Impoverishment, greed, and disaffection, he says, are engendered when the king: 1/ ignores the good [people] and favours the wicked; 2/ causes harm by new unrighteous practices; 3/ neglects the observation of the proper and righteous practices; 4/ suppresses dharma and propagates adharma; 5/ does what ought not to be done and fails to do… Read More Kautilya’s observations on the causes of discontent in a polity
Ananya Bhattacharya “Why does she talk like that?” Snigger, a look of disdain, another snigger, and a few thinly-veiled laughs. It was Jadavpur University, circa 2011. I had asked an autorickshawala, “8B jaba? (Will you go to 8B?)” ‘Jaba’ was my colloquial Cooch Behar Bangla that slipped out in a stray moment. The Kolkata word… Read More Through hell and back in Jadavpur University
NB: And why should Caesar be a tyrant then? / Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf,But that he sees the Romans are but sheep / He were no lion, were not the Romans hinds Shakespeare; Julius Caesar, (I.iii.103-6) DS By Mitali Saran The trouble with manufacturing a larger-than-life persona for a… Read More The measure of the man
Bharat Bhushan The government’s interventions on the Manipur violence in the Parliament do not address the root causes of the unprecedented ethnic cleansing in the state. Speaking on the no-confidence vote, Union Home Minister Amit Shah made two points – that the Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh must be retained because he was “cooperating”… Read More Will half-truths in the Parliament bring peace to Manipur?
Russian anti-war activist Boris Kagarlitsky has been charged with supporting “terrorism” and faces years in prison. Katrina vanden Heuvel, who has known Boris for decades, says whatever your views, people should demand the charges be dropped… https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/10/free-boris-kagarlitsky-katrina-vanden-heuvel/
Ours is the age of the intellectual organisation of political hatreds: Julien Benda, The Treason of the Intellectuals; 1928 Once crime was as solitary as a cry of protest; now it is as universal as science. Yesterday it was put on trial; today it determines the law: Albert Camus, The Rebel, 1956 A BJP minister’s… Read More India’s subdivision of criminality (how one massacre deserves another)
If there’s been one topline tech story this week that feels synecdochal of the United States’ entire tech-politik zeitgeist, it’s got to be Zoom’s latest privacy fiasco. The video conference software-maker caught heat this week over a Terms of Service (ToS) change allowing it to harvest private user meeting data for artificial intelligence training. And, yes, once… Read More Not so private room: Zoom’s AI privacy fiasco
The following transcript was provided by Documenting Ukraine, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM). The Speech to Europe is an annual event jointly organized by the IWM, the ERSTE Foundation, and Wiener Festwochen in cooperation with the Jewish Museum Vienna. On Europe Day, Oleksandra Matviichuk, Ukrainian human rights defender and director of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Center for Civil Liberties,… Read More No peace without freedom, no justice without law
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke for 2 hours and 13 minutes in reply to the no-confidence motion that was defeated with the Opposition walking out. Modi spoke on Manipur for around 5 minutes and 30 seconds… The ‘record-breaking’ blah-sphemy: PM Modi speaks for 2 hours and 13 minutes in the Lok Sabha Some Right-wing social… Read More PM Modi speaks in the Lok Sabha / Rahul Gandhi on PM Modi: दिल्ली दरबार में डर.. रूकने को तैयार नहीं राहुल !
Donald Trump’s insanity is a clear and present danger to the existence of humanity. BRIAN KAREM Facing 78 felonies in three different jurisdictions, with a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, still waiting to weigh in — and perhaps facing additional federal charges or possible state charges in Michigan, Arizona and elsewhere — Donald Trump… Read More Donald Trump has gone off the deep end for real: He’s a danger to humanity
After the truth-shower 