Pratap Bhanu Mehta: What January 22 is, what it isn’t

There are moments in history that appear to drive wave after wave of people in a great torrent of catharsis, ecstasy, emotion and an elevated group mood that almost all conventional analysis, historical categories, moral measures and political prognosis seem beside the point. It would be foolish to deny that the pran pratishtha of Ram Lalla… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta: What January 22 is, what it isn’t

The west’s complete contempt for the lives of Palestinians will not be forgotten

Our political and media elites are complicit in Gaza’s nightmare. Any vestige of moral authority has been lost for ever. Surely 10,000 children suffering violent deaths, or the 10 kids having one or both legs amputated each day, often without anaesthetic, would stir powerful emotions. Surely 5,500 pregnant women giving birth each month – many having caesareans without anaesthetic –… Read More The west’s complete contempt for the lives of Palestinians will not be forgotten

Albert Camus on Tour

Vivian Gornick Nothing in a professional writer’s life more resembles the life of a traveling salesman than the literary book tour. The superficial difference between writers on tour and salesmen on the road is that writers are encouraged to imagine themselves prized personae whose pitch is eagerly awaited by the anonymous crowd, whereas salesmen know… Read More Albert Camus on Tour

Thanks to Gaza, European philosophy has been exposed as ethically bankrupt / South Africa is testing the west’s claim to moral superiority

From Heidegger’s Nazism to Habermas’s Zionism, the suffering of the ‘Other’ is of little consequence. GAZA casualties live statistics We must be forgiven if we thought what Germany had today was not Holocaust guilt, but genocide nostalgia, as it has vicariously indulged in Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians over the past century Hamid Dabashi Imagine if Iran, Syria, Lebanon,… Read More Thanks to Gaza, European philosophy has been exposed as ethically bankrupt / South Africa is testing the west’s claim to moral superiority

Romany Gypsy woman takes UK government to court over ‘discriminatory’ policing

Sam Gelder A Romany Gypsy woman will take on the government at the High Court next week over its “discriminatory” Policing Act. Wendy Smith has been granted permission to challenge part of the 2022 Police, Crime and Sentencing Act (PSCS) that introduced powers to fine, arrest, imprison and seize the homes of Gypsies and Travellers… Read More Romany Gypsy woman takes UK government to court over ‘discriminatory’ policing

The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of

Nick Turse Mr. Turse is a Columbia University graduate student completing a dissertation on American war crimes during the Vietnam War. On October 19, 2003, the Ohio-based newspaper the Toledo Blade launched a four-day series of investigative reports exposing a string of atrocities by an elite, volunteer, 45-man “Tiger Force” unit of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division over… Read More The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of

Goodbye Sadiq al-Azm, lone Syrian Marxist against the Assad regime

First posted December 27, 2016 NB: An interesting obituary to a great intellectual. My knowledge of the situation is limited, but as regards this article, I’m uncomfortable with the argument that there should be no objection to the participation of communal parties in a democratic alliance. My views on this are conditioned by the history of religion-based mobilisations in… Read More Goodbye Sadiq al-Azm, lone Syrian Marxist against the Assad regime

Ayodhya event not about Ram, but coronates Hindutva as state religion

To accept that the spectacle about to be staged in Ayodhya can be extricated from politics is to sanctify the falsification of our living memory KAPIL KOMIREDDI There is no ritual that can sanitise the genesis of the temple that will be consecrated in Ayodhya on 22 January. It exists because the house of worship… Read More Ayodhya event not about Ram, but coronates Hindutva as state religion