This essay traces the global and Indian convergences of authoritarian populism, corporate capture, and digital surveillance through the metaphor of kingship. Beginning with the “No Kings” movement in the U.S., it reinterprets democracy as an anti-monarchical ethic — a practice of shared sovereignty rather than submission to personality cults. Through Modi’s curated spectacle of power, the text exposes India’s descent into corporatocracy, pseudology, and ecological tyranny. It ultimately envisions a “partyless democracy” rooted in decentralization, mutual care, and invisible leadership — a republic without kings, parties, or masters.
Category Archives: Ecosophy
OBMA’s initiative “Ecotopians of Alternity” (EOA) responds to the contemporary crises of the natural environment, crises that expose the deepened hyper-separation of human beings from the natural world and/or other-than-human life forms. EOA underscores how the Global South disproportionately bears the burden of a so-called first-world consumerist lifestyle, alongside a debt-ridden developmental paradigm that enslaves minds, bodies, and ecologies. Rather than the term ecology, EOA activists adopt the concept of ecosophy—coined by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss—to signify the interrelated and (w)holistic nature of today’s polycrisis, encompassing environmental, social, political, and psychological dimensions. In place of extractivist modernity/coloniality, EOA envisions localized, small-scale, decentralized, low-energy societies—ecological utopias or ecotopias—as the ideals to be cherished and pursued.
The Skin Remembers Capital: Piramal Pharma, Dermatological Capitalism, and the Pharmakon of Neoliberal Care
This essay interlaces embodied testimony, regulatory critique, and philosophical reflection to examine the moral and epistemological crises surrounding Piramal Pharma’s Lacto Calamine and Tetmosol. Framed as a confession of corporeal and existential disillusionment, it argues that these consumer products—marketed as instruments of care—operate as pharmakon in Derrida’s sense: both remedy and poison, soothing and subjugating. Drawing on psychodermatology, Foucault’s biopolitics, Derrida’s deconstruction, Nancy’s ontology of exposure, Levinas’s ethics of touch, and Kleinman’s illness narratives, the essay situates dermatological suffering as both symptom and allegory of late-capitalist pathology. Through this fusion of narrative and critique, it proposes the concept of dermatological capitalism—a regime that commodifies distress, aestheticizes anxiety, and monetizes the epidermis as both site and symbol of neoliberal discipline. Engaging theoretical lenses such as moral contagion, the theology of touch, and economic penance, it exposes how regulatory loopholes, celebrity endorsements, and psychosomatic commodification sustain a moral economy of the skin. Ultimately, it reclaims the epidermis as a moral archive of neoliberal harm, urging re-sensitization of ethics, regulation, and embodied care in an age where wellness itself has been corporatized. This essay forms the third part of an ongoing inquiry into the ethics of exposure within India’s pharmaceutical-industrial landscape.
Nixit and the Pharmaco-Capitalist Soul: Hauntings Under Piramal Pharma
This essay interrogates Nixit—a nicotine lozenge produced by Piramal Pharma—as an artifact of contemporary bio-political control. By examining its chemical composition, rhetoric of health, and psychopolitical subtext, the paper situates Nixit within the neoliberal economy of purification, where addiction is not eliminated but reformatted for consumption. Drawing on Freud’s psychoanalysis and Foucault’s biopolitics, alongside the cinematic allegory of Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking (2007), the article reveals how the pharmaco-industrial complex transforms rebellion into obedience, recoding the smoker’s desire into a commodified act of self-regulation. Incorporating Nietzsche’s genealogy of internalized violence and Derrida’s notion of hauntology, it further argues that the lozenge embodies the spectral persistence of repression under the guise of care. In the age of “managed freedom,” even the act of quitting becomes a performance of compliance—sweetened, packaged, and sold as virtue.
