The writer is professor of media studies at the University of San Francisco
September 11, 2025 12:59 IST
When he speaks, or his surrogates pontificate, what will be the bottom-line in their moral project? Will it be universal human decency, fairness and rule of law, as they promised Americans before the elections? Or will it be about tribes, about “us and them”?
Thu, Sep 11, 2025July 26, 2025 07:25 IST
Critics of Trump will perceive what they see as a witch-hunt being unleashed against Obama. Trump’s supporters, in turn, will see, or hope to see, their faith vindicated that “Russiagate” was a hoax
Sat, Jul 26, 2025May 26, 2025 07:40 IST
Not just decency, but even facts fly out of the window these days on American TV
Mon, May 26, 2025April 08, 2025 16:20 IST
Even as we hope for a happy year, an army of bulldozers let loose on one of the few forests left in the great mega-sprawl of a city that is Hyderabad now. It is the latest manifestation of the excesses of development that have swallowed old Hyderabad.
Tue, Apr 08, 2025February 15, 2025 16:43 IST
It’s time to retire the “oldest and largest democracy” officialese and reframe it more accurately as the meeting of the world’s oldest bastion of spirituality and the youngest experiment in religious co-existence
Sat, Feb 15, 2025January 15, 2025 07:09 IST
The crisis in California is not of this place alone, but of our place in this world at this time. Competence in human interaction, let alone civic management grounded in consensus on the sanctity of life, all seem lost in the social media age
Wed, Jan 15, 2025December 12, 2024 15:19 IST
American media have shrunk from anything that reminds them of a reality outside their expectations of what it ought to be. It is a space in which minds accustomed to complexity, diversity — Indian minds — could well play a bigger role than before
Thu, Dec 12, 2024October 07, 2024 19:25 IST
Some of us see 'desecration.' Some of us see just 'food safety' issues. And some see corruption and opportunism. Whatever our minds perceive, the truth is that all of these and more have stood like torturers laughing in sadistic pleasure at our pain.
Mon, Oct 07, 2024August 23, 2024 13:28 IST
She called for an end to bitterness and divisiveness and promised to be a leader for all Americans. But by demonising the former President, she runs the danger of demonising his supporters who she was reaching out to.
Sat, Aug 24, 2024June 12, 2024 16:21 IST
10 years after bifurcation, there is an eagerness in Andhra Pradesh to resume a journey that was harshly interrupted. The new TDP-JSP-BJP government must invest in education and culture to help it along this path
Sat, Jun 15, 2024April 26, 2024 13:35 IST
In India, cultural and religious continuity remains strong, for now. But if we look at the larger picture, it seems a break from this trend is near, unless abated with better education
Fri, Apr 26, 2024April 12, 2024 18:55 IST
Instead of retreating into complacent boasts that nobody in India cares about what US media say, India’s new government should take global leadership in establishing a new vision for news in the West
Fri, Apr 12, 2024March 21, 2024 13:16 IST
Rahul Gandhi’s recent comments on ‘shakti’ were both untrue and unpleasant. Allahabadia's recent episode offers a good example of how to speak the truth with empathy and kindness, even if that truth is itself unpleasant
Thu, Mar 21, 2024March 03, 2024 14:52 IST
The Democrats cannot afford to hide behind their mastery over discourse as a substitute for accepting that they have severely alienated a sizeable portion of middle Americans, of all backgrounds and persuasions, in their intellectually impoverished and politically desperate attempt to win elections by making a bogeyman of Donald Trump.
Thu, Mar 07, 2024February 15, 2024 12:09 IST
It is vital to preserve the natural surroundings and traditions of the traditional punya kshetras, while also celebrating the building of large and joyous new temples by modern sampradayas such as the BAPS Swaminarayan community
Mon, Feb 19, 2024January 19, 2024 14:39 IST
Millions of indignities, insults and injuries are happening in this Ram Rajya we yearn for every day. May the mandirs within us and without us soon be pure
Fri, Jan 19, 2024December 10, 2023 12:26 IST
Anyone invested in the ‘Bharat narrative’ should take the issue of the decay and crisis in Western academia seriously. They should also see it as an opportunity for a global intellectual revival that goes beyond trying to impress the West, as if we are just exhibits in museums built by them.
Sun, Dec 10, 2023October 31, 2023 18:50 IST
Attacks on Jewish students, labelled as “oppressors” and “occupiers”, should be a warning to Indians that they can no longer afford to ignore the capture of academia by geopolitical forces
Wed, Nov 01, 2023October 12, 2023 16:50 IST
The Brahmin of the ‘progressive’ imagination is little different from the ‘Jew’ of the Nazi imagination in art and popular culture. And both have a long, painful past in the history of Islamic and Christian imperialism around the world
Thu, Oct 12, 2023September 11, 2023 15:56 IST
There are many haunting tales of reform emerging out of new India, that is Bharat. But disavowing one's own inheritance cannot be one of them
Mon, Sep 11, 2023September 01, 2023 12:56 IST
The US presidential candidate offers the hope of a vast, multi-generational understanding of life to an apocalyptic culture lurking from one doomsday obsession to another.
Fri, Sep 01, 2023July 13, 2023 16:57 IST
Many avowedly anti-racist white liberals in America find it convenient to forget that the Hindu immigrants they freely denigrate as fascists happen to be people of colour who have no way of escaping the physical markings and vulnerabilities of race
Wed, Jul 19, 2023June 21, 2023 14:26 IST
Vamsee Juluri writes: After the euphoria about meeting Modi and Biden wears down, one hopes that the diaspora’s wealthiest (if not brightest) will reassess the reality that confronts their descendants.
Fri, Jun 23, 2023June 06, 2023 17:39 IST
One can debate the past, but to directly demonise one’s ancestral bonds, affections, and memories is dangerous terrain. Modern totalitarian ideologies and monotheistic religions have relied on demonising the past as ‘savage’ or ‘primitive’
Fri, Jun 09, 2023April 05, 2023 12:45 IST
Americans who have grown up with the smartphone and the generations older than them tell each other no stories. Meanwhile, the divisions grow
Thu, Apr 06, 2023