Humanities Underground

Nerves are at Ease, Nerves are Tense

Prasanta Chakravarty On August 4, 1943, a few days before her death and amidst war, Simone Weil began to describe to her parents, Selma (Mime) and Bernard Weil (Biri), from her little room in London...

Politics and Ethics in Communist Practice:From the Margins of the

Rajarshi Dasgupta Let me begin by explaining the subtitle, which should be relatively easier than the title. Who or what exactly belongs to the margins of communist politics in India? First, let me...

Spritual Politics as Marriage of Opposites

Vasanthi Srinivasan Ananda Coomaraswamy, known primarily as an art historian, deserves attention also as a philosopher of spiritual traditions. As a keeper of the Indian collection at the Boston...

In Heidegger’s Hut

Amlan Dasgupta  In 1966 or 1967 (the year is variously reported)  the poet Paul Celan journeyed to a place called Todtnauberg , in the Black Mountains in Germany. He was visiting the mountain cabin...

Trysts at Midnight: Calcutta, Now

Prasanta: Your film got a commercial release finally, which is wonderful. Among the initial reactions, in reviews, internet discussions and so forth, one notices a lot of interest in the polyvalent...