Latest news with #UniversityofOxford
New Statesman
16 minutes ago
- Health
- New Statesman
Addressing the dementia diagnosis waiting game
Too many people in the UK are stuck anxiously waiting up to a year for a dementia diagnosis — and even longer in more deprived areas. In this episode, we explore why early and accurate diagnosis matters, and what must change to fix the system. Host Sarah Dawood is joined by Samantha Benham-Hermetz, Executive Director at Alzheimer's Research UK; Chris Bane, Alzheimer's Research UK supporter; and Professor Vanessa Raymont, Consultant Psychiatrist and Associate Professor at the University of Oxford. Our panel discusses the urgent need for early and accurate dementia diagnosis, the impact of delayed diagnosis and the potential for new technologies, such as blood tests, to revolutionise the diagnosis pathway. They also explore the challenges facing the UK's memory services, new treatments becoming available and how the government's 10-Year Health Plan could reshape the future of dementia diagnosis so nobody faces dementia unseen. This New Statesman podcast episode is sponsored by Alzheimer's Research UK. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Related
Irish Independent
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Wexford author Colm Tóibín awarded prestigous honorary degree from Oxford University
On Wednesday, June 25, Tóibín was awarded the honorary degree of Doctors of Letters for his contribution to literature and journalism from the University of Oxford. The degree honours individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of literature, the creative arts, and humanities. The university outlined the long list of accomplishments that made him eligible for the coveted award. "Professor Colm Tóibín, FRSL is an Irish novelist, writer, journalist and academic. He currently serves as the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University. Professor Tóibín's work has been widely recognised and shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. His novel Brooklyn (2009) was also adapted into an Oscar-nominated film. Professor Tóibín is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was appointed Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024 and in 2023 was awarded the Bodley Medal,' they said. Being awarded at the private ceremony alongside him was Dame Jacinda Ardern, Lord Melvyn Bragg, Clive Myrie, Professor Serhii Plokhii, Professor Timothy Snyder, Sir Mo Farah, Professor Robert S Langer and Professor Erwin Neher. On the morning of the ceremony, the heads of colleges, university dignitaries, holders of the Oxford degrees of Doctor of Divinity, Civil Law, Medicine, Letters, Science, and Music, and the honorands assemble, in full academic dress, in one of the colleges, where they enjoy Lord Crewe's Benefaction. They then walk in procession to the Sheldonian Theatre on Broad Street. The University dignitaries enter the theatre in procession; those who are to receive honorary degrees wait in the Divinity School where they sign their names in the Honorary Degrees Book. They are then escorted into the theatre by the Bedels. Once the proceedings have been opened by the Chancellor, each honorand is introduced by the Public Orator with a speech in Latin and admitted to his or her new degree by the Chancellor. The Orator then delivers the Creweian Oration on the events of the past year and in commemoration of the University's benefactors. In alternate years the Professor of Poetry delivers the second part of this speech. For over 100 years All Souls College has hosted a lunch after the ceremony for the honorands, their guests, and other senior members of the collegiate University and the local community. This is then followed by a garden party hosted by the Vice-Chancellor.
