Untitled @debaprasad - Tumblr Blog

A Solidarity Statement for Sonam Wangchuk, Satyagrahi of the Anthropocene

The Ballot You Could Not Read: SIR and DHFL CoC

A Solidarity Statement for Sonam Wangchuk, Satyagrahi of the Anthropocene by DebaprasadBandyopadhyay Via Flickr: onceinabluemoon2021.in/2026/07/14/a-solidarity-statement-... On the 17th day of his indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, Sonam Wangchuk continues his non-violent resistance for justice, dialogue, and ecological protection of Ladakh. Echoing Jatin Das’s 1929 martyrdom and G.D. Agarwal’s sacrifice for the Ganga, Wangchuk’s ātmaśakti exposes the Indian state’s moral deafness and hypocrisy in the face of genuine satyagraha. Invoking Tagore’s fiery Bhairava hymn — “sarva kharvatāre dahe tava krodhadāha” — this post calls for solidarity with a man who has become the moral centre of a republic that has abandoned its conscience.

The Ballot You Could Not Read: SIR and DHFL CoC by DebaprasadBandyopadhyay Via Flickr: onceinabluemoon2021.in/2026/07/16/the-ballot-you-could-no... In this essay, Once in a Blue Moon Academia draws a structural parallel between two opaque state-orchestrated processes — the 2020–21 RBI-appointed Committee of Creditors (CoC) resolution of DHFL, which extinguished over ₹4,100 crore of elderly depositors’ savings through an unverifiable electronic ballot they could neither download nor retain, and the 2025–26 Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls that deleted nearly 91 lakh names in West Bengal ahead of the Assembly elections. Both exemplify “managed consent”: the meticulous preservation of democratic and procedural rituals while systematically withdrawing verifiability, accessibility, and meaningful agency. Invoking Mīmāṃsā pramāṇas (anupalabdhi and arthāpatti) alongside statutory adverse inference, the essay demonstrates how the sustained withholding of records — despite official claims of transparency — itself constitutes proof of the postulated theft. Dedicated to the UN Special Rapporteurs behind Communication AL IND 8/2026, it frames these as twin installations of a singular “government of registers” that renders citizens legible while keeping the State’s decisive mechanisms illegible, urging the lawful opening of black boxes and the simple demand: show the records.

(via Godiwood Stripped: An Exposé of BJP-Hindutva Propaganda Films (Review Series— Part I)) https://onceinabluemoon2021.in/2026/07/08/godiwood-stripped-an-expose-of-bjp-hindutva-propaganda-films-review-series-part-i/

