The Social Lens: Insights on Institutions, Inequality, and Innovation

Recently plebiscite was carried out in Crimea and it voted to join Russia and the world seemed to be divided into two poles again. The vicious and tensed memory of cold war again emerged in the minds of the people of whole world who have inclinations to see the international events. It was the part of same country which decided not to remain part of erstwhile USSR. The representation of nation-state in a homogeneous and undifferentiated monolith manner was questioned by the dominant narrative of the people of Ukraine. So, there is somewhere fragmented set of relationships between institutions with complex and uneven relationships, which is not represented in 'everyday' discourses by dominant narratives of state. These narratives are not only found in secessionist movement but also the people at periphery struggles to voice their discontent in dominant narratives be it gender, race or any other discriminated subjects. The problem emerged from the universalisation of discou...

In Spain, Franco started Spanish league to deviate people’s attention from the autocratic polity of the state and he made it sure to have five matches in a week. In the last Cricket world Cup, all Indian offices were closed for the semifinal match between India and Pakistan. The modern nation-state tries to enforce a consciousness of “we-ness” among the people living in a demarcated territory. The passion attached to these events creates a shared consciousness which is beyond the reach of any traditional identity. These forms of consciousness can be very easily attached to a nation state. So, nation becomes the supra-consciousness among the people and all other consciousness sometimes merged into it or accommodated within it. But, despite having this kind of consciousness, why the same nation again engaged into different forms of violent action and why the professed “civil religion” disappears? is it a temporary consciousness or contested space? is the notion of nationalism is un...