21st Possible Futures

Essay

To Put Faith In Secularism

‘Secularism’ inhabits twin strands—one simply strives to control religion; another, more composite view, allows plural views on faith to coexist. Charting secularism’s progress in France and the US, Charles Taylor alights on the passionate debate it is generating in modern Europe and India.

Charles Taylor

The Anthropocene

Quo Vadis Earth?

Is the planet itself being changed by humans? All other futures are entailed in this one.

Pranay Sharma

The Anthropocene

“The Anthropocene Concept Is Oddly Eurocentric”

Professor of Anthropology Kathleen D. Morrison on human's impact on the earth system

Pranay Sharma Interviews Kathleen D. Morrison

Gandhi

The Death And Rebirth Of Gandhi

The mystical Gandhi doesn’t just die when ‘Harijan’ gives way to ‘Dalit’. In this very death, he also becomes a spectral force.

Ajay Skaria

Identity

Caste And Faith In The Dalit Mirror

Four activists and scholars with different religious identities take stock of what has changed for India’s ‘untouchables’ and what remains the same

Uttam Sengupta, Sunil Menon

New Left

Democracy, That Untamed Excess

New languages of politics will help free the system from the grip of corporate power

Aditya Nigam

Interview

“Savarkar Is The New Father Of The Emerging India. Gandhi Is Now The Stepfather.”

Political psychologist Ashis Nandy speaks on the future of India, based on his reading of its past and present

Ajaz Ashraf Interviews Ashis Nandy

Kashmir: Memoir

Like Threads Suspended

Exile is a story that starts, and gets repeated, over and over.... This story will never end till the Pandit, the original Kashmiri, recovers what was lost.

Siddhartha Gigoo

Kashmir: Dialogue

How Not To Be India

Two writers. A ‘Kashmiri Muslim’, a ‘Kishtwari Hindu’. Both call themselves ‘A’. Can you tell whose voice is which? An enigma on the surface, a different clarity within.

Amit Kumar, Arif Ayaz Parrey

Islam

God Is Not A Khomeini

All that Islam needs for an inclusive, humane future is present in its own resources—scriptural and modern

Shajahan Madampat

Retrospective

Watermark 1916: The War Foundry

Exactly a hundred years ago, the Great War was in full blast. The shock waves it set off still influence ‘modern’ sensibility.

Saikat Niyogi

Cities: Dialogue

Going To Xa'Nadu

Excerpts from a conversation between five diverse voices—architect Raj Rewal, activist Bezwada Wilson, conservationist A.G.K. Menon, poet-linguist Rukmini Bhaya Nair and artist-photographer Dayanita Singh

Sunil Menon, Satish Padmanabhan

Nehru

If The Architect Came By In 2016

What would Nehru see if he were to revisit India today? He’d be happy to see his basic blueprint in action. (So what if the details mess it up.)

Mani Shankar Aiyar

BHASHA

Lizardology: The Future Is Writ

You could say it’s liberal democracy that grants literature freedom. Or maybe, the other way around. The onus is on the writer to set us free.

Paul Zacharia

SCIENCE

An Infinity Of Questions

The more we endeavour with science, the more we realise we do not know

Shobhit Mahajan

Crystal-Gazing

Teotwawki: Okay If We Confirm That Tomorrow?

What if the science of prediction is a fictive process and nothing more? Is the future, then, even if loosely knowable, specifically unpredictable?

Kajal Basu

Translation

‘Pterodactyl Is... Poetry Of The Future’

Talking about Mahasweta, the history that made her and her literary challenge to history, and the practice of translation. Two scholars in dialogue.

Sunil Menon, Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak, Samik Bandyopadhyay

Music

How To Compose An Ethical Fugue

Technology is not in itself a disruption, but a partner in jugalbandi with the ‘old’. But we must hearken to music’s politics as much as to its aesthetics.

T.M. Krishna

Memory

Memory: A Wound, A Womb

Memory is a contested field. Demagogues have tried to erase and rewrite it. State apparatuses have bent it to their needs.

Manas ‘Firaq’ Bhattacharjee

Food

Harappa On My Plate

When the Anthropocene winter does come, what will it do to our food?

Soity Banerjee

Cinema

How Painful Is That Mottled Lattice Light

Vetri Maaran on cinema in times of the ubiquitous camera, multiple screens for consumption and the democratisation of the craft.