GODIWOOD STRIPPED 🎬 The Complete Exposé of BJP-Hindutva Propaganda Cinema | Film-by-film breakdown with verified box office tables, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, MouthShut & Times of India scores — The Kashmir Files, The Bengal Files, Uri, Tejas, Emergency, The Taj Story, Main Atal Hoon & more. Plus the companion academic paper on how a 36% vote share becomes "emotional majoritarianism" through First Past the Post mechanics and cinematic pedagogy (Gramsci, Laclau, Debord). 📌#Godiwood, #GodiwoodStripped, #BollywoodPropaganda, #HindutvaCinema, #SaffronCinema, #PropagandaFilms, #BJPPropaganda, #RSSNarrative, #VHPIdeology, #CulturalWarfare, #Saffronwashing, #WhitewashedHistory, #ManufacturedNationalism, #JingoisticCinema, #MilitarizedNationalism, #HinduVictimhoodNarrative, #MuslimVillainyTrope, #CommunalPolarization, #ElectoralCinema, #VoteBankMovies, #StateSponsoredCinema, #ArticleSeriesPartOne, #PMNarendraModi, #TheKashmirFiles, #TheKeralaStory, #TheBengalFiles, #TheTashkentFiles, #EmergencyMovie, #TejasFilm, #UriTheSurgicalStrike, #TheTajStory, #MainAtalHoon, #OperationValentine, #UdaipurFiles, #Dhurandhar2, #Article370Movie, #SwatantryaVeerSavarkar, #BuddhaInATrafficJam, #FilesTrilogy, #VivekAgnihotri, #KanganaRanaut, #KashmiriPanditExodus, #PartitionNarrative, #GujaratRiots2002, #NoakhaliMassacre, #DirectActionDay1946, #PulwamaAttack, #BalakotAirstrikes, #SatyapalMalikRevelations, #OperationBlueStar, #AntiSikhNarrative, #TajMahalDispute, #AyodhyaParallels, #RamJanmabhoomiEcho, #HinduNationalism, #HistoricalRevisionism, #AntiHistoricalCinema, #MythmakingCinema, #PersonalityCultFilms, #HagiographicBiopics, #ImageLaunderingCinema, #NatyasastraViolated, #RasaVsGore, #AestheticRestraintLost, #GandhianEthicsErased, #FascistNarrativeCinema, #AuthoritarianMythmaking, #IslamophobiaInFilm, #Islamophobia, #MinorityErasure, #SecularHistorianAttack, #AcademicCaricature, #DissentAsTreason, #ChestThumpingCinema, #SloganOverStorytelling, #ArtisticBankruptcy, #IdeologicalCinema, #StateNarrativeCinema, #NationalistSpectacle, #WarThrillerPropaganda, #ConspiracyThrillerCinema, #GrievanceCinema, #VictimhoodNarrative, #Militarism, #Jingoism, #PropagandaVehicle, #ManufacturedZeal, #CinemaAsPropaganda, #MouthShutReviews, #TimesOfIndiaReviews, #IMDbRatings, #RottenTomatoesScores, #Tomatometer, #BoxOfficeFlop, #BoxOfficeBlockbuster, #ReviewBombing, #InflatedAudienceScores, #PolarizedReception, #CriticVsAudienceGap, #XDiscourse, #SocialMediaPolarization, #PropagandaFatigue, #TaxExemptionFilms, #BJPEndorsedCinema, #ElectionTimingCinema, #ModelCodeViolation, #ElectionPropaganda, #FilmReview, #FilmCriticism, #MediaCriticism, #BollywoodCritique#CinematicNationalism, #ElectoralArithmetic, #FPTP, #VoteShareVsSeatShare, #EmotionalMajoritarianism, #Majoritarianism, #ManufacturedConsent, #AffectivePolitics, #AffectiveHegemony, #CulturalHegemony, #Hegemony, #Populism, #SpectaclePolitics, #CinematicPedagogy, #NarrativeEconomy, #HybridDemocracy, #Gramsci, #Laclau, #Mouffe, #Debord, #SocietyOfTheSpectacle, #Baudrillard, #Simulation, #Natyasastra, #Rasa, #SentimentAnalysis, #DigitalEthnography, #PublicPulse#PoliticalCinema, #FilmAndPolitics, #IndianPoliticalCinema, #BollywoodAndPolitics, #IndianCinema, #Bollywood, #IndianDemocracyDebate, #HindutvaWatch, #SecularVsMajoritarian, #FilmIndustryPolitics, #MediaAndDemocracy, #ReelPoliticsRealDivides, #IndiaPoliticalFaultLines#OBMA, #OnceInABlueMoonAcademia-#PMNarendraModiMovie/#PMNarendraModiFilm → #PMNarendraModi • #Uri/#UriSurgicalStrike → #UriTheSurgicalStrike • #Tejas → #TejasFilm • #Emergency → #EmergencyMovie • #FPTPIndia/#FirstPastThePost → #FPTP • #SaffronwashHistory → #Saffronwashing • #VivekAgnihotriFilms → #VivekAgnihotri • #KanganaRanautMovies → #KanganaRanaut • #ElectionAdjacentCinema → #ElectionTimingCinema • #GodiwoodExposed → #GodiwoodStripped • #PropagandaFilmsIndia → #PropagandaFilms, .