Political Pandora

In the shadow of the Bodhi tree, where Buddha attained enlightenment, a profound struggle continues to unfold. The Mahabodhi Temple, Buddhism’s holiest shrine, remains at the heart of a protracted and deeply symbolic conflict between Brahmanical control versus Buddhist reclamation of sacred heritage.

In the shadows of sacred rivers and holy rituals, it is the caste-marked bodies who carry the weight of cleanliness; public filth in India is less about civic failure and more about caste-designed neglect.

With standardisation comes homogeneity, and homogeneity creates anomalies who do not fit into the mould and therefore need to be discarded on the margins. These beings on the margins, who do not fit sanitised and legally-enforced definitions created by states and adopted by nations, are at the centre of the discussion. Dalit-Queer folx (people who are both Dalit and Queer) inhabit the "death worlds" that Achille Mbembe discusses in his theorisation of Necropolitics.

The global rise of right-wing gender discourse and advocacy is a testament to the fact that there is no monolithic gender system that exists in any given society.

The telephone rings obnoxiously through the hallways, the shrill sound piercing through the screen, demanding attention. Govind Nihalani’s

“Restaurants have a separate entry so their customers do not see us. They make an arrangement from the back gate of the restaurant itself, t