There is a quiet and visible crisis in higher education in India that runs deep: Deepak Nayyar

There is a quiet crisis in higher education in India that runs deep, distinguished academician and former Chief Economic Advisor Deepak Nayyar said here on Wednesday (July 9, 2025), delivering the 2025 B.G. Deshmukh Lecture on ‘The Crisis of Higher Education in India: Disturbing Present and Worrisome Future’. Holding the Narendra Modi government responsible for… Read More There is a quiet and visible crisis in higher education in India that runs deep: Deepak Nayyar

S. B. Zaki: Arab women before and after Islam. Opening the door of pre-Islamic Arabian history

First posted June 19, 2016 “Islamic civilization developed a construct of history that labeled the pre-Islamic period the Age of Ignorance and projected Islam as the sole source of all that was civilized – and used that construct so effectively in its rewriting of history that the peoples of Middle East lost all knowledge of… Read More S. B. Zaki: Arab women before and after Islam. Opening the door of pre-Islamic Arabian history

Two upstarts

Kejriwal’s political choices make him an interesting retail politician; Mamdani’s choices have the potential of making his project a precedent for Democratic politics Mukul Kesavan As I watch from a great distance Zohran Mamdani’s extraordinary campaign for the mayoralty of New York, it is instructive to think about the similarities and differences between the electoral… Read More Two upstarts

Palestine Action proscription: Criminalising effectiveness

The proposed ban, rooted in colonial counter-insurgency law, could end up demystifying direct action and increasing public resolve A Palestinian man carries away the body of a relative killed in the Israeli strike on al-Baqa cafe. Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images The State isn’t only targeting disruption. It’s trying to discipline public consciousness. Palestine Action has become… Read More Palestine Action proscription: Criminalising effectiveness

Prophecy, not politics, may also shape America’s clash with Iran

NB: America’s religious fanatics have converted the Old Testament into a title deed; Jesus into a bloodthirsty warrior; Christianity into an instrument of the arms industry; and compassion for humanity into obscurantist nationalism and narcissism. To assist them in this endeavour, the US Supreme Court is functioning as a Catholic theocracy. In a word, religion… Read More Prophecy, not politics, may also shape America’s clash with Iran