#Godiwood, #GodiwoodStripped, #BollywoodPropaganda, #HindutvaCinema, #SaffronCinema, #PropagandaFilms, #BJPPropaganda, #RSSNarrative, #VHPIdeology, #CulturalWarfare, #Saffronwashing, #WhitewashedHistory, #ManufacturedNationalism, #JingoisticCinema, #MilitarizedNationalism, #HinduVictimhoodNarrative, #MuslimVillainyTrope, #CommunalPolarization, #ElectoralCinema, #VoteBankMovies, #StateSponsoredCinema, #ArticleSeriesPartOne, #PMNarendraModi, #TheKashmirFiles, #TheKeralaStory, #TheBengalFiles, #TheTashkentFiles, #EmergencyMovie, #TejasFilm, #UriTheSurgicalStrike, #TheTajStory, #MainAtalHoon, #OperationValentine, #UdaipurFiles, #Dhurandhar2, #Article370Movie, #SwatantryaVeerSavarkar, #BuddhaInATrafficJam, #FilesTrilogy, #VivekAgnihotri, #KanganaRanaut, #KashmiriPanditExodus, #PartitionNarrative, #GujaratRiots2002, #NoakhaliMassacre, #DirectActionDay1946, #PulwamaAttack, #BalakotAirstrikes, #SatyapalMalikRevelations, #OperationBlueStar, #AntiSikhNarrative, #TajMahalDispute, #AyodhyaParallels, #RamJanmabhoomiEcho, #HinduNationalism, #HistoricalRevisionism, #AntiHistoricalCinema, #MythmakingCinema, #PersonalityCultFilms, #HagiographicBiopics, #ImageLaunderingCinema, #NatyasastraViolated, #RasaVsGore, #AestheticRestraintLost, #GandhianEthicsErased, #FascistNarrativeCinema, #AuthoritarianMythmaking, #IslamophobiaInFilm, #Islamophobia, #MinorityErasure, #SecularHistorianAttack, #AcademicCaricature, #DissentAsTreason, #ChestThumpingCinema, #SloganOverStorytelling, #ArtisticBankruptcy, #IdeologicalCinema, #StateNarrativeCinema, #NationalistSpectacle, #WarThrillerPropaganda, #ConspiracyThrillerCinema, #GrievanceCinema, #VictimhoodNarrative, #Militarism, #Jingoism, #PropagandaVehicle, #ManufacturedZeal, #CinemaAsPropaganda, #MouthShutReviews, #TimesOfIndiaReviews, #IMDbRatings, #RottenTomatoesScores, #Tomatometer, #BoxOfficeFlop, #BoxOfficeBlockbuster, #ReviewBombing, #InflatedAudienceScores, #PolarizedReception, #CriticVsAudienceGap, #XDiscourse, #SocialMediaPolarization, #PropagandaFatigue, #TaxExemptionFilms, #BJPEndorsedCinema, #ElectionTimingCinema, #ModelCodeViolation, #ElectionPropaganda, #FilmReview, #FilmCriticism, #MediaCriticism, #BollywoodCritique #CinematicNationalism, #ElectoralArithmetic, #FPTP, #VoteShareVsSeatShare, #EmotionalMajoritarianism, #Majoritarianism, #ManufacturedConsent, #AffectivePolitics, #AffectiveHegemony, #CulturalHegemony, #Hegemony, #Populism, #SpectaclePolitics, #CinematicPedagogy, #NarrativeEconomy, #HybridDemocracy, #Gramsci, #Laclau, #Mouffe, #Debord, #SocietyOfTheSpectacle, #Baudrillard, #Simulation, #Natyasastra, #Rasa, #SentimentAnalysis, #DigitalEthnography, #PublicPulse #PoliticalCinema, #FilmAndPolitics, #IndianPoliticalCinema, #BollywoodAndPolitics, #IndianCinema, #Bollywood, #IndianDemocracyDebate, #HindutvaWatch, #SecularVsMajoritarian, #FilmIndustryPolitics, #MediaAndDemocracy, #ReelPoliticsRealDivides, #IndiaPoliticalFaultLines #OBMA, #OnceInABlueMoonAcademia - #PMNarendraModiMovie/#PMNarendraModiFilm → #PMNarendraModi · #Uri/#UriSurgicalStrike → #UriTheSurgicalStrike · #Tejas → #TejasFilm · #Emergency → #EmergencyMovie · #FPTPIndia/#FirstPastThePost → #FPTP · #SaffronwashHistory → #Saffronwashing · #VivekAgnihotriFilms → #VivekAgnihotri · #KanganaRanautMovies → #KanganaRanaut · #ElectionAdjacentCinema → #ElectionTimingCinema · #GodiwoodExposed → #GodiwoodStripped · #PropagandaFilmsIndia → #PropagandaFilms, .

