Rohini Hensman: Sri Lanka’s democratic revolution. The latest episode in a decades-long drama

n July 14, 2022, Sri Lanka’s parliamentary speaker announced that he had accepted the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, sent by email from Singapore where he had fled via The Maldives. That this former military commander—known as “the terminator” due to his propensity to get critics assassinated—was forced to resign by an overwhelmingly nonviolent mass movement marks this… Read More Rohini Hensman: Sri Lanka’s democratic revolution. The latest episode in a decades-long drama

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Hindi Writers Slam Police Complaint Against Author Geetanjali Shree / For the first time ever, a book in an Indian language has won the Booker Prize

NB: The game is quite easy to understand, really. The Sangh Parivar and its allies wish to set themselves up as sole representative of Hindu ‘sentiment’; and the sole interpreter of what Hinduism is. They dream of becoming the Head Quarters of Religious Truth for the Indian people. It is a replica of the harassment of… Read More Hindi Writers Slam Police Complaint Against Author Geetanjali Shree / For the first time ever, a book in an Indian language has won the Booker Prize

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Gautam Bhatia on The Executive(’s) Court: Notes on the Legacy of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar

NB: To this excellent commentary on justice I will add a few lines from J.P. Stern’s book, Hitler: The Fuhrer and the People (1992). They are taken from pages 113-114; a chapter called The Spirit of National Socialist Law: “National Socialist law is not, as in Dickens, ‘an ass’: that is, extravagant, purblind, and pompously remote from the… Read More Gautam Bhatia on The Executive(’s) Court: Notes on the Legacy of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar

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Socrates: If the whole is ailing the part cannot be well / Kautilya: Disaffection among Subjects / Darkness at noon, felled by the judiciary

The Sophists taught, rather publicly, that the summit of happiness is to combine the appearance of justice with actual injustice: G. A. McBrayer; On the origin of the Idea of Natural Right; in Brill’s Companion to Leo Strauss, 2005; p 44 Actor Ashutosh Rana की आवाज में Poet Aalok Shrivastav की ये Hindi Ghazal “that… Read More Socrates: If the whole is ailing the part cannot be well / Kautilya: Disaffection among Subjects / Darkness at noon, felled by the judiciary

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Alexandre Koyré: The Political Function of the Modern Lie (1943) / John Keane: Lying, journalism and democracy

A highly perceptive analyst and a close reader of Alexandre Koyré, Hannah Arendt described totalitarian regimes as being “secret societies established in broad daylight.” (see Koyre, pp 296-7, Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism, p 492). By imitating the apparatus of secret societies  without ever trying to keep their own goals a secret, these movements, just like… Read More Alexandre Koyré: The Political Function of the Modern Lie (1943) / John Keane: Lying, journalism and democracy

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High Court of Jammu & Kashmir upholds Sanjay Tickoo’s petition for protection of religious places and castigates communal versions of nationalism

First posted October 10, 2013 NB: The operative aspect of this case may be seen in the highlighted part of para 1 (emphasis added). It is well-known that a large number of temples all over the Kashmir Valley have been desecrated and/or abandoned. According to Sanjay Tickoo, President of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti the figure runs into… Read More High Court of Jammu & Kashmir upholds Sanjay Tickoo’s petition for protection of religious places and castigates communal versions of nationalism

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