Guys,

Your responses to why you can't pronounce/ don't want to make an effort to pronounce a name correctly reeks of privilege. While the issue brought up by the subscriber may be small, your response falls under the same spectrum of behaviour that many of us face daily while interacting with people who enjoy more systemic privilege.

As an Indian girl raised internationally in predominantly white communities, I grew up having my name butchered left, right, and centre. Even when I made the effort to correct the people, they made zero efforts. Many coined nicknames for me without my consent and I went along with it just to fit in, because that is all a teenager wants. But that experience made me feel like my existence was inconvenient, like I was causing pain to others. And as a result, I became quieter and tried to be invisible through my school and college years.

Your subscriber made an effort to correct you. Your response for not being able to pronounce names correctly because "you don't know " and that it's "tough" was a microaggression. When you don't make an effort to get a city or state's name right, intentionally or unintentionally, you are also working to make that place and its people a little invisible, all because it doesn't fit into your convenient world view.

Like your take on mental health, I recommend you update your perspective on microaggressions. Just because you're half Tamil doesn't mean you don't have racist tendencies. I personally believe we are all tribalist, racist, sexist and casteist - simply because we have been raised in a system that encourages that kind of discrimination. And therefore it is imperative each of us, especially the educated privileged ones who have no excuse for ignorance, try our level best to uproot systemic discrimination.

Read up. Be better.

P.S. My annual subscription did expire this week and I shall renew it.

Best,

Amrita Roy

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Hi NL Hafta Team,

The Harper's letter has been the most debated discussion in liberal circles especially amongst journalists but there has been a flawed framing on the part of those railing against being cancelled. They have been allowed to define what being cancelled is and everyone has gone along with it. JK Rowling's books haven't been cancelled, her platform on which she speaks such as Twitter with millions of followers haven't been taken away from her. She's only really going to be uninvited from some of the most respected platforms such as NYT, or Harvard University which is a direct consequence of her not being able to correct her stance even when confronted with overwhelming evidence in opposition to her views. At what point does free speech guarantee you a foot in every door and no consequence for that which you speak?

Free speech absolutists also need to reckon with the fact that anti-trans speech reduces the free speech rights of trans people, their ability to speak from their adopted gender. It infringes upon their right to speak with authority and not be assumed as mentally ill or someone to fear. I've grown up on Harry Potter and I found that world an escape during my sensitive teenage years. The books have truly helped me a lot. I would still recommend those books and Rowling's writing, but at some point, I have to accept that she isn't an authority on everything and her inability to reckon with new evidence and accept that she might be wrong leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Last I checked she has 14.3 million followers on Twitter and I don't think she's cancelled. She has faced criticism and it has largely been fair.

Bari Weiss has also propagated extreme Zionism, to the extent that she labels anyone critical of the Israeli government as an anti-Semite. I would argue that she has been reductive and has pointed fingers at anyone exercising their free speech when it's against something she believes. Israeli policy toward Palestine leaves a lot of space for fair criticism. She has also not been cancelled per se. she just isn't at the level of other NYT opinion columnists and has faced criticism when she writes arguments that cherry-pick facts. If she's getting harassed within their Slack channels then that might be a different issue but she will most definitely get hired by a neo-liberal website soon, considering the ruckus she has raised about her resigning.

To summarize, the framing of free speech issues have been extremely flawed when it comes to defining what cancellation means. It often means not getting unfettered access to the highest quality liberal outlets and/or social circles.

If one person's speech reduces the free speech rights of many others, especially minorities who don't have the same platforms then is that really helpful for free speech?

Most of the people who signed the Harper's Letter just didn't like being criticized which is a by-product of living in a free-speech society.

I really like listening to the Hafta, it provides a wonderful context for the news which is sometimes missing from other news sources. I like you all, it's difficult to pick a favourite, but I've grown to appreciate Mehraj's point of view, and moreover, I've been a subscriber since the last few months.

Cheers,

Richa Nirbhay

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Dear Team,

It is really heartening to see you people discuss significant topics in Hafta with such candour. I had lost all hope in Indian Media until I found you. You are really the last glimmer of hope for independent media.

I like Abhinandan, Atul, Mehraj, and Raman Sir a lot, but Manisha is my favourite, especially after her vociferous defence of opening of liquor shops during the lockdown😁. Mehraj's analysis of caste as a defining feature of our society is bang on as reported by The Economist on July 25:

1. Out of 89 highest ranked civil servants in central government, just 4 are not upper-caste Hindus.

2. Two-thirds of the supreme court's 31 judges and more than half of all state governors are upper-caste Hindus

3. Out of 121 people in senior jobs (such as editors) in mainstream Hindi and English press, all but 15 are upper caste and not a single one is a Dalit.