Godiwood Stripped: An Exposé of BJP-Hindutva Propaganda Films (Review Series— Part I) by DebaprasadBandyopadhyay Via Flickr: onceinabluemoon2021.in/2026/07/08/godiwood-stripped-an-ex... Visual documentation and cover art for OBMA's twin publications: (1) a four-platform critical review compendium — MouthShut, Times of India, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes — covering PM Narendra Modi, The Kashmir Files, The Bengal Files, The Tashkent Files, Tejas, Emergency, Uri: The Surgical Strike, The Taj Story, Main Atal Hoon, and Operation Valentine, each with verified box office and ratings tables; and (2) the companion academic paper Cinematic Nationalism and Electoral Arithmetic, analysing FPTP mechanics, cultural hegemony, and emotional majoritarianism in contemporary India through Gramsci, Laclau, Mouffe, and Debord. Full text: onceinabluemoon2021.in |

Godiwood Stripped: An Exposé of BJP-Hindutva Propaganda Films (Review Series— Part I)

Damn the Dams! by DebaprasadBandyopadhyay Via Flickr: onceinabluemoon2021.in/2026/06/23/damn-the-dams/ This paper critically examines the political ecology of mega dams and hydroelectric power through historical, scientific, and activist lenses, exposing the profound environmental, geological, and social costs that often eclipse their touted benefits. From Lenin’s GOELRO electrification drive and Nehru’s “temples of modern India” to the suppressed warnings of scientists Meghnad Saha and Kapil Bhattacharya, the analysis reveals how hydraulic nationalism has repeatedly silenced ecological knowledge, leading to reservoir-induced seismicity (as in Koyna), catastrophic siltation, landslides, and dam failures. Drawing on cases like the Tehri Dam, Farakka Barrage, Vaiont, and Banqiao disasters, alongside Gandhian resistance by Sundarlal Bahuguna, Baba Amte, and the Narmada Bachao Andolan, and cultural critiques in Tagore’s Muktadhara and Tarkovsky’s Stalker, the author argues for a fundamental reevaluation prioritizing river integrity, democratic consent, and geological realism over technocratic hubris. In an era of climate change, the paper calls for letting rivers flow as essential to ecological justice and human survival.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee: A Political Profile

The Aeroplane’s Gaze: Mountain, Market and Martyrs

Damn the Dams!

The “Secular” State Paradox: the Erosion of Constitutional Secularism in Contemporary India by DebaprasadBandyopadhyay Via Flickr: onceinabluemoon2021.in/2026/06/19/the-secular-state-parad... Since 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has systematically blurred India’s constitutional separation between the state and religion—a doctrine central to India’s secular democracy since 1950. This article documents seven major constitutional violations spanning religious ceremony participation (Ram Mandir consecration, January 2024; Central Vista Parliament inauguration, May 2023), executive-judicial merger (Ganesha Puja at CJI DY Chandrachud’s residence, September 2024), selective state support for Hindu rituals over Muslim prayer practices (Red Road Yoga Day vs. namaz bans, June 2024), misappropriation of state security apparatus for personal religious acts (Z+ protection for sacred baths), documented abdication of constitutional duty during a national security crisis (Bear Grylls shoot during Pulwama attack, February 2019), and ecological destruction for religious symbolism (Yamuna “beautification” project). Each violation contradicts established constitutional convention (the Rajendra Prasad precedent of 1951), invokes specific legal provisions (Articles 14, 15(1), 25, 36, 44, 48-A, 50, 51-A(h), 60, 75), and collectively demonstrates how the “impunity loop”—where executive overreach faces no judicial reckoning—has eroded India’s foundational secular guarantee. The Central Vista Parliament consecration is particularly egregious: by permanently installing a religious symbol (the Sengol, representing divine-right monarchy) in the Speaker’s chair and framing Parliament as a Hindu “temple,” Modi has transformed the highest legislative chamber itself into a site of state-sponsored Hindu nationalism. Drawing from Supreme Court jurisprudence on basic features (Kesavananda Bharati), Article 32 remedies, separation of powers doctrine, and administrative law, this article argues that these violations constitute not individual transgressions but a systematic architecture of “selective secularism” that transforms Hindu nationalism into state policy while marginalizing minority rights. The article traces the “impunity loop” mechanism—how each violation normalizes the next through institutional passivity (judicial silence), doctrinal innovation (the “24/7 duty” doctrine that abolishes answerability), and intellectual capture (reframing Hindu nationalist practices as “secular culture” while suppressing minority religious expression). The absence of Supreme Court intervention despite clear constitutional grounds, combined with parliament’s majority-government control and investigative agency capture, has created conditions where constitutional limits have become advisory. The article concludes that India’s secular Constitution remains intact on paper while its practice converges toward Hindu nationalist theocracy, raising urgent questions about whether institutional actors can recover their constitutional commitment before the basic feature of secularism is irreversibly eroded.

