Our very definition of corruption in India is deeply flawed. We focus merely on politicians' graft and petty bureaucrats' bribes, archaic forms of theft from the public exchequer that meet a narrow legal definition of using public office for private gains. As in the anti-corruption movement in 2011-12, the cosy ties between monopoly capital (aka big business) and government officials are left unexamined. Rent-rich sectors of the economy produce billionaires by the dozen. Politicians do their bidding for a not-so-small price.

Every year, my students as well as others who write to me ask the same question: how can I produce an application to US/UK universities that speaks to current academic trends and fashions there?

Every time, I give the same answer: don't follow fads; follow your passion. By the time you're done with a PhD, the fad or trend will be over anyway. Pick a topic that matters a lot to you and explain how and why you arrived at it. Spend some time outside campus to understand issues at close range. Experiential education shapes us in unexpected ways.

For long, the study of India or other parts of the nonwestern world has been hostage to concepts and theories derived from Euroamerican historical experiences. Our received notions of democracy, rights, the state, capitalism, development, sexuality or space come from elsewhere. This has two effects. First, it allows Euroamerican experiences to masquerade as universal ones. Second, Third World elites, who historically collaborate with their white counterparts, use imported concepts and theories to separate themselves from the rest of society.

What is most revealing on Indian social media is how a formerly influential courtier class of self-attested "liberals" believe themselves to leading a fight against fascism. For all their smarts, they fail to realize that elite solidarities matter little in a democracy. To me, they are a reincarnation of the motley crew that claimed to be revolting against the Company in 1857. But they are also leaders without followers. Who, in their right minds, would follow our fallen courtiers?

Why are there no protests against the world cup in the principal countries (India, Pakistan, Bangaldesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Philippines) that send migrant workers to Qatar?

Short answer: even when Gulf dreams fall short of reality, emigration is a hard-won right to move... ...from one's village/town and country of birth. It is much more than an economic decision that offers at least 2x or 3x income. It is about the remaking of postcolonial selves (masculinity, religiosity, etc) and the crafting of new vernacular cosmopolitanisms.

Ask yourself: why were 1,000 rupee notes taken out of circulation and replaced by 2,000 notes? Why was #demo timed strategically after the first so-called "surgical strike"?

Answer: to thwart a resurgent Opposition after the Bihar elections, and to avoid a repeat in UP. (1/4) Now, ask yourself about the new electoral bonds, the interim budget, the assault on the CBI, RBI, and EC, and the blatant abuse of the bureaucracy before and during the national elections.

Indira Gandhi was disqualified by the Allahabad High Court for far less. (2/4)