Tag: critical theory

Why should Indian agriculture be liberalised when in most countries governments subsidise it? By Christophe Jaffrelot , Hemal Thakker

On September 27, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to three contentious farm bills passed by Parliament — The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 (FAPAFS), the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 (FPTC) and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 (EC). These… Read More Why should Indian agriculture be liberalised when in most countries governments subsidise it? By Christophe Jaffrelot , Hemal Thakker

Dilip

Matthew Rozsa: This Marxist philosopher foresaw the rise of Trumpism more than 80 years ago

His name was Walter Benjamin; born to a Jewish family in Berlin, Benjamin was present for a pivotal moment in history, and watched Hitler rise to power. By the time he wrote his most famous essay, he was an exile living in France amidst financial hardships, having recognized that the Reichstag fire three years earlier… Read More Matthew Rozsa: This Marxist philosopher foresaw the rise of Trumpism more than 80 years ago

Dilip

Tom Engelhardt: The History of the Decline and Fall of the American Empire Or What It Means to Fall on a Failing Planet

As in Election Campaign 2016, Donald Trump isn’t the cause but a symptom (though what a symptom!) of an American world going down. Then as now, he somehow gathered into his one-and-only self so many of the worst impulses of a country that, in this century, found itself eternally at war not just with Afghans… Read More Tom Engelhardt: The History of the Decline and Fall of the American Empire Or What It Means to Fall on a Failing Planet

Dilip

Lynn Parramore: The perverted dreams of western modernity and capitalism may be exhausting themselves

Do you, inhabitant of the marvelous and menacing late-modern world, detect something missing – some kind of vitality, meaning, connectedness, love, beauty, or wonder? If so, you’ve likely searched for a story to explain it….  Critics of the disenchantment narrative have long noticed that if you look closely at western modernity, this ostensibly secular and… Read More Lynn Parramore: The perverted dreams of western modernity and capitalism may be exhausting themselves

Dilip

Mukul Kesavan – Right not rabid: Respectable conservatism in the time of Trump

In these majoritarian times, some conservative pundits, embarrassed by the feral Right and keen to seem ideologically respectable, have found an all-purpose rhetorical manoeuvre which goes like this. Progressives are to blame for the enthronement of racist, communalist and majoritarian political parties because it is the left’s ‘wokeness’, its elitist disdain for the anxieties of… Read More Mukul Kesavan – Right not rabid: Respectable conservatism in the time of Trump

Dilip

Robert B Reich : Beware going 'back to normal' thoughts – normal gave us Trump

Life is going to return to normal,” Joe Biden promised on Thursday in a Thanksgiving address to the nation. He was talking about life after Covid-19, but you could be forgiven if you thought he was also making a promise about life after Trump. It is almost impossible to separate the two. To the extent voters gave… Read More Robert B Reich : Beware going 'back to normal' thoughts – normal gave us Trump

Dilip

SHEKHAR GUPTA: Shambles over farmers’ protest shows Modi-Shah BJP needs a Punjab tutorial

How well does the BJP understand the politics of Punjab? The answer will be, I am afraid, very poorly. Definitely the Modi-Shah BJP does not understand Punjab, Punjabis, their politics, or even more specifically, the Sikhs. Or, they wouldn’t have dug themselves into such a hole (pun intended) over their handling of the Punjab farmers’… Read More SHEKHAR GUPTA: Shambles over farmers’ protest shows Modi-Shah BJP needs a Punjab tutorial

Dilip

Amanda Marcotte: Trump's lasting legacy: The right's open embrace of terrorism / Epidemiologist warns of “contagion” of violent speech coming “from the White House” / Damon Linker: America is buckling

Amanda Marcotte: Trump leaves a lasting legacy: The right’s open embrace of terrorism   In any sensible society, Kyle Rittenhouse would be shunned across the political spectrum. The 17-year-old Illinois resident stands accused of shooting three people, killing two of them, during an August Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Whatever the specific facts of that incident, the… Read More Amanda Marcotte: Trump's lasting legacy: The right's open embrace of terrorism / Epidemiologist warns of “contagion” of violent speech coming “from the White House” / Damon Linker: America is buckling

Dilip

Pratap Bhanu Mehta: SC was never perfect, but the signs are that it is slipping into judicial barbarism

In political science literature there is a familiar term — democratic barbarism. Democratic barbarism is often sustained by a judicial barbarism. The term “barbarism” has several components. The first is the overwhelming appearance of arbitrariness in judicial decision-making. The application of law becomes so dependent on the arbitrary whims of individual judges that the rule… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta: SC was never perfect, but the signs are that it is slipping into judicial barbarism

Dilip