The seven hundred and odd pages long proposed constitution for the Hindu Rashtra,to emerge out of the ashes of our present constitution,has been dismissed as a joke by our secular media and enlightened public analysts.But are they being too complacent and a little rash,perhaps? The actual responses of the communally fired,divided masses cannot be predicted so confidently.Already we have some[Read More...]
The 15 th lecture in the Democracy Dialogues Series will be delivered by Prof Achin Vanaik on Sunday, 27 th February at 6 PM (IST) He will be speaking on ‘Secularism, Communalism and Indian Politics Today‘ Speaker Writer and Social Activist, Former Professor of Political Science at Delhi University Prof Achin Vanaik is a fellow … Continue reading Secularism, Communalism and Indian Politics Today : Professor Achin Vanaik →
For a very long time now, we have been hearing people declare that we should do things ‘according to our national characteristics’. From Bankim Chatterjee to Partha Chatterjee, the chatter has not changed much. There are two kinds of people who make this argument at present: the patriots and the great intellectuals who make tours of other countries. While using[Read More...]
From Bengal: Bengal was the province where English had initial impact. The Bengalis were influenced by the British rule more than any other area of the country. The East India Company established its capital at Calcutta in 1773. The upper caste, the Bhadra Bengali people were attracted towards English culture and they were thinking that English education, English culture were[Read More...]
Is the Indian state turning into a religious dystopia, like some of its neighbours? Image Courtesy: Free Press Journal The Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government has pushed the Citizenship Amendment Act through, but it is struggling to manage its fallout and the national outrage that a related proposal to create a National Register of Indian … Continue reading CAA-NRC: Turning India Into a Warzone of ‘Peace’ →
Guest Post by Gargi Chakravartty BOOK REVIEW Hindutva’s Second Coming by Subhash Gatade; published by Media House, Delhi; 2019; pages: 272; Rs 395 (US $ 18). The return of Modi to power with a huge margin in this 2019 election is a clear verdict for the Hindutva plank. Why and how it happened leave us, the secular billions, to … Continue reading Return of Hindutva: A Challenge for Secularism →
This is a guest post by New Socialist Initiative New Socialist Initiative stands in solidarity with the people of Assam, Tripura and the other North Eastern states in their heroic struggle against the communally motivated Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB).
( Photo courtesy : The hoot) (To be published in the special issue of ‘Janata’) The spectacle of what is called religion, or at any rate organised religion, in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always … Continue reading Nehru, Ambedkar and Challenge of Majoritarianism
It was probably late sixties or early seventies – when a gentleman called P N Oak started appearing in Marathi magazines peddling his weird theories about well known monuments in and outside India. An article which made lot of news then was centred around Taj Mahal where it was claimed that it was ‘Tejo Maha … Continue reading Taj Mahal as Tej Mahal – Once again “There is a Bee in the Bonnet”
You can smell it at a distance, in the burnt out, blackened frames of torched homes and vehicles from yet another communal pogrom. You can see it in the blood stained corner of a railway platform, still fresh from a recent lynching. And you can hear it in the guttural cries of the frenzied, saffron swathed mobs, pledging murder[Read More...]
