India, May 6 -- From factory floors to psychological anxieties to geopolitical chaos, "the jungle" remains a powerful symbol for disorder and injustice. Now when populist politics and protectionist policies rattle a fragile global order, that metaphor feels more urgent than ever

When Upton Sinclair published The Junglein 1906, he wasn't just exposing the gruesome conditions of Chicago slaughterhouses. His goal was far more ambitious: to hold up a mirror to a system where working class immigrants were chewed up by industrial capitalism and discarded without consequence.

In Sinclair's world, the factory floor was a battlefield, and the enemy wasn't just spoiled meat, it was a society that let exploitation flourish unchecked. The "jungle" ...