How social media lies fuelled a rush to war between India and Pakistan

Disinformation spread to mainstream channels in what experts call deliberate ‘informational warfare’ Hannah Ellis-Petersen South Asia correspondent As missiles and drones crisscrossed the night skies above India and Pakistan earlier this month, another invisible war was taking place. Not long after the Indian government announced Operation Sindoor, the military offensive against Pakistan triggered by a militant attack in Kashmir that… Read More How social media lies fuelled a rush to war between India and Pakistan

A wake-up call

Our democratic and secular fabric has frayed, our economic progress has stalled. The gap between China and India is now so large that the phrase, ‘Chindia’, has dropped out of circulation Ramachandra Guha India and Pakistan were born at the same time, cut from the cloth of the same Empire. They inherited a common political,… Read More A wake-up call

Germany trumpets its reckoning with its Nazi past – except when it’s inconvenient

From a media prize with a dubious pedigree to the horrors of Gaza, the establishment forgets and remembers what suits it best Hanno Hauenstein Growing up in Germany, we were taught to believe we had done better. Better than our grandparents’ generation, who swept their complicity under a thick rug of silence. Better even than… Read More Germany trumpets its reckoning with its Nazi past – except when it’s inconvenient

Criminalising thought?

Ashoka University academic’s arrest shows how rapidly universities, once spaces for debate and discussion, are pushed towards restraint and silences. Deepanshu Mohan Wilhelm von Humboldt, a great liberal reformer and a humanist, once defined the university as “nothing other than the spiritual life of those human beings who are moved by external leisure or internal pressures… Read More Criminalising thought?

The New Icon? Savarkar and the Facts. Purushottam Agrawal & Arun Shourie

In this podcast, Purushottam Agrawal interviews Arun Shourie on his latest book “The New Icon: Savarkar and the Facts?“. Along with the book, they also discuss Savarkar – his ideas, his hatred for Gandhi and what he thought of himself. Prof. Purushottam Agrawal is a writer, historian, political commentator, public intellectual, former member at UPSC… Read More The New Icon? Savarkar and the Facts. Purushottam Agrawal & Arun Shourie

Our soldiers won the war for us – but politics and the media have undone their good work

Avay Shukla Going beyond the nit picking about the number of “assets” lost by India and Pakistan, it is now clear that we have inflicted significant losses on the latter. In doing so our defence forces have also demonstrated the technological and air power to enforce the Prime Minister’s stated resolve to extract a heavy… Read More Our soldiers won the war for us – but politics and the media have undone their good work