Militant capitalism, bad infinity, and the longing for total revolution

Dilip Simeon NB: This work-in-progress paper was my contribution to a conference hosted by the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bergen, Norway. The conference( May 31-June 2, 2023) was titled 200 Years of Socialism: Revisiting the Old Dilemmas: First Annual Global Research Programme on Inequality Lecture Abstract: The Bolshevik confiscation of the… Read More Militant capitalism, bad infinity, and the longing for total revolution

25th June 202326th June 2023 Dilip

How the trauma of the Vietnam War led to the age of “alternative facts”

By ARNOLD R. ISAACS For many of us whose lives were touched by the Vietnam War, it’s a bit of a shock to count the years and realize that those events are now a half-century or more in the past. This year, we have been reminded of that war somewhat more frequently than in past decades,… Read More How the trauma of the Vietnam War led to the age of “alternative facts”

21st June 202321st June 2023 Dilip

Ramachandra Guha’s book wins Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2023

Modern-day Brits have honoured historian Ramachandra Guha for a rather unusual book that is mainly about white Brits who were severely punished for going against the British establishment of their day to give their all for Indian independence. On Monday, Guha was in London to collect a £5,000 cheque for winning the highly regarded Elizabeth… Read More Ramachandra Guha’s book wins Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2023

17th June 202317th June 2023 Dilip

Richard Evans: the film Denial ‘shows there is such a thing as truth’. By Harriet Swain

First posted December 05, 2017 by Harriet Swain The historian, a key player in the libel case involving Holocaust denier David Irving, talks about Trump, Goebbels and why he agrees with John Bercow NB: This is a therapeutic article for those who are beginning to falter in their belief in truth, not the Absolute, but the… Read More Richard Evans: the film Denial ‘shows there is such a thing as truth’. By Harriet Swain

9th June 202327th May 2023 Dilip

Anil Nauriya: Manufacturing Memory

First posted April 29, 2020 Our history is a battleground. What we remember and what we forget is essential to the control of the national narrative Nearly a month after Gandhi’s assassination, Sardar Patel, the then home minister, wrote, on February 27, 1948, to prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and placed the blame squarely on “a fanatical… Read More Anil Nauriya: Manufacturing Memory

8th June 202327th May 2023 Dilip

A Hard Rain Falling: on the death of T. P. Chandrasekharan (EPW, June 2012)

First posted June 27, 2012 A Hard Rain Falling by Dilip Simeon He went to bed, turned on the BBC World News and switched it off again. Half-truths. Quarter-truths. What the world really knows about itself, it doesn’t dare say: John le Carre, in Our Kind of Traitor A baleful feature of contemporary Indian politics is the subjugation… Read More A Hard Rain Falling: on the death of T. P. Chandrasekharan (EPW, June 2012)

7th June 202327th May 2023 Dilip

Jesus the man

First posted December 22, 2013 Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth By Reza Aslan Reviewed by Dilip Simeon (Biblio, November-December 2013) This is a fascinating account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. I suspect it will also be disturbing for believers. The argument rests on the distinction between the historical Jesus and… Read More Jesus the man

4th June 202327th May 2023 Dilip

An Open Letter to the world on the Bangladesh crisis of 1971

First posted Tuesday, April 09, 2013 Letter from Members of the CPI (ML) Explanatory Note 1./ This is an open letter I wrote in December 1971, as a Naxalite cadre (among many) who experienced the political crisis accompanying the disintegration of Pakistan in 1970-71. It was anonymous, and I was the sole author. So the phrases ‘letter from… Read More An Open Letter to the world on the Bangladesh crisis of 1971

3rd June 202330th September 2026 Dilip

The Gulag Archipelago: An Epic of True Evil

Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth Ideology – that is what… gives the evil-doer the necessary steadfastness and determination . . . the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good… in his own and others’ eyes From this point the roads go to the right… Read More The Gulag Archipelago: An Epic of True Evil

31st May 202317th May 2023 Dilip

After the truth-shower

Philosophy, history, literature, current affairs, and other stuff. Posted by Dilip Simeon

Tag: History