Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra
In his video snippet, Dr. @ElstKoenraad debunks the legend of Saint Thomas coming to India and being martyred there, asserting it is entirely fabricated. Historical evidence suggests Thomas never reached India but may have traveled to Afghanistan or eastern Iran. The only source is an apocryphal text written 200 years later, describing Persian-speaking regions. He criticizes the false accusation against Brahmins for Thomas's death and questions why this legend persists unchallenged. Watch the full talk here: youtu.be/E9rikx6G1m4 #SangamTalks
https://x.com/sangamtalks/status/1793969348467441969?t=Urzwndgir_SXZlxmiS1N5w&s=19
My Ram saves millions of Sitas from the fire. That is the difference. Happy Birthday Raja Rammohan Roy .
Thanks @cinemawoman2
https://x.com/MahuaMoitra/status/1793323067533324413?t=3W39HuadzrYQJON_p6dhAg&s=19
Prashant Kishor really embarrassed himself in the interview with Karan Thapar and came across as someone who simply cannot tolerate being wrong about anything. That said, it’s insane how many people are blindly giving in to the absurd conspiracy theory of PK being a BJP agent.
https://x.com/DearthOfSid/status/1793676055112569235?t=1MRfVJIqD5ia9NzvAlyzmw&s=19
I wish your charges against Modi were true @Jairam_Ramesh !
To allege that Modi is anti reservations, आरक्षण विरोधी, is a cruel joke.
India today needs a leader who can put an end to all reservations, all quotas.
Pity Congress is stuck with failed formulas.
You are so bright and yet you can’t come up with smarter ideas.
https://x.com/madhukishwar/status/1793322001702310169?t=1htw9_emQHDCkPwGTXF-hw&s=19
The problem with a BJP voter is their inability to understand that expecting accountability of ministers is not a stand against them. We can question the PM as citizens. We can disagree with his policies. The blind devotion to Modi is more akin to a cult than a democracy
https://x.com/Sanginamby/status/1793828954224406955?t=RFh7hzV5zJFAJmSl0t8A9g&s=19
Yes, BJP supporters need to learn from liberals how to ask questions.
Liberals accepted Nehru, Indira G, Rajiv G, Sonia G and now Rahul G as their leader because these were the best talent India could offer. The fact that they are all from same family is pure coincidence, not result of blind devotion.
https://x.com/AbhishBanerj/status/1793933641342714284?t=MbW4bVTapTaV1JGo0VyzWQ&s=19
Imagine if Patauadis son and grandson were to Captain India; if Drbhabas son and grandson were to be the head of BARC, if MGK son and grandson were to the head of ISRO, if Milkha singhs son and grandson insisted on running the 400m, Imagine all the people practicing dynasty
https://x.com/Murali78669678/status/1793954288252903681?t=hnWSVdspvksdbQiIvdmmfQ&s=19
Judges don't go on vacation when there is a summer break in the #SupremeCourtofIndia. That is when they retreat to reflect over the myriad issues in a world where people fight disputes in a miasmic mix of arrogance and stupidity.
https://x.com/madversity/status/1792440320908526027?t=3K9_iM1zG2vVSQhr9bFa9A&s=19
The importance of @dhruv_rathee
My piece for @TheQuint explains why this year's polls make it
YouTube vs WhatsApp And How Digital Mavericks Are Testing Dubious #Elections2024 Narratives
#DhruvRathee #RavishKumar #RanveerAllahbadia
https://x.com/madversity/status/1792852380561948862?t=SVLBM23lLwD6XUZa9om-rA&s=19
Sad fact is most reporters are increasingly providing only raw material. Most anchors are compromised. That leaves YouTubers ground to explain and interpret.
