an eye strain. In 12 years, I gained nothing, while witnessing peers and colleagues at their worst. Oh, the bliss of not turning every little thing into a quip. The… Read More I too quit Twitter this week – and have never been more relieved
After the truth-shower 