debates

(This is the text of the open letter from Prof. Satish Deshpande to the Chief Minister of Kerala on the Hadiya issue.

[This is the text of the open letter written by eminent economist and leading development activist Prof. Amit Bhaduri, to Com. Pinarayi Vijayan]   Dear Shri.

This is a guest post by RITUPARNA SENGUPTA   Amit V Masurkar’s recently-released film Newton explores facets of Indian democracy at its most vulnerable. For these times of ‘nationalist’ bravado, this is a courageous topic.  The film is so named because it adopts for the most part, the point of view of its protagonist, Newton (Nutan) Kumar … Continue reading The Gravity of Newton : Rituparna Sengupta

[This is the text of the open letter written by the eminent poet and public intellectual K Satchidanandan to Com. Pinarayi Vijayan]   Dear Sir, I am writing this letter to you in total despair and with utmost concern. You must by now have come to know that Hadia, who had converted to Islam  and … Continue reading Help us resist the Hindutva thought-machine: K Satchidanandan writes to the Chief Minister of Kerala

This is the text of the open letter to Com. Pinarayi Vijayan from Kavita Krishnan, Secretary, All-India Progressive Women’s Association] To Shri Pinarayi Vijayan Chief Minister Kerala Respected Comrade, This is in reference to the case of Ms Hadiya, whose marriage by choice to a Muslim man has been annulled by the Kerala High Court. … Continue reading The Left Must Fight for Human Rights: AIPWA to the Chief Minister of Kerala

[This is the text of the open letter to M C Josephine, Chairperson, KSWC, from Kavita Krishnan, Secretary, All-India Progressive Women’s Association] To Ms M. C. Josephine Chairperson Kerala Women’s Commission Dear Ms Josephine, This is with reference to the case of Ms.

On October 3, students, human rights activists, muslim-dalit-adivasi-bahujan organisations from all over India are converging in Thiruvananthapuram to march for the freedom of the twenty-four-year-old Hadiya, who is under virtual house arrest in the home of her father, Mr Asokan after the shocking annulment of her marriage to her chosen partner by the Kerala HC. … Continue reading Free Hadiya March on 3 Oct: Citizens for Hadiya

It looks like the CPM’s enmity towards the Muslim organizations is such that they do not mind sacrificing women’s human rights and reinforcing the patriarchal family just to teach them a lesson. So they are happy to stick with the Sanghi understanding of conversion as necessarily forced in some way, ideological or physical. Media One … Continue reading Cutting the nose to spite the face?

Tomorrow, the capital will see the culmination of the year-long birth centenary celebrations of Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Pandit Deendayal Upadhayay ‘Nirastapadapeshe Erandopi Drumayate !’ – Sanskrit Proverb (In a treeless country even castor counts for a big tree) ( Quoted in EPW ”An Occasion for the RSS”, GPD) Come September 25 and the capital would see … Continue reading BJP, In Search Of An Icon: Is Deendayal Upadhyay Party’s Mahatma Gandhi?

If there is one thing, besides the pervasive Islamophobia in Kerala in both the Left and Right, that the Hadiya case reveals, it is the deeply entrenched commitment to patriarchy eerywhere — on the Right, Left, the radical civil society, wherever. Since May 2017, this young woman has been under virtual house arrest in her … Continue reading Judicial Ghar Wapsi : Update on the Hadiya Case