New Statesman
2 days ago
- Health
- New Statesman
Joanne Baker Q&A: 'I admire journalists who battle misinformation daily'
Illustration by Kristian Hammerstad Joanne Baker was born in 1969 in Penzance. She is a writer and an editor who holds a PhD in astrophysics. She has been a Nasa Hubble fellow at the University of California, a Royal Society university research fellow at the University of Oxford, and a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard University. What's your earliest memory? I can remember being a baby, being bounced on my parents' knees and carried on their shoulders, and waking up to bright sunlight in my cot. Who are your heroes? BBC foreign correspondent Kate Adie inspires me – she was brave and bold and out all over the world reporting on everything, from wars to famines. Astronomer Patrick Moore was key to me studying physics and astronomy; I recall seeing a talk by him in a town hall when I was around ten years old. As an adult, I don't have a single hero, but I admire anyone who stands up for what's true, right and fair, including numerous journalists who battle misinformation daily. What book last changed your thinking? Eating and Being: A History of Ideas about Our Food and Ourselves by Steven Shapin. It's a history of the idea that 'we are what we eat'. For example, today we believe that people who eat lettuce, carrots or organic foods are not just healthier, but also morally superior to those who eat burgers. Modern nutrition is a lab-based equivalent to old concepts – dating back to ancient Greek and medieval medicine – where we try to eat things that correct some aspect of our body that's 'out of balance'. In an age of obesity drugs, the book really made me think about diet trends and how deep-rooted our attitudes to food are. What would be your Mastermind specialist subject? Although I might need to scratch my head to remember details, astronomy is the subject I've spent the most time absorbing. I just hope they don't ask me the name of a notable exoplanet – they have unmemorable identifiers like PSR B1257+12 B or OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb. What political figure do you look up to? Strong women inspire me, and one hugely influential figure is Gro Harlem Brundtland. She is a former Norwegian prime minister who led international policy on sustainability and climate change. In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live? San Francisco in the 1960s. The music was great – Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete and Peggy Seeger, Joni Mitchell – as well as exciting jazz. Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg were pushing the thought boundaries. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe What's the best piece of advice you've ever received? Do what you love. And yes, I've followed it. One of my university lecturers said this to me when I was unsure whether I could do a PhD in astronomy, after having been discouraged. I was one of few women in the field and experienced a lot of sexist attitudes. So, I did the PhD. I've also followed this advice by going into journalism and writing. What TV show could you not live without? Gardener's World. I can't believe how many years I have watched it. I'm a keen gardener and I find it both relaxing and comforting. During Covid-19 lockdowns, when they brought in video snippets of the public showing off their own amazing gardens with such enthusiasm, it was a bright spot. What's currently bugging you? Apart from Donald Trump's wild policies? Artificial intelligence. It's being rolled out to the public with hardly any safeguards, and it stands to change how we interact, work and access information about the world, with profound consequences. What single thing would make your life better? More time to do all the good things, like exercise, get out in nature, spend more time with people, and travel. When were you happiest? When I was 18 and had no cares or worries, just after my A-levels when I was about to go to university and could spend the summer hanging out at the beach and looking ahead. Also, when sailing – getting away from worries onshore. In another life, what job might you have chosen? I would be a landscape architect – I trained in it, but journalism captured me. Being creative, working directly with nature, and being outside a lot would be lovely. We badly need to green up our environments. Are we all doomed? Well, yes and no. Of course, we're not going to live forever. But that's why we should enjoy the here and now on this lovely planet while we can – we just have to make sure we don't trash it. Joanne Baker's 'Starwatchers: A History of Discovery in the Night Sky' is published by Bloomsbury [See more: English literature's last stand] Related
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Second study finds Uber used opaque algorithm to dramatically boost profits
