The writer taught in the department of English, Delhi University.
Alok Rai writes: The impunity of the state and its agents in destroying lives at will must be reined in. It cannot be legitimised by any electoral ‘mandate’.
Wed, Jul 07, 2021Alok Rai writes: It is a signal to the Hindu savarna constituency that the dispensation is suitably equipped to defend an indefensible social order.
Thu, Jun 03, 2021“Conspiracy” is the oxygen that keeps bankrupt regimes alive. Minus that, what one confronts is a miscellany of horrors, lies and incompetence.
Tue, Oct 13, 2020In its corona version, poor are infected in sufficient numbers to produce immunity which accrues to those who have done nothing to earn it.
Mon, Jun 15, 2020The dignity of the Law is not a matter of concern merely to judges — though I believe it should be a matter of concern to them, too.
Thu, Mar 26, 2020It is a concern for the rights of others that makes us human, humane beings. So, honourable (and dishonourable) apologists, please desist — I speak not merely although my rights are unaffected, but even because my rights are unaffected.
Wed, Mar 04, 2020Our language is tainted and crippled by being pressed into the service of inhumanity.
Fri, Jan 03, 2020Despite the centrality of the question of privilege, Anand Bhawan, the Gandhi residence in Allahabad, was also the place where the most influential vision of India’s modernity — and socialism — was born
Sat, Aug 03, 2019Hate has consequences. And those who propagate and promote that hate must bear responsibility for its entirely predictable consequences.
Tue, Jul 02, 2019Girish Karnad’s phenomenal creativity was fuelled by the fact that he tapped into several different linguistic traditions, contexts and resonances.
Mon, Jun 17, 2019Political parties will — and should — continue to compete, and jostle, and clamour, and do all the messy things that are internal to the practice of democracy. Provided that the one self-proclaimed “nationalist” party is not allowed to shut down politics altogether.
Tue, Mar 26, 2019This memoir of a displaced person is not Krishna Sobti’s finest work, but it reminds us that ironically, the business of Partition is, indeed, unfinished and ongoing
Sat, Mar 23, 2019The colonial English idea of the canon, applied to Hindi at a time when Dalit and feminist literature challenge its unity.
Sat, Feb 23, 2019‘Terror’ is an artifact of the theory of terrorism, a way of interpreting things in the world. Our eager embrace of the theory of ‘terrorism’ is deeply suspect
Fri, Nov 30, 2018Allahabad was the name of an aspiration to independent, secular, cosmopolitan modernity — a hope, a sensibility. Prayagraj is a pernicious, hurtful fiction
Mon, Nov 05, 2018Nambi Narayanan’s acquittal raises a crucial question: Who is responsible for the evils of the state?
Thu, Sep 20, 2018V S Naipaul gave writers in once-colonised countries confidence. But he also exonerated colonialism.
Mon, Aug 20, 2018Supreme Court order on Jantar Mantar frames an often-ignored reality: Protest is a part of polity and the inconvenience it causes an affirmation of our common humanity.
Thu, Aug 02, 2018General Bipin Rawat has been far too eloquent on matters he ought to be quiet about. He did sound silly while elaborating on ways to deal with the Kashmir issue.
Wed, Jun 14, 2017The evolution of our country's identity from the unifying mother of yore to the strict father of contemporary nationalist times.
Sun, May 21, 2017But Trump’s America is a latecomer. It has much to learn from Vishwaguru India.
Mon, Feb 20, 2017The farce of TV “debates” shows us in the grip of matched opposites, good versus evil, black versus white. There is little civilised discourse. No question is open. This is the age of the slogan — and outright violence.
Wed, Jan 04, 2017There are great advantages of redefining military action as surgery — for one, it mobilises the rhetoric of health.
Fri, Oct 21, 2016‘Gurugram’ is the symptom of a disease which generates a striving to return to some previous perfection.
Mon, May 02, 2016