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Is Pluralism the New Orthodoxy in Global Art?

“What am I driving at? At this idea: that no one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization—and therefore force—is already a sick civilization, a civilization which is morally diseased.” —Césaire, Aimé. Discourse on Colonialism. Translated by Joan Pinkham,…

ByNarendra Pachkhédé

Stolen Fathers, Stolen Childhoods: Ten Years of Waiting for Zaheer Baloch

A Name Among Thousands, A Family Among the Broken On April 13, 2015, Zaheer Baloch, a resident of Panjgur district, was forcibly disappeared by Pakistani security forces from Hub Chowki, Balochistan. As of April 13, 2025, ten years have passed. No charge sheet, no trial, not even a confirmation if he is alive. He simply…

ByDilshad Baloch

‘Regimes of Authoritarianism’ and the Need for Organic Intellectuals

What is the role of intellectual leadership in our troubled times? At a time when universities are converted into stock exchanges, singularly focusing on “return on interest” (ROI), and scholars – a chunk of them, at least – investing their ideologies and praxis keeping in mind their own personal extravaganza and leadership positions, while few…

ByOm Prakash Dwivedi

Why the Neoliberal Universities Debunk Critical Thinking

The febrile mood of several neoliberal universities seems to have triggered the death of critical thinking across the globe. While pedagogical inventiveness remains the declared norm of such universities, the learning outcomes are invariably linked to return on interest and customer experience. That said, these neoliberal universities are prettified by posturing the students at the…

ByOm Prakash Dwivedi

Liberalism’s Stage Directions

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple” —Oscar Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays. Penguin Classics, 2000, p. 293. It began with a slip—not of the tongue, but of an unguarded conscience. At a campaign rally in…

ByNarendra Pachkhédé

Mahrang Baloch: The Epitome of Courage

We often study figures of resistance in history books—people who became symbols of their time, etched into memory by the scale of their defiance. But sometimes, history walks among us. Sometimes, it wears the face of someone you’ve seen on the street, marching beside you. For many of us, Mahrang Baloch is not just a…

The Hollow Centre – How Canadian Elections Became a Ritual of Consent.

The current framing of Canadian elections is fundamentally flawed "We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” —Didion, Joan. The White Album. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009, p. 3. Canadian electoral politics presents a carefully crafted facade of choice. Party platforms, debates, policy pivots, and rhetorical clashes all contribute to the illusion of a functioning…

ByNarendra Pachkhédé

I come from a land without a voice

I come from a land without a voice, But where silence speaks louder than war. On our morning walks, we pick flowers, On our way home, we place them on graves. Evening comes, heavy with the sound of guns, Yet the wind rises to wipe it away. Still, the scars remain—etched on walls, Written in…

ByShahalam Tariq

Adolescence : Toward a New Grammar of Feeling

If Kill All Normies maps the ecosystem, Adolescence renders its phenomenology "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." — Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time, Vol. V: The Captive & The Fugitive, Modern Library, 2003. p. 262. In the poignant scene of…

ByNarendra Pachkhédé