Defending Dissent, Protecting Ladakh: OBMA Stands with Climate Activist Sonam Wangchuk
The Once in a Blue Moon Academia (OBMA) stands in unwavering solidarity with Sonam Wangchuk and the Ladakh Movement, recognizing their struggle as a fight for environmental justice, climate action, cultural autonomy, and democratic dissent. Highlighting Ladakh’s vulnerability as the “Third Pole” of the world, the statement critiques the abrogation of Article 370 and the selective, contradictory application of Article 371, exposing the central government’s sidelining of local governance and ecological concerns. OBMA condemns Wangchuk’s arbitrary NSA detention and the violent suppression of peaceful protests, emphasizing that the movement’s constitutional demands for statehood, Sixth Schedule inclusion, and ecological protection are lawful, ethical, and globally aligned. The statement affirms that safeguarding communities, ecological integrity, and the right to dissent are duties of conscience, wisdom, and citizenship.
Dynastic Capitalism and Ecological “Externalities”: The Ambani–Piramal Nexus in Post-Liberalization India
This essay investigates how the marital and corporate nexus between the Ambani and Piramal families consolidates dynastic power while enabling ecological, social, and ethical impunity in India’s neoliberal economy. Operating through the Mitakshara coparcenary system, this “nepo-capitalist complex” centralizes vast wealth across Reliance Industries, Piramal Group, and affiliated ventures, while systematically externalizing environmental degradation, resource depletion, and socio-economic costs onto marginalized communities. Through an integrated critique of Ambani’s Reliance’s pollution and cronyism, Campa Cola’s water-intensive operations, Piramal Pharma’s Digwal effluents, Piramal Realty’s climate-vulnerable coastal real estate, Russian oil dealings, Z+ state protection, and the contested Vantara wildlife project, the essay traces the nexus of dynastic wealth, environmental exploitation, and geopolitical opportunism. The Mitakshara mechanism emerges not as a cultural relic but as a structural tool that facilitates intergenerational wealth consolidation, shields elites from accountability, and perpetuates ecological and social extraction in twenty-first century India.
Where Have All The Flowers Gone? Disclosing Piramal Pharma’s “Little’s”
This investigative article, dedicated to the twenty-two children who perished from contaminated cough syrup in India—a stark emblem of systemic regulatory failure, profit-driven negligence, and ethical erosion in the pharmaceutical sector—unveils the moral contradictions embedded in Piramal Pharma’s “Little’s” baby-care line, encompassing wipes, oils, powders, shampoos, diapers, toys, and the whimsical “Jungle Magic” extensions like perfumes, sanitizers, and repellents. Through a meticulous dissection of product variants, their petrochemical-derived ingredients (such as talc, polypropylene, parabens, phenoxyethanol, and superabsorbent polymers), and associated health risks—including asbestos contamination, endocrine disruption, microplastic ingestion, respiratory hazards, and unverified pediatric safety—it exposes how corporate rhetoric of “gentle care” and “purity” masks a toxic alchemy of commodified infancy, where parental anxiety is monetized amid opaque supply chains reliant on Chinese imports (15% of raw materials), environmental externalities like Digwal’s pollution, and regulatory gray zones that classify these as non-pharmacological FMCG rather than scrutinized drugs. Interweaving poetic laments, folk songs, philosophical dialogues, and political-ecological critiques, the piece frames infancy as a battleground of postcolonial capitalism, where the cradle mirrors the coffin through iatrogenic harm, false patriotism (boycotting Chinese goods in rhetoric while importing them in practice), and the Anthropocene’s uninhabitable legacy of climate toxicity and microplastics; appendices provide granular data on toy industry economics, material toxicities, and sourcing hypotheses, culminating in demands for transparency, independent audits, pharmacovigilance for consumer goods, and a reclamation of nurture from market fetishism to honor the lost children not as accidents but as indictments urging societal reform and remembrance.
Piramal, Polycrol, Pesticides, and the Politics of Stomachs
This letter critically examines Polycrol, an over-the-counter antacid by Piramal Pharma, as both a medical product and a metaphor for systemic socio-economic and political injustices in India. While marketed for short-term relief of digestive discomfort, Polycrol contains aluminium compounds whose chronic ingestion poses documented neurotoxic, skeletal, renal, and haematological risks, yet long-term clinical evidence of efficacy is absent. The correspondence situates the product within broader “pharma-political” dynamics, linking corporate profiteering, regulatory laxity, celebrity endorsements, and pesticide exposure to a cultural normalization of self-medication. Drawing parallels between the symptomatic relief of Polycrol and the quick-fix, extractive logic of crony capitalism—as exemplified in the DHFL financial scandal—the letter calls for regulatory transparency, public health accountability, and corporate ethical responsibility, arguing that systemic reform, rather than temporary palliatives, is essential to safeguard health, justice, and societal well-being.