Regarding the debate about subjectivity in journalism, I believe that journalism is not about objectivity but rather moral clarity. I want to ask whether the subscription-based model of media could be biased because people of a particular ideology would stop subscribing if they find the coverage not according to their taste. Further, not many would be willing to subscribe if they have become used to free news consumption. So, how can we make this model sustainable and independent at the same time?

Keep doing the good work. All the best !!!

Regards,

Rahul Giri

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Hi,

Swati made some fantastic points. I was too tired of the topic of discussion being wokeness. After a point, you can’t change people’s mind.

All I will add is that clarifying the religious beliefs of a child from a minority community is not only the right and polite thing to do, not doing it can also leave you vulnerable to legal suits. The US has had a history of public schools being a forum of lawsuits under the freedom of speech and religion, starting with the famous case of Jehova's Witness from Pennsylvania. The kids had refused to sing the national anthem and salute the flag as it opposed their deeply held religious belief. They were penalized and the case went all the way to SCOTUS. SCOTUS rules explicitly that minority religious views can not be penalized by public school teachers.

So, even if the teacher was like Abhinandan, sick of being overly woke, she would have had to confirm religious holidays with the parent because that is the law. The US, especially New York, is very diverse and these precautions are required to not make people feel out of place. This is how you make people feel at home.

Maybe India could learn a thing or two about cultural sensitivity?

Yours libu naxalite,

Vaibhav Dwivedi

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Nice word salad, Abhinandan, to justify what to you is a call-out "culture" when you do it to Arnab and RSS, and is "cancel culture" when a bunch of Breadtubers and no-name Twitter handles do it to billionaire J.K. Rowling, or NY Times columnist Bari Weiss. I know that you will try to explain again what the difference between these two types of critique is. But just imagine if Arnab was employed by NDTV (a la Weiss at NYT) and then quit over his colleagues making fun of him on NDTV's internal Slack channel, would you go after the sensitive safety-seeking NDTV reporters for bullying Arnab or would you be doubling down on Arnab for being a bumbling idiot. That is basically it.

May I suggest you take a breath and first try to understand that the stalwarts of op-ed publishing were whining in the Harper's letter about a bunch of nobody anonymous Twitter accounts who ironically termed their critique "Cancelling" because Twitter, TikTok, and Reddit were the only means available to them to find solidarity (with fellow cancellers, if you may); arguably a bit like what Newsance tries to do every week to Republic and Zee, with even the same amount of real-world effect - Nothing.

When famous authors of mediocre children's books get to unabashedly spew their bigotry against already marginalized trans people to their millions of followers, or when a snowflake reporter goes after the actual jobs of Palestinian professors in the US, that's real cancel-culture. Grow a thicker skin, please.

Saahil

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Namaste Abhinandan, Manisha, Raman, Mehraj and Anand,

I love listening to Hafta because it sounds like a group of friends chatting over recent happenings.

In the last episode, regional or English language was used and that is why I am writing to you.

India has several regional languages and everyone loves to speak in their own language. We have a sense of emotional connect with our regional languages, and they should be taught in school and even be used as a medium to teach.

Boxing Indian schools into English or regional medium is stupid because at least in English medium teachers connected to a mixed language (Hinglish, for me), let the books be in English.

However, I'd like to emphasize on teaching English from class one onwards because it’s an important tool to unify India. It substitutes the need for learning all regional languages with one.

One must also learn some other Indian language but I guess this is just a dream because north will shout Sanskrit and Hindi would be forced to learn Hindi.

There are also talks to have a national language to which I say this: India can neither have English nor a regional language as it’s national language because they will fail to represent the true India which lies in between this range.

Thank you.

Anirudh Singh

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Hi NL Team,

Really appreciate what you guys do and so glad to have discovered you!

I am writing in reference to the discussion on the importance of education in English. I believe it is that language that connects most of the world. If Modiji didn’t know English, it would have been difficult for him to be best friends with Trump. On the other hand, if education is given only in regional languages, it becomes difficult for students to cope up when they go to college as they struggle to understand even basic concepts. These students then have to rely on English classes or even English movies. I understand the need of teaching regional languages and believe that everyone should know to read and write at least one regional language. English is also the language we use while communicating with fellow Indians where knowing Hindi is not a priority. If someone wants to go abroad to study or work, speaking English goes a long way not just at work but on the street too. I can go on and on for the importance of knowing English but it might get too long.

Also, it’s my request to Abhinandan to stop analyzing all situations with respect to the news world. There are hundreds of other industries people work in where the rules and ethics would be different. It’s not always black and white. The same logic might not be applicable everywhere (NewsTrack Hindi).

I might not have articulated my thoughts properly but I hope you get my point.

I also want to mention that I joined NL because of Abhinandan but now Manisha has become my favourite.

Happy Subscriber,

Sayli

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