Corruption: Towards a Marxist Understanding

24 05 2007

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There is perhaps none who does not rail against corruption and its baneful impact on the country’s economy as well as on its social fabric. Governments pledge to stop and eradicate it, middle class drawing rooms discuss its baneful influence on national life, the press continues to expose its prevalence, religious leaders and moralists preach against it, while courts of law and the police express their inability to stamp it out. From the helper in a Government office to some of the top functionaries of our Governments, almost everyone seems implicated. Paul Wolfowitz, the soon-to-be-past president of the World Bank, has surely helped to underline the universality of this scourge across country and ethnicity. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Back-of-the-envelope Economics, India - Pakistan, Marxism and Marxists, Politics, Pop goes the Culture, The Post Column

The Discipline of Spectator Sports

21 03 2007

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As we recover from the dismal performances of India and Pakistan in the on-going cricket World Cup, it may be a good time for everyone to take another look at the role spectator sports play in our lives today. It is well known that cricket, the unassailable king among sports in the Subcontinent, rides on and sustains a multi-billion economy, provides super profits to those who own and administer its performances, and gives our people a distraction from the unhappy grind of their daily lives. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Media, Politics, Pop goes the Culture, The Post Column

Women’s Day, Lenin and a riot in Copenhagen

6 03 2007

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Newspapers for the past few days have been carrying reports of riots and firefights between anarchist squatters and police in Copenhagen, Denmark over control of a 19th century building now called the Ungdomshuset or “youth house”. It appears that this municipal building was given to young people in the 1970s and since then has been the site for a vibrant “alternative” youth culture in Copenhagen.

The Guardian makes a brief mention of the fact that this building was constructed by the Danish labour movement in the last years of the 19th century and hosted Vladimir Lenin. We’ll come to that later, but what is most interesting, ironic even, for me is that two days before International Women’s Day the building where this idea was first conceived is being pulled down. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : History, Marxism and Marxists, Politics, Pop goes the Culture, Wo/Men, Feminism, Gender

Hyderabad Muslims

11 02 2007

These three articles were published in April 2003, as a special report on the Muslims of Hyderabad.

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Categories : Muslims and Islam, Politics, Pop goes the Culture, Religion, Secularism, Secularisation, The Hindu reports, Wo/Men, Feminism, Gender

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