Avay Shukla I always visit my home town, Kanpur, a couple of times a year to refresh my roots and to check whether my Brahmin community has been declared as OBC yet. Just back after an exhilarating and kabab imbued visit, I am happy to report that my roots are thriving, but sadly the… Read More Kanpur Diary: No More Waiting Till The Cows Come Home
Whether in America or Britain, working-class people only matter when immigration is an issue Kenan Malik On the one side stand Silicon Valley moguls and leaders of corporate America; on the other, longstanding Donald Trump loyalists and supporters of the Maga (“Make America great again”) movement. One side claims to be building America’s bright new future by… Read More Forget talk of defending workers, the US visa feud is about the market’s needs
Through a Glass Darkly into a Future of Epochal Change By Alfred McCoy Some 2,000 years ago, an itinerant preacher, Saul of Tarsus, was writing to a wayward congregation in Corinth, Greece. Curiously enough, his words still capture the epochal change that may await us just over history’s horizon. “For now we see in a glass,… Read More The World’s Four Legacy Empires Going Down
Note: The author highlights very interesting aspects of the current situation of Israeli Zionism, the most relevant is the assimilation of the Zionist Jews of Israel within the nation-state model of the Western societies. Moreover, by negating the reality of the exile, a general condition of the people of the world, the essence of Judaism… Read More Giorgio Agamben on Zionism and Judaism (2024)
NB: It could also be called the standardisation of thought; the co-option of history by ideology, and the elevation of outrage to an art form. DS Apoorvanand Historian Aparna Vaidik is under attack on social media. A controversy arose following a discussion on her new book at a lit fest in Kanpur. It was alleged that Vaidik… Read More Bhagat Singh, Kanpur lit fest, and the culture of hasty comment
The architect of the Constitution railing against Hindu Raj while also being conflicted about Dalits adopting Christianity or Islam as this would ‘denationalise’ them exemplifies his life of contradictions. Ambedkar also warns, “If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt, be the greatest calamity for this country.… Hindu Raj must be prevented… Read More Ambedkar’s pact with a Hindutvadi
Srinath Raghavan Vinayak Chaturvedi. Hindutva and Violence: V.D. Savarkar and the Politics of History Some years before his passing in 1966, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar wrote an essay titled “How Hindu organisers should read and write their national history.” Savarkar explained that he had long intended to write this essay, but political work had taken precedence. Now, in… Read More History in the Service of Hindutva
Letters and excerpts from Albert Einstein’s writings in which he repeatedly reiterated his opposition to the creation of a state for Jews, preferring the formation of a simple spiritual and cultural centre to serve the Jewish world and all humanity. Addresses on reconstruction in Palestine (1932) The crisis which the work of construction has had to… Read More Albert Einstein on Jews in Palestine (1932-49)
Jagdeep Dhankhar has eroded the stature of the position, which was once occupied by stalwarts like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain, Gopal Swarup Pathak, M Hidayatullah, and K R Narayanan Bharat Bhushan The fallout of the Opposition’s unprecedented move to bring a resolution for the removal of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has undermined the dignity of the constitutional… Read More Defending Dhankhar but eroding dignity of vice president
Supreme Court Takes Note of HC Judge Shekhar Yadav’s Communal Speech at VHP Event New Delhi: The Supreme Court has taken note of reports about a communal speech delivered by an Allahabad high court judge at an event organised by the extremist Hindutva body, Vishva Hindu Parishad. The apex court announced in a press release that… Read More Supreme Court Takes Note of HC Judge Shekhar Kumar Yadav’s Communal Speech at VHP Event
After the truth-shower 