With the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza and renewed India-Pakistan tensions following the Pahalgam attack, there is a growing temptation to apply the framework of colonial violence (so viscerally visible in Palestine) to diverse geopolitical contexts across the Global South. This impulse, while rooted in a genuine desire for global solidarity, has often led to … Continue reading Not All Violence Is Colonial: The Dangerous Drift of Post-Modern Solidarity – Yanis Iqbal
Category: Indian Politics
THE BINARY OF THE HUMANITIES AND THE SCIENCES – HIRA
In a 2024 op-ed published in the Indian Express, Manish Sabharwal and Ashish Dhawan (the latter a philanthropist and a founder-trustee of Ashoka University) posed an important question: “Isn’t it impossible to decide which disciplines matter more: The sciences that lengthen our lives or the humanities that make those longer lives worth living?” The article … Continue reading THE BINARY OF THE HUMANITIES AND THE SCIENCES – HIRA
A Tuition in Nutrition — Urvi Khaitan
Nutrition, Bulletin no. 26 (February 1947). [The informational references are based on various bulletins of Food and Nutrition published by the Department (later Ministry) of Food, Government of India between 1945 and 1949.] Famine was no short-lived spectacle in modern South Asian history. Hunger is writ large across the twentieth century, its text of devastation … Continue reading A Tuition in Nutrition — Urvi Khaitan
The Life and Times of Hindutva Cinema—Rayan Chakrabarti
I am an avid user of OTT platforms, utilising the late-night and cheap internet to binge questionable films. As Netflix orients us towards consuming distinct genres, I have been attracted to a peculiar fetish that can only be categorised as Hindutva Cinema. Films praising the Modi government’s policies have multiplied exponentially in the last ten … Continue reading The Life and Times of Hindutva Cinema—Rayan Chakrabarti
The Critical Force of Student Absenteeism—Yanis Iqbal
Representative Image The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) administration’s decision to enforce the mandatory 75% attendance rule for students has sparked an outcry. On November 21, 2024, students protested in large numbers against the decision, also calling for the conduct of the students’ union elections (which have not been held since 2019). However, the administration's response … Continue reading The Critical Force of Student Absenteeism—Yanis Iqbal
Looking at Hindutva Through The Visual Medium of Memes—Supratik Sinha
Hindutva as an ideological force has gained prominence and visibility after 2014 with the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Centre. Christophe Jaffrelot, in his book Hindu Nationalism: A Reader, comments that Hindu Nationalism emerged from the “superimposition of a religion, a culture, a language, and a sacred territory-the perfect recipe for … Continue reading Looking at Hindutva Through The Visual Medium of Memes—Supratik Sinha
Of Gains and Divides: Stock Markets and Persisting Paradoxes—Ritabrata Chakraborty
Picture Courtesy: Mint If one has even casually followed the news stream over the last few years, a running theme concerning the economy has been consistent. It is the stock markets having a strong run (‘bullish’ in finance parlance), with abundant capital flowing in, while economies worldwide have been battling runaway inflation and tepid growth … Continue reading Of Gains and Divides: Stock Markets and Persisting Paradoxes—Ritabrata Chakraborty
The Myth of Belonging: How to Create a Nation—Hira
Untitled (2005), M.F. Husain [Courtesy: Learning Journal] Amidst the chaos and uncertainty in the academic year of 2021-22, as students and teachers alike learnt to grapple with the online mode of teaching, NCERT used the time to quietly edit the contents of its History and Political Science textbooks from classes 6 to 12. Official communication … Continue reading The Myth of Belonging: How to Create a Nation—Hira
Article 370: Calculated Killing or Inevitable Demise?—Adrija Ghosh
Courtesy: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP The piece examines and explains the legal aspects surrounding the abrogation of Article 370 and the simultaneous wholesale application of the Constitution of India vis a vis Jammu and Kashmir. It teases out the rationale put forth by the Supreme Court in upholding the Centre’s actions, the knotty issues about the President’s … Continue reading Article 370: Calculated Killing or Inevitable Demise?—Adrija Ghosh
From the Vaults of a Communist Party Newspaper Archive: Writing the Unwritten—Rajarshi Adhikary
Tattered copies of Swadhinota, the mouthpiece of the undivided Communist Party of India Since the first printed newspapers appeared in Germany in the early 17th century, brutal repressive regimes of state censorship were up in arms to suppress them. During the tumultuous decades of the English Revolution, the radical press thrived but was nonetheless undermined … Continue reading From the Vaults of a Communist Party Newspaper Archive: Writing the Unwritten—Rajarshi Adhikary
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