‘Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here’: The Hell-Gates of Dachau
Dachau was one of the most enduring institutions of Nazism, rising and falling with the Third Reich itself, as grotesque and brutal as the regime that conceived it.
When a Long, Dark Night Lit up with Music: The Story of the Leningrad Symphony
Even as hunger and death stalked the city of Leningrad, her citizens found in themselves the strength to defy unspeakable terror one night in August 1942.
Even an Ordinary Road Can Lead All Too Easily to a Concentration Camp
Alain Resnais’s film ‘Night and Fog’ exhorts us to watch where we are going.
Caste | Gender Issues | India | Online Blog
From Tagore, a Triptych of Absorption, Acquiescence and Defiance
Three of Rabindranath Tagore’s short stories, written within a few months of one another, posit the irreconcilability of being human with patriarchy and gender inequity.
Culture | India | Online Blog
Bengal’s Youngest Poet Deserves to Be Celebrated, Not Buried in Oblivion or Neglect
Had he lived longer, Sukanta Bhattacharya could obviously have given us much more, but we should be grateful for what he left behind.
Caste | Communalism | Culture | Fascism | Imperialism | India | Indian Economy | Indian Politics | Online Blog
Remembrance Must be an Act Affirming Man’s Humanity, Three Haunting Partition Classics Tell Us
Though unlike one another in tone and texture, ‘Adaab’, ‘Toba Tek Singh’ and ‘Garm Hawa’ have the same point of departure: that religion as the primary marker of identity is as irrational as it is abhorrent.
George Orwell’s Review of ‘Mein Kampf’ Tells Us as Much About Our Own Time as Hitler’s
On his birth anniversary, a look at a short essay by George Orwell which anticipated the clever narratives future dictators up until our times would weave assiduously.
Remembering India’s First Modern Sculptor, Ramkinkar Baij
He broke free from the stultifying conformism of colonial and pre-modern studio sculpturing to encompass in his work the lives and struggles of plain, unremarkable human beings.
Why Satyajit Ray’s ‘Sadgati’ Gets the Hindutvawadi’s Goat
Even though a full 40 years have passed since its release, this wiry little film continues to hit the religious fanatic hard between the eyes today.
The Battleship That Stormed into Silent Cinema’s Tranquil Waters
Made 95 years ago, Sergei Eisenstein’s masterpiece hasn’t lost any of its power.