(First posted November 29, 2019) NB: This is a magnificient contribution to Indian historiography. Rahul Sagar and his collaborators deserve the thanks of the Indian public and indeed of all those interested in an honest exploration of the past. DS Starting in the early nineteenth century, ambitious Indians began flocking to newly-founded schools and colleges offering instruction… Read More Ideas of India Archive
(First posted March 1, 2020) New light will be shed on one of the most controversial periods of Vatican history on Monday when the archives on Pope Pius XII, accused by critics of being a Nazi sympathiser are unsealed. A year after Pope Francis announced the move, saying “the church isn’t afraid of history”, the documents from Pius XII’s… Read More Harriet Sherwood: Unsealing of Vatican archives will finally reveal truth about ‘Hitler’s pope’
(NB: First posted March 13, 2020) A little over two years into the Spanish civil war, one of Spain’s greatest poets wrote to a Chilean friend to tell him how desperately he and a couple of their mutual acquaintances longed to escape the conflict and travel to South America. “We’ll come to your sad and beautiful… Read More Unique Pablo Neruda archive – and slice of history up for auction
NB: Hari Vasudevan passed away on May 10, 2020, aged 68. A great scholar and wonderful man, he was widely respected and loved. He will be mourned and missed by friends and students. RIP, Hari Hari Vasudevan and the Soviet Archives : A Personal RemembranceIt was May, 1995, exactly 25 years ago. Hari Vasudevan (Calcutta University), Purabi… Read More Hari Vasudevan and the Soviet Archives : A Personal Remembrance. By Sobhanlal Datta Gupta
Reviewed by Patrick Keane To begin with full disclosure: I am in essential agreement with the now famous or infamous salvo Mark Lilla fired off shortly after the publication of the book here under review. I refer of course to his widely discussed and hotly debated op-ed, “The End of Identity Liberalism,” which appeared in… Read More Book review. The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction, by Mark Lilla
How journalism in Kashmir has been driven to the edge TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY SHAHID TANTRAY AT 1.45 PM, on 15 January, an armoured cavalcade rolled onto the premises of the Kashmir Press Club—Kashmir’s largest body representing journalists—in Polo View, abutting Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. There had been heightened police presence at the club since the day… Read More Dead Lines
Informal Labour in India’s Coalfields. By SURAVEE NAYAK Sooner or later, India will have to move away from coal as its primary energy source, given the looming climate-change-induced disasters that await many South Asian countries if immediate steps are not taken. But the transition away from coal is complex and challenging because of the entanglement of coal… Read More Gasping for Air, Bathing in Coal
By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA The Department of Justice is now formally investigating Donald Trump for serious possible, crimes including violating the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice in connection to his unlawful possession of top secret and highly classified materials. During a court-ordered search of his Mar-a-Lago resort and home last week, the FBI retrieved 11 sets of classified… Read More U.S. v. Donald Trump: What comes after FBI raid? I know one thing: Be afraid
Bharat Bhushan For a few hours it seemed the government had had a change of heart towards Rohingya migrants with Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri’s announcement that 1100 Rohingya migrants living in Delhi would be given government housing. Within seven hours, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) overuled the initiative. It clarified… Read More PR botch-up: Detention Centre presented as EWS housing for Rohingyas
NB: It should and will haunt some, but not the bulk of us. Rampaging across the media are battalions of ideologically infuriated fanatics who will indulge in shameless whataboutery and yet once more, abuse Gandhi, Nehru, liberals, communists, anti-national elements, etc. The Sangh Parivar and its allies are never at fault for anything at all,… Read More ‘Is this how justice ends?’: Bilkis Bano’s question should haunt the Indian republic
After the truth-shower 