Weekend reads

  1. In the Indian Express, Rahul Mishra writes on how a young population in Malaysia has elected the world’s oldest prime minister in Mahathir Bin Mohamad.  
  2. In Longreads, Morgan Jerkings explores a dilemma that writers often face: how far is too far to go in revealing yourself in first-person pieces?  
  3. What happens when a person entrusted with enforcing the law ends up with charges of sexual harassment? New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman faced allegations of abusing four women even as he tried to take a leadership position in the #MeToo movement. This New Yorker investigation led to his resignation on May 8.  
  4. With the Narendra Modi government projecting rural electrification as a major success, Ashiwini K Swain in The Hindu says it is uncertain if the goal of electrifying all “willing households” will mean universal access. 
  5. In Hindustan Times, Ayaz Memon argues that for all his brilliance, the Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli may still not be considered an all-time great if he doesn’t score runs in England as prolifically as he has elsewhere. 
  6.   By pulling out of the Iran deal and reimposing sanctions, Trump has invented a crisis that could push the United States toward war, writes Derek Davison in Jacobin. 
  7.   To turn the tide of rightwing populism, its opponents must offer a vision rooted in reality, says Nick Cohen in the Guardian. 
  8.   The formula for Hindi imposition, which goes back to the 19th century, has been turned on its head by the south Indian states in 2018, writes Manu S Pillai in Mint. 
  9.   Governors vie with one another to please their masters in New Delhi by wantonly needling  chief ministers if they belong to a political party which is opposed to the BJP, says AG Noorani in Dawn. 
  10. A long-held theory on how horse domestication and language spread across Asia has been disrupted by a look at our genetic past, writes Eric Blakemore in National Geographic.