Umar Nizar Grief manifested in ways that felt like anything but grief; grief obliterated all feelings but grief, grief made a twin wear the same shirt for days on end to preserve the morning on which the dead were still living; grief made a twin peel stars off the ceiling and lie in bed …
Rahul Roushan’s memoir: How a liberal Hindu became a proud Hindu
Chanchal Kumar The entire intellectual development of Rahul Roushan, the author of the memoir Sanghi who never went to a Shakha, who is a Bihari bhumihar and presently, CEO of the BJP/RSS news portal ‘OpIndia.com”, can be summed up in the following sentences: His father, an English literature teacher and a liberal Hindu, tried …
1921, Mappila and the idea of a nation
Bobby Kunhu Despite the extensive work by historians like K. N. Panikkar, the general consensus that the 1921 Malabar rebellion was a peasant rebellion and the fact that the Government of Kerala awards pension to those who participated in the rebellion and their spouses – there are strong attempts to portray the events of 1921 …
Storming Libraries, ‘Achhe Din’ and the New Education Policy
N Sukumar and Shailaja Menon The NEP 2020 has been rolled out amidst the Corona pandemic with the grandiose dreams of unleashing India’s potential as a world teacher (Vishwaguru). Ironically, a few months back police stormed the library of Jamia Millia Islamia, thrashed students and vandalized the reading space. No one knows when the culprits …
Poverty of Philosophy within Liberals in Understanding Anti-Caste Politics
Omprakash Mahato There are social scientists who develop their views on caste through textual means, attending conferences and seminars, observing society from a distance etc. While reading textbooks is the conventional way, some scholars tend to develop their ‘theories’ from watching Bollywood movies, reading newspapers,viewing newsroom studios debates, discussing and debating with research scholars …
The incompatibility of RSS-BJP’s agenda with the idea of India: A Zero Hour prognosis
Salman Farissi In 2019, when BJP won with a bigger majority than ever before, the minorities of the country, especially religious minorities, were not only disappointed but deeply distressed. While they pondered their prospects, followers of the hardcore right-wing, sycophants of Hindutva ideology, were celebrating and contemplating making their idea of Hindu-Rashtra a reality. Before …
Bharat vs India: Understanding Debates of Naming Through Ernest Gellner and Anthony D Smith
Vidyasagar Recently, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea which sought a direction to the Central government to amend the constitution to change the official name of the country from India to Bharat. This plea claimed that “the removal of the English name, though appears symbolic, will instill a sense of pride in …
Migrant Tears in Untouchable India
Mungamuri Kranthi Kumar Corona doesn’t know any Caste or Religion, Says Hindutva. It is a blatant lie, It is Brahminical Morality Mocking thousand of years of Bahujan pain and agony. Caste Hindus snatched my land Tortured and killed me in my Untouchable village; Thousands of years of Caste Hindu Untouchability Thousands of years of Caste …
Caste and access to public spaces: A field study in Suburban Mumbai
Vanshree Vankar In India, the historical context of oppression through occupation has given birth to social stratification via caste culture which includes notions of purity and impurity. This brutal history of thousands of years of discrimination restricts the utility of public space in ways both physical and psychological. In turn, these constraints on the …