Wherever it occurs, Occidentalism is fed by a sense of humiliation, of defeat. It is a war against a particular idea of the West - a bourgeois society addicted to money, creature comforts, sex, animal lusts, self-interest, and security - which is neither new nor unique to Islamist extremism. This idea has historical roots that long precede any form of 'U.S. imperialism' .

A steadily accreting generosity amid the bedlam that wraps one in a lasting warmth

Whenever I think of the traumatic impact of Auschwitz, I end up dwelling on the vitality and creativity of those living today. Thus, in thinking about Auschwitz, I reflect, paradoxically, not on the past but the future.

Indira Gandhi might never have become prime minister. There would have been no question of her dominating the national scene for nearly two decades irrespective of whether she was in or out of power.

There’s no justice, Bhopal’s survivors wage a lonely battle

Sectarian ambitions and the AK-47 create an era of insecurity

Imagination can be footloose, or a third eye into the future. How did AD 2000 seem 100 years ago? In 1899, a cigarette company asked French artist Jean Marc Cote to do a set of visuals on the third millennium. The firm went bust, and the project sank. Years later, Asimov saw in them man’s age-old prophetic urge...