Culture | India | Online Blog
‘Santiniketan Taught Us That There Is No Such Thing as Worthless Activity’
An excerpt from ‘Our Santiniketan’ by Mahasweta Devi, the famous writer and activist, translated from Bengali by Radha Chakravarty.
Culture | India | Online Blog
The Mahabharata Exists in Many Versions and Translations. But How Many People Actually Read It?
An excerpt from ‘Mahabharata: The Epic and the Nation’ by G.N. Devy.
Celebrating Moliere’s Enduring Legacy, 400 Years on
His plays, such as “Tartuffe” and “Don Juan,” were scandalous and banned. As the world celebrates Moliere’s 400th anniversary, here’s a look at the French playwright’s works.
Call for Indianisation is a Fallacy, if Not a Fraud on the Constitution
We Indians have never understood the mandate of the Constitution either as one for Indianization or a destruction of legal pluralism and personal laws as long as they are not inconsistent with the composite constitutional value-system. Instead of a call to further constitutionalize, any call to Indianize or decolonize is a fallacy, if not a fraud on the Constitution.
Capitalism | Culture | Print Edition | USA
Psychopaths in Suits: Industry Executives Kill Americans with Impunity
In America today if you poison and kill your wife to make $150,000 in life insurance money, you’ll probably end up in prison. But if you poison and kill hundreds of thousands of people so you can take home a multi-million-dollar paycheck, you get to buy a new yacht.
Ghazal: India’s Season of Dissent and Interview with the Poet Karthika Naïr
In 2019, Karthika Naïr would be moved to write on Shaheen Bag: This year, this night, this hour, rise to salute the season of dissent / Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims—Indians, all—seek their nation of dissent …
Some Reflections on Nehru and Journalism Today
Even as human vultures of a wide amalgam train their guns on Nehru’s years as Prime Minister, and his role in India’s freedom struggle, what stands out today are many of Nehru’s thoughtful writings, his regular press conferences, and of course his thoughts on freedom of the press and journalists’ rights and freedom.
Communalism | Culture | Fascism | India | Indian Economy | Indian Politics | Online Blog
The Age of the Unicorn, Brought to You by IIT Kharagpur
The geniuses at IIT Kharagpur have come up with a new hoax. They have declared the unicorn that appears on Indus valley seals to be a representation of “sage Risya Sringa” of the Ramayana, thus “proving” that those ancient carvers of the Indus valley seals were one and the same as the Vedic people.
Communalism | Culture | Fascism | India | Indian Politics | Online Blog
Hindi and Urdu
The politics in the country was not as divisive and toxic in the sixties, when I was a child, as it is now. Urdu, for we siblings, was a secular language and not associated with a community or religion.
The Dark History of Population Control
Book Review of ‘Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population’, by Matthew Connelly, Harvard University Press: A story of how some people have tried to control others ruthlessly and manipulatively, without having to answer to anyone, in ways that are shocking.