Kartik Maini
Laal Kaptaan’s textured portrayal of warrior ascetics brings a new, much-needed focus to an obscure history
Although the presence of warrior ascetics has been known in some quarters, it has variously been attributed to the advent of Islam and the depredations of Muslim rule in the subcontinent
Mohandas Gandhi, 150 years after his birth, is still an elusive miracle waiting to be seized
Gandhi remains as independence left him – a consecrated miracle impossible to access, let alone replicate; everywhere, but nowhere.
After Hindi Diwas, time to historicise the language and the ‘federal’ republic that celebrates it
As the shrill celebration of Hindi Diwas comes to a quiet end, it is useful to remember that Hindi, contrary to its projection as the timeless linguistic spirit of the Indian nation, has a history.
Bombay HC-Vernon Gonsalves row's only merit is in offering a way to redress anti-intellectualism of our times
No knowledge should be subjugated, and yet, some knowledges always have been. The anti-intellectualism of our times is well-known and well-documented, but a way to redress it has been found wanting. If there is a merit to the fracas about Vernon Gonsalves’s material, it is in its offering of one such way.
Zaira Wasim row: 'Problem' isn't Dangal actor's decision to quit Bollywood, but her refusal to refuse her religion
Perhaps the problem is not that Zaira Wasim chose to dissociate herself from an alienating industry that made her into a person she did not want to be and untethered her from a conduct she wanted for herself in the process. The 'problem' is Wasim’s religion, and her refusal to dissociate herself from it to become acceptable, palatable to ‘secular’ publics of fallacious integrity.
Hidden within Narendra Modi’s ‘masterclass’ to first-time MPs is a strong critique not just of the state of India’s media, but of dissent itself
The prime minister’s criticism of the state of the media rests on a hollow basis, for the media is a problem only when it is critical.
Thoughts of a completely irrelevant Khan Market intellectual on suddenly being made relevant
In an interview to a prominent daily, Narendra Modi told members of the so-christened ‘Khan Market gang’ that having failed to be ‘neutral’ and ‘unbiased’ sympathisers of the ruling dispensation — neutral and sympathiser being strictly coterminous, not oxymoronic — they must reckon with their insignificance in shaping the image of his office. It is rarely, to extend the spirit of rarity, that the irrelevant are brought into relevance to be told that they are, in fact, irrelevant.
St Stephen's College admissions panel row: Dispute raises questions about place of institution in secular nation
As an institution of avowedly sedate imagination, St Stephen's College, perhaps strangely, is no stranger to controversy.
As Delhi goes for polls on 12 May, national capital's tendency to surprise, act unilaterally make predictions tricky
Delhi is no bellwether region, but often the party chosen and cherished by the national capital during the Lok Sabha election finds itself forming the national government
In Lok Sabha election 2019, some shades of 1977, but sorry position of Congress, abstract promises by Modi symbolic of wider malaise
These are deeply searching questions to ask of an electorate, but if the general election of 1977 teach us anything, it is to ask even when it is most difficult to.
Gurugram viral video compels us to think about the role of ‘shame’ in feminist practice
A sight now across many hallowed screens, the video stages an embroiled conversation between a group of young women, one of whom is known to be Shivani Gupta, and an ‘aunty,’ the obvious and immediate antagonist, from whom an apology is, by any measure, to be extracted.
TikTok: We don't laugh at the material on the app, we mourn what we have lost in the process of becoming 'appropriate'
Far from the sedate 'appropriateness' of Facebook and Twitter, TikTok provides users with an outlet for creativity and idiosyncrasy
To lose TM Krishna to intolerance, is to lose ourselves; only an annihilate vanity can make this sacrifice thinkable
TM Krishna engages with the wonderful and the un-wonderful with remarkable felicity, and foregrounds tradition not as an impoverished relic of a forgotten past but a paradigm with which politics itself can be re-thought and reimagined
Thugs of Hindostan's representation of the cult of 'Thuggee' may make for good cinema, but is bad history
The so-called ‘thugs’ of colonial India lived, but not as excitingly as crime thrillers such as Philip Meadows Taylor’s novel and Thugs of Hindostan would like them to have lived
With the Supreme Court scrapping Section 377, can India's queer movement imagine a life beyond it?
For the queer movement, Section 377 has remained a matter of life and death; it is not merely related to the movement but is its political and cultural identity.
Alumni appalled by IIM-A's rejection of 'quota' in FPM course, call it 'violation of law' and against spirit of 'social justice'
The plea, filed by the Global IIM Alumni Network, sought to further a case for “social justice” in education by advocating that IIM-Ahmedabad, like its sister institutions in Lucknow and Bengaluru, apportion a fixed number of seats for applicants from SC, ST and OBC categories.
Bhima Koregaon raids: Arrests reflect persecution for dissent against govt practices and Hindutva politics
It is noteworthy to acknowledge that those raided as part of the Bhima Koregaon probe are united in their meaningful advocacy of the voice of subaltern groups and only to that end, in their dissidence against the present political dispensation
World Sanskrit Conference shows that Sanskritic scholarship in India remains afraid of gender and caste
Ananya Vajpeyi and Kaushal Panwar opened and traversed a faultline in Sanskritic scholarship whose very acknowledgement is a courageous act.
Ramachandra Guha's criticism of St Stephen's 'lopsided' quotas misplaced; college performing its role as minority institute
One wonders why St Stephen's College can be an object of nostalgia only when 'its Christianity was/is extremely understated'.
Gandhi and his autobiography will be needed as long as we desire to rise above our failings: Tridip Suhrud
Gandhi's autobiography can aid one in the quest for truth and desire to live an ethical life, says Tridip Suhrud who has authored the recently published Critical Edition of My Experiments With Truth