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Jan 8, 2025 | 
indianexpress.com | Peter Ronald deSouza
Often thinkers, when they want to explain how social agents act in the world, posit a pair of personality types as binaries. Arthur Koestler, the former communist intellectual and philosopher of science, wrote a book titled The Yogi and the Commissar. In the lead essay, which bears the same title as the book, he discusses the two personality types of the yogi and the commissar.
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Nov 16, 2024 | 
newageislam.com | Peter Ronald deSouza
By Peter Ronald deSouza The stories of discussions taking place in Resident Welfare Association (RWA) chat groups, University Alumni gatherings, the Officer's mess, and even in IIT WhatsApp groups - where the scientific temper is supposedly pervasive - of members being trolled because of their religion and ethnicity, I only half regarded as serious. These to me were passing moments of toxicity. Essential India with its philosophical openness would re-emerge from such cesspools of prejudice.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
indianexpress.com | Peter Ronald deSouza
The stories of discussions taking place in Resident Welfare Association (RWA) chat groups, University Alumni gatherings, the Officer’s mess, and even in IIT Whatsapp groups — where the scientific temper is supposedly pervasive — of members being trolled because of their religion and ethnicity, I only half regarded as serious. These to me were passing moments of toxicity. Essential India with its philosophical openness would re-emerge from such cesspools of prejudice.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Peter Ronald deSouza |Vaishna Roy |Ayaskant Das
The London-headquartered corporate conglomerate Vedanta Group seems to be a major beneficiary of the Narendra Modi government’s decision to remove oil and natural gas exploration activities from the ambit of environmental impact assessment. It has enabled the Anil Agarwal–headed company to fast-track a Rs.264 crore oil exploration project in a wildlife-rich and ecologically sensitive area of Assam flanked by densely populated rural settlements.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Bashir Ali Abbas |Peter Ronald deSouza |Vaishna Roy
On a sunny afternoon on February 1, 1979, in Tehran’s Shahyad Square (now Meidan-e-Azadi), a loud, jubilant crowd in excess of a million greeted Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as he descended from his helicopter after being flown in earlier from the Parisian suburb of Neauphle-le-Château.1 Among the throng that welcomed Khomeini and the hope of a new dawn that he brought with him after the end of Reza Shah Pahlavi’s autocratic regime were two senior Israeli officials, Yitzhak Segev (Israel’s...
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Jayati Ghosh |Peter Ronald deSouza |Vaishna Roy
The recent escalation of tensions in West Asia has led once again to concerns that this will affect global oil prices, given the region’s importance in global petroleum and natural gas supply. Israel’s horrific devastation of Gaza over the past year and its genocide upon the Palestinian people, and even the attacks on Lebanon did not have much impact on oil markets because neither Palestine nor Lebanon are significant oil producers. But Iran is another matter.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Ashis Kumar Roy |Chintan Girish Modi |Peter Ronald deSouza |Vaishna Roy
What is it like to be a Hindu married to a Muslim or a Muslim married to a Hindu in a country like India where families are deeply involved not only in wedding ceremonies but also in the everyday life of the newlywed couple? Why do they choose to marry each other in a sociopolitical context that often frames Hindu identity and Muslim identity as oppositional, even incompatible?
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Vaishna Roy |Peter Ronald deSouza
They say history repeats itself. But one did not imagine it would come full circle in less than 80 years, when our memories are still leaching shock at the extent of the horror unleashed during the Holocaust when more than six million Jews were exterminated. And yet, here we are. Watching as the West enables yet another blood-crazed monster to wreak death and destruction, this time on Palestinians in Gaza.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Peter Ronald deSouza |Vaishna Roy |Ayesha Minhaz
For the Telangana government, developing the Musi riverfront is like setting the Thames on fire. A document titled “Telangana Growth Story 2024” touts the Musi Riverfront Development Project as encompassing “IT Towers, retail, entertainment spaces, and multiple bridges across the river, drawing inspiration from the Thames River in London”.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | R.K. Radhakrishnan |Peter Ronald deSouza |Vaishna Roy
On October 27th, 2024, the political landscape of Tamil Nadu witnessed a significant moment—actor Vijay’s first political conference for his party, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam(TVK), in Vikravandi. Located 150 kilometres from Chennai, Vikravandi’s selection is strategic. The location forms a perfect hub, sitting at the centre of an arc that encompasses major towns across northern Tamil Nadu. To the south, cities like Tiruchi, Thanjavur, and Nagapattinam lie within similar travelling distance.
