Dilip Simeon's blog

"You say shut down JNU, we say let every Indian university be like JNU." Prof. Purushottam Agrawal speaking at JNU on 17th February 2016 and in his inimitable style underlining the dangers of ongoing vilification of intellectuals, glorification of brute force, marginalization of rationality, creation of mob frenzy and denigration of institutions. See video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLIOfvhOk9w See also What is to be Undone PURUSHOTTAM AGRAWAL - The BJP has Unleashed the Bhasmasura of Aggressive Nationalism. Good Luck Controlling It Venue for a Speech on  Tamas  - Chronicle of an Event That Should Never Have Happened My Personal and Political Kabir' by Purushottam Agrawal Satyashodhak Sanskrutik Manch: Purushottam   Agrawal's   lecture Agar Kabir Aaj Hote Apoorvanand:  गांधीजी का आखरी महीना  - Talk on Gandhiji's Last Month October 2; 2015 Irfan Habib on Gandhi's Finest Hour (video) The Abolition of truth  (on...

 Saturday afternoon, friends and colleagues of Boris Nemtsov, joined by thousands of others, will march in Moscow, marking a year since the day Nemtsov was assassinated. Late in the evening on February 27th, 2015, Nemtsov was walking home across a bridge that spans the Moscow River, not far from the Kremlin and the bulbous domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral. The killer shot Nemtsov four times, from behind, as his girlfriend watched in terror. Nemtsov, who was fifty-five years old, was once a precocious political talent, rising from provincial governor to become to become President Boris Yeltsin’s deputy prime minister. He never found his way in Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin, and left government when his party was voted out of parliament, in 2003. He became one of the more energetic and charismatic figures in the country’s beleaguered political opposition. He was handsome, with a lively mane of light brown hair that turned silver over the years, which he swept to the side in the style o...

If you’ve ever absent-mindedly shared or liked something on social media, Dr Rajesh Misra’s tale should be a cautionary one. Misra, a professor of sociology at the University of Lucknow, shared a link on his Facebook wall on Tuesday. It was an impassioned op-ed by Apoorvanand, a professor at Delhi University which argued that by rebelling and dissenting, “Umar Khalid is the son every parent should desire and be proud of”. This is, however, not a very good time to rebel and dissent. While Khalid has been arrested, charged with sedition against the government, Misra faced violent protests over his decision to simply share Apoorvanand’s article. Students associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s student wing, disrupted Misra’s classes and even burnt his effigy. Later, Lucknow University even sought an explanation from Misra for his habits of social media sharing. Speaking to  Scroll.in , however, Misra was mostly undaunted by this re...

The demonisation of intellectuals, the glorification of brute force and the weakening of institutional practices are all indications of Indian democracy turning into a dystopia. The recent  call by a top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionary  to “purge all universities of anti-national elements” is not just another barb in the ongoing controversy over recent events at JNU. It indicates the RSS’s resolve to achieve as much of its agenda as possible through the first-ever majority government formed by its affiliate party, the BJP. The RSS hopes, and not without basis, that even if ousted from power in 2019, its ‘achievements’ will remain intact, given the support it has built amongst the vocal middle class, aided by the political naivety of its opponents. Since its inception, the RSS has been following a well prepared agenda of replacing the inclusive, democratic and secular idea of India with its own. The call to ‘purge’ and the campaign against JNU are but...

Pakistan's  military and intelligence agencies are waging a nasty war  on U.S.-based scholars whose writings and public statements undermine cherished narratives promulgated by the army that has dominated Pakistan's governance for most of the state's existence. These agencies aim to intimidate, discredit, and silence us. Their tools are crude and include: outright threats; slanderous articles in Pakistani papers and other  on-line forums ; an army of trolls on twitter and other social media who hound us; and embassy officials who attend and report on our speaking events on Pakistan. But we are lucky to be in the United States: Pakistan's khaki louts  disappear, kidnap and/or kill their critics within Pakistan My own experience with Pakistan's harassment techniques began in May of 2011 when I received an email threatening me with gang-rape by an entire regiment. I had received a grant from the American Institute of Pakistan Studies to complete research for my bo...

For 25 years, Cuba worked on developing a vaccine for lung cancer, and 2011 saw the availability of  CimaVax , which prevents against a growth factor that can cause tumor cells to grow. In the video above, learn about the cheap vaccine, how it was made available for free in Cuba and why the  U.S. wants in on it. hear video http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-interest-in-cimavax_us_56cdd88fe4b041136f18fced?section=india

Ignited hopes and no jobs: Why Jats have revolted Traditional landowners, the Jats are a powerful Hindu caste now demanding classification as a “backward” caste – a contention  rejected  last year by the Supreme Court – so that government jobs can be reserved for them. However, an IndiaSpend analysis of employment data and evaluation of aspirations of young Jats revealed that the protests are manifestations of India’s slow, inadequate job-creation and a failing education system creating thousands of “unemployable” graduates. This disconnect between education, aspirations and jobs explains similar demands to be classified as “backward” and “other-backward-caste (OBC)” by socially powerful caste groups – Gujjars  (Rajasthan),  Marathas  (Maharashtra),  Patels  (Gujarat) and  Kapus  (Andhra Pradesh), among others – struggling to find satisfactory employment. Labourers, guards and maids form the majority of the jobs available to more th...