For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Umar Nizar The Menon Investigation’ by the prize-winning novelist Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari is an absolute cracker of a thriller that, in its socio-political ramifications, is, to use a well-worth cliché, unputdownable. The titular Menon’s interiority and anxieties about his dark skin colour in a racist society form an unlikely backdrop to this work of fiction. …
Umar Nizar The elitist literary journal `The Paris Review’ had something strange about its submission policy. Everything had to be sent by snail mail. There was no online portal for writers to log in, nor were they accepting e-mail correspondence. This often resulted in unfortunate occurrences, as when a budding poet would, in all innocence, …
Umar Nizar The progressive movement among the Muslims of Kerala had for long been cornered by non-mainstream organisations such as the Jamaat-e-Islami. The organization was one of the few Muslim formations to have aligned itself with the mainstream left in Kerala, till the time they parted ways. The local ramifications of global events such as …
Umar Nizar “It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue …
Umar Nizar Orientalism as a discipline has been detrimental to the fortunes of eastern civilisations, particularly that of India. The translation of a corpus of Indic heritage by the likes of Max Meuller rendered India susceptible to military interference and onslaught by great powers in the age of steam-powered industrialisation. The inscrutability of China can …
Umar Nizar The culinary crafting of Bharata’s `rasa’ theory has been established so much so that it is even compared to the South Indian spice soup called `rasam’ which is a cocktail of spicy, sweet, tangy and sour flavours. `Rasa’ depends on the sue generic creation of emotion. `Vibhavaanubhavavyabhicharisamyogit rasa nischpatti’ is the famous rasa …
Umar Nizar The graffiti superstar Banksy known for his politically charged work, has recently been playing it safe by making animal murals in the city of London, which is interesting in the light of the recent right wing hooliganism and rioting in the UK. Multiculturalism in the UK is a sham, and so is the …
Umar Nizar Furthermore, it is a commonplace that mistakes or errors are part of the learning process and thus essential to creativity: as Jung remarked, “anyone who takes the sure road is as good as dead’, or as Hélène Cixous puts it: ‘our mistakes are our leaps in the night. Error is not lie; it …
Umar Nizar The allegation that was levelled against Socrates was that of corrupting the young. Similarly present day philosophers such as Zizek and Badiou has a huge following among the youth. But there are controversially radical figures like Jordan Peterson who dehumanises victims of violence, who also attract the minds of the young in large …