A second major academic institution has accused Uber of using opaque computer code to dramatically increase its profits at the expense of the ride-hailing app's drivers and passengers. Research by academics at New York's Columbia Business School concluded that the Silicon Valley company had implemented 'algorithmic price discrimination' that had raised 'rider fares and cut driver pay on billions of … trips, systematically, selectively, and opaquely'. The Ivy League business school research – which is based on an analysis of 'tens of thousands of trips … as well as an analysis of over 2 million … trip requests' – follows a similar academic paper based on 1.5m UK trips that was published last week by the University of Oxford. The British study found that many UK Uber drivers are earning 'substantially less' an hour since the ride-hailing app introduced a 'dynamic pricing' algorithm in 2023 that coincided with the company taking a significantly higher share of fares. Len Sherman, the US report's author, said: 'Uber says 'we know more about driver and rider behaviour, so we can figure out who is willing to pay more [as a passenger] or accept less [as a driver]'. I'm in awe of what they have been able to accomplish.' His report added: 'Since implementing upfront pricing, Uber has increased rider prices, has cut driver pay, has increased its take rates, and, of course, has greatly improved its cashflow during the period covered by this study.' In 2024, Uber reported it had generated $6.9bn (£5bn) of cash during the year, up from it losing $303m of cash in 2022. Sherman said that upfront pricing, which was introduced in the US in 2022, is the American equivalent of the UK's dynamic pricing algorithm, which has variably set pay for drivers and fares for passengers since 2023. Dynamic pricing is an iteration of Uber's 'surge pricing' that increased fares during periods of peak demand. The Columbia paper, which focused on 24,532 trips made by a single US Uber driver, concluded that the introduction of the new algorithm allowed Uber to 'significantly increase its take rate – the per cent of rider fares net of driver pay captured by the company – from about 32% at the start of upfront pricing to upwards of 42% by the end of 2024'. Last week's University of Oxford research found that, since the launch of dynamic pricing, Uber's median take rate per UK driver had 'increased from 25% to 29%, and on some trips … is over 50%'. The pair of papers add to the series of controversies that have plagued the technology company over the years. They include a 2021 UK supreme court ruling that Uber drivers are entitled to the minimum wage and paid holidays, as well as the 2022 release of the Uber files, a global investigation that revealed how the company duped police and regulators, and secretly lobbied governments across the world. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion After the release of the Uber files, Jill Hazelbaker, Uber's senior vice-president of public affairs, said: 'We ask the public to judge us by what we've done over the last five years and what we will do in the years to come.' An Uber spokesperson said: 'Uber's pricing is designed to be transparent and fair for both riders and drivers. Upfront pricing gives riders clarity before they book and allows drivers to make informed decisions based on full visibility into pay, distance, and expected duration. 'Our dynamic pricing algorithms help balance real-time supply and demand to improve reliability across the platform. Upfront prices are not personalised – our pricing algorithms do not use information about an individual rider or driver's personal characteristics. Suggestions that our systems manipulate pricing unfairly or discriminate are simply false and not supported by evidence.' Last week the company said: 'We do not recognise the figures in [the University of Oxford] report.' It added: 'Every driver is guaranteed to earn at least the national living wage.'
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Muslims in Hindutva Assam: Citizens, Outsiders, or Targets?
Published : Jun 25, 2025 08:17 IST - 14 MINS READ Professor Monirul Hussain, 73, recounted a conversation that he had a few years ago in Guwahati. At the end of an engaging chat with a stranger during a journey, the professor was asked his name. When he gave his name, the stranger exclaimed, 'Oh! I thought you were Axomiya.' Perturbed, the professor asked how the man defined 'Assamese' and if it included only those who had Hindu-sounding names, but the conversation soon petered off. Prof. Hussain is a scholar from Guwahati who started his journey from Cotton College in the city and went to the University of Oxford for postdoctoral studies. During his tenure as a lecturer at the Department of Political Science, he wrote his first book, The Assam Movement: Class, Ideology and Identity (published in 1993), which featured a stinging indictment of Assamese nationalism. He criticised the movement for its narrow view on who could be Assamese, its myth-making by equating Muslims to migrants and thereby pitting them as enemies of the State and, more importantly, how the movement itself was predominantly conceptualised, steered, and controlled by the Assamese privileged-caste elite. Prof. Hussain's observations came under severe criticism, and he was painted as an enemy of Assamese nationalism. But he continued to write. Three decades later, there is not a single Muslim District Commissioner or Superintendent of Police in Assam even though more than 30 per cent of the population is Muslim, notes Nazimuddin Siddique, an assistant professor of sociology at Jamia Millia Islamia. But compared with the time when Prof. Hussain was writing, when there seemed to be space to at least publish dissenting opinions, Muslims in Assam now face complete isolation and social criminalisation, according to Prof. Siddique. He said: 'Indian Muslims are being dumped at