First posted September 12, 2018 I will open this comment with an anecdote. Some months ago, whilst exercising in the gym I visit, the senior trainer was talking politics with someone. He is a friendly individual and I normally do not converse whilst exercising. He happens to be an admirer of Narendra Modi. On this… Read More Oxford University’s South Asian Studies Programme’s comments on Venkat Dhulipala
Noor Mohammad Shah had always happily lived a life of obscurity. Born in a small village in the conflict-ridden state of Kashmir in India, Shah had been introduced to the mystical world of Sufi music as a child and for decades since had made a meagre but fulfilling living singing traditional songs and performing on… Read More ‘It feels good’: Kashmir folk singer’s rise from dusty street to music star
The waning success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as vote-catchers may have contributed to a weakening of their leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This is suggested by the fratricidal rivalries surfacing in the BJP-ruled states. If they could brush off electoral defeats in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya… Read More Bharat Bhushan: Signs of BJP central leadership weakening
Today, 1 July, is the centenary of the police firing in Dharwar during the movement for Non-violent Non-co-operation with the Colonial Government in India 100 years ago. The firing started around 8.20 at night when non-co-operators were picketing market toddy and liquor shops. At least 42 bullets were fired, killing 3 and injuring around 39 persons.… Read More Anil Nauriya: July 1, 2021 is the Centenary of the Dharwar Firing
An excerpt from Kabir, Kabir: The Life and Work of the Early Modern Poet-Philosopher – by Purushottam Agrawal. Why were Kabir’s detractors “forced” to escalate matters up to the sultan? Mostly because they were smarting from having failed so miserably to check his influence themselves. Kabir’s fame was sky- rocketing, despite his obvious lack… Read More Kabir’s search for solitude resembles our search for privacy in totalitarian times
“Cultural Marxism” is often invoked by some on the right to explain the rise of “woke” politics in universities, newsrooms, and corporations. According to this well-rehearsed line of criticism, the fixation on race and gender, the erosion of free speech, and the high-pitched frenzy of political correctness and cancellation, are nothing less than a communist… Read More Alexander Stern: What the Frankfurt School has to stay about bureaucratic progressivism
‘When it becomes ‘political’, justice breeds hatred and despair among those it singles out for attack. Those whom it favours, on the other hand, develop a profound contempt for the very value of justice, they know that it can be purchased by the powerful. As a device for strengthening one political group at the expense… Read More Avay Shukla: IT'S TIME TO BE OUTRAGED , MY LORDS
Mediazona, a media outlet focusing on law and justice, spoke with workers at three different enterprises who took part in last year’s protests to find out how they happened. As part of our coverage of Belarus, openDemocracy has translated and republished this article with permission here. Alexey Karlyuk, 35, is from the town of… Read More Alexey Shuntov – Strike, exile, arrest: what happened to Belarusian workers?
We were all so excited. Ramadan was coming to an end, and preparations for the Eid al-Fitr holiday were underway. As the eldest daughter in my family, my parents sent me shopping with my sisters for new clothes for Eid, while my father went out to bring ingredients for sumaqiyya and feseekh. Meanwhile, Israel was undergoing its… Read More Aya Al-Ghazzawi: After the nightmare of the Gaza massacre, what comes next?
Appalling. That’s the only way to describe the manner in which the proceedings against Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha have been conducted and are being conducted by the police and prosecution till now. In the process, the underbelly of our criminal justice system stands exposed in some respects, and it’s a pretty… Read More Five Questions on the Shameful Proceedings Against Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, Asif Iqbal. By Madan B. Lokur, former judge of the Supreme Court
After the truth-shower 