Academics focus on secularism when secularisation can save the day. Image Courtesy : NDTV A simple query sometimes occasions judicial intervention: Does the right to freedom of expression apply merely to believers? On September 6, the Madras High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation filed by M Deivanayagam raising such a question. The petitioner wanted … Continue reading There is no God And You Can Say so →
Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. The word lynching conjures up images of a dark period in the history of the United States of America. Between 1877 and 1950, white supremacist gangs … Continue reading Lynchistan →
This is the third in the series titled Against Aachaaram: A Dossier from Malayalam on Kafila. Both excerpts have been chosen and translated by HARIKRISHNAN S. The prefatory note below is by J Devika. They are about the notions of purity of clothing harboured by the traditional caste elite in Kerala, which were revised by … Continue reading Against Aachaaram: When is Your Cloth Clean/Pure/ Both? →
Scientists have barely offered resistance to pseudoscience. This must change—IIT students show how. Surely India’s scientific community must be waking up to the realisation that their silence is detrimental to scientific development and allows many varieties of mischief to breed. In a rare show of gumption, students of the elite engineering institute, IIT Bombay, have slammed the … Continue reading A War For Scientists to Join →
Thapar questioned imperialist versions of Indian history, which the Hindutva Brigade still goes by. ..an historian who is indefatigable in the pursuit of knowledge and prolific in its publication, and who is above all a devoted partisan of the truth. … The early history of the country has been illuminated by Professor Thapar, whom I … Continue reading Who Needs Romila Thapar’s CV? →
A brief history of books, resistance, the police and politicians. It is humanly impossible for even the most learned judge to have read every book referred to in their court. For a brief while this week, the judge conducting the trial of activist Vernon Gonsalves, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon incident of 2018, became … Continue reading Books About Wars in Your Country →
Two massive calamities, tremendous losses, continuing signs of serious ecological destruction impending — yet all we Malayalis seem to have produced in response: two reports, and even more frenzied strategic calculation. There is little doubt that the disasters happened in the first place at least partially because of the latter, but there seems to be … Continue reading Two Reports and Many Strategic Agents: Post-Disaster Thinking in Kerala →
This is the second in a series titled Against Aachaaram: A Dossier from Malayalam on Kafila. The note on Lalithambika Antharjanam is by J Devika. The excerpt from her story Vidhibalam (The Power of Fate) is translated by GEORVIN JOSEPH. Lalitambika Antharjanam (1909-1987) was the first Malayali woman to achieve prominence in the field of … Continue reading Against Aachaaram: Lalitambika Antharjanam →
(Photo Courtesy : http://www.newslaundry.com) “He came, he saw and he concurred“ – Caption of a RK Laxman cartoon in early 90 s AAP’s stand on article 370 has confused and disheartened many. For its workers the party has opened itself to attacks by its adversaries because of its support to stripping of statehood for … Continue reading Arvind Kejriwal, Article 370 and a Blind Alley →
It’s an outrage to dismiss valid concerns that doctors and medical journals are raising. Representational image. | Image Courtesy: Indian Express These are strange times. A state can just get ‘obliterated’ from the map of the nation. Constitutional propriety is set aside to deprive millions of citizens of their basic human rights while a significant … Continue reading In Kashmir Health Professionals Speak Truth to Power →
