South Asia Citizens Web

A conversation with Tina Rosenberg and Susan Neiman to mark the 50th anniversary of Arendt’s still-controversial landmark in human rights reportage

Malala’s enemies are equally likely to be Islamists or America-obsessed leftists and post-modernists. These days it is so hard to tell them apart.

To secular Indians, who hold that religion belongs to the private and personal space, two recent national events of three state agencies should be a matter of concern. The first one was the act of ISRO Chairman Dr K. Radhakrishnan performing pooja with the replica of the Mars Orbiter Mission at the Lord Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupati a day before the launch of the spacecraft from Sriharikota. The second one was the digging for gold by the Archaeological Department with support from the Geological Survey of India on the basis of a dream of a holy man.

Throwing more light on what transpired post the preview, Kaali Sudheer, curator, said, “Things were fine during the preview on Saturday, which went on till quite sometime. Around 11 pm, a few right wing activists paid me a visit at the gallery and asked me to cancel the show. They said the artworks and artist stand for everything that’s ‘against Indian culture’.” When asked why he didn’t approach the Police, Sudheer said, “The people who paid me a visit are extremely well-known and influential. I don’t want hassles. I had no option but to cancel the show.”

The Communist Party of India (CPM) is the life-line of the communist movement in India. There are other communist parties too, like CPI, but there is no apparent political and ideological reason for their existence; they reflect the decay and not the rejuvenation of the communist movement. The only radically different trend and, indeed, the greatest vulgarization of Marxism is represented by the Maoist movement, which is neither Maoist nor a movement but seems to get undue attention on the part of the media because of its violent nature.