Make Sense of the world
Unique insight from 2,000+ contributors in 80+ Countries
Indian journalist Manu Joseph recently wrote a column in which he questions major intellectual advances in history, claiming they were nothing but delusional ideas of schizophrenics. He asks, rhetorically: “What if many things that we call philosophies today had emerged from a mental disorder?...
Journalist Priyanka Dubey, in her book "No Nation For Women — Reporting on Rape From India, The World's Largest Democracy," boldly remarked that "rape is the only crime in India for which the victim is blamed." The statement makes absolute sense in the light of India’s social context, where a...
On November 27, Priyanka Reddy, a veterinary doctor from the Indian state of Telangana, was brutally gang-raped and murdered. Her body was burned to leave little trace of the misdeed. The incident took place when, while traveling home alone on a scooter, Priyanka got off at a toll plaza. A group...
The recent news of a housing fee hike at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has created a storm. JNU is a premier institution based in New Delhi, India, which has produced alumni whose contributions have benefited society both in India and the world at large. The institution has been funded by...
Students at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India, staged a protest lasting more than two weeks against the appointment of Dr. Firoz Khan as a faculty member at the Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vijnan (SVDV). At the crux of the matter is the fact that a Muslim scholar was appointed to...
Amid all the gloom and doom over the slow retreat of democracy, the past few weeks have come as a welcome relief for proponents of the liberal world order. Since the late 2000s, the election of right-wing, xenophobic and authoritarian leaders and the consolidation of power by Vladimir Putin in...
Despite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resoundingly successful reelection earlier this year, Foreign Policy magazine expresses serious doubts about his ability to keep the promises he made during his initial election campaign and hold the unwieldy nation together. His promises of economic...
History’s arc is like a boomerang. Winston Churchill didn’t believe that Indians were capable of self-rule, once saying that “Indians are not fit to rule, they are fit to be ruled.” As adulation for Churchill is wearing off with the passage of time, The Guardian and The New York Times, the...
The TED website describes Kishore Mahbubani, a career diplomat from Singapore, as someone who “re-envisions global power dynamics through the lens of rising Asian economies.” This description is not just apt for Mahbubani but also for his new book, “Has the West Lost It?” The title may...
On September 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a rally in Houston, Texas, amidst a thunderous welcome from 50,000 Indian Americans chanting “Howdy, Modi!” He appeared on stage along with the US president, Donald Trump, who was introduced by Modi as “my friend, a friend of...
On September 27, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan delivered an impassioned speech at the UN General Assembly in New York that has sent heads spinning. Taking to the podium for over 50 minutes, he addressed four themes that conjoin inextricably. The first topic was climate change. Pakistan...
