The singularity of the Israeli campaign in Gaza lies in the asymmetry of power, its intensity, its enclosure, its direct connection to a settler colonial project. All this leads us back to the 1940s and Raphael Lemkin’s definition of genocide, which he modeled on Nazi-occupied Poland. That line of thought should not be dodged, or… Read More Bulldozing Gaza
Two bizarre weeks in a Boston courtroom and the threat to intellectual life in America… It is a feature of our intractable times that political conflict nearly always takes the shape of a conflict over the nature of reality. By Charlie Tyson It was the first day of a federal trial, in Boston, for a… Read More Can Academic Freedom Survive the Surveillance State?
By Zeynep Devrİm Gürsel “Just as any advanced comrade must have a watch, he shall also possess mastery of a photo camera.” So declared Anatoly Lunacharsky in 1926, in his role as the Soviet Union’s Commissar of Enlightenment. This programmatic statement was included in the very first issue of the photography journal Sovetskoe Foto, published that same… Read More Strangers in the Family Album: Reflections on Soviet Amateur Photography
One word, in particular, stood out to researchers as a kind of linguistic watermark. “Delve” has become an academic shibboleth, a neon sign in the middle of every conversation flashing ChatGPT was here. NB: I’ve found ‘delve‘ occuring very frequently in students assignments. DS Sara Parker Join any Zoom call, walk into any lecture hall, or… Read More You sound like ChatGPT
Given India’s own macroeconomic position, as vulnerable as it is now, it is imperative for the government to try and achieve a trade-compromise with the US in the short term at least. Deepanshu Mohan The additional 25% tariff penalty imposed on India by Trump administration, taking the overall tariff level to 50%, signals a low… Read More Few Options on the Negotiating Table as India and Modi Are Cornered by Trump
If ECI adheres to its fiat of asking for one of the 11 specified documents, at least 50 per cent of those required to produce a document could be excluded from the final voters list in Bihar. Yogendra Yadav & Rahul Shastri Here is a simple yet critical question for the ongoing SIR exercise: What… Read More Edge of disenfranchisement
Welcome to The Backdrop, a selection of fine narrative journalism from The Caravan to put the news in context. The Independence Day Sale is now live. Last week, a special National Investigation Agency court in Mumbai acquitted Pragya Singh Thakur, a former member of parliament from the Bhartiya Janata Party, and six others in the… Read More The Caravan archive: Malegaon Acquittals, NIA’s Decline, and Sangh Parivar Terror Links
St Xavier’s College in Mumbai has cancelled its annual Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture, which was to be held on Saturday, after protests by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, reported The Free Press Journal. The ABVP is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The lecture, titled “Migration for… Read More Mumbai: St Xavier’s College cancels Stan Swamy lecture after ABVP protests
Mario Praz (1896-1982) was an Italian-born critic of art & literature, and scholar of English literature. His best-known book, La carne, la morte e il diavolo nella letteratura romantica (The Romantic Agony, 1933) written in 1930 was a comprehensive survey of the erotic and morbid themes that characterized European authors of the late 18th &… Read More Mario Praz: The Romantic Agony (1933)
Personality politics will not make up for the Global South’s mistrust of India’s purely self-serving strategic autonomy. Bharat Bhushan United States President Donald Trump’s near-daily targeting of India in his second term has left Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government stunned. His description of the Indian economy as ‘dead’ and accusations that it funds the Russian ‘war machine’ in… Read More Nehru built institutions. Modi built a brand, and it is cracking
After the truth-shower 