scorecardresearch
Add as a preferred source on Google
Thursday, March 5, 2026
HomeOpinion

Opinion

Maharashtra’s Holi is different. It’s not colourful

Festival names are an example of Hindi hegemony. For a generation that grew up watching Bollywood, Dhanatrayodashi became Dhanteras, and Marathi Bhaubeej became Bhaidooj.

Who gets to sound intelligent in English? A rural Bengali woman is forcing India to answer

Pujarini Pradhan, who hails from Bengal’s East Midnapore, discusses caste, feminism, Stanley Kubrick, Munshi Premchand and Khaled Hosseini in her Instagram Reels.

Stop celebrating Dubai’s bombing. Even if you don’t like the city

The Dubai that some are wishing bombs on is a city of migrants — mostly South Asians, who are living from paycheck to paycheck.

Porn ban by X will go the same way that gutkas, alcohol and fire cracker bans have

A ban without enforcement is symbolism. A ban without social change is theatre. And slowly, citizens begin to treat every new prohibition not as law, but as background noise.

Why is our Holi playlist still stuck with Balam Pichkari? It’s 13 years already

The last decade has been an exercise in exhausting YouTube, searching for that one crackling Holi banger.

HBO ‘Industry’ gives us women in finance who raise hell

American Psycho gave us Patrick Bateman. In HBO's Industry, Yasmin Kara-Hanani, played by Marisa Abela, channels convicted sex offender and Jeffrey Epstein's former partner Ghislaine Maxwell.

Regime change is a pipe dream. A stress test on Iran is what we’ve got so far

In 2017, Tehran unveiled a “Doomsday Clock” counting down to Israel’s supposed disappearance by 2040. Today, however, Iran stands cornered.

India-Iran ties were always more promise than reality. Real risk for us is a distracted US

Iran becomes an added concern for India because Trump could have one more reason to lose focus.

AAP liquor case points to what is missing in India. Accountability

Who is responsible for the years that Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, and Vijay Nair lost? For the choked governance that Delhi faced for three years?

Khamenei’s assassination—what did US achieve by ripping up international law

Even if Narendra Modi is too petrified to take a stand, the Congress and Sonia Gandhi have rightly criticised this outright violation of international norms.

On Camera

Indian liberals need a Dharma reset. Rootless, imported version isn’t working

Western liberalism begins with rights and designs society backwards. Dharma begins with relationships. It assumes you are born into a web of obligations, and that this web is a gift.

European gas holds near 3-year high as Middle East conflict rattles energy markets

Major energy infrastructure is in the crosshairs of the conflict, raising risks of the biggest shock since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Qatar’s largest LNG plant remains shut, fuelling supply fears.

War reaches India’s backyard as Iranian warship sunk by US submarine off Sri Lanka coast. 100 dead

Sinking of the ship has raised eyebrows in the Indian defence and security establishment. Lankan navy has recovered several bodies, believed to be of crew members.

Pakistan is fighting a two-front war. I saw it coming 15 yrs ago

The Pakistani political leadership is weak and devoid of any intellect. Its diplomacy is entirely India-China-US focused and suffers from a presumptive view of Afghanistan as a vassal.