My article here explains how it works
https://x.com/madversity/status/1792956695125340324?t=qe96UoC1Wpy6JMpG_5tjqA&s=19
Always good for the media to question those in power (whosoever). Because it can correct the bias inherent in the awesome machineries of power, state and hubris.
https://x.com/madversity/status/1793486336177119365?t=dqH_Uyvs267MGUDj289d3g&s=19
I have believed the elites matter in indirect ways. Their words and views are telegraphed down the social hierarchy and discussed at the grassroots. Their vote is not important. But their thoughts are vital
https://x.com/madversity/status/1792955707651944706?t=twaX4lF_lTKtS8n5OzkkQA&s=19
The spectacular meltdown of Prashant Kishor in an interview with @thewire_in when Karan Thapar confronts him with his own tweet that predicted a rout for the Congress in Himachal. Kishor angrily denies he ever said it even as Thapar pulls up his tweet…
https://x.com/rohini_sgh/status/1793345332677595150?t=FYpOjgVdF-r2whllVC_Fpw&s=19
If you listen closely, in Gayatri Spivak and Martha Nussbaum’s condescending tantrums, you hear the fading roar, or more like the last gasp of not just a generation, but an entire “South Asianist” academic industry that realizes its epistemic monopoly is over.
Intellectual gaslighting has a shelf-life & it’s expired.
Not celebrating, but the heir’s credibility is in shambles. The jig is up—they know we’re on to them and laughing at the absurdity of their covering a political project under a fading veneer of scholarship.
https://x.com/SuhagAShukla/status/1793292655050301894?t=jFJTDzj4Lp26c7WCtiPPQw&s=19
[PDF] Escaping the Global Event: Pan-Islam and the First World War
Pluralism or Uniformity: Case of (Single) National Curriculum of Pakistan
[PDF] The Resilience of Caste through Yashica Dutt's Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir (2019)
[PDF] The Massacre and Martyr (dom) s of Oak Creek
[HTML] THE MASSACRE AND MARTYR (DOM) S OF OAK CREEK: On the Problem of Diaspora, the Economy of Agonism, and the Extimacy of Relation-Making
Music as an Anti-Caste Counterpublic: Notes From North India
Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva By Janaki Bakhle. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2024, p. 501. Hardback, ISBN: 978-0-691-25036-6
[HTML] Sahelis in struggle: Reimagining feminist solidarity and friendship in neoliberal times
[PDF] Aspects of Higher Consciousness
[PDF] The Transformative Power of Movement: A Conversation between Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Marcel Mauss and its Influence on Contemporary Theology.
[PDF] What's so bad about fanaticism?
So, what’s so bad about fanaticism? Is it bad at all? Cassam claims that fanaticism is bad because it involves commitment to a morally reprehensible end. Battaly claims that fanaticism is neutral: it can be bad, but if it is this will be due to the badness of the fanatic’s end rather than to the fact that the person is fanatical. I’ve argued that these accounts mislocate the concern: we should focus not on the fanatic’s object (their end, goal, ideal, etc.), but on the fanatic’s psychological profile. Battaly is right that the fanatic can adopt good or neutral objects, but nonetheless I’ve argued that fanaticism involves an existential defect and a disposition toward violent intolerance. In that sense, fanaticism is bad. Nonetheless, we can be nuanced in our judgments about particular cases of fanaticism.
Fanatics can be directed toward morally praiseworthy goals, and the good effects of fanaticism can in some circumstances outweigh the bad aspects.
In making this argument, I’ve distinguished between devotion and fanaticism. I see this as a significant advantage of my account. It gets us what we want: the idea that there’s an extreme form of commitment that is praiseworthy and that is often necessary to achieve important social and political goals. But my account preserves the idea that fanaticism is a vice. And it allows us to say that there can be cases of devotion gone bad, devotion-turned-badly-fanatical.
I will close by mentioning one further point. Aside from offering us the resources to distinguish devotion from fanaticism, my account has a further advantage: it gives us a way of addressing fanaticism. If the core problem with fanaticism is just that the fanatic is directed toward objectionable ends (Cassam’s view), then the solution is to change people’s ends. But if the core problem with fanaticism is an existential one—a defect of character, of one’s way of relating to value quite generally—then the solution is to change people’s characters. That is no easy task—but, if we have any hope of mitigating the strife and discord caused by fanaticism, it is a crucial one.
