There can be no society without politics, no real politics without thought — digitalisation is destroying our ability to think What is ‘politics’? The word has negative connotations for many. For instance, when you accuse someone of “doing politics” in various languages, you usually mean that the person is being manipulative and divisive. When you say that someone is a… Read more →
I am grateful to Ravi Sinha for his post responding to the question of religion and politics that arises out of the brief exchange between Subhash Gatade and myself on Subhash’s post some time ago. Much has happened since the first draft of this response was written and with the advent of Narendra Modi as prime minister, ‘secularism’ too is… Read more →
At a time where there is much discussion on how the Western powers are dominating the world, in particular the global South including countries such as Sri Lanka, it is important to examine how other forms of domination in the post-colonial era have replaced the domination created by such powers during the colonial era. Such domination essentially involves local mechanisms… Read more →
Pinehouse residents Fred Pederson, John Smerek, and Dale Smith all feel like they have been wearing targets on their backs ever since their names appeared at the top of a list of 39 plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in June. The lawsuit challenges what plaintiffs consider to be an odious collaboration agreement between the Northern Village of Pinehouse and the… Read more →
History is not just the past. It is a potent weapon for various political agendas in the present. It can be clearly seen in the use of history in rise of Hindu-Muslim rightwing in India. As far as presently dominant Hindu national politics is concerned, this abuse of history can be seen in the type and period of History used…. Read more →
This article is based on remarks made at a panel discussion June 5 in New York City. Titled “The Future of the Left – A Conversation on Socialist Unity”, the event was hosted by Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, Communist Party USA, Democratic Socialists of America and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, with participation and support from Jacobin… Read more →
At a teeming intersection of Shenzhen’s Dongmen shopping street, between KFC and McDonald’s, Liu Zhongqiu, twenty-one, sits on a white fold-up chair that looks as if it is about to break and clasps his hands together like a proselyte whenever a passerby drops money into his bucket. His legs below the knee are swollen to the size of balloons, puckered… Read more →
In his new book, Who Owns The Future?, computer scientist, Jaron Lanier, argues that as technology has become more advanced, so too has our dependency on information tools. Lanier believes that if we continue on our present path, where we think of computers as passive tools, instead of machines that real people create, our myopia will result in less understanding of both… Read more →
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is a highly polarising political entity. Whether he speaks on nationalism or nutrition, he stirs debates. His interview to an international business newspaper, in which he attributed high malnutrition rate in his state to beauty-conscious, middle-class girls, has attracted expected reactions. Modi has been obsessively hawking his state’s growth model and his track record in… Read more →
The alleged murder of Neil Heywood has brought down one of China’s most powerful politicians – and exposed a power struggle that has rocked the Communist party As the cyanide took effect, Neil Percival Heywood must have looked around at the tacky photos of trees and waterfalls on the mustard-coloured wallpaper and wondered how he ever got involved in… Read more →
In addition to being a revolutionary socialist and longtime member of the British Socialist Workers Party, China Miéville is one of today’s most celebrated science fiction and fantasy authors. In 2010, his genre-busting mystery novel The City & the City won the Hugo Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award—making Miéville the only writer to win… Read more →
Politics Is at the Root of the Problem By Joseph Stiglitz (Austerity policies are driving us towards a double-dip recession, warns US economist Joseph Stiglitz. He sat down with Martin Eiermann to discuss new economic thinking and the influence of money in politics.).more »