There’s a good chance you know a fact or two about the artefact called the Rosetta Stone – namely that, because it was inscribed with a single message written in three different scripts, its discovery allowed archeologists to decode ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Or you might have heard that the new Grand Egyptian Museum has been… Read More What did the Rosetta Stone’s inscription actually communicate?
This equaling out of truth and falsehood is both informed by and takes advantage of an all-permeating late post-modernism and relativism, which has trickled down over the past thirty years from academia to the media and then everywhere else. This school of thought has taken Nietzsche’s maxim, there are no facts, only interpretations, to mean… Read More Farewell to reality: Why we’re post-fact
Samuel Earle Faced with a future that presents itself as non-negotiable, the temptation is to turn towards the past First posted November 05, 2016 When Harry Potter discovers the Mirror of Erised in The Philosopher’s Stone—amirror that shows us our deepest dreams—he repeatedly returns to it in secret. Each night in its reflection he lives his… Read More The politics of nostalgia
First posted December 05, 2017 Pratap Bhanu Mehta The 25th anniversary of that fateful day in Ayodhya when the Babri Masjid was demolished brings a sense of foreboding. The psychological and historical significance of that day is complex. But when all is said and done, it has to be admitted that the worst of our… Read More Events of December 6, 1992 assaulted both secularism and Hinduism
The Congressional decision to prohibit railroad workers from going on strike and force them to accept a contract that meets few of their demands is part of the class war that has defined American politics for decades. The two ruling political parties differ only in rhetoric. They are bonded in their determination to reduce wages; dismantle social programs, which the Bill… Read More Chris Hedges: Time to Strike for American rail workers
Richard Wolin As a political thinker, the German philosopher Carl Schmitt was enamored of symbols and myths. His biographer has shown that during the 1930s Schmitt was convinced that providing National Socialism with a rational justification was self-contradictory and self-defeating. The alternative that was conceived by Schmitt, a conservative who was an eminent member of… Read More The Cult of Carl Schmitt
First posted March 01, 2015 his interview has appeared in Scroll.in. The two parts may be read here and here. The Modi government has issued a special coin to commemorate the 175th birth anniversary of the Tata Group founder, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata. In honouring him, what is the message the government is seeking to convey to the people? The… Read More Democracy and workers’ movements – stories from Jamshedpur
First posted May 1, 2021 NB: Today is International Labour Day, May 1, 2021. As a tribute to India’s workers, I post a chapter from my monograph on the history of the labour movement in Jharkhand during the 1930’s. It was titled The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism: Workers,Unions, and the State in Chota Nagpur, 1928-1939. The… Read More 1938: the year Indian workers fought for themselves
First posted June 14, 2017 NB: This paper was first presented to the Association of Indian Labour Historians conference in Delhi, March 2000. It refers to material presented in my book, The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism: Workers, Trade Unions and the State in Chota Nagpur, 1928-1939. It was also presented to the Nehru Memorial… Read More Strike-breaking or the Refusal of Subalternity? Ethnicity, Class & Gender in Chota Nagpur: The Tatanagar Foundry Strike of 1939
Opinion by John Avlon NB: As to why this political analyst fails to mention the glaring assaults on global democracy by the USA and UK, is something only he can answer. And as regards the fate of democracy in his own country, supposedly the leader of the ‘free world’, the less said the better. There’s a… Read More The tide is turning against autocracy
After the truth-shower 