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 past.
Last week saw a coordinated media campaign against four historians that are part of the National Trust — the latest in a long series of reactionary establishment attacks on the country’s premier charity thanks to their latest project, which investigates the connections that 93 houses in their care have…
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 mob in 1992. It was a symbolic taunt from a man whose rise to the top has been propelled by his willingness to step on the corpses of Indian Muslims. The ideals of the Republic are dead; the Hindu Reich has begun.
Hindutva, the ideology that Modi and his party…
Fanon’s vision of a world freed from the shackles of racism can still influence our personal and political lives.
To read the words of a revolutionary is to be inspired for a better future. That’s how it felt when I first encountered Frantz Fanon. Born on 20th July 1925, the French West Indian psychiatrist and political philosopher has had an enormous influence in the fields of post-colonial studies and critical race theory. He’s also had an equally profound effect on my personal life.
Eighteen is an odd age because it is pregnant with possibility. It’s the age when we start fumbling towards a sense of who we want to be; a journey punctuated with occasionally discovering who we really…
A reminder that our personal book collections can inform, delight, and enrich our lives during these trying times.
The origin of the modern novel begins, oddly enough, with a library. We first encounter the elderly eponymous hero of Cervantes’ Don Quixote regaling himself with “…books of knight-errantry…”. The contents of his library, which present a romantic and adventurous way out of the dull doldrums of life, spurs the madman onward. Accompanied by taciturn horse and manservant alike, the Don rides out into a world to confront the truth he found in his books.
Three-hundred-and-fifty years later, another author writing in…
The key to maintaining our mental well-being during the coming months lies in transforming loneliness into a space of solitude.
I didn’t expect much to change in my life with the new decade. Most of my twenties have been overshadowed with depression and that colours my view on everything. More precisely, it denudes it; creating a monochromatic emotional lens through which every aspiration and optimistic impulse is tempered.
However, even during my worst bouts of melancholy, I never expected by March to have not only been forced to self-isolate because of a mysterious virus but also eschew contact with anyone. …
Aditya Iyer
Freelance journalist and writer. Interests: history (pre- and post-colonial), culture, and immigration. Also strives to befriend small animals.
