Which Generation Will See a Free Palestine?
Romi Mahajan speaks to Visualizing Palestine’s Aline Batarseh and Jessica Anderson For anyone who cares about the lives of Palestinians, the last year has been bleak. Israel’s all-out assault on…
Romi Mahajan speaks to Visualizing Palestine’s Aline Batarseh and Jessica Anderson For anyone who cares about the lives of Palestinians, the last year has been bleak. Israel’s all-out assault on…
For the most part coffee-table books serve only two purposes: They look aesthetic in a living room, and they lend faux intellectual credibility to their owners: The second, of course,…
A few weeks ago, Joe Biden along with Emmanuel Macron and a cameo-performing Rishi Sunak commemorated the Eightieth Anniversary of D-Day. In his speech, Biden said, The war in Europe…
Growing up, I heard much about the Vietnam “War” from my parents and brother. Few in the United States know that 6 million Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians were killed in…
As students around the world protest Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians and their own governments’ complicity in the matter, the entire edifice of the “corporate university” is crumbling before our…
Recently, a public school in the Seattle area announced that it would be holding an open seminar on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Fifteen minutes before the seminar was to begin, the…
Siddhartha Deb, Haymarket Books, forthcoming I am an academic-manque, who made it only as far as a master’s in South Asian studies. My master’s thesis was about the rise of…
Review of “H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars.” By Kunal Purohit It is no irony that Walter Benjamin met his death while fleeing the Nazis. His famous tract…
One to One HundredEven more at timesBut the OneIs the Only Focus One Hundred is a statisticOne Hundred heartsMinds, SoulsThousands of lovers A Pauper concedesA Billionaire succeedsIt might be timeTo…
· In the land of “Atithi devo bhava,” to suggest that Pakistani cricket fans should not be treated poorly is to be labeled an anti-national and a “Pakistan Lover,” whatever…
Hyderabad based intellectual and analyst Parakala Prabhakar has given a gift to Indians and India watchers in his new book, The Crooked Timber of New India. It is a gift…
In all societies and social groups, there are rules not only about what can be said but in fact what can be thought. In the West, this has strong tones…
The excitement about ChatGPT has provoked the usual slew of profound rhetorical questions in technocratic circles. “Can Education stay the same?” “Will X job or Y profession survive the tide?” …
Dr. King’s birthday is coming up soon- five days away- and I’m already cringing. Martin Luther King Junior was a towering figure in world history. He was one of the…
Indians’ headlong zeal for digital payments is curious to me. I’m not reflexively anti-technology, but I do believe there are limits. And even on a short trip to India, with…
Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar was a giant of world history, though one barely understood both at home or abroad. While I am no expert on his life or his legacy, suffice…
Review of P. Sainath’s “The Last Heroes, Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom” One of the twentieth century’s signal moments happened in the summer of 1947. That summer, the population of…
Review of Twenty Dollars and Change by Clarence Lusane City Lights Books|2022 In 2016, Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew declared that Harriett Tubman’s would be the new face of…
Young with the wisdom Of an elder Unfair. No childhood. That’s your life Not allowed ever To be angry Not allowed to raise Your hands Smile through it…
Some years ago, I had the opportunity to speak to a very senior person in the Congress Party. The meeting was arranged with his office and he met me --on…
Review of Hitler’s Girl by Lauren Young Historians and lay-people alike have for decades posed the counter-factual question, “How could Hitler have been stopped?” The answer, shocking to those at…
An Indian comedian did an experiment recently that tells us tales about people and their vituperations. The experiment was brilliant: Prime Minister Modi tweeted a standard-world-leader note of sorrow to…
A victory For life’s sanctity? But not for the living. Black Lives were not sacred Gun-dead children neither Hungry kids- -freeloaders War-dead deserved it Snowflakes if seeking help Desperate mothers…
Peloton The Peloton craze suggests a decadence that has marked and will continue to mark the utter failure of the American experiment. Such statements are by design hyperbolic- even perhaps…
Air and water both flow And mix and merge Neither lives But give life Noises echo Voices carry Smells and sounds Join us together Colors can run If…
In the world as it has come to be, certain gestures are obligatory while equivalent ones are not. We are trained to have what can be deemed as inconsistent responses…
Oh Yemen, I’m sorry That No one remembers you That You are not White That You are not Christian That You were attacked by the “good guys” I know you…
On a trip to India 8 years ago, I picked up “A Village Awaits Doomsday” at an airport bookshop. It appeared to be an interesting read and I was glad…
Review of Munich: the Edge of War|Netflix, 2022 When I first saw an advertisement for Munich: The Edge of War appear on my Netflix search screen, my blood pressure rose…
