Censorship, arrests, power cuts. India scrambles to block BBC documentary

By Gerry Shih, Karishma Mehrotra. and. Anant Gupta Published in: The Washington PostDate: January 25, 2023 All told, the remarkable steps taken by the government seemed to reinforce a central point of the BBC series: that the world’s largest democracy was sliding into authoritarianism under Modi, who rose to national power in 2014 and won reelection in 2019 on a Hindu nationalist… Read More Censorship, arrests, power cuts. India scrambles to block BBC documentary

Ludicrous ideas, perpetual scandal: British Conservatives are in absolute freefall

John Harris You may not have heard of Nat Wei, AKA Lord Wei of Shoreditch. Until very recently, the 46-year-old Conservative peer – ennobled by David Cameron, for whom he once did some work on the concept of the “big society” – had certainly escaped my attention. But when he published a brief article on the activist… Read More Ludicrous ideas, perpetual scandal: British Conservatives are in absolute freefall

A tragedy pushed to the shadows: the truth about China’s Cultural Revolution

By Tania Branigan In an age of increased repression, few air their concerns. But as the party congress opened in October, a lonely figure protested in Beijing: among the demands on his banners was “Reform, not the Cultural Revolution”. That call was taken up by others at the remarkable protests against the zero-Covid policy that swept through cities weeks later.… Read More A tragedy pushed to the shadows: the truth about China’s Cultural Revolution

Tamil Nadu governor is lighting fires the BJP cannot control

Bharat Bhushan Bharatiya Janata Party’s governors in opposition-ruled states have been controversy’s favourite children as they amplify the BJP’s ambitions for complete political control of India. However, even among them, Tamil Nadu governor RN Ravi stands out. No other governor has gone to the extent of censoring tributes to well-established political icons, told the Tamils… Read More Tamil Nadu governor is lighting fires the BJP cannot control

‘Only a God Can Save Us’: Martin Heidegger & Nazism. A Film by Jeffrey Van Davis

NB: This is an interesting historical documentary; and the comments are also thought provoking. (I do not agree with everything said here: for instance the suggestion – at about 1 hr 11 m – that Hannah Arendt’s phrase ‘the banality of evil’ was a way of suppressing the horror of Nazism, or that she blamed… Read More ‘Only a God Can Save Us’: Martin Heidegger & Nazism. A Film by Jeffrey Van Davis

Ignorance is Strength; Freedom is Slavery; War is Peace

First posted January 13, 2013 NB: These extracts are from the Book within a Book in Chapter 9 of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four; first published in 1949. Sixty fours years later, the dystopian vision contained in the book throws light on the contemporary world, its fascination with war, violence and the fanatical ideologies that justify a continuous system of thought… Read More Ignorance is Strength; Freedom is Slavery; War is Peace

‘ICHR publishes only papers of those playing second fiddles’

Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present, controls the past: George Orwell, Nineteen eighty-four DENNIS S. JESUDASAN In an interview with The Hindu , Kesavan Veluthat, the General President of the 81st session of the Indian History Congress which concluded in Chennai on Thursday, shares his views on the ICHR, and whether there… Read More ‘ICHR publishes only papers of those playing second fiddles’

Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta: ICHR Blocks Manuscript on Freedom Struggle Because It Makes the Sangh Look Bad, Alleges Historian

First posted September 13, 2017 While Hindu-right organisations, under the patronage of the Narendra Modi government, are claiming spaces within the spectrum of associations with instrumental roles to play in the India’s nationalist movement, the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) – the primary government-sponsored institution for funding historical research and publications – has found itself… Read More Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta: ICHR Blocks Manuscript on Freedom Struggle Because It Makes the Sangh Look Bad, Alleges Historian