the borders arbitrarily by the state, targeted by almost all organisations here, and there is not a single newspaper that wants to even write an editorial column about this. How did this come to be?' Assamese nationalism After the British transferred power, opinion creation in every region of modern India has been the exclusive right of those who possess caste capital. Identities that eventually became core to how a region would be perceived within the nation-building exercise were closely connected with these caste networks, which constructed narratives of cultural glory that ensured marginalised tribes and others were subservient to and subsumed within the 'grand picture'. Also Read | In transit for eternity: Assam's detention camps and the fate of the stateless Assamese nationalism too has done exactly that, ensuring that dominant castes stay in power while clubbing together a broad set of people—subjects of erstwhile feudal kingdoms, tribal groups, and those with historical marginalities—as 'indigenous' groups. The 'indigenous' identity, however, since its creation, only seems to peak at the expense of the 'outsider', 'the migrant', 'the foreigner'. At one time, the 'outsider' could be either Hindu or Muslim, but now they are only Muslim. When a certain kind of Muslim is presented as 'acceptable', then they are described as 'indigenous', and the rest are pitted as the enemy. In his seminal work Medieval and Early Colonial Assam, Amalendu Guha describes the social structure that emerged in the region from the time of the migrant Tai Ahom kings until the British took over. It details how migration, complex wars, conversions led by Brahmins, and power struggles between these groups played a role in solidifying the emergence of a dominant ruling class just before Independence. More importantly, Guha defines the emergence of 'Asamiya nationalism' in the 1850s along with the question of language, land, and jobs, and what became of it over the next century. Analysing how some leaders of the Asam Sahitya Sabha tried to foster a political class invoking past glory, while also creating insecurity around Bengali domination, Guha observes: 'As the Asamiya middle class emerged stronger and more ambitious than ever after Sylhet was shaken off its back, its little nationalism started degenerating into chauvinism and minority-baiting.' Support for AASU This feeling, according to him, was mainstreamed by the new Assamese nationalists, who used popular media, which they had come to control by then. The All Assam Students' Union (AASU), which was the frontrunner of the project to safeguard Assamese nationalism, received unparalleled support from media outlets at its peak and later too. Even now, any critical voice against this nationalism attracts immediate virtual mobs and trolls. The peculiarities surrounding the AASU's formation are a good way to understand the power centres of Assamese nationalism itself. Besides how the AASU solidified this identity, there is also the fact that every tribe in Assam has its own students' body. Every tribal leader this reporter spoke to said that the anxiety of tribal people around the alienation of their land did not stem only from the foreigners' issue, as the AASU would have us believe, but from the Assamese state as well. According to them, some of the most violent displacements of tribal people have been facilitated by those in power, be it pre-independence kingdoms or the post-Independence Assam State. These fissures and anxieties did not go unnoticed. Enter the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. RSS inroads In the mid-1990s, the riverine town of Silapathar in Dhemaji district had very little to offer families who wanted to admit their children to good schools. Thus, when a new school called Sankardev Shishu Vidya Niketan was inaugurated in 1996, among the many students who sought admission in it were Manoranjan Pegu's cousins. A scholar from the Mising community, Pegu has written extensively about how the RSS steadily co-opted tribal identities in Assam into the Hindu fold. The Sankardev schools, similar to Saraswati Shishu Mandirs in Uttar Pradesh or similar schools in other States, are actually Vidya Bharati schools of the RSS education network, which is the largest in the country, with more than 12,000 schools. Specifically in Assam, the school name invoked Sankardev, a medieval figure who is seen as the founder of the Vaishnavite movement in the State. Srimanta Sankardev Srimanta Sankardev was a 16th century Assamese saint-scholar who started the influential Ekasarana Dharma religious movement and also pioneered new forms of music, theatre, dance, and literature. 