The IDF-induced famine in Gaza became a Live Aid moment; weirdly, starvation depoliticised the genocide, bleaching it into a humanitarian cause that writers could get behind Mukul Kesavan Why have Western writers and public intellectuals been so feeble and belated in their response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza? The general public can be forgiven for… Read More Guilty silence
Franz Kafka “It’s a remarkable apparatus,” said the Officer to the Explorer and gazed with a certain look of admiration at the device, with which he was, of course, thoroughly familiar. It appeared that the Traveller had responded to the invitation of the Commandant only out of politeness, when he had been asked to attend… Read More In the Penal Colony (1919)
Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece’s Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophical Masterpiece James Romm For my money, there is no more captivating view in all Italy than the vast panorama of the harbour of Syracuse, framed by its majestic, honey-coloured Baroque buildings. The city’s origins go back to the eighth… Read More Roots of The Republic
A little-known philosopher’s deep influence over the avant-garde, neoconservatives, and the European Union…. ‘His work on behalf of a resistance group in Puy-en-Velay got him arrested by the Gestapo; anticipating his future talents as a negotiator, he managed to talk his way out of the firing squad.’ The Life and Thought of Alexandre Kojève BY Marco… Read More Hegel Dust
Siyavash Shahabi The struggle against religious superstition and the effort to sever the bond between religion and power have deep roots in Iran. Contrary to the widespread belief that secularism is purely a Western or modern phenomenon, Iranian history is rich with Enlightenment-driven efforts that have criticized religion not as a matter of faith, but… Read More Sadegh Hedayat on Religion, Power, and Manufactured Ignorance
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
As for Don Quixote, though, if he had been newly created in 2025, he would certainly be squaring off against AI. Anthony Grafton The Study: The Inner Life of Renaissance Libraries by Andrew Hui The Librarian’s Atlas: The Shape of Knowledge in Early Modern Spain by Seth Kimmel Libraries were all the rage in Renaissance Europe, and no wonder. Theatres of knowledge,… Read More No Cheese Please
Sapan Bookshelf: Coming Back: The Odyssey of a Pakistani Through India – By Shueyb Gandapur Countless Centuries Press, 2025By Sayali Goyal / Sapan News As someone who has worked on writing stories on the interconnectedness of the world for the last decade, now researching kinship in East and West Punjab through material cultures, I was immediately… Read More Coming Back: The Odyssey of a Pakistani Through India
Prem Shankar Jha The following are excerpts from The Dismantling of India’s Democracy: 1947 to 2025 by Prem Shankar Jha; reproduced with permission from the publisher, Speaking Tiger. Over the decade since Narendra Modi has been the prime minister of India, at the head of a BJP government supported by a few local allies in the states… Read More Narendra Modi’s Step by Step Journey Towards Creating Fascism in India
In the dream of the man that dreamed, the dreamed one awoke by Jorge Luis Borges NO ONE saw him disembark in the unanimous night, no one saw the bamboo canoe sinking into the sacred mud, but within a few days no one was unaware that the silent man came from the South and that… Read More THE CIRCULAR RUINS (1940)
After the truth-shower 