Articles by Amir Ali

Sports and sporting event have always been political, and this is more so in the case of football. The men’s football world cup held in Qatar became an arena where multiple global sociopolitical contradictions were played out and geopolitical issues were brought into focus. After all, football has always been about philosophy, freedom, beauty, art, and democracy.

A tribute to the departed scholar looks at his immense contributions to literary criticism, world politics, and Marxist theory and brings out the consistent underlying thread of principled political commitment to the working-class politics.

Israeli statehood, characterised in this article as a form of “hyper-statehood,” was facilitated by a disappearing British empire and the emergence of United States’ domination. This hyper-statehood has existed at the expense and denial of Palestinian statehood. Drawing historical insights from Rashid Khalidi’s acclaimed book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, this article suggests that unease at Israeli hyper-statehood can only grow in the US and across the world. There will now develop an inevitable movement towards a postnational solution.

Two particular forms of violence have become rampant and visible over the last decade: terrorism and ethnic cleansing/genocide. Only by understanding their underpinnings is it possible to respond to this development and counter its consequences.

Culture, Space and the NationState: From Sentiment to Structure by Dipankar Gupta; Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2000; pp 282, Rs 445.