Stalin through the journalism of his time: H.R. Knickerbocker’s interview with Ekaterina Geladze; Gareth Jones’s exposé of the Holodomor; W.E.B. Du Bois’s homage to a freedom fighter; and Raymond Aron’s optimism in 1956. Internazionale Storia 5 (2023) On the 70th anniversary of Stalin’s death, a special issue of Internazionale looks at the life and significance of the… Read More ‘The end of the big lie’
Thomas Rowley The day started with Russian law enforcement searching the homes of nine senior members of the country’s oldest human rights organisation, Memorial. Apparently, there was reason to believe that these Nobel Prize-winning historians and rights defenders had been “rehabilitating Nazism”. Investigators had allegedly found that three names on Memorial’s list of historical “Victims… Read More Russia targets its oldest human rights group, Memorial
In the last two weeks, parliament has been witness to majoritarian bullying like never before. The Opposition’s demands for immediate discussion on the Adani scam were bludgeoned into submission by the Treasury benches, who instead demand an apology from Rahul Gandhi. Jawhar Sircar Seventy-three years may not be enough to pronounce a judgement on whether… Read More Disruption by the Ruling Party Signals a New Low for India’s Parliament
Bharat Bhushan The belligerence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s MPs against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is not letting Parliament function. This is unprecedented, and especially galling because Parliament needs to pass the Budget in this session, irrespective of whether Gandhi apologises for comments made in the United Kingdom on the erosion of democracy in India. Forget his… Read More Why the ‘Mother of Democracy’ brooks no criticism
Jafar Panahi after the ban MARK KROTOV Jafar Panahi (director). No Bears. 2022.Jafar Panahi: Interviews. Edited by Drew Todd. University Press of Mississippi, 2019. JAFAR PANAHI’S NO BEARS opens with a long, 270-degree pan around the T-intersection of two streets. We know the action takes place sometime in the post-pandemic present because in the background of the frame… Read More An Entire Society Exists Within Me
From visa uncertainty to deportation threats, foreign correspondents recount in surveys how Modi government is making it harder for them to report from India. Arunabh Saikia India’s tax crackdown on the BBC, weeks after it aired a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has made news around the world. But foreign correspondents based in… Read More How the foreign press is being silenced: The Foreign Correspondents’ Club
Kenan Malik In January, the BBC broadcast a two-part series, India: The Modi Question, which looked forensically at the role of Narendra Modi in fomenting the Gujarat anti-Muslim riots of 2002 in which at least 1,000 people were killed. Now the prime minister of India, Modi was then the chief minister of Gujarat. The response in… Read More India enjoyed a free and vibrant media. Narendra Modi’s brazen attacks are a catastrophe
Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi Since Modi came to power in 2014, some journalists and other media workers have alleged that a systematic silencing of critical reporting has taken place and that journalists have been targeted as “anti-national” threats to the state. In this year’s World Press Freedom Index, India dropped down to 150 out of 180 countries,… Read More Indian journalists say BBC raid part of drive to intimidate media
The timing of the income tax survey by the Union government on BBC was ill- advised, and has done irreparable damage to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image as a global leader Bharat Bhushan Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have further lost the battle of perception internationally with the income tax department raiding (or as the… Read More BBC ‘Raid’: PM Modi loses battle of perception internationally
Hannah Ellis-Petersen BBC offices in India have been raided by tax department officials, just weeks after the release of a documentary critical of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, which was later blocked by the government. According to those working at the broadcaster, more than a dozen officials from the country’s income tax department turned up at… Read More BBC offices in India raided by tax officials amid Modi documentary fallout
After the truth-shower 