Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India, gave this speech on August 14, 1947, just before India achieved independence. Because his thoughts on non-violence, truth and tolerance continue to have an enduring relevance today. At this crucial juncture in our history, when after years and years of struggle, we are finally going to hold the… Read More Rajendra Prasad’s Speech, made hours before India’s Independence
Publishers and other institutions are turning cowardly and brittle when faced with social media frenzies Clanchy appears to have been cast beyond the pale, where there is no room for nuance. But it is evident from the testimony of those who know her that she has done a huge amount of good, championing young people… Read More Sonia Sodha: The hounding of author Kate Clanchy has been a witch-hunt without mercy
The origin of all this – a Conservative party happily trampling on the union, the monarchy and the cultural organisation that binds these islands together like no other – is not hard to fathom, though it has become impolite to mention it. It’s Brexit that transformed the Conservative party. Where once Tories revered tradition, Brexit filled them… Read More Jonathan Freedland: This scandal reveals a Conservative party corrupted by Boris Johnson – and by Brexit / Rory Stewart: Britain needs a new era of serious leaders
Nassim Taleb divides the world and all that’s in it (people, things, institutions, ways of life) into three categories: the fragile, the robust and the antifragile. You are fragile if you avoid disorder and disruption for fear of the mess they might make of your life: you think you are keeping safe, but really you are… Read More Antifragile: How to Live in a World We Don't Understand by Nassim Nicholas Taleb – review
Gauri Lankesh, a high-profile journalist and activist who spoke out against the rise of right-wing extremism and stood up for India’s marginalised people, was shot to death on 5 September 2017. Gauri was posthumously awarded the Anna Politkovskaya Award for her work. The trial of the 17 people being held in remand for her murder… Read More Killing the Truth: the case of Gauri Lankesh
On 15 January an unprecedented scene was witnessed in the Kashmir Press Club (KPC) when a few journalists accompanied by government forces entered into the premises and appointed themselves as the new “interim body” to look after the club affairs. Many journalists termed the incident a “coup” and condemned the arbitrary takeover of the club… Read More Junaid Kathju: Lockdown of Kashmir Press Club
Letter to the readers, Mainstream, Jan 22, 2022 · Public Sector in India Faces a Three-Sided Assault | Arun Kumar · The Lamp | S.G.Vombatkere · Foundations of Indian Republic De-based: The Case of Federalism | D Raja · Veil is anti-Quran | S. Faizi · Telangana Rastra Samiti & Political Dynamics in Telangana | Karli Srinivasulu · A Welcome… Read More Mainstream, Jan 22, 2022
The production and release of plastics, pesticides, industrial compounds, antibiotics and other pollutants is now happening so fast and on such a large scale that it has exceeded the planetary boundary for chemical pollution, the safe limit for humanity, a new study claims. We asked Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez, a PhD candidate at Stockholm University and one… Read More Chemical pollution exceeds safe planetary limit
If you’re wondering how deep the rot has set into our society, and how autonomous the radicalisation of even the educated sections has become, you have to look no further than the open letter written by 32 assorted retired IFS officers on the 5th of this month in response to an appeal by more than… Read More Avay Shukla: A LETTER THAT DIMINISHES THE INDIAN FOREIGN SERVICE
“This body is not me; I am not caught in this body, I am life without boundaries, I have never been born and I have never died… Birth and death are only a door through which we go in and out. Birth and death are only a game of hide-and-seek. So smile to me and take… Read More Thích Nhất Hạnh, Buddhist Monk and Peace Activist Dead at 95
After the truth-shower 