Tag: human rights

David Bergman: As Bangladesh court reaffirms Islam as state religion, secularism hangs on to a contradiction

First posted April 01, 2016 NB: This issue relates to the centuries-old debate about civil religion, a matter dealt with extensively by Ronald Beiner in his excellent book Civil Religion: a Dialogue in the History of Political Philosophy. After 1789, nationalism emerged as an alternative civic religion and patriotism became a political form of prayer. So zealotry… Read More David Bergman: As Bangladesh court reaffirms Islam as state religion, secularism hangs on to a contradiction

Dilip

Afghan women are being ‘erased from everything’

Tuesday marks the two-year anniversary of Kabul falling to the Taliban, which seized control of Afghanistan amid the United States’ chaotic, controversial withdrawal from the country after nearly 20 years of fighting…. But celebrating is the last thing many Afghan women want to do… as life under Taliban rule becomes increasingly repressive and brutal. When Zahra thinks back to her life before the… Read More Afghan women are being ‘erased from everything’

Dilip

Vilification of Assam Rifles is a calculated move for revenge

The connivance of the state and Union government in letting the violence spiral out of control and not adequately utilising the available instruments of the central government, especially the Army and the Assam Rifles, seems deliberate, irresponsible and extremely dangerous in terms of national security.  LT GENERAL PRAKASH MENON The Assam Rifles is a central paramilitary force… Read More Vilification of Assam Rifles is a calculated move for revenge

Dilip

Russia’s military wives and mothers are challenging Putin’s war on Ukraine

Russia’s anti-war movement should learn from the ‘patriotic dissent’ used by women involved in the war Natasha Danilova / Jennifer Mathers The women in Russia’s military families are posing a subtle but significant challenge to Vladimir Putin’s handling of the war in Ukraine by engaging in a form of political activism best described as ‘patriotic… Read More Russia’s military wives and mothers are challenging Putin’s war on Ukraine

Dilip

As our 76th Independence Day approaches, revisiting ‘Indian Ideas of Freedom’

Ramachandra Guha In his landmark book, Dennis Dalton had originally examined the approaches of Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Gandhi, and Tagore. In the early 1980s, while a doctoral student in Calcutta, I read a brilliant essay by the American scholar, Dennis Dalton, on the evolution of Gandhi’s views on caste. This was published in an edited volume… Read More As our 76th Independence Day approaches, revisiting ‘Indian Ideas of Freedom’

Dilip

Will half-truths in the Parliament bring peace to Manipur?

Bharat Bhushan The government’s interventions on the Manipur violence in the Parliament do not address the root causes of the unprecedented ethnic cleansing in the state. Speaking on the no-confidence vote, Union Home Minister Amit Shah made two points – that the Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh must be retained because he was “cooperating”… Read More Will half-truths in the Parliament bring peace to Manipur?

Dilip

India’s subdivision of criminality (how one massacre deserves another)

Ours is the age of the intellectual organisation of political hatreds: Julien Benda, The Treason of the Intellectuals; 1928 Once crime was as solitary as a cry of protest; now it is as universal as science. Yesterday it was put on trial; today it determines the law: Albert Camus, The Rebel, 1956 A BJP minister’s… Read More India’s subdivision of criminality (how one massacre deserves another)

Dilip