Keep Kolkata’s Roads Open, Safe, and Climate-Resilient (AN ONLINE MASS PETITION)
Kolkata, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, faces a critical urban crisis as its weak road network—covering only 6–7% of city land—struggles under massive congestion from festivals, religious events, political rallies, and private gatherings. This gridlock endangers lives by delaying emergency services, escalates economic costs, worsens air pollution and climate impacts, and violates the constitutional right to free movement. Case studies, including Red Road, highlight the risks of relying on ad hoc permissions in high-security zones. The city urgently needs regulated alternatives for public events, strict enforcement of road-use laws, climate-conscious urban planning, and promotion of sustainable celebrations to balance cultural vibrancy with safety, accessibility, and environmental resilience. This petition is initiated by the Fridays For Future India chapter, supported by the Kolkata unit.
E20 Petrol in India: Green Transition or Greenwashed Cronyism?
This article critically examines India’s nationwide rollout of E20 petrol—a fuel blend of 80% petrol and 20% ethanol—framed as a green transition but marked by structural contradictions and political capture. While the policy promises reduced fossil fuel dependence and enhanced energy security, its hasty and opaque implementation has exposed ecological, economic, and democratic fault lines. Large-scale ethanol production, dependent on sugarcane and food grains, risks intensifying food-versus-fuel conflicts, groundwater depletion, monoculture expansion, and contested lifecycle emissions, undermining its environmental rationale. At the same time, the accelerated timeline has disproportionately benefited politically connected firms, notably those linked to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s family, fuelling charges of dynastic capitalism and greenwashed cronyism. Consumers face reduced mileage, vehicle compatibility issues, and higher costs, while farmers encounter persistent inequities despite promised gains. Unlike Brazil’s gradual, infrastructure-supported ethanol transition, India’s compressed shift neglects readiness, transparency, and public consultation. By prioritizing centralized agro-industrial biofuels over decentralized renewables such as solar microgrids and electric mobility, E20 risks locking India into short-term, carbon-intensive fixes while delaying structural decarbonization. The study argues that the E20 rollout exemplifies the mirage of green developmentalism—where sustainability discourse legitimizes elite enrichment and policy capture, displacing burdens onto citizens, farmers, and ecosystems.
The Pharmakon of Coca Cola Capitalism: Paradigm of Thirst
This paper synthesizes a sustained conversation into a coherent, comprehensive, and rigorous research paper that maps the concept of Coca-Cola capitalism to concrete historical and contemporary case studies in India. The analysis traces the genealogy of the term, situates it within scholarship on globalization and cultural imperialism, and offers a detailed historical narrative on Coca-Cola’s presence in India: its arrival (1950), exit (1977) amid FERA (Foreign Exchange Regulation Act) disputes, the growth of “indigenous” soft-drink alternatives, and Coca-Cola’s re-entry after economic liberalization (1993). The paper then examines the contemporary re-territorialization of the Coca-Cola model under Indian oligarchic capital—focusing on Reliance Consumer Products (Isha Ambani’s corporate sphere) and its acquisition and relaunch of legacy brands such as Campa and minority stakes in heritage regional companies (e.g., Sosyo). Ecological footprints of cold-drink production (water use, agricultural inputs, packaging waste, energy and emissions, and local social-ecological conflicts) are analyzed, alongside health hazards of carbonated soft drinks, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular risks. A critical examination of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, such as the Piramal Foundation’s Sarvajal RO water ATMs in the context of the Digwal case-study, highlights hypocritical dimensions in water governance amid industrial extraction. The paper argues that Reliance’s strategy constitutes a domesticated variant of Coca-Cola capitalism—what the paper terms Ambani-Cola capitalism—which mechanically reproduces branding, distribution, and extraction logics while reorienting profit streams to domestic oligopoly. Drawing on Zizekian ideology critique, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and the Derridean interpretation of pharmakon, the analysis reveals the ideological surplus in commodified consumption. Policy implications and recommendations for environmental governance, community rights, competition policy, and corporate accountability are offered.
Once in a Blue Moon Academia 