HARTOSH SINGH BAL The transformation of the relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Sikhs embodies the problems the community faces in a climate where the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s worldview prevails in the country. The story begins with a photo the Bharatiya Janata Party would once display with great pride, of a turbaned Modi disguised as… Read More Sikhs are the proverbial bone stuck in the RSS’s gullet
When his 13-year-old daughter stumbled home six years ago and told her father that she had been gang-raped, Ranjit embarked on a mission to get justice in a manner that is almost unheard of in rural India. Going against the wishes of the entire village in the eastern state of Jharkhand, and challenging India’s highly patriarchal culture,… Read More How a father’s love for his daughter challenged India’s ‘rape culture’
Current decolonisation project drips with resentment. It conflates modernity merely with colonialism. To see the insidiousness of this project, just ask this question: What should be the terms on which citizens relate to each other? “Decolonise!” This imperative seems to be the ideological flavour of the moment. It is behind the calls to restructure education,… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta: The current talk of decolonisation is about an exclusionary political agenda
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’
By C. M. Naim First posted January 15, 2012 Hasrat Mohani was not just a maverick when it came to publicly championing the radical thinking of Tilak. He also wrote verses expressing deep love for Krishna, and often went to Mathura to celebrate Janmashtami. He was a true maverick. In 1908 he published an anonymous… Read More The Maulana Who Loved Krishna
Note: The two links below are recordings of public lectures given by me under the kind auspices of The Raza Foundation (October 4, 2019), titled The Compass We Lost; and ANHAD Collective, titled Love at Work, Mahatma Gandhi’s Last Struggle (January 14, 2017). Dilip Simeon: The Compass We Lost <— link to AV Love at… Read More The compass we lost
Will love, compassion, and care hold similar velocity to counter-mobilise rightwing Hindutva? Ajay Gudavarthy Democracies across the globe are undergoing a deep churning and we do not know, as yet, if this will eventually settle down into a more inclusive social equilibrium challenging old and conventional understanding of social change, or remain stuck as a… Read More India’s Silent Emotive Majority
An initiative by Kabir Project to take the power of the mystic song to children and young people, Shabad Shaala is coming to Delhi in partnership with Manzil Mystics. This is a chance for the youth of Delhi (15-30 years) to learn bhajans, kaafis and baul-gaan from the great gurus of folk tradition, and also engage in reflective and… Read More Shabad Shaala in Delhi : An Initiative by the Kabir Project
There are claims that the roots of democratic institutions can be found in ancient India. Studies have shown that such institutions have existed not only in India but also in other parts of the world. No one society can claim it was the ‘mother’.… There were two mutually contradictory strains in Western thought about India… Read More Was India the Mother of Democracy?
Hindu society must think about its own role in the creation of this Hindutva edition of Ramkatha. The electoral and behaviour of a large section of the community has led its leaders and cultural representatives to believe that its sensibilities have been so debased that it will have to accept Adipurush as its Ramayana. Adipurush has presented Hindu society… Read More ‘Adipurush’ speaks the language of Hindutva supporters. Why are they opposing the movie?
After the truth-shower 