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
Tag: 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
USAID and the Fall of the Global Aid Order — Ritabrata Chakraborty
Kent Nishimura/Reuters In late February 2025, as the disruptive policy orders of US President Donald Trump were generating their cascading effects globally, India's first three clinics directed towards transgender people faced an unforeseen closure. Located in Hyderabad, Pune and Kalyan, these clinics faced the tightening of funding caused by the halting of USAID, the word … Continue reading USAID and the Fall of the Global Aid Order — Ritabrata Chakraborty
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
D.D. Kosambi’s Appeal for Peace—Translated by Suchintan Das
Peace (Woodcut) by Haren Das (1950) Better remembered as a polymath and historian, D.D. Kosambi was also a globetrotting peace-activist in the 1950s and contributed to the world peace movement both within India and internationally as a first-rate organizer. This pamphlet was printed at Nagar Press Works, Indore and was published and distributed by Anant … Continue reading D.D. Kosambi’s Appeal for Peace—Translated by Suchintan Das
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
Other Futures are Always Possible: Tegart’s Long Shadow over Palestine—Suchintan Das
A Tegart Fort in Palestine (Image courtesy: http://quaderns.coac.net/en/2015/03/tegart-forts/) Imagine for a moment that you are not able to use future tense in speech. You will not be able to plan a vacation, consider your children’s education, or for that matter, think actively about retirement. Your life will be restricted to an immediate and unending present, where … Continue reading Other Futures are Always Possible: Tegart’s Long Shadow over Palestine—Suchintan Das
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