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Society & Culture Archive
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Hurt and mediocrity in India
Posted on February 27, 2013 | 9 CommentsThis is a guest post by Dr. Gautam Sen, who formerly taught at the London School of Economics. Dr. Sen is also an avid social and political commentator. He also puts to rest a new dangerous line being advocated by a few, which goes variously... -
The Rape of Our Epics: Conclusion
Posted on January 21, 2013 | 124 CommentsRead the previous parts: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Here are my tweets that started it all: 1. Nilanjana Roy’s lesbian fantasies about Shurpanakha: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/nilanjana-s-roywoman-alone-inforest/498048/ …. Nothing new. She’s the latest fantasizing kid on the block. 2. A woman who lusts after another woman’s husband... -
The Rape of Our Epics: Part 4
Posted on January 18, 2013 | 33 CommentsRead the previous parts: 1, 2, and 3. So where were we? Popular discussion? Niyoga? No…well, yes, we were at the three princesses: Amba, Ambika and Ambalika. Pardon my confusion. I mean, confusion happens when Nilanjana Roy mixes up timelines. Imagine my plight: she begins... -
The Rape of Our Epics: Part 3
Posted on January 16, 2013 | 42 CommentsRead Parts 1 and 2. After trying to force-fit Draupadi into the feminist mould, Nilanjana Roy sets her sights on Amba, Ambika and Ambalika in yet another extremely revealing paragraph. Amba is, again, silenced in popular discussion, and yet her story remains both remarkable and... -
The Rape of Our Epics: Part 2
Posted on January 14, 2013 | 33 CommentsIs Draupadi Rarely Referenced? After failing to show how Sita’s abduction by Ravana and her abandonment by Rama qualify as “rape” and/or “sexual assault,” Nilanjana Roy turns to Draupadi whom she characterizes as follows: Draupadi’s story is rarely referenced, though it is powerfully told in... -
The Rape of Our Epics: Part 1
Posted on January 14, 2013 | 49 CommentsIntroduction Nilanjana Roy’s Business Standard piece on Jan 08, 2013 entitled A woman alone in the forest is just the latest in what has become a much-lauded fad. A fad whose staple diet consists of a distorted reading of Indian epics, misinterpretations aplenty, sleights of... -
Marxist-Sociologist Nutjob Wanks off on the Pages of the Madras Marxist Rag
Posted on January 5, 2013 | 27 CommentsThis piece was published on Centre Right India yesterday. Comments and criticism welcome as always. Thank God I am not in Madras. If I were, my hands would’ve gotten dirty the moment I flipped to that bilious page of the Madras Mount Road Marxist Rag.... -
The Enduring Relevance of Koenraad Elst
Posted on December 29, 2012 | 25 CommentsDisclaimer: This piece is going to piss off a lot of people. I mean no offence but if you do take offence, I consider it a deed well done. One of the defining sentences in the various analyses of post-Independence Hindu revivalism, which is also... -
A Tale of Two Women
Posted on July 21, 2012 | 9 CommentsIt appears that this lazy, somnambulist nation wakes up only when tragedies of mammoth proportions erupt. It wakes up but for a bit and lapses again into sleepwalking. However, in that brief interval, something resembling the good and the just occurs. It took China to... -
In Which Salil Disrobes Several Draupadis
Posted on July 19, 2012 | 63 CommentsI know, I know. The title of this post will only rile up Salil Tripathi further because he’s big on things like “tone,” and “civility,” which he cites are the reasons he doesn’t engage with me. Isn’t that a jolly way to wriggle out of... -
Why Doesn’t the Hindu Talk about the Demographic Siege
Posted on July 9, 2012 | 55 CommentsIn a highly communally-charged article, the Hindu reports on a supposed “housing apartheid” that seems to exist in Delhi. Although the piece is focussed on Delhi, one can’t help feeling that the content of the piece can be extrapolated to other Indian cities and reach... -
Meet India’s MISTER Oprah
Posted on June 12, 2012 | 96 CommentsTime is late breakfasts every Sunday. Nostalgia is watching recreated hour-long bow-and-arrow matches that took place 7000 years ago. Memories are the excitement of watching these hour-long bow-and-arrow matches with parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, neighbours, friends, and random strangers trooping into your house every...