Once in a Blue Moon Academia (OBMA)

  “Islamic Terrorism” as a Discursive Formation: Power, Paradox, and the Politics of Naming Posted on 14th January, 2026 (GMT 05:08 hrs) ABSTRACT This article critically examines the persistence of the term “Islamic terrorism” in global discourse, highlighting its paradoxical nature as a contested label that essentializes Islam as inherently violent in a monolithic manner while being reinforced by the explicit religious self-framing of militant groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Drawing on Orientalist epistemologies, post-Cold War geopolitical imaginaries such as Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations,” and Barthesian myth theory, the analysis reveals how the term functions as a disciplinary tool of power, asymmetrically applied to Muslim-perpetrated violence compared to similar acts by Christian, Hindu, Zionist or other extremists/fundamentalists/terrorists, thereby naturalizing civilizational hierarchies and obscuring historical contexts like colonial legacies, proxy wars, and pol...

  One Rupee, Piramal Finance, and the Ruins of DHFL: A Letter to Mr. Ajay Piramal Posted on 9th January, 2026 (GMT 03:55 hrs) ABSTRACT This open letter to Ajay Piramal interrogates the moral dissonance between Piramal Finance’s “Neeyat” advertising campaign, which celebrates honesty through the return of a single rupee, and the lived reality of DHFL depositors whose life savings were erased through a deeply contested insolvency process. By juxtaposing corporate virtue-signalling with the transfer of nearly ₹45,000 crore of DHFL assets for ₹1, the text argues that legality has been deployed to eclipse legitimacy, and branding to obscure accountability. Situating the DHFL resolution within a wider system of crony capitalism, opaque political financing, captured institutions, and manufactured consent, the letter frames the episode as part of a broader legitimation crisis in BJP-ruled India, where ethics are subordinated to power and proximity. At its core, the piece demands that ...