Bharat Bhushan: Autonomous Hindutva could devour both India and the BJP

With the rapid radicalisation of sections of Hindu society, the Hindutva project has become dangerously autonomous. It is no longer possible to see it only as an electoral strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Today one does not need to even presume the direct hand of the BJP or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh behind Hindutva’s every move. Its exponential social… Read More Bharat Bhushan: Autonomous Hindutva could devour both India and the BJP

23rd May 202230th July 2022 Dilip

Fox News goes quiet on ‘great replacement’ theory after Buffalo shooting / St. Louis newspaper slams Supreme Court as 'political hacks in black robes'

As details of the Buffalo mass shooting emerged over the weekend, much of the media focussed on the shooter’s self-stated motivation: his racist belief that white Americans are being deliberately replaced through immigration in a “great replacement” theory. Over at Fox News, however, there was barely any mention of the white gunman’s alleged reasoning for opening fire… Read More Fox News goes quiet on ‘great replacement’ theory after Buffalo shooting / St. Louis newspaper slams Supreme Court as 'political hacks in black robes'

17th May 202230th July 2022 Dilip

Avay Shukla on the bulldozing of Indian democracy

Last week I received a draft petition to the Election Commission of India from a well known writer and activist of civil society about the use of EVMs, with the request to obtain endorsements for it. I forwarded it to about twenty contacts, all well read people, engaged with and concerned about the state of… Read More Avay Shukla on the bulldozing of Indian democracy

8th May 202230th July 2022 Dilip

Vases, Tea Sets, Cigars, His Own Watercolours: High Society in the Third Reich

A brilliant study of corruption by power, more specifically of the willingness of the German elites to chummy up to the psychotic vileness of the Third Reich. This is an account of clubs, diplomatic receptions and parties, but one shot through with a scholarly analysis of the nature of sociability, elitism and luxury in a… Read More Vases, Tea Sets, Cigars, His Own Watercolours: High Society in the Third Reich

25th April 202230th July 2022 Dilip

P. B. Mehta: With eyes wide open, we’re hurtling into an abyss / In Jahangirpuri, bulldozers leave trail of despair

Anyone who has ever genuinely immersed themselves in Ramcharitmanas will recognise the singular poignancy of one moment in the Sundarkand where Hanuman meets Sita. Until that point the story is hurtling towards disaster. Sita has been abducted. Ram is distraught and unsure of himself. But the moment Hanuman meets Sita is the point at which… Read More P. B. Mehta: With eyes wide open, we’re hurtling into an abyss / In Jahangirpuri, bulldozers leave trail of despair

21st April 202230th July 2022 Dilip

Book review: How Thomas Mann escaped to America and waged a moral battle against Hitler

Mann returned to Europe in 1952, never to leave again… it was politics that had brought him to America, and politics that pushed him away. The mind is always in exile.. “I am an American,” Thomas Mann said during a radio interview in 1940. If he sounded relieved, it was because he was: He had… Read More Book review: How Thomas Mann escaped to America and waged a moral battle against Hitler

24th February 202230th July 2022 Dilip

Robert Reich – Beware of this deadly mix: oligarchic economics and racist, nationalist populism

The United States presents itself as the beacon of democracy in contrast to the autocracies of China and Russia. Yet American democracy is in danger of succumbing to the same sort of oligarchic economics and racist nationalism that thrive in both these powers. After all, it wasn’t long ago that Donald Trump – who openly admired Xi… Read More Robert Reich – Beware of this deadly mix: oligarchic economics and racist, nationalist populism

14th February 202230th July 2022 Dilip

Bharat Bhushan: Verbal abuse of political opponents part of a larger malaise

So long as Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma kept a low profile, he was seen as an emerging leader from Assam. However, with political success he has turned into a profligate commentator and revealed himself as incapable of civilised political discourse. His comments on Rahul Gandhi’s parentage normally should not be worthy of public… Read More Bharat Bhushan: Verbal abuse of political opponents part of a larger malaise

14th February 202230th July 2022 Dilip

Theodor Adorno's Minima Moralia is a warning against resurgent fascism. By Peter E. Gordon

‘Some have to play the game because they cannot otherwise live, and those who could live otherwise are kept out because they do not want to play the game’ Seventy years after its publication, Theodor Adorno’s Minima Moralia is a warning against resurgent fascism Minima Moralia is a work of exile. Published just over… Read More Theodor Adorno's Minima Moralia is a warning against resurgent fascism. By Peter E. Gordon

13th February 202230th July 2022 Dilip

Sankarshan Thakur: Splintered vision

This is the twentieth anniversary of the making of Narendra Modi and the Gujarat Model. It was this month twenty years ago that triggered the marinade of horror, hatred and gore that has served up this sizzled nation called New India where it is possible for zealotry to hound a young girl for her choice… Read More Sankarshan Thakur: Splintered vision

10th February 202230th July 2022 Dilip

After the truth-shower

Philosophy, history, literature, current affairs, and other stuff. Posted by Dilip Simeon

Tag: thinking about fascism