The only way out is through

If you can eat and drink, sleep in a bed, read these words, and have a bank account—you have the power to help. Don’t stay silent. Do something for Gaza today.

Another person will not hurt you without your cooperation. You are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be.

Most discussions of culture in India, as they take place in academic circles and the dominant media, tend to confuse ‘culture’ with ‘civilization’ and civilization with ‘religion’. These discussions then prepare the ground for identifying the essence of Indian culture with Brahminical classicism. Hinduism remains the centre of gravity in these confusions of culture, civilization and religion. Christianity, which has an older presence in India than most smriti literature, is rarely regarded as an intrinsic part of this all-Indic culture and is jettisoned, in the discourse of revivalist conservatism, to the domain of missionaries. Islam, which has an older presence here than most of medieval bhakti, is itself regarded as marginal and additional. The very terms of this debate, with their extraordinary orientation toward the past, pave the way, objectively speaking, for a revivalist and even fascist kinds of cultural nationalism, since the culturalist claims of an organised religion in the context of modern politics, where religion gets intermeshed in cultural nationalism, almost always conceal very high degree of violence against those who stand outside the charmed circle of this religiously defined cultural nationalism.

Just a reminder that Saudi Arabia is responsible for one of the world's largest and most severe man made humanitarian emergencies. Their blockade of Yemen, which prevents food, water, medicine, and fuel from entering the country has caused a significant death toll. Emphasis here on man made as these were preventable.