NB: A timely reminder of the vulnerability of historiography to ideology. There are some among us who wish to ‘rectify’ history; whose resentment at the past can never be satiated, neither by revising textbooks nor by bulldozing the homes of the poor. Their emotional affliction is best described by Friedrich Nietzsche: The will cannot will… Read More Narayani Gupta: The problem with cherry-picking facts from history
Anyone who has ever genuinely immersed themselves in Ramcharitmanas will recognise the singular poignancy of one moment in the Sundarkand where Hanuman meets Sita. Until that point the story is hurtling towards disaster. Sita has been abducted. Ram is distraught and unsure of himself. But the moment Hanuman meets Sita is the point at which… Read More P. B. Mehta: With eyes wide open, we’re hurtling into an abyss / In Jahangirpuri, bulldozers leave trail of despair
NB: It would appear that the ruling dispensation known as the Sangh Parivar wishes communal hatred to become widespread and ‘spontaneous’. Contrary to their expectations however, this push towards violently imposed homogeneity is not a step toward national unity but a recipe for disintegration and the end of the Indian Union as a law-governed state.… Read More Bharat Bhushan: Communal djinn and the vanishing State
मौन मोदी के नाम भारत के मन की बात Our contributors are our viewers. Please Support independent journalism so we can bring you unbiased news without any pressure. Subscribe to SAKSHI JOSHI on youtube and facebook, like and share our video reports. comment more and more to expand its reach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuBoI5YHbqY follow me on Twitter… Read More मौन मोदी के नाम भारत के मन की बात #SakshiJoshi
NB: Here are two reviews of The Kashmir Files, with different interpretations. Readers are welcome to their own conclusions. Since this is a matter I have spoken and written about for many years, I attach below a selection of my posts beneath the reviews, without further comment. DS The Kashmir Files: Cinema As Testimony. Siddhartha Gigoo K-Files… Read More The Kashmir Files
This February marks two years of the communal carnage that shook several localities of Northeast Delhi. To mark the carnage, and take forward the much-needed discourse on the lives of the victims, a group of concerned citizens and organisations – comprising National Federation of Indian Women (NIFW), All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Constitutional Conduct… Read More Press Release: Commemorating Two Years of the Northeast Delhi Communal Riots
According to police in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, it was suicide. The young Muslim man they had brought into their custody had, out of despair, killed himself in the police station toilets. But, as photos of the scene emerged, so too did suspicions. The 22-year-old man, Altaf, was 165cm (5ft 5in) tall and… Read More Police in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh accused of unlawful killings
In a 30-minute interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, Sunita Viswanath explained why her organization played a lead role, alongside 16 other civil society organisations in the US, in lobbying the US Congress against the treatment of Muslims and minorities in India on the 12th and 26th of January. She said she did this… Read More Sunita Viswanath: Hindus for Human Rights to Keep Lobbying US Congress, Govt against India's Treatment of Muslims
Secularists must support rights of Muslims in an increasingly Islamophobic world, but they should be wary of strengthening the Muslim right in the process. To make sense of the contradictory voices within the community of secular-minded Indians on the raging hijab controversy, we would do well to recall a decades-old remark, in another context, of… Read More Javed Anand: What is at stake in the hijab issue
This is the twentieth anniversary of the making of Narendra Modi and the Gujarat Model. It was this month twenty years ago that triggered the marinade of horror, hatred and gore that has served up this sizzled nation called New India where it is possible for zealotry to hound a young girl for her choice… Read More Sankarshan Thakur: Splintered vision
After the truth-shower 