Vetri Maaran

R. Prasad

Winners And Losers
Of The Modi Era

A Cartoonist’s Sketchpad in the Modi ‘Era’

DIGITAL

Reading

Flip A Screen, Skip An Entire Generation

Books were once engaged in with lusty physicality. Now, a tablet’s cool glow gives quiet satisfaction.

Parashuram Ray

Twitter

Dystopia’s Online. And It Will Not Die.

It’s the season of predictions, so let’s be audacious: Twitter will be the human race’s #pathtosurvival

Abhinandan Sekhri

Selfies

Making You, In Your Own Image

Narcissism is everywhere. Leave the selfie alone.

Dipsikha Thakur

Facebook

Post-Geography Of Modern Friendship

Confession: I took a Facebook daily-fix break before writing this. Pl like and share!

Nandini Lal

E-Commerce

Cast A Net On The Goodies You Want

E-tailing has rewritten the rules of selling—and how!

Arushi Bedi

The Devilish Little Game Changers

Siddhartha Mishra on Pokemon mania, a gateway to VR revolution

Siddhartha Mishra

Snapchat

A Snap Is Worth Any Number Of Words

Stuti Agarwal on the ephemeral Snapchat

Stuti Agarwal

Travel

Tours And Travels

Bibek Bhattacharya takes a look at five unique apps that cover all your wandering and vacationing needs

Bibek Bhattacharya

Tinder

Love Me Tinder!

Dating apps foster relationships with no strings attached

Arushi Bedi

Skype

Out Of Sight? Never!

Skype keeps the flame alive across 500 miles or more

Anoo Bhuyan

Instagram

Picture Perfect Interactions

Stuti Agarwal on the Instagram experience

Stuti Agarwal

Food Apps

Eating Out, At Home!

Satish Padmanabhan on how food delivery apps bring the best of delicacies to your doorstep in no time

Satish Padmanabhan

Piracy

Download Syndrome

Choice has shrunk for virtual Jack Sparrows—alas, writes Martand Badoni. Then there’s Netflix.

Martand Badoni

Six Links Of Corporate Separation

LinkedIn connects job-seekers and providers

Arindam Mukherjee

Wiki

The Grand Democratiser Of Knowledge

Wikipedia stores all the free-flowing information we need

Siddhartha Mishra

Fitness Apps

Yes, Get That Leg Up

Forget sloth! Fitness apps are here to exorcise the lazy monster in you

Satish Padmanabhan

Faster Than Truth

Martand Badoni on how WhatsApp has redefined instant communication—and conflagration

Ushinor Majumdar

Mob Wallets

This Way, Your Pocket Suffers Less

Mobile wallets are taking over the way Indians pay

Arindam Mukherjee

Law Apps

Eagles Swoop Down On Tablets

Apps serving up law are already active; many new ideas await developers

Ushinor Majumdar

Pornography

The Blue Film Of Sin Coating The Indian Woman

Sexual violence against women is fine, exploitation too. But the heavens will come crashing if she watches porn. And yet she does!

Sreemoyee Piu Kundu

OUTLOOK ARCHIVE

ISSUE DATED | JUNE 03, 2013

REVIEW

Father And Sons, Or The Lie Of The Land

An honourable Svengali and his Mujib-speaking protege ply their trade in liberated Bangladesh. Imam weaves a hyper-realistic tale of tragedy, farce, idealism and power.

20 YEARS OF OUTLOOK

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Leader Comment

Looking Ahead

As Outlook celebrates its 21st anniversary, we look at the exciting and ominous possibilities ahead

LAST PAGE

Youtube Diary

YouTube inverted the entire logic of scarcity and desire that drove us on hot, lonely afternoons to tiny cassette shops

Sunil Menon

Outlook in Rewind

10 Years Ago

Even in the still and serene surroundings of his 2,000-acre estate on the Sahayadri slopes in Chikmagalur in the Western Ghats, Ashok Kuriyan can feel the hustle-and-bustle and the pace of the Indian economy. At Balanoor Plantations, the "feelgood" factor has gripped every worker, including its MD Kuriyan. After all, despite a huge rise in input costs, it netted a cool profit of Rs 30 lakh this season, compared to a "no-profit, no-loss situation" in the previous one. "If we had not got the Rs 25 lakh subsidy last year, we would've been in serious trouble," says Kuriyan.