Dadabhai Naoroji at 200: The Grand Old Man Who Exposed an Empire’s Loot

Santhosh Mathew “History often rewards those who speak for the voiceless,even when their words are unwelcome.”On his 200th birth anniversary, Dadabhai Naoroji stands tall not merely as a nationalist icon,but as a polymath, thinker, parliamentarian, social reformer, and above all, the conscience-keeper of colonial India. If today Shashi Tharoor reminds the world that India once… Read More Dadabhai Naoroji at 200: The Grand Old Man Who Exposed an Empire’s Loot

Blindsided by Trump, Modi is learning hard lessons about India’s place in the new world order

New Delhi spent decades cosying up to the US. The truth is, Washington doesn’t have allies outside the west – it has clients. What changed was that over the past quarter of a century, India’s political class began to see the US as the country’s natural partner. It was the main destination of India’s exports… Read More Blindsided by Trump, Modi is learning hard lessons about India’s place in the new world order

Jaishankar heading to Moscow, Wang to Delhi amid strain in India ties with US. Remember Nehru’s non-alignment?

On Doval–Wang table: LAC situation, next steps to repair ties; visits taking place in run-up to SCO summit in China, possible visit by Putin to India NB: During the 1960’s the RSS hailed the American war of agression against Vietnam as a dharm-yuddha, or ‘holy war’: manifesting their visceral hatred of socialism and of communist… Read More Jaishankar heading to Moscow, Wang to Delhi amid strain in India ties with US. Remember Nehru’s non-alignment?

Few Options on the Negotiating Table as India and Modi Are Cornered by Trump

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

Hitchhikers Guide To Trump’s Galaxy / Modi’s Vishwaguru Image Dented by Trump’s Taunts

V Sudarshan: Hitchhikers Guide To Trump’s Galaxy Trump goes and says things that our Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson just can’t, not while the Parliament is on and in an unvarnished fashion. He doesn’t hide behind anonymity Trump goes and says things that our Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson just can’t, not while the Parliament… Read More Hitchhikers Guide To Trump’s Galaxy / Modi’s Vishwaguru Image Dented by Trump’s Taunts

Late Victorian Holocausts: the famines that fed the empire

First posted June 02, 2016 Mike Davis: Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World (2002) Reviewed by: Sukhdev Sandhu Recording the past can be a tricky business for historians. Prophesying the future is even more hazardous. In 1901, shortly before the death of Queen Victoria, the radical writer William Digby looked… Read More Late Victorian Holocausts: the famines that fed the empire

GSI’s Handbook on Northeast India Masks Extraction Behind Technicalities

NB: Congratulations to Bonojit, a former Ramjas College student; for his groundbreaking research and activism. DS The handbook casts the Northeast as a mineral-rich periphery, that is “underexplored” and ideal for private investment. Since March this year, around 55,000 bighas of land across Assam have either been cleared or marked for eviction. Of this, only… Read More GSI’s Handbook on Northeast India Masks Extraction Behind Technicalities

Global inequality is the World Bank’s elephant in the room

The World Bank says it can fight poverty through technical solutions. But poverty is inherently political Alf Gunvald Nilsen The future of work and the future of poverty are closely bound up with each other. Global value chains, those webs of firms criss-crossing the world that collectively bring products to market, have driven economic growth… Read More Global inequality is the World Bank’s elephant in the room

How the Sudden Ceasefire Marred the Prime Minister’s PR Script

Clearly, India’s ‘strong leader’ is caught between his aspiration to emerge as national war hero and thus sweep the polls with a two-thirds majority on the one hand and be a trusted Trump buddy on the other. P. Raman The Wire had in these columns narrated how Narendra Modi had often lampooned his predecessor as ‘Maunmohan’ Singh… Read More How the Sudden Ceasefire Marred the Prime Minister’s PR Script

In China’s debt

One of the revelations of this young Trump term has been the embarrassing servility of America’s European allies. It has fallen to China by a kind of default to restore geopolitical equilibrium Mukul Kesavan The economically illiterate reader (like me) browsing the headlines about Donald Trump’s tariffs looks to borrow the opinions of his betters.… Read More In China’s debt