Hanif Kureishi and Stephen Frears‘ My Beautiful Laundrette makes most of its viewers laugh a lot. My personal favorite of its many rib-ticklingly subversive moments came–as it seemingly did for many others–when the gay street punk Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) helps the Pakistani Nasser Ali (Saeed Jaffrey) evict black West Indian tenants from his slummish property,Continue reading “A Professional Businessman, Not a Professional Pakistani”
Category Archives: History
The New York State Assembly is First Amendment-Illiterate
Earlier this morning, on both my Facebook and Twitter pages, I wondered aloud Is the Empire State particularly hostile to academic freedom? Is it particularly illiterate about the First Amendment? The reason for this slightly despairing query? Read this and despair for free speech: The New York State Assembly is currently considering a bill (A.8392) to prohibitContinue reading “The New York State Assembly is First Amendment-Illiterate”
The American Tragedy of Willie Bosket
The story of Willie Bosket, now serving a life sentence, due only to be released from solitary confinement in 2062, and once described as New York state’s most dangerous prison inmate, is the kind of tale all too easily described as an American tragedy. Fox Butterfield‘s All God’s Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition ofContinue reading “The American Tragedy of Willie Bosket”
The Cade Rebellion and the Republican Party
Jack Cade, the leader of the Cade Rebellion, is an entertaining Shakespearean character (Henry VI, Part 2), well equipped by the Bard with many memorable lines. So are his followers, one of whom utters the oft-quoted, ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’ As Stephen Greenblatt noted in Will in the World: How ShakespeareContinue reading “The Cade Rebellion and the Republican Party”
From ‘Filling the Sky’ to ‘Sharing the Earth’
In On the Town: One Hundred Years of Spectacle in Times Square (Random House, New York, 2006), Marshall Berman, in the chapter ‘The Street Splits and Twists’, which, among other things, describes the complicated relationship between women and Times Square, notes in his commentary on Ethel Merman: Gypsy is one of the most grueling of AmericanContinue reading “From ‘Filling the Sky’ to ‘Sharing the Earth’”
Book Release Announcement: Eagles Over Bangladesh
Some readers of this blog might remember that I write on military aviation history; more specifically, the history of the Indian Air Force (IAF), and especially its role in India’s post-independence wars. Thus, I’m pleased to announce the release of my second book on this subject: Eagles Over Bangladesh: The Indian Air Force in the 1971Continue reading “Book Release Announcement: Eagles Over Bangladesh”
Lessius and the Fear Theory of Atheism
The ‘fear theory’ of the origin of religion is sometimes traced back to Democritus and Lucretius; it may be found too, in David Hume‘s Natural History of Religion. In its most general form, mankind conjured up God and the gods when made aware of its fragility in the face of nature’s capriciousness and power, itsContinue reading “Lessius and the Fear Theory of Atheism”
Language and Identity: The Case of Punjabi
My last name is a giveaway: I’m a Punjabi. But I’ve never lived in the Punjab and I have yet to master its language. The story of my attempts to do so reveals familiar struggles—by people like you and me—to fashion an identity, no matter where we live, whether in India or elsewhere. As aContinue reading “Language and Identity: The Case of Punjabi”
RIP Nelson Mandela
I must have been an extraordinarily ignorant teenager because the first time I heard of Nelson Mandela came only when I saw The Specials perform ‘Free Nelson Mandela‘ on the BBC’s Top of the Pops. Who was Nelson Mandela, and why was it imperative that he be freed? What had this man done to getContinue reading “RIP Nelson Mandela”
Fearful Reveries, Penal Colonies and Death in the Dark Ocean
In Everyman (Vintage, 2006), Philip Roth writes of his central protagonist’s fears that intrude into an otherwise idyllic sojourn by the sea: The only unsettling moments were at night, when they walked along the beach together. The dark sea rolling in with its momentous thud and the sky lavish with stars made Phoebe rapturous but frightenedContinue reading “Fearful Reveries, Penal Colonies and Death in the Dark Ocean”
Samir Chopra 