Sergej Tschachotin: Anti-fascist scientist who fought for humanity’s upliftment
At a time when science and scientists are increasingly being yoked to the services of the state and the capital for their aggrandisement, it was illuminating to learn about a scientist who came out openly against fascist powers and devoted his life for the upliftment of humanity. On April 29,
Interview with Amal Allana on the biography of her father, theatre director Ebrahim Alkazi
The March 22 launch in New Delhi of the theatre director and art gallery owner Amal Allana’s biography of her father, the multifaceted Ebrahim Alkazi (1925-2020), was unusual in many ways. Allana organised a reading of passages from the biography (titled Ebrahim Alkazi: Holding Time Captive) in a kind of partial
2024 Women’s Prizes: V.V. Ganeshananthan wins Fiction award for ‘Brotherless Night’; Naomi Klein takes inaugural non-fiction honours for ‘Doppelganger’
The Sri Lankan Tamil-origin author’s novel highlights the “epic-scale tragedies of the Sri Lankan civil war”. American writer V.V. Ganeshananthan won this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction on June 13 for her novel Brotherless Night, about a family torn apart by Sri Lanka’s long civil war. Its sister award, the
The exhibition “Past Disquiet” traces the histories of political engagement and solidarity of artists in the face of imperialism
“The question is not whether a given being is living or not, nor whether the being in question has the status of a ‘person’; it is, rather, whether the social conditions of persistence and flourishing are or are not possible…. Only under conditions in which the loss would matter does
Gangster: A Marathi story in translation
He pounded the ribcage of the staircase, his footsteps thumping as he walked. He struck the door with a powerful fist. The door took the blow and opened. Peace evaporated from the room behind it; it began to darken with fear. Seeing the angry demon standing there, the Bohri treasurer
50 Years of ‘Manthan’: How Shyam Benegal’s Landmark Film Offers An Opportunity To Revisit Caste-Class Dialect
Any discussion of Shyam Benegal’s classic Manthan (1976) often focusses on the fact that the film was crowdfunded by half a million milk producers of rural Gujarat and that it narrates the inspirational story of Verghese Kurien, the maverick persona behind India’s “White Revolution”. On the film’s 50th anniversary, when it
Francis Newton Souza Went Against all the Aesthetic Norms of His Day to Paint Poverty, Religion, and Sexuality
The artist Keren Souza Kohn, daughter of the legendary artist Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002), narrated an anecdote her father had once shared with her at his New York apartment. It was about his days in his home State, Goa, where he would often sketch outdoors and small crowds of onlookers
Rediscovered 1956 Buddhist Monk Diary Reveals Insights on Post-Independence India
On March 29, 1956, 27-year-old Bandara Manatunga left his hometown of Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka and embarked on a singular expedition to India. His destination was Nalanda, where he would be ordained as a “temporary” monk in the Buddhist monastery there. During his two-month stay in India, Manatunga maintained
Paperclip: Website Run by Seven Friends is Making Waves by Sharing Intriguing Stories from India’s Past to Counter Misinformation
“Stay curious!” is the tagline that comes at the end of all posts by Paperclip, a digital media house dedicated to storytelling run by a team of seven operating out of multiple locations, from Chicago to Kolkata. The description on its website reads: “Through captivating storytelling, Paperclip aims to inform,
Gandhi Ashram in Bihar’s Khoraitha, Which Played Pivotal Role in Independence Movement Lies in Shambles
At the height of the Independence struggle in 1920, a group of young freedom fighters from Bikram, in erstwhile Bihar, were training in arms and ammunition on an island in the Sone River in Dullahpur village in preparation for a secret mission. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, in 1919,