'Many families would admit their children to these schools even if they were supported by the RSS because most tribal areas of Assam lack schools and other basic infrastructure. The RSS understood this fairly early,' said Pegu, pointing to how the RSS had, from the time of its entry into Assam, been flexible in its operations to aid the assimilation of various communities into the Hindu fold. From offering 'seva', or service, during disasters through the Seva Bharati arm to reaching out to tribal groups through Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams to building schools through Vidya Bharati to finally supporting the movement against refugees from Bangladesh, the universal experiments of the RSS turned local over a period of time. Religion and cultural identity It is crucial to note here that the RSS is not the first to use a blend of religious and cultural identity to foster a common political identity. It was already attempted by the Ahom kingdom, when the Vaishnavite religion was promoted as the state religion and Vaishnavite monasteries called satras were used to foster connections with tribal groups. These connections were of a transactional nature, sought only on the condition of subservience. When some tribal groups tried to become religious preachers themselves, they were put down by the kings, thus ensuring that Brahmins remained the central figures of Vaishnavite proselytisation. When this reporter was researching the 2018 archives of the RSS for a study on the proliferation of Hindu nationalism in the south, the name of Dadarao Paramarth cropped up repeatedly. A trusted aide of Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the RSS founder, Paramarth was first deputed to the south. From Madras Presidency, he extended support to various people such as traders, moneylenders, and others who wanted to set up RSS extensions in their regions. It was his intervention that introduced the RSS to Mangaluru, from where it went on to become the strongest outpost of the organisation in the south. With this wealth of experience, Paramarth was sent to Assam in 1946, where he and his colleagues set up shop in Guwahati, Dibrugarh, and Shillong, reaching out to pro-Brahmin networks, who, by then, were spreading the word about the RSS' work. Many actively sought them out nationally, as the RSS was seen as the organisation that centred an opinion of Muslims as aggressors. Through such networks the RSS assimilated into Assam's political, social, and cultural spaces. Speaking a language of convenience according to the group that it interacted with, the RSS used local linkages to percolate important spaces. The fourth Hindu Conference of the Vishva Hindu Parishad in 1981 at Kamrup even had the public patronage of Sharatchandra Goswami, chairman of the Board of Secondary Education, who presided over the programme. It was a telling example of the extent of the RSS' penetration in the State and the amount of support it enjoyed from the authorities. In less than a decade, Sankardev schools had mushroomed all over the State. Most of these schools receive financial aid from the State government. More widespread in tribal districts are the Ekal Vidyalayas, or single-teacher schools. Many students from these schools in Assam have also been sent to other States, where they are enrolled in bigger institutions run by the RSS or its supporters. The schools centre Vedic learning and a uniform thought process that aligns with majoritarian Hindu identity while erasing the student's own identity. Alongside, Hindu temples and institutions are built in the students' neighbourhoods so that the conversion is complete. 'Muslims from Bangladesh' The most important aspect of these institutions is that they seek to ensure that the students internalise that the main aggressor they need to fear, the enemy erasing their culture, identity, or space, are the 'Muslims from Bangladesh'. Both the RSS and the Assamese nationalists claim that they have the support of Assam's tribal groups. In reality, tribal lands belonging to the Mising community have been grabbed by State authorities, often using unconstitutional methods. 'Nobody showed up then,' said Pegu. Called 'Protected Tribal Belts and Blocks', land belonging to protected tribal classes such as the Mising cannot be taken by non-tribal people, which by extension should also include the Assamese government. Yet, District Commissioners regularly denotify such protected areas, doing away with the safeguards to facilitate the takeover by the government. Two such land grants, totalling 13,000 bighas of tribal land, to Adani Enterprises have come under severe criticism from tribal groups in Kokrajhar and Dima Hasao districts. The land grant in Kokrajhar was made without mandatory public consultations, said Bodo National Students Union president Bonjit Manjil Basumatary, calling for mass protests. These protests are supported by a few senior activists who work on land issues, but beyond that, no other Assamese nationalist group comes out in support when such rights are grabbed by the State, said Pegu. The nexus between the State apparatus and the rise of Hindu nationalism among dominant caste Assamese peaked in the 1970s, when the RSS' student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), began to fully participate in the Assam movement. Masoyo Awungashi, a journalist, and Professor Malini Bhattacharjee have written in detail about how the acceptance of the RSS grew with its involvement in the campaign against 'Bangladeshi immigrants' from the time of M.S. Golwalkar, the second head of the organisation. Successive RSS leaders spoke vehemently on the issue nationally, warning of the 'sinister plot' of Bengali Muslims to change the demographics of Assam. Simultaneously, Bengali Hindus from Bangladesh were positioned as victims who had to be provided refuge in India. By accommodating them, the RSS said, 'Assam can remain a Hindu majority.' By the 1980s, the ABVP had started organising national programmes in Delhi to 'save Assam today to save India tomorrow', in a bid to give the issue national colour. The AASU and the RSS together created so much