NB: Justice in India today: no trial, no conviction, no bail; jail for 5 years. Sometimes we are punished not for what we did but for who we are. DS The young scholar’s work, though not without its flaws, is one of one of the most accomplished doctoral dissertations by an Indian that I have… Read More Ramachandra Guha: In praise of Dr Umar Khalid, from one historian to another
Maybe we have lost the quality of friendship in becoming too particular about whom we choose to have as friends, and in a sense eroding what is, after all, the essence of friendship—camaraderie of various kinds and a fundamental trust in the other : From Just Being NB: Professor Romila Thapar is a stalwart of… Read More Romila Thapar: Just Being
A Post-Course Update from the fourth month of the Pagdandi Fellowship 2025-26 As the last of this year’s monsoon rains finally came to a halt and with the cold beginning to set in, we headed for the Narmada Valley, the final location of the Pagdandi Fellowship. We reached Jeevika Ashram in Indrana, a village on… Read More Nature, Culture & Economy in the Narmada Valley
For now, “anti-national” or “anti-Indian” books are merely being removed from syllabi. Slowly, they will disappear from libraries. Soon, they will cease to be mentioned at all. A long winter has begun to descend on the land of knowledge. Apoorvanand Knowledge – its very disciplines – are today locked in a struggle for survival on… Read More ‘Indianisation’ of Syllabi is Hollowing Out Knowledge in Our Universities
NB: This notice has been placed here at the request of one of the guest editors. DS Special Issue of the British Journal of Aesthetics on “Transnational Feminist Aesthetics” Firm deadline for submissions: 15th June 2026Please adhere to the deadline as we are on a strict production schedule. Guest Editors: Peg Brand Weiser (Indiana University, Emerita) Sukhvinder Shahi (University of Arizona) Ritwik Agrawal (University of Arizona) This special issue… Read More Call for Papers: Special Issue of the British Journal of Aesthetics
The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. Wallace Stevens’ “Description without Place” was composed for and delivered at the Phi Beta Kappa ceremony at Harvard in 1946. Here are a few lines from this remarkably abstract but in fact… Read More Wallace Stevens: Description without place (1946)
NB: Those who bang on about Macaulay’s Minute on education (1835) should acquaint themselves with this early Indian patriot, whose work in education inspired a generation and who preceded Macaulay by many years. DS The men of Young Bengal emerge not as pale imitations of British liberals, but as creative political thinkers who addressed India’s… Read More ‘India’s First Radicals’ argues for a generous assessment of 19th-century Indian intellectual life
Shobhit Mahajan The Tribune, 16 December, 2025 Chat GPT and Google Gemini are rapidly becoming the go-to places for students. That by itself is not surprising-after all generations of students have found ways to avoid rigor and skirt around academic engagement. Champion Guides (which condensed the whole course into a pocket-sized paperback) were followed by… Read More As AI replaces thinking, learning is eroding
“Our study suggests that it is specifically social media that affects children’s ability to concentrate.” By Victor Tangermann A barrage of AI-generated brain rot is haunting children across numerous screens, from personal smartphones to school-issued laptops to televisions. Social media is adding significantly to that cacophony, making it harder than ever for kids to concentrate. Now, new research… Read More Social Media Is Absolutely Nuking Children’s Brains, New Research Finds
NB: Anyone with the faintest idea of what is happening to Indian education will understand the importance of this book by this esteemed and highly accomplished scholar. The policies of our rulers can be described as nothing less than assault on education. Government enthusiasts could ask themselves why every year, hundreds of thousands of Indian… Read More Scholar GN Devy asks whether India risks becoming an anti-knowledge nation
After the truth-shower 