First posted November 2011 (written in 1988) Dilip Simeon NB: This essay on Marxist economic categories arose out of a lecture delivered in Hindu College in 1987, and was published in Mainstream, Vol XXVI No. 35 June 11, 1988 The founder of neo-classical economics, Alfred Marshal, defined economics as the study of man “ in the ordinary business of… Read More A Summary of Marx’s Critique of Capital
First posted August 27, 2016 Oh what a tangled web we weave / when first we practice to deceive: Sir Walter Scott The Supreme Court recently took up a PIL challenging a statement made by Rahul Gandhi alleging that the RSS killed Mahatma Gandhi. (Rahul Gandhi was then reported to have amended his statement, and the RSS demanded an apology. A comment sent… Read More The Supreme Court, Gandhi and the RSS
DHIRENDRA K JHA is a contributing writer at The Caravan November 1, 2022 NB: How things have changed since June 4, 2024. Mr Bhagwat, not to mention Messrs Naidu and Nitish, have been emboldened by the unforeseen successes of the opposition INDIA alliance. The two N’s are sneering at the opposition, which is ironic, because it is… Read More Bhagwat eclipsed
Dilip Simeon Permanent spring: Seminar # 607, March 2010 ON 30 April 1908, two young men, Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose, entered the boundary of the Muzaffarpur Club in Bihar and waited for the hated judge Douglas Kingsford to appear. They were members of Jugantar, the foremost nationalist-revolutionary group to emerge during the Swadeshi movement… Read More Permanent Spring: Indian Maoism and the Philosophy of Insurrection
First posted January 2, 2019 NB: Two things arise from these and related developments for us to think about: 1./ The nation-state as an institution is detrimental for the health of the environment. Environment and ecological issues are global, but nationalism makes us think that natural resources like clean air, water and forests are somehow the… Read More Jair Bolsonaro’s assault on the Amazon rainforest
First posted July 20, 2013 The life-impulse can exist without fascism, but fascism cannot exist without the life-impulse. Fascism is the vampire leeched to the body of the living, the impulse to murder given free rein, when love calls for fulfilment in spring.. Wilhelm Reich in The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933): The essays below are part of a… Read More The law of killing: A brief history of Indian fascism / Arthur Rosenberg: Fascism as a Mass Movement / Kannan Srinivasan: A Subaltern Fascism?
Dilip Simeon First posted April 11, 2017 Lecture presented at the Champaran Satyagrah centenary celebrations, Patna, April 10, 2017 A pdf of the lecture is available here. A fuller argument on satyagrah and nihilism may be read here The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it: Mary Catherine Bateson Nihilism doesn’t stand… Read More The search for new time: Ahimsa in an age of permanent war
First posted May 3, 2017 NB: This article appeared under the title 50 years of Naxalbari in CatchNews on May 1, 2017. I post it below with my original title. It is the first of two articles I wrote about the first phase of Naxalism. The second appeared in Outlook on May 15, I’ve posted it here: Yesterday once more. I take… Read More Annihilation – 50 years of Naxalbari
First posted May 6, 2017 NB: This is the second of two pieces that I have written for publication on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Naxalbari. It has appeared today in Outlook. I post it here under the title that I gave it. The first one was entitled Annihilation. And this post has photos from a… Read More Yesterday once more – 50 years after Naxalbari
Dilip Simeon First posted June 4, 2017; published in The Indian Express, June 5 NB: This is the third piece I have written concerning the 50th anniversary of Naxalbari. It appeared today -June 5, 2017 – in the Indian Express website. The first was entitled Annihilation. The second, Yesterday once more-50 years after Naxalbari, was published in Outlook. Here is a post… Read More Naxalites should lay down their arms and challenge the ruling class to abide by the Constitution
After the truth-shower 