Tag: the human mind

Mukul Kesavan: Speaking in tongues – Narendra Modi & the Anglosphere / Garga Chatterjee: Modi salutes US military casualties in the Vietnam War (2016)

First posted June 16, 2016 NB: Two perceptive comments on Modi in America: Kesavan notices his pathetic yearning to be accepted at the high table of the Anglophone powers; Chatterjee sees through to the symbolism of his homage to US soldiers killed during the Vietnam war. For those who may not know it, the RSS referred to the American  intervention as… Read More Mukul Kesavan: Speaking in tongues – Narendra Modi & the Anglosphere / Garga Chatterjee: Modi salutes US military casualties in the Vietnam War (2016)

Dilip

Roots of The Republic

Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece’s Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophical Masterpiece James Romm For my money, there is no more captivating view in all Italy than the vast panorama of the harbour of Syracuse, framed by its majestic, honey-coloured Baroque buildings. The city’s origins go back to the eighth… Read More Roots of The Republic

Dilip

Hegel Dust

A little-known philosopher’s deep influence over the avant-garde, neoconservatives, and the European Union…. ‘His work on behalf of a resistance group in Puy-en-Velay got him arrested by the Gestapo; anticipating his future talents as a negotiator, he managed to talk his way out of the firing squad.’ The Life and Thought of Alexandre Kojève BY Marco… Read More Hegel Dust

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Scapegoating the Algorithm

America’s epistemic challenges run deeper than social media. (NB: It’s not just an American problem) Dan Williams Many people sense that the United States is undergoing an epistemic crisis, a breakdown in the country’s collective capacity to agree on basic facts, distinguish truth from falsehood, and adhere to norms of rational debate.  “The Yellow Press,” by… Read More Scapegoating the Algorithm

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When you get old, you become young again: Fauja Singh, the marathon man (1911-2025)

After a life shaped by grief and resilience, Singh began running at 89 and became an icon of endurance and joy: “an icon of humanity and a powerhouse of positivity”. He died on July 14, at the age of 114 after being hit by a car in Beas Pind. Waheguru, Waheguru, Waheguru Esther Addley The… Read More When you get old, you become young again: Fauja Singh, the marathon man (1911-2025)

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No Cheese Please

Anthony Grafton The Study: The Inner Life of Renaissance Libraries by Andrew Hui The Librarian’s Atlas: The Shape of Knowledge in Early Modern Spain by Seth Kimmel Libraries​ were all the rage in Renaissance Europe, and no wonder. Theatres of knowledge, grandly decorated and proudly displayed, they hosted dramas of many kinds. Learned men used them for lively conversation on such… Read More No Cheese Please

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Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Once upon a time there was another public, another India

First posted November 29, 2019 The single best thing ever written on the idea of the university in India is Ashutosh Mukherjee’s Convocation Address to Mysore University in 1916, and published in the now inaccessible Dacca Review (October 1918). It literally anticipates every single debate we have on the idea of the university – from… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Once upon a time there was another public, another India

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Coming Back: The Odyssey of a Pakistani Through India

Sapan Bookshelf: Coming Back: The Odyssey of a Pakistani Through India – By Shueyb Gandapur  Countless Centuries Press, 2025By Sayali Goyal / Sapan News As someone who has worked on writing stories on the interconnectedness of the world for the last decade, now researching kinship in East and West Punjab through material cultures, I was immediately… Read More Coming Back: The Odyssey of a Pakistani Through India

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