debates

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST, ADDED ON FEBRUARY 20, 2018 Student poster displaying a clear understanding of Foucault and surveillance. Compulsory attendance is really not needed at JNU! Let us begin with a basic fact. The diktat on compulsory attendance in JNU is only a symptom of the larger, continuing crisis created by the … Continue reading The Vice Chancellor of JNU has lost all moral authority: A dossier of misdeeds

T T Sreekumar, an important commentator on contemporary politics in Kerala — a public intellectual who now qualifies to be an irritant in the eyes of the Kerala police, now that he has openly declared his allegiance to the dalit people fighting injustice and Vadayambady and inaugurated a protest-event there — writes about the issue … Continue reading The Festering Sore of the Caste-Wall at Vadayambady: T T Sreekumar

The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, not our own powerlessness, stupefy us. Adorno. As frightening spectres of untouchability and unseeability hover around the festering sore of the ‘caste-wall’ at Vadayambady in Kerala, as the so-called mainstream left-led government here continues to pour its energy and resources into aiding and … Continue reading Malayali Feminism 2018: In the Light of Vadayambady and Hadiya’s Struggle

On 30 January 2018, retired civil servants and veterans of the armed forces jointly organised a conclave on ‘Hinduism and Hindutva’ at the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi.

Ghalib has fascinated generations of people and they have tried to understand/ interpret his poetry in their own way. For any such individual it is really difficult to recollect when and how Ghalib entered her/ his life and ensconced himself comfortably in one’s heart. This wanderer still faintly remembers how many of Ghalib’s shers were … Continue reading ‘Why Ghalib appears so contemporary even today ?’ : Interview with Hasan Abdullah

I The recent reference to how the distribution of food in Malayali homes is often skewed against women by the actor Rima Kallingal in a recent talk has sparked off yet another round of attacks against feminists in Kerala. It is interesting to see how this seems to have brought together men of all political … Continue reading From Nangeli to Rima Kallingal: Who are fit to claim Nangeli’s Legacy?

( Photo courtesy : The hoot) (To be published in the special issue of ‘Janata’)   The spectacle of what is called religion, or at any rate organised religion, in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always … Continue reading Nehru, Ambedkar and Challenge of Majoritarianism

Guest Post by Umar Khalid I went to Maharashtra as I along with other activists and intellectuals were invited to come there. I along with others was a guest there. And I would remember fondly the love and support that I received in Pune and Mumbai.

[A shorter version  of this article was published in The Wire on 18 December. I thank K. Satyanarayana, P. Sanal Mohan and Jangam Chinnaiah for their very helpful comments on it, which have helped me to clarify and elaborate on certain points.] The rise of Jignesh Mevani constitutes a significant landmark in the political configuration in … Continue reading The Meaning of Jignesh Mevani

[ This post is based on updates posted by me on my Facebook wall ] A great kerfuffle has ensued ever since the recently elected independent MLA from Vadgam, Gujarat and Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch activist Jignesh Mevani gave an interview in which he had some choice things to say about the Prime Minister and … Continue reading Jignesh Mevani, The Meltdown of Modi-Men and Dadhichi’s Bones