Growing up in urban India, in an English-medium boys-only school run by Jesuits, I had access to all the English-language novels and comic-books that Indian kids do – Enid Blyton, Archies etc. Immersed in their world of boarding schools, “Riverdale High” etc, the one thing I never really got was the idea of lockers and locker-rooms, which were depicted in[Read More…]
It is hardly difficult to notice the irony that the two most powerful people in Delhi have presided over, abetted and prolonged some of the worst mass-violence in India – that in Gujarat in 2002. Yet, that was in Gujarat, a slight distance away from the capital, Delhi. It was sort of their fiefdom, their corner of the world, and[Read More…]
Jo aag laga rahe hain, TV pe unke jo drishya aa rahe hain, yeh aag lagaane vaale kaun hain, woh unke kapdon se hi pata chal jaata hai (From the visuals on TV, those setting the fire can be identified by their clothes) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an election rally recently. By alluding to the clothes/dresses of certain protesters,[Read More…]
The end, hopefully, of Jantar-Mantarisation of people’s resistance It took the lesser-in-the-news, supposedly less-flashy Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) to change the complexion of resistance in the country. While we had earlier seen some protests regarding hike in hostel fees, whose narrative was broadened to “affordable public education,” we did not see much mobilization for various egregious national issues like[Read More…]
The show of strength during the 1963 “Million Man March” on Washington DC in the United States has been seen as a landmark in the Civil Rights struggle. Though it had its own problems, especially, and ironically, problems of representations since several voices were shut out, it nevertheless demonstrated a unified show of resistance, conviction and dedication for the cause[Read More…]
The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, seems to be in some sort of a pickle, at the time of writing, in the process of seeking a fourth term of presidency. Earlier, in 2016, he had not exactly endeared himself to the citizens of Bolivia when he decided to run for a fourth term as president, in defiance of existing laws[Read More…]
The world seems roiled by a “million mutinies now,” to use a term used by VS Naipaul to describe a situation in India in the 1980s. Yet, while India still might be witnessing a million small mutinies…there is hardly any countrywide or even more localized mass movement which encompasses, expresses and embraces the protests of all the disadvantaged classes in[Read More…]
In a remark made by Narendra Modi at the UNGA recently, he observed, not for the first time as a broad theme, that India was a land of peace and not a land of war, with obvious reference to Pakistan’s allegations against India’s actions in Kashmir. He reportedly said: “Hum us desh ke vaasi hain jisne vishwa ko Yuddh[Read More…]
The parallels between Kashmir and Palestine have been drawn for quite a while now – and there have been instances of solidarity based on similarity of circumstances between Palestinians and Kashmiris. Most recently, several important Palestinian news outlets like the 972 magazine, Electronic Intifada and Mondoweiss have denounced the ongoing events in Kashmir which had a special constitutional provision abrogated by the Indian state on Aug 5 followed by a[Read More…]
In a recent Washington Post article, well-known Indian journalist Barkha Dutt railed against what she called the “living hell vs. happy place” narrative that seems to dominate recent news reporting on Kashmir. She informs the reader that she has been relaying news from Kashmir for 25 years, so knows a thing or two about issues in Kashmir. Fair enough – we cannot take her Kashmir experience[Read More…]
There were no black-bordered newspaper announcements of either the abrogation of the Articles 370 and 35A or the immediate clampdown imposed on Kashmir, effected as they were by devious and totalitarian, unconstitutional means. There was no broadcast-in-the-dark by any TV broadcaster. And, in the days following there was no running count of the days of incarceration for the entire valley,[Read More…]
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Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
