After being prompted by Medium to think about what defined my 2022, I rather uncharacteristically immediately thought of hope. 2022 has just begun. The most corrupt British government in living memory continues to mishandle Covid-19. Whether the lockdown is formally lifted or not, one…

The author’s 2022 Reith Lecture was an eloquent defence of free speech in the age of social media — but also evasive when it came to regressive opinions — In addition to her writing, the well-deserved rise to fame of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s was thanks to her fearless insistence of writing beyond a singular story. Her works, her words, and her ideas shattered the singular role accorded to her and those who looked like her by the White gaze.

Rishi Sunak has become the first non-white Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. All it took for the melanin in his skin to be erased was his grotesquely privileged background and his wholehearted support for inhumane and racist immigration legislation. History has been made once again in the span of…

If life often imitates art, then politics is best represented by farce The news that the first UK rocket attempting to take satellites into space suffered an ignominious failure should strike us all as being fittingly emblematic for modern-day Britain. Sir Richard Branson’s idea to jury-rig a decommissioned 747 jumbo…

As Twitter’s fate remain uncertain, we are comforted that it won’t go out with a bang — but, instead, with a ROFL and a meme. Once again, it feels like too much and not enough is happening simultaneously. A billionaire feted by legions of followers as being some sort of…

Author’s note: some of you, especially if you are unfamiliar with British customs surrounding the monarchy, may think that the news snippets shared below are satirical. Unfortunately, they are not — and instead belong to the peculiar brand of cruel absurdity that thrives in a nation which claims it is…

Media and government attacks on The National Trust’s project stem from the quintessentially British tradition of purposely obscuring the past. — There has never been a good time to be a historian exploring colonialism in the United Kingdom — the last remaining part of an Empire which once boasted that the sun never sets on it — but this year has been particularly trying for those invested in accurately documenting the…

The legitimisation of Hindutva, an ideology whose origins lie in British colonialism and Fascism, makes this a day of critical reflection, not celebration, for India. — The stroke of the midnight hour has come again; but this time, India awakes to death and misery. On August 5th, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the first brick in the Ram Mandir, a temple built on the ruins of a broken masjid razed to the ground by a Hindu…