Description
Badri Raina’s essays written over a period of six years hold a mirror to the neo-liberal world we live in. Focused on south Asia the essays straddle the world of politics, ideology and history. Rich in insight, information, and the range of issues covered, his essays describe contemporary India in the context of the growing inequalities and religious sectarianism that are essential facets of its neo-liberal present. Raina is scathing in his criticism of capitalism and imperialism, and the savagery of the home-grown fascism. His subjects include Hindu nationalism, Kashmir, the North East India, Pakistan, Nepal, the state of the Indian left and various resistance movements.
This book will be of immense use to all those who are interested in South Asian history and politics.
CONTENTS
Editor’s Note
Acknowledgements
Foreword
2006
- Capital Punishment
- India and Nepal
- India, Nepal, and Left Praxis
- Back to a Better Version of Reform
- We the People
- Indian Muslims
- Vande Mataram
- The Last Straw: Women Among Religions
- Irom Sharmila
- Sachar Committee Report on Indian Muslims
- The Saddam Murder
2007
- Is Independence a Viable Option for Jammu & Kashmir?
- The Meaning of Modi
- Kashmir Calling
- Hanging the Corrupt by the Lamppost
- Parvenu Nationalism
- Nandigram and the Left
- Kashmir Revisited
- The Moral Highs of India’s ‘Cultural Nationalists’
- The Year of the Indian Diet of Worms?
- Pet Panacea of India’s Ruling Classes
- New Ringtones from Condy Rice
- Vedic Mantra in the American Senate
- Teach Them Not to Think
- Indian State on Trial
- The Unacceptable Excesses of Irreligion
- India’s American Dream
- State of the Nation
- Quiet Flows the Gutter Paved with Gold
- Right-Wing Constructions of God
- Deal or Democracy?
- Gujarat 2002
- Reading Nandigram
- Communalism and Terrorism
- Gujarat: The Face of India’s Misbegotten Modernity
2008
- Essentialising Pakistan
- The Treacheries of Words
- On Pakistan Elections
- Fascists Attack the Communist Party Office
- Salwa Judum
- Cricket as Surrogate Kill
- Anti-Globalist Zeitgeist
- The State, the Seminaries, and the People of India
- Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul
- Fatwa Against Terrorism
- The Chieftain State of Gujarat
- Three Men in a Quandary
- India’s Roughshod Ruling Class
- Georgia and the End of Unilateralism
- Conversions
- Fighting Terror the Terrorist Way
- Sweet Time For the Left in India
- India’s Failed Secularism
- Simplicities
- Notions of the Nation
- Hindu Terrorism
- The Quest for Purity
- Enough is Enough
- India’s Long But Sure Revolution
- India’s 2009 Election
2009
- Omar Abdullah
- Satyam
- Germany, 1933 / Gujarat, 2009
- The High-Minded Illiteracy of the Indian Elite
- The Spectacular Return of Gandhi’s Spectacles
- India’s Democracy Challenged
- Capitalism is Dead, Long Live Capitalism
- The Pakistan Problem
- The Pakistan Problem – II
- L.K. Advani
- Verdict 2009
- Indians Down Under
- India And Europe
- Lalgarh
- Bharatiya Janata Party
- Some Notes from My Visit to Kozhikode
- Judge Not the Judge, or Thou Shalt Be Judged
- For Aung San Suu Kyi
- The Democracy Flu
- Something Rotten in the State of Gujarat
- Old Habits Die Very Hard
- Gandhi at the Service of Mont Blanc
- India’s Left-Wing Extremism
- Does Ideology Matter?
- Carting Off Medical Institute to Corporate Predators
- The Liberhan Report
- L.K. Advani and the Mythology of ‘Sadness’
2010
- A Future India Must Do Without
- Why do Extremes Unsettle Our Comfortable Middle Ground?
- A Tale of Two Chief Ministers
- You the Fascists, We the People
- India, Australia
- Too Small A Country for One Great Artist
- A Parliament of Women as Much as of Men
- Women’s Reservation Bill
- Troubled Times for Advani & Modi
- Destitution
- Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Corruptest of them All?
- Rewriting Proverbs
- Return to the People What is the People’s
- Crunch Time for India
- The Zionist State at it Again
- India, America, Israel
- India’s Globalised ‘Godmen’
- Capital’s Surge, Custom’s Dike
- Food or Nutrition?
- GDP vs GDP
- The Nation at Stake
- Kashmir Now Or Never
- What a Piece of Work is Man
- We Abuse Ram When We Spill Blood in His Name
- The Ayodhya Verdict
- An Open Letter to Ten Percent India, Myself Included
- Eminences of the Bench
- Corruption Makes Neo-Liberalism Go
2011
- Binayak Sen Sentenced to Life Term
- Isn’t Dissent the Essence of Democracy?
- Pigeonholing Gandhi
- Modi vs the Constitution
- Thus Conscience Can Make Good Indians of Us All
- The Intimate Zone
- Communalism Bad, Development Good
- The State of the Left
- What is a Temple Minus the Moolah?
- Corruption: A Heady Brew
- Parliament and the Anna Putsch
- The Real Agenda?
- Those That Rule Above and Beyond
- The Abject Desperation of the Right Wing
- Endgame in Gujarat?
- I am the Electronic Media
- As the Murdered Come Alive in Gujarat
- Is Pakistan Coming Full Circle?
- Just Why Did God Create Us?
Selected non-Znet Essays by Badri Raina
Cover: Coin Gallery by Sudhir Patwardhan. Charcoal on paper. 2008. Image courtesy of the artist.
Badri Raina
Badri Raina is a well-known commentator on politics, culture and society. His columns on the Znet have a global following.
Raina taught English literature at the University of Delhi for over four decades and is the author of the much acclaimed Dickens and the Dialectic of Growth. He has several collections of poems and translations. His writings have appeared in nearly all major English dailies and journals in India.
During his career as teacher in Delhi University he was actively involved in the issues of education and educational policies. He has been elected member of the highest decision making academic bodies of the University, the Academic Council and the Executive Council. His contribution to the democratic teachers movement has been immense.
