Alaka M Basu

The writer is professor at Cornell University, Department of Development Sociology

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More From Alaka M Basu

Reading between the lines as language is co-optedSubscriber Only

November 22,2020 04:33:54 AM

As language became more politicised and more opaque, new or unfamiliar phrases and figures of speech became easier to understand not with a dictionary, but by association.

Sun, Nov 22, 2020

She Said: Empowerment, via the dinner tableSubscriber Only

December 01,2019 01:00:32 AM

The propensity to violence against working wives seems to be greater in men who lose their own jobs or whose wives earn more than them. Relative income matters — the largest resentment is unleashed when the woman’s income exceeds her spouse’s.

Sun, Dec 01, 2019

If not from reading, where are any non-profitable attributes of functional literacy coming from in middle class?Subscriber Only

October 13,2019 01:25:13 AM

One could call these non-readers functionally illiterate even if it is true that they do not fit that part of UNESCO’s definition of functional illiteracy which refers to the inability to conduct the business of everyday life — balancing bank accounts, paying bills, deciphering medical instructions.

Sun, Oct 13, 2019

Linking patriotism to women’s bodies is uncalled forSubscriber Only

September 16,2019 02:10:23 AM

The latest firing of this salvo occurred in the Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech, in which it was declared that having small families is a form of “patriotism”. Such exhortations primarily target women, their bodies and their reproductive autonomy.

Mon, Sep 16, 2019