(via The "Secular" State Paradox: the Erosion of Constitutional Secularism in Contemporary India)https://onceinabluemoon2021.in/2026/06/19/the-secular-state-paradox-the-erosion-of-constitutional-secularism-in-contemporary-india/

#SelectiveSecularism ModiConstitution ErodingSecularism RamMandirViolation YogaDayNamaz RedRoadClosure Article14Violation ImpunityLoop HinduN

The “Secular” State Paradox: the Erosion of Constitutional Secularism in Contemporary India

(via ব্রাত্য বঙ্গে সনাতনী ঘুসপেটিয়া)https://shorturl.at/FmxCe

#BengaliIdentity, #BratyaBangla, #BanglaLanguage, #BengalHistory, #BangaliBishmoy, #VangaBidwesh, #PundraVanga, #GauriyanIdentity, #BengalNationalism, #PartitionOfBengal, #Bratya, #BengaliCulture, #BengaliLiterature, #BengaliResistance, #BengalHeritage,

#Rigveda, #AitareyaAranyaka, #Baudhayanadharmasutra, #Manusmriti, #VedicTexts, #SanskritLiterature, #HistoricalArchive, #TextualScholarship, #IndologicalResearch, #PrimarySourceResearch, #ArchivalHistory,

#Hindutva, #HinduNationalism, #SanghParivar, #BJP, #RamRajya, #BandeMataram, #OneDeshOneLanguage, #HindiHinduHindustan, #ReligiousPolitics, #EthnocraticState, #CommunalPolitics, #SaffronPolitics, #Islamophobia, #CasteSystem, #DemocracyUnderThreat,

#LanguagePolitics, #LinguisticColonization, #MotherTongue, #MatribhashaDibas, #DialectVsLanguage, #CensusAndLanguage, #PrintCapitalism, #BenedictAnderson, #ImaginedCommunity, #LinguisticNationalism, #OriyaLanguage, #AssameseLanguage, #LanguageRights,

#AntiNationalism, #Cosmopolitanism, #NonNation, #NationState, #Tagore, #RabindranathTagore, #TagoreOnNationalism, #ImagineNoCountries, #NaNavNation, #WorldCitizenship, #Internationalism, #Ahimsa,

#CarabeefParadox, #GauRaksha, #BeefExports, #AllanaGroup, #CronyCapitalism, #CronyCaptalism, #GovindaNepal, #CowPolitics, #HindutvaHypocrisy, #PoliticalEconomy, #AdaniAmbani,

#Bankimchandra, #RabindranathTagore, #NiradCChaudhuri, #MichaelMadhusudan, #Vidyasagar, #Derozio, #Nazrul, #BismillahKhan, #UstadBilayetKhan, #CarlSagan, #JohnLennon, #NazimHikmet,

#AcademicActivism, #CriticalTheory, #PostcolonialStudies, #Foucault, #Gramsci, #Derrida, #Subaltern, #GramsciHegemony, #Hauntology, #OpenAccess, #CCBYLicense, #PeerReview, #OBMA, #OnceInABlueMoonAcademia,

#Article19, #FreedomOfSpeech, #ConstitutionalRights, #AcademicFreedom, #Dissent, #CounterPropaganda, #AgitProp, #Secularism, #IndianConstitution,

#Ubuntu, #PalestineSolidarity, #Manipur, #Gaza, #AntiWar, #HumanRights, #EnvironmentalJustice, #PrincipledNonViolence, #Tarpanam, #Ayam, #Vayam,