hate against Muslims that it eventually led to the appalling Nellie massacre, wherein more than 2,000 Muslims were slaughtered by a group of people belonging to the dominant Assamese Hindu castes and the Tiwa and Karbi tribes. The victims got no justice; worse, the event was erased from public memory by prominent Assamese nationalists who readily evoke the memory of the 855 killed during the Assam movement. Assamese nationalism and Hindutva The marriage of Assamese nationalism and Hindu nationalism came full circle when, in 2018, two former AASU leaders sat on the dais at what was termed the largest rally the RSS had ever organised in north-eastern India. One of them was the then Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, and the other is current Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The rally, organised two years after the first BJP government came to power in Assam in 2016, was called 'Luitporia Hindu Samabesh'. Among the invitees on the stage were leaders from over 10 tribes of Assam such as the Karbi, Tiwa, and Mising. At least 10 religious leaders from the satras were present. Also present were top RSS leaders and more than five BJP legislators. On the occasion, RSS leaders invoked every symbol from the satras to Lachit Borphukan, a celebrated army general of the Ahom kingdom, to reiterate that Assam and other north-eastern States needed saving. They pointed to the tribal leaders on the stage to denote 'diversity of Hindu identity'. Shiladitya Dev, a BJP MLA at the time, declared: 'Only the RSS can save Assam.' The programme ended with a recitation of the Assamese song, 'Luitporia Hindu ami' (We are Hindus of the Brahmaputra). As the AASU and the RSS posture collectively or separately as the protectors of the Assamese, who are now more or less defined as dominant caste Hindu Assamese, newer and more aggressive groups are emerging who label them 'tame' and 'sold-out' and who declare that they will address the 'foreigners' issue more forcefully. Fringe groups The Veer Lachit Sena is one such organisation. It says it will not hesitate to take up arms if required to protect Assam. Boasting of a cadre running into lakhs of youngsters, the group roughs up migrants and organises rallies targeting Muslim properties that it claims are 'illegally occupied'. Deepjyoti Gogoi, president of a local chapter of the Veer Lachit Sena, said: 'The population of Assam is 3.5 crore. Of this, 2 crore are indigenous Assamese Hindu, Christian, and other communities. Muslims are 1.5 crore, of which at least 1 crore are not from here, such as the Miya Muslims (Bengali Muslims). They have to be sent back.' According to Gogoi, Bengali Hindus have assimilated with the larger category of Hindus. But even this is not entirely true, as a visit to the lower Assam regions, especially the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley side, proves. 'Actually, it is Bengali Muslims who accepted the Assamese language more readily than Bengali Hindus, since they felt their religion could be used against them and had no choice,' Prof. Hussain explained. Bengali Hindus, on the other hand, have always had the support of the RSS, so they did not have to abandon their culture or language. As in Jharkhand, land and job losses are the main planks against the 'foreigners'. The Veer Lachit Sena has an elaborate plan on this front. In localities where Miya Muslims are seen as the major labour force, the Sena plans to create training centres to build capacities among non-Muslims. Violence against Muslims Funds are also reportedly being generated to support local businesses, the most important condition being that they do not employ 'foreigners'. Gogoi added: 'The more aggressive method is to mark areas where these Muslims live and drive them out.' According to him, a civil war is brewing, and Assam would soon turn into Manipur if the Bangladeshis are not thrown out. Gogoi showed this writer a video from Kachutali village of Sonapur, in which Shrinkhal Chaliha, a prominent Lachit Sena leader, is seen proclaiming that all Bengali Muslims would be driven out by the Sena, after the group orchestrated an eviction. Also Read | Assam, Northeast India and the 'unfinished business' of Partition There have already been incidents of violent evictions of Bengali Muslims in this village, and two Muslims were shot dead by the police during one such eviction in 2024. The government justified the eviction saying that the land belonged to tribal people and fell under the protected category, but the Muslim owners said the land had been sold to them and produced documents in support. None of the Lachit Sena leaders this writer met belonged to any tribe from Assam, but the group now works in many tribal areas as leaders protecting the 'indigenous land of the Assamese'. Interestingly, all the Assamese nationalists Frontline spoke to insisted on the State's secular history. The irony of showcasing such a secular history even as a structural campaign is being orchestrated against Muslims was lost on them. As two majoritarian nationalisms blend violently in Assam, threats by fringe groups such as Gogoi's loom darkly overhead. Greeshma Kuthar is an independent journalist and lawyer from Tamil Nadu. Her primary focus is investigating the evolving methods of the far right, their use of cultural nationalism regionally, and their attempts to assimilate caste identities into the RSS fold.
