Joint Statement condemning the ABVP disruption of the screening of the film, “Muzaffarnagar baaqi hai-Muzaffarnagar eventually” Montage, the film society of Kirori Mal College in the University of Delhi was screening “Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai- Muzaffarnagar Eventually” this afternoon, i.e. August 1, 2015. After about one hour of screening, around 30-40 ABVP workers, who were …
Political Economy of Ghar Wapsi: A perspective from below
Nikhil Walde After its electoral victory, BJP’s entire politics revolves around the Hindu religion which has brought about a dismal political scenario in India. The state seems to be departing from constitutional democracy- from the modern function of a state to the traditional monocratic form of state. All this is quite evident, for instance, …
‘Ghar Wapsi’: Owner of the house or servant?
Dale Luis Menezes and Amita Kanekar With the BJP coming to power in the last Lok Sabha elections, we have witnessed increasing violence against religious minorities and their places of worship. There has been no action to curb the violence, nor even a statement of condemnation from the Centre. Instead, in the last few months, …
Rise of Modi and Anti-Muslim Politics: A Critical Reading of the Left
K K Baburaj After hearing the news of BJP securing individual majority in parliament, I visited a friend of mine. His father, a retired teacher and a well-known leftist locally being an ex-leader of a left wing teachers’ association, started talking to me enthusiastically about the election results. “This result is a reply to the …
On the violence in a Muzaffarpur village: Some Untold Stories
Mohammad Sajjad On 18 January 2015, in the Ajitpur-Bahilwara, near Saraiya, in the district of Muzaffarpur in north Bihar, violence broke out. It killed nearly five people and almost all the 56 Muslim (Pasmanda) households in the village were looted and burnt. The immediate provocation was an inter-faith love affair: to the Hindutva zealots, …
No ghar, so no ghar wapsi
Kancha Ilaiah The Sangh Parivar is conducting the so-called “ghar wapsi” programmes all over the country. According to a newspaper report, about 8,000 people have been brought back to “ghar” from Christianity in newly formed Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The reconversion of some dalit Christians in Kerala is also widely reported. Nobody knows when …
Down Town to Kiss of Love: Problems of ‘Public’ Reasoning
Ajith Kumar A S & K Ashraf Certain debates are constructed around the deceptive dialectics of progressive versus retrograde. The scheme of either/or motivates us to fall in line on the point of saying either an unequivocal yes or a categorical no. Fissures in the society and politics are sometimes rendered invisible through such …
Universal rights and universal violations
K. G. Balakrishnan As we mark the 66th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, disclosures of mass human rights violations have highlighted the need for greater accountability In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which stands as a beacon for the …
Tilak Gandhi Golwalkar vs Phule Shahu Ambedkar
Dr. K. Jamanadas (First Published in September 2001) General Review About Bal Gangadhar Tilak, he was a great scholar of Sanskrit. He was a great leader of RADICALS, they used to call themselves “Nationalists” and leaders of whole country. He was called “Lokmanya” meaning “recognized by the people” and was projected as leader of …