ব্রাত্য বঙ্গে সনাতনী ঘুসপেটিয়া by DebaprasadBandyopadhyay Via Flickr: shorturl.at/FmxCe This work is a deliberate act of counter-propaganda — a sustained, repetitive, and self-consciously plagiaristic agit-prop by two melancholy Kolkata Bandyopadhyays who describe themselves as residents of a “non-nation.” Written in a deliberately hybrid register that mixes formal Sadhu Bangla with colloquial Chalit, code-switching, Sanskrit citation, and street humour, the text performs its own central argument: that the imposition of linguistic and cultural uniformity is itself a form of violence. The book’s governing question is the political and civilisational fate of Bengali identity under Hindutva’s ascendant national project. The argument unfolds across seven chapters and proceeds on several interlocking planes. It opens by mapping the deep genealogy of anti-Bengal prejudice within Brahmanical Sanskrit literature — from the Ṛgveda and Aitareya Āraṇyaka to the Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra — showing how the term vāyaṃsi (birds, creatures of unstable motion) was deployed to mark the peoples of Bengal and the eastern territories as ritually impure, geographically ungovernable, and socially excludable. This ancient ideology of exclusion is read as the structural antecedent of contemporary Hindutva’s hostility toward Bengal. The book then interrogates the ideological apparatus of nationalism itself. The concepts of mātr̥bhūmi (motherland) and mātr̥bhāṣā (mother tongue) are traced to their origins in Christian ecclesiastical vocabulary — adopted into Bengali and Indian nationalist discourse during the colonial period — rather than to any ancient Sanskritic or “Sanatan” tradition. Through a close reading of Bankimchandra’s “Bande Mataram” and Rabindranath’s Ghare Baire — particularly the counter-nationalist voice of Nikhilesh — the authors argue that the nationalist invocation of the “mother” is a manufactured intoxication (nesha) that substitutes enchantment for genuine political freedom. The category of “Hindu” identity is subjected to rigorous historical disaggregation. Drawing on Rajataraṅgiṇī, Chola-period inscriptions, and the long record of Shaiva-Vaishnava conflict, the book demonstrates that the “one religion, one nation” claim of the Sangh Parivar has no historical foundation: what existed was a complex, internally contested plurality of sects, practices, and cosmologies — a plurality that colonial administration and contemporary Hindutva alike have violently flattened. A substantial chapter examines the political economy of language. Grierson’s own admission of the impossibility of distinguishing language from dialect is mobilised to expose the census-driven erasure of Odia, Assamese, and other eastern linguistic identities in the service of a Hindi-dominated national demography. The historical construction of Bengali geographic identity — from Pundra, Gauda, and Banga through the Mughal Suba-e-Bangla to the colonial Bengal Presidency — is traced to show that “Bengal” itself is a layered historical formation rather than an eternal essence. The chapter ends with a detailed empirical treatment of what the authors call the carabeef paradox: the coexistence of cow-vigilante violence and lynching with India’s status as the world’s largest exporter of bovine meat under Hindutva governance — complete with data on the Allana Group’s political donations and the corporate structures behind the trade. The critique of Bengali identity is turned inward as well. Drawing on Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s Ātmaghātī Bāṅālī while contesting his Eurocentric prescription, the authors indict the Bengali bhadralok’s chronic self-deception, selective memory, and hypocritical Islamophobia — the same community that produced Derozio, Vidyasagar, and Nazrul now reaches for saffron affiliation or comfortable silence. The book closes with a rereading of the Sanskrit tarpaṇa (ancestral water-offering) ritual as a philosophical statement of radical solidarity — one that extends water and recognition even to enemies, to serpents, to trees, to the dispossessed. The “I” (ayam) is asked to journey toward “we” (vayam), a movement the authors align with the Bantu concept of ubuntu. The final aspiration, voiced through Nazim Hikmet, John Lennon, Juan Ramón Jiménez, and Carl Sagan, is not for a better nation but for the dissolution of the nation-statist form itself — a trans-planetary, non-violent dwelling in the (other-than-)human species-condition, from Kolkata to the pale blue dot.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Untitled