If there was a God in the sky looking down on the human race, at its wars, enmity, injustice, hunger and homelessness, to name but a few of the torments being ruthlessly propagated on the third rock from the sun, She could be forgiven for becoming so enraged, that She decided to teach those two-legged […]
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The Last Prince of Bengal
Everyone’s digging up the past. From the tv series Who Do You Think You Are to the booming business being done by ancestry and heritage companies, uncovering family history has become a serious social trend. Could it be we have a profound, visceral need to know our family’s past, the twists and turns of family […]
Assassination, Partition and Identity
‘Schools don’t teach us about Indian history or Independence,’ complain thousands in the Indian Diaspora. All those keen to learn more about their historical and social inheritance, should immediately get themselves a copy of the recently published book Exhumation, subtitled The Life and Death of Madan Lal Dhingra, and written by the actor Leena Dhingra; […]
Caste: In the United States of America
In 1944, as WW11 raged across continents, the school district in Columbus, Ohio, held an essay competition, challenging students to address the question “What to do with Hitler after the War?” A sixteen-year-old African-American girl, thought long and hard about the question. And won the competition with an essay of one sentence: “Put him in […]
Sunak-Speak
When it comes to favourite things, ‘Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,’ may do for Julie Andrews, but Britain’s uber-ambitious Chancellor, Rishi Sunak has his eyes set on far grander targets: namely freeports and charter cities. In Sunak-speak such projects will deliver a new utopia of jobs, prosperity and opportunity, particularly in deprived areas. […]
Parasite Politics and Everyday Dreams
‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on.’ (The Tempest. Act 4. Scene 1). Shakespeare could never have known how this line would transmute into the throbbing heart of political dramas in the 21stcentury, connecting the people and the parasite; becoming both promise and betrayal. Voters dream of jobs and homes while politicians and […]
Kill The Bills
‘Kill the Bill,’ shout protestors in English cities. ‘Death to the farm laws,’ cry Indian farmers, in their protest camps. ‘New Jim Crow laws,’ denounces the President of the US himself, of the new election laws passed by the state of Georgia. In the midst of a global pandemic, the world is in social and […]
#IWD21 ‘You Must Fight to Live With Dignity’ Nodeep Kaur
In 1577, in France, a text was published covertly, written by Etienne de la Boétie, called The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, asking a question which rings through the centuries to this day. ‘…why is it that a minority of rulers can remain in power over a majority of subjects who pay all the taxes. His answer […]