Guest post by RASHID ALI
The Cockroach Janta Party protest at Jantar Mantar went beyond the traditional orotundity of electoral politics. Some political commentators view this through a biological optic, turning the ‘cockroach’ into a metaphor for resilience due to its ability to survive nuclear radiation. This immediately echoes Salman Rushdie’s famous line: ‘we are radioactive with history and politics.’ Others leaned toward literary history, pointing to the infamous insect in Franz Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis.’ Written over a century ago, the novel opens with Gregor Samsa waking up transformed into a giant bug – or Ungeziefer, as Kafka originally wrote in German. Ultimately, the plot tracks Samsa’s desperate struggle against alienation, sudden dehumanisation and systemic social exclusion. Continue reading When Mikhail Bakhtin visited Jantar Mantar Protest: Rashid Ali
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 