- The National Register of Citizens has torn apart the state of Assam. In Mint, Abul Kalam Azad writes about his struggle to rent a house as Muslims with origins in Bengal.
- In sharp contrast to the claims of the Bharatiya Janata Party that Bangladeshis are swarming into India, people across the border actually enjoy a better standard of living than Indians, notes Swati Narayan in the Indian Express.
- If the Jaipur Literature Festival is increasingly being accused of failing to live up to expectations, equal blame must be laid at the doors of the publishing industry ecosystem, writes Aditya Mani Jha in the Hindu Business Line.
- It is tragic that the Modi government has snuffed out mainstream Kashmiri politics, argues Ramchandra Guha in the Telegraph.
- In Aeon, Alexander Klein explains how English philosopher Bertrand Russell’s “scientific” philosophy was a bulwark against nationalism
- The trouble with anti-populism: In the Guardian, Benjamin Moffit explains why the champions of civility keep losing.
- Managment consulting firm McKinsey destroyed the middle class in the United States, argues Daniel Markovits.
- A growing chorus says that science has shown free will to be an illusion. But it actually has offered arguments in its favor, argues Christian List in the Boston Review.
- About 50,000 years ago, ancient humans in what is now West Africa apparently procreated with another group of ancient humans that scientists didn’t know existed. In NPR, Merit Kennedy explains how this ghostly human ancestor was discovered.
- What is wrong in being tacky, asks John Semley in the Walrus.
Reading
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1
A Hindu festival called Christmas: Encounters between a non-practising Hindu and Roman Catholicism
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2
‘Baby John’ review: What a way to end the year
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3
An 83-year-old short story by Jorge Luis Borges portends a bleak future for the internet
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4
In Bangladesh, a concert shows how creative freedom could transform the beleaguered nation
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5
Why does roughly half the world’s population speak Indo-European languages? A new book seeks answers
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6
Five ways to lower your chances of developing cancer – according to an oncologist
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7
How petha became a part of Indian Christmas
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8
A Jharkhand Christmas: Sadri carols to the beat of the mandar, sugar-dusted arsa, family picnics
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9
‘Our shadows drag us back’: Poems by 2024 Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar winner Ramesh Karthik Nayak
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10
Haruki Murakami and the challenge of translating Japanese’s many words for ‘I’