Fanon had written that the colonized belonged to a higher cognitive category than the colonizer for a simple reason: The colonized have to be able to think of themselves and…
Review of “First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat” by Christopher W. Shaw. Foreword by Ralph Nader. Open Media Series. City Lights Books. Herodotus said this…
Review of “Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State” by Samuel Stein. Verso, 2019. Real Estate is the world’s largest asset class. The numbers are staggering- globally, real estate…
Six years ago, I wrote an article that appeared on Countercurrents, just as this one does. The piece was strident, even didactic, but was in large part a plea. The…
Some years ago, I was lucky enough to have a rich email dialogue with Colonel David Glantz, the foremost historian of the Eastern Front in World War 2. He was…
Reviewer’s Note: I had the pleasure to review a proof of Stan Cox’s forthcoming book. I recommend it strongly and offer high praise, though caviled by a few nits. Please…
If they are terrorists Then why do they feed us? If they are disruptors Then why do they make the world work? You might hit and insult You might tarnish…
Crossing the street A brush with death A thousand times Alive A door held A waiting elevator Stop Signs Back then front A stopped heart With sirens Beating again No…
It gives me no pleasure to quote Cromwell, but so apposite was his dismissal of the Rump Parliament in 1653 as it relates to Trump and his cronies today- You…
You did not know did you? That my house gives me rights. You did not know did you? That my house gives me virtue. Food, Clothing, Shelter I demand that…
Where is the statement of outrage? Where is the statement of solidarity? Where is anything? The assassination of Iranian physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh should merit a massive response from the world’s…
With the recent Democratic win in the US election, all sorts of people have been calling for a “lowering of the temperature,” “coming together,” and “forgiving and forgetting.” “Let’s heal,”…
Review of “PolyTicks, DeMocKrazy & Mumbo Jumbo: Babus, Mantras, & Netas (Un) Making Our Nation” By Avay Shukla|Forward by Shashi Tharoor. Pippa Rann books & media The public sphere in…
Review of “Dispatches from the Race War” by Tim Wise. City Lights Publishers, forthcoming December 2020 In a few short weeks- achingly painful weeks- the US will hold what is…
Your dreams won’t die They can’t kill them They killed you They brutalized you They lied But your dreams won’t die A people Who pride themselves On their spirituality……
Review of Bit Tyrants by Rob Larson. Haymarket Books. Big Tech is in the news daily. In fact, Big Tech makes the news, is the news, and owns the news. …
Review of “Azadi” by Arundhati Roy In approximately 5 weeks the United States will hold the most important Presidential election in its short and violent history. Bookmakers and Psephologists alike…
Ask me How I’m doing What I’m thinking about But Ask me What the future holds Where I’ll be But Ask me About the pain About the sadness But Ask…
On October 3rd and 4th, the Reclaiming India virtual conference will take place online. Please do not miss it. Hear Luminaries like William Barber, Prashant Bhushan, Indira Jaising, Hamid Ansari…
Given the events of August 5th in Ayodhya, how do we conceive Savarkar as a progenitor of this invidious movement? The answer to your question is not an easy one,…
I was driving on Highway 90, just outside of Bellevue, WA, where I live- in the first week of September, 2020. The drive East from Bellevue on I-90 is for…
Opening before us A crack in the Earth So deep So deep Headphones on Chatting on the phone We walk Into the muck Insouciance Ambien-induced haze Our collective lives Under…
Romi Mahajan: Jaideep, you have written several stories about the abject condition of migrant workers in India, being set adrift by the government. Can you give us a sense of…
When you kill a person you kill more than just another body. You kill a brain, a soul, a congealed set of experiences, emotions, and connections. You kill loves, wants,…
Some years ago, I was lucky enough to have a rich email dialogue with Colonel David Glantz, the foremost historian of the Eastern Front in World War 2. He was…
A thread in our lives That never unravels Pinching at the seam Of our civilization As an unhealed cut Bleeds, even in dribbles Pains us until We learn to ignore…
Salim Bhai please Get out of the house It is burning Please get out It is but one room I cannot leave It is my house After all Salim Bhai…
Me: Did you see the latest news on Trump. Crazy times. Such anti-immigrant hysterics. Incredible racism rearing its ugly head. TLIA: Seriously. My cousin from India applied for a Green…
Rory Fanning, following two deployments to Afghanistan with the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion, became one of the first U.S. Army Rangers to resist the Iraq war and the Global War…
The transparent people cannot be seen Is that true? The transparent people have no emotions Is that true? In a field, on a bus Walking down the road Singing, in…
I must go where my conscience takes me not where I am supposed to go. I must do what my conscience dictates, in fact demands. I cannot succumb. I have…
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