Citizens, elections, democracy: The Bangladeshi conundrum
Even though transparent, participatory and competitive elections are a constitutional right, the realities today have vitiated those expectations.
4m ago
What makes a great university?
A great university inspires and prepares students for a rich and fulfilling experience in a changing and challenging world.
12m ago
The great Padma story
Shorn of its sacred grandeur the Padma has embraced its secularised and earthier image with some muscularity, audacity and flair.
1y ago
Deciphering the student-learner
What makes a good student? A definitive answer to this question is difficult.
1y ago
What makes a good teacher in the 21st century?
Today, the question of being a 'good teacher' generates a new vernacular.
1y ago
Home and Displacement
The two words in the title are evocative, complex and slippery. What after all is “home”, and what does “displacement” really mean?
1y ago
Constitutional supremacy: The dangers within
The “idea” of a constitution may be old. After all even Aristotle had written about them.
1y ago
May 19, 2022
Violence in Bangladesh: The picture is disturbing, the wounds are deeper
If Marcellus saw the picture of college students brutalising an innocent man, he would surely have said to Hamlet that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
April 18, 2022
Early dreams and rude awakenings
Prof Rehman Sobhan (RS) continues to amaze.
January 3, 2022
An intellectual by instinct, a revolutionary by choice
Badruddin Umar may not necessarily be a very popular person. That statement is a little ironic for two reasons. First, he is the pre-eminent “popular” (people’s) scholar and second, given his tastes and preferences, he would probably wear that judgement as a badge of honour.
October 29, 2021
A spectre is haunting Bangladesh, the spectre of communalism
Given the doubts, confusions and anxieties of the modern age, it is perhaps expected—and certainly obvious—that there is a resurgence of religiosity almost everywhere.
August 23, 2021
‘Lessons’ from Bangladesh today
Bangladesh offers many important insights and perspectives in these grim and uncertain times. They indicate the uniqueness that defines us as a people, and the original contributions we are making to the world of politics and governance.
July 8, 2021
The politics of anti-politics: Corruption, democracy and the universities
I am fortunate, indeed blessed, to have been a part of Dhaka University (DU) as a student and a teacher from 1967-75.
April 5, 2021
Bengali Muslims and their identity: From fusion to confusion
One of the grand paradoxes facing Bangladeshis is expressed in the negotiations and contestations on the simple question about who they are, particularly in the context of the strains caused by the Universalist claims of their religion on the one hand and the particularist demands of their ethnicity and culture on the other.
March 28, 2021
Development in Bangladesh: A most pleasant surprise
Bangladesh illustrates a most intriguing and delightful puzzle in international development. After its independence in 1971, it was dismissed
December 16, 2020
Secularism in Bangladesh: The troubled biography of a constitutional pillar
The ubiquity of the word “secularism” (it is mentioned in more than 75 of the world’s constitutions as an ideal the State promotes, or an organising principle that it affirms), and the passionate discussions it generates throughout the world, sometimes distracts us from the fact that its origins are relatively recent.
October 14, 2020
Contra capital punishment even in this ‘rapedemic’
The demand was predictable. Given the outrage that has been generated by the vicious acts of assault and dehumanisation that have been inflicted on women over some time, it even appears justifiable.
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