Anvesh Baki & Ashok Danavath Historically, federalism in India has suffered at the hands of national parties, especially when they got a comfortable majority in the parliament. The incumbent party at the center, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and its opposition party at the center, the Indian National Congress (INC)—both have their fair share in …
“The Khalistan Conspiracy” : An Eyewitness Account of Targeting Sikhs in the 1980s
Jaspal Singh Sidhu Tragic happenings of the 1980s continue to perturb the Sikhs. Most of them want to know what actually took place behind the smokescreen erected by the power of the day. In this context, the new arrival ‘The Khalistan Conspiracy’-A Former R&AW Officer Unravels the Path to 1984” (2020) authored by GBS Sidhu, …
Dynasty in Indian Politics
S Kumar The current political system in India has more dynastic rule than any time in the past. Even if we compare with the monarchies of earlier centuries, the rulers had less of a dynastic tendencies because of constant fighting among different regional powers and with invaders. In the past whoever was strong and able …
Unpartitioned nostalgia
Akshay Pathak ‘Aman ki Asha’, one of the many trendy Indo-Pak peace initiatives, could as well have been the title of a blockbuster from the Chopra brothers. Partition and Reunion as nostalgic themes in the savarna imagination seem tied in an inseparable bond, a sacred thread, to use a metaphor closer home. The piecing …
This Diwali, think why we celebrate death
Kancha Ilaiah There are two prominent stories around the celebration of Diwali. One, this is the day on which Ram returned to Ayodhya and coronated himself as king after killing Ravan. It is also the day when Krishna and his wife Satyabhama killed Narakasur, known as the evil rakshasa. It’s the death of the …
Silence of the nightingales
Kima And from the Heavens above, fire rained down upon the heathens, spreading death, mayhem and destruction everywhere. A heathen, because he was born in a land that had belonged to his people for generations. A heathen because he refused to bow down to the draconian law of an occupying force. Yet there was …
A paradigm shift called Kanshi Ram
Kancha Ilaiah [This article was first published in two parts, ‘A paradigm shift called Kanshi Ram’ and ‘Dalits and the horizontal ladder’, in 2003; we have combined the two parts into one single piece of writing. We, along with our readers, celebrate the memory of Manyawar Kanshi Ram on his birth anniversary- Round Table …