Umar Nizar Nearing Thiruvananthapuram, the road bends, entering the city, as a vein enters the heart. The bus moves along the curve with its load of human destinies. People nap inside, in the secure snugness of their seats. For those who are awake, it seems like an age. The tarmac is slipping away under …
Political hues of Freedom of Speech!
Bobby Kunhu “State propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect. It was a lesson learned by Hitler and many others, and it has been pursued to this day.” ― Noam Chomsky, Media Control:The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda I have always been a vocal advocate …
Judges’ location and Judgments – The Curious Case of PM’s mug shot
Bobby Kunhu “Lo, justice flees from you.Expelled from its seat!The magistrates do wrong,Right-dealing is bent sideways,The judges snatch what has been stolen.”― Miriam Lichtheim It is accepted jurisprudence that judges have biases that are rooted in their identity location. This is the reason for the strong pitch for judicial diversity across the globe to …
Memorialising Dilli Chalo!
Bobby Kunhu “… Without a sense of identity, there can be no real struggle…” ― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Detractors and supporters alike would agree that Dilli Chalo was a unique model of resistance that had global impact despite an authoritarian regime within which it played out. What the resistance was facing …
Indian Ethical Thought And Its Discontents: Shenanigans Of The Great International Shashi Tharoor
Umar Nizarudeen I am also surprised at the praise for this book from a sensible social science scholar like Neera Chandhoke, in another review. Caste-blind scholarship which draws a quick distinction between Hinduism and Hindutva is forcing the Congress of Rahul Gandhi to own Hinduism, as a strategy to bring the Congress back to …
Our self-respect was surely also self-determination – Understanding Dravidian politics in the times of Hindutva
Vinith Kumar [This is part 1 of a series of essays on Dravidian politics today and its historical roots.] There are pessimists who say that there is no guarantee that victory will be followed by a New Order. There is perhaps room for this pessimism. The New Order, which is the ideal of labour, has …
Rest in Power – K. R. Gouriamma!
Bobby Kunhu “There is no escape – we pay for the violence of our ancestors” – Frank Herbert It has been the fate of every radical social and political activist in history from Jesus to Ambedkar to Malik el-Shabbazz to be mistreated by their peers during their lifetime and to be celebrated and coopted …
The caste of election analysis
Bobby Kunhu “Christ is born, my wise Solomon, my wretched pen-pusher! Don´t go picking things over with a needle! Is He born or isn´t He? Of course He is born, don´t be daft. If you take a magnifying glass and look at your drinking water-an engineer told me this, one day – you´ll see, …
1921, Mappila and the idea of a nation
Bobby Kunhu Despite the extensive work by historians like K. N. Panikkar, the general consensus that the 1921 Malabar rebellion was a peasant rebellion and the fact that the Government of Kerala awards pension to those who participated in the rebellion and their spouses – there are strong attempts to portray the events of 1921 …