‘A little unhinged, or totally fearless’ : the chronicler of China’s 170 million migrant workers

‘class conflict is the last of the visible conflicts because it is the first in importance’: Alberto Toscano NB: A thundering reminder of the reality of life under capitalism, Chinese or non Chinese. When, if ever the world wakes up from the ideological slumber of nationalism and identity politics, it will be confronted by the… Read More ‘A little unhinged, or totally fearless’ : the chronicler of China’s 170 million migrant workers

Dilip

Silences within silences: excavating the hidden history of Bengalis interned in Pakistan after 1971

By Irfan Chowdhury / Sapan News Citizens to Traitors: Bengali Internment in Pakistan 1971-1974By Ilyas Chattha; Cambridge University Press, 2025 Growing up in the 1980s in Bangladesh, I had heard many stories of the 1971 war. I knew about the Bengalis working, for example, in the civil service of Pakistan, like my uncle who was stranded with… Read More Silences within silences: excavating the hidden history of Bengalis interned in Pakistan after 1971

Dilip

Clearest Blue

A very unusual song, both for its lyrics and its melody. It comes at the end of a new film with a superb child actor, Ana Sophia Heger, in She Rides Shotgun. Quite something. This is a Scottish group Clearest Blue Song by CHVRCHES ‧ 2015 Light is all over usLike it always wasLike it… Read More Clearest Blue

Dilip

Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi arrested in Iran

Iranian security forces have “violently arrested” Nobel Peace Prize winner and women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi, her foundation has said. The Narges Foundation said Ms Mohammadi, 53, was detained in the eastern city of Mashhad, along with other activists. The Nobel Committee said it was “deeply concerned by today’s brutal arrest of Narges Mohammadi” and… Read More Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi arrested in Iran

Dilip

Quiet luminescence

As I look back on their lives, I can now see, more clearly than when I was young, how my parents affirmed, in practice rather than in theory, the spirit of fraternity and non-discrimination Ramachandra Guha’s tribute to his parents. May their souls rest in peace This column stays away from mentioning my family, but… Read More Quiet luminescence

Dilip

Refusing Savarkar award exposes Shashi Tharoor’s dilemma

NB: Accepting an award in the name of a prime suspect in the Mahatma Gandhi murder case is but a logical step forward from playing to-ey to-ey with brazen Savarkarites and Godse-ites. Not all patriots are scoundrels; but all scoundrels are definitely patriots. Wit is no substitute for wisdom, Shashi. Your performance is becoming cringeworthy.… Read More Refusing Savarkar award exposes Shashi Tharoor’s dilemma

Dilip

State of Madness: Psychiatry, Literature, and Dissent After Stalin

Dr Rebecca Reich examines politics, culture and reality in the Soviet Union “Dissenters in the USSR responded by making literary use of psychiatric discourse to both validate themselves and challenge the authority of the state. “The impact of their essays, transcripts, poems and works of fiction may have seemed limited within the isolation and silence… Read More State of Madness: Psychiatry, Literature, and Dissent After Stalin

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