On the night of January 5th, outside the North Gate of Delhi’s premier educational institute Jawaharlal Nehru University, I tried, while balancing on my toes among young people pushing and pulling each other, to upload photos and videos of the chaos unfolding in front of me with no success. I was suddenly proud of my … Continue reading Internet Freedom Is Expected to See a Dip This Year (But People Will Find Ways to Stay Connected)
journalism
Defend Assange to Save Journalism
Dr Suelette Dreyfus is an author who co-wrote a best-selling book with Julian Assange, titled Underground, a 500-page volume on the lives of young hackers of the 1980s and the 1990s (which includes Assange himself). She has been closely associated with Assange since then. She tells Open in an interview that Assange’s contribution to journalism has been enormous. Dreyfus … Continue reading Defend Assange to Save Journalism
Cho Ramaswamy: The Provocateur
IN AN INTERVIEW to the peripatetic French filmmaker Louis Malle, who had travelled across India to produce the stunning documentary series L’Inde Fantôme (‘Phantom India’) in 1968, a young and dashing ‘Cho’ Ramaswamy talked about the eccentric 14th century Delhi sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq, and the eponymous play he had penned to satirise the Congress … Continue reading Cho Ramaswamy: The Provocateur
Kumud Singh: The Royal Commoner
Kumud Singh has had an unusual childhood. Born into the royal family of Darbhanga, also known as the Khandavala dynasty, in the early 1980s, her early childhood memories are of growing up on an estate of 51 bighas in Bargoria, now in West Bengal, along with three elephants and some 100 people, including members of … Continue reading Kumud Singh: The Royal Commoner
Ullekh NP 