Posture Maketh the Man

Posture Maketh the Man No event did more to establish the fame and prestige of the Museum of Natural History than the Gobi Desert expeditions of the 1920s. The discoveries, including the first dinosaur egg, were exciting and abundant, and fit the sheer romance of Hollywood’s most heroic mold. It is still hard to find…

Neo-Liberalism and the Diffusion of Development

Neo-Liberalism and the Diffusion of Development The level of economic activity under capitalism is subject to prolonged ebbs and flows. When the economy is on an upswing, this very fact acts as an elixir that emboldens capitalists, who begin to expect that the “good times” are going to continue; this makes them less worried about…

The Narendra Modi Interview That Should Have Been

The Narendra Modi Interview That Should Have Been Indian democracy has unique ways to yank larger-than-life political leaders to the ground. Indira Gandhi was handed a comprehensive defeat after she unleashed the Emergency on the Indian public. Later, again, her son Rajiv—trapped in the Bofors scandal—brought the Congress tally to a mere 197 in 1989…

Building Productive Workers’ Army in Venezuela

Building Productive Workers’ Army in Venezuela A conversation with Sergio Requena of the Productive Workers’ Army . Born in 1974 in Puerto Ordaz, in the industrial heartland of Venezuela, Sergio Requena is a worker at CVG Carbonorca (state-owned plant producing anodes, a component needed to process aluminum). He is a key player in the formation…

Love-Letters Like No Other

Love-Letters Like No Other On January 3, 1831, 176 years ago Savitribai Phule, arguably India’s first woman teacher and forgotten liberator was born. With the first school for girls from different castes that she set up in Bhidewada (Pune), Krantijyoti Savitribai as she is reverentially known by the Indian Bahujan movement, blazed a revolutionary trial….

Young Women in Chile Spur Widespread Revolt

Young Women in Chile Spur Widespread Revolt In January 2018, the hemispheric #MeToo revolt blew up in Chile. Outrage over sexual abuse by Catholic priests and university professors catalysed mass demonstrations against Pope Francis, corrupt college administrations and the government’s wholesale neo-liberal privatisation of education. Primarily initiated by women students, young, feminist men jumped in…

British Raj siphoned out $45 trillion from India: Utsa Patnaik

British Raj siphoned out $45 trillion from India: Utsa Patnaik When renowned economist Utsa Patnaik began to sift through old tracts of British economic history in order to understand the nature of fiscal relations between London and colonial India, the fate of the Kohinoor wasn’t much in the news; Shashi Tharoor hadn’t yet spoken in…