First posted January 19, 2019 Rabindra Ray, who taught sociology at the Delhi School of Economics till his retirement a few years ago, died on January 15, 2019. For 52 years I called him Lalloo (with two l’s). His death has led to an outpouring of memories from his friends and students. This is one… Read More Remembering Rabindra
Papyrus by Irene Vallejo review – how books built the world What do you give the queen who has everything? When Mark Antony was wondering how to impress Cleopatra in the run-up to the battle of Actium in 31BC, he knew that jewellery would hardly cut it. The queen of the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt… Read More The Invention of Books in the Ancient World
First posted November 22, 2015 On November 6, 2015, I visited Naxalbari along with my old comrades, Rabindra Ray (Lalloo), who retired from the Delhi School of Sociology in 2013; and Achintya Barua, (Monju), proprietor of Wild Grass, a tourist resort at the wild life sanctuary in Kaziranga, Assam. Rabindra’s book, The Naxalites and their… Read More In Naxalbari, forty-eight years later
Stanislav Markelov First posted February 21, 2019 When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish: Lao-Tzu, Chinese Philosopher (601-531 BC) This is the last article written by Russian activist lawyer Stanislav Markelov before he was shot dead in central Moscow a decade ago. On 19 January 2009, as Markelov and Baburova walked… Read More Patriotism as a diagnosis
First posted May 26, 2013 By Dilip Simeon; published in Hindustan Times, 28 April 2008 The Supreme Court’s observations (March 31) regarding the armed group named ‘Salwa Judum’ affect not only the state of Chhatisgarh, where this group operates, but pose questions to major actors across the political spectrum. Admitting two public interest petitions on… Read More On the Salwa Judum (2008)
Deeply researched and lucidly written, Gandhi’s Assassin does a good job in its portraiture of Nathuram Godse and in reporting details of the plot to kill MK Gandhi NB: The murder of Gandhiji has been immersed in ideological sophistry ever since 1948. Thousands of Sangh Parivar allies celebrate his assassination on the one hand (especially… Read More Gandhi’s Assassin. By Dhirendra K Jha
First posted April 25, 2018 In 1928, Hitler remarked, approvingly, that white settlers in America had “gunned down the millions of redskins to a few hundred thousand.” When he spoke of Lebensraum, the German drive for “living space” in Eastern Europe, he often had America in mind. History teaches, but has no pupils,” the Marxist philosopher… Read More Alex Ross: How American Racism Influenced Hitler -The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law
First posted September 23, 2019 NB: Thank you Ayush. You are a brave and conscientious boy. Many of us are proud of you – DS Ye kisne kahaa aapse aandhi ke saath hun // Main Godse ke daur me Gandhi ke saath hun If the Danish child who swam against the adult tide to speak the truth about… Read More Ayush Chaturvedi: Main Gandhi ke saath hun / Samar Halarnkar: A search for Hindus who will stand with Gandhi
In 1926, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) finance minister Rudolf Hilferding published an article in Die Gesellschaft which considered the significance of industrialist Paul Silverberg’s speech to the Dresden meeting of the country’s leading business association—the Reichsverband.1 Silverberg was the first industrialist to suggest that German capital could reconcile itself to the Weimar Republic instead of seeking… Read More Weimar Themes. By Jairus Banaji
First posted December 22, 2018 When Bill Anders took this photograph from the Apollo spacecraft on Christmas Eve in 1968, our relationship with the world changed forever .This photograph is now half a century old. It was taken by the astronaut Bill Anders on Christmas Eve 1968 as the Apollo 8 spacecraft rounded the dark side of… Read More Joe Moran: the story behind our planet’s most famous photo, December 24, 1968
After the truth-shower 