Articles by: Ashraf Lone

India In 2020: Democracy, Justice and Secularism Is Being Reduced to Populist Whims

India In 2020: Democracy, Justice and Secularism Is Being Reduced to Populist Whims

 India entered the year 2020 when the world was grappling with Coronavirus (Covid-19). There were only a few hundred cases when India hosted U.S. President Donald Trump and people assembled in thousands to rally behind Modi to host a right-wing leaning Trump and to make him feel at home, this time more than ever. Then, protests started happening all over India against[Read More…]

by 20/10/2020 Comments are Disabled India
COVID-19, Right Wing Myths and the “Other”   

COVID-19, Right Wing Myths and the “Other”  

Corona Virus has wreaked havoc all over the world. Thousand have been killed by this deadly virus. It is after 1918 Spanish flu that such a large scale disruption has been caused to public life and people at this scale have got killed with no end in sight in the near future. Governments all over the world have been taking[Read More…]

by 13/04/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Blame Rests With Right-Wing For Fomenting Riots In Delhi

Blame Rests With Right-Wing For Fomenting Riots In Delhi

When I say that the right wing is responsible for the anti-Muslim riots happening in Delhi, it means that the right wing, aka the RSS and BJP, its media and its affiliates are entirely responsible for the mess. From failing on the economic front to other policies, the right wing party wants to hide its failures and is not living[Read More…]

by 28/02/2020 Comments are Disabled India
The Rise of Right Wing in New India

The Rise of Right Wing in New India

India has entered the new year on many negatives. Its economy is simmering and showing no signs of recovery. And protests are everywhere happening in the country and these are increasing with each passing day and first started by common people are now joined by students of various colleges and universities across the country. The right-wing party BJP came again[Read More…]

by 18/01/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Lynching : The New Normal Of New India

Lynching : The New Normal Of New India

             BJP, a right-wing political party, came to power again in 2019, on the promises of “Sab ka Sath, Sab ka Vishwas”.But on the other side, it also raised the rhetoric of patriotism and hyper-nationalism over Pulwama blast in Kashmir and Balakot airstrike, which later proved to be mere eyewash to hide its failures in the first tenure. From calling immigrants in Bengal termites deemed[Read More…]

by 14/07/2019 Comments are Disabled India
Permission to travel on national highway in Kashmir. Every Wednesday & Sunday, Human branding

The Highway Ban in Indian Administered Kashmir

On April 3, Indian authorities issued an order banning civilian vehicular traffic on the highway in Kashmir stretching from district Baramulla upto Udhampur on Wednesdays and Sundays upto May 31 in   for the smooth movement of army convoys. And we can’t say wether the order will be lifted in future or not, as most of the orders and laws once[Read More…]

by 13/04/2019 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
The Post-Truth India

The Post-Truth India

     We entered the age of fake news long time ago and some intellectuals and scholars have started to call it an important branch of post truth. When did it started and when will it end, nobody has the accurate answers. There are different views about  the beginning of the Post-Truth Age. Some say that it started with the[Read More…]

by 12/03/2019 1 comment India
Pellet Horror In Kashmir

Pellet Horror In Kashmir

Indian in Jammu and Kashmir is blinding Kashmiris unabated with each passing day. The pellet horror which started in the year 2016 is still continuing with no end in sight in near future. Small children, young and old and women have become the victims of this pellet horror. Hiba Nisar, 20 month old child, a resident of Shopian is a[Read More…]

by 03/12/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
India’s Fading Democracy

India’s Fading Democracy

Indian democracy is in grave danger. First it was all about lynchings of muslims and dalits and killing of some selective activists but now the tide of intolerance and bigotry has entered the houses of all, including the urban intellectual class, labellled by present regime as “Urban Naxals”, which has derived widespread condemnation. No one is being spared now. Those[Read More…]

by 10/09/2018 1 comment India
Manto: The Legend

Manto: The Legend

            Saadat Hassan Manto is considered one of the great short story writers of the world and righly so. It takes a long for a reader to come out of the magic of the short story of Manto, once he/she reads it. Manto’s characters speak of the language of this world and these characters are taken from this world. He[Read More…]

by 05/03/2018 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
 Zainab and Asifa: Living In Darker Times

 Zainab and Asifa: Living In Darker Times

We are living in darker times and these are turning more darker with each passing day. Killing of children in conflict zones like Kashmir, Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan is continuing with no stop to these. From 2008 onwards in Kashmir we have seen in popular uprisings, how children have been killed and blinded by state backed forces. Year after year, we[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Is Indian Democracy Turning Into Mobocracy?

Is Indian Democracy Turning Into Mobocracy?

            India’s democracy, social setup and secularism is in grave danger.  And this danger has become more visible now. The pace with which Indian society is indoctrinated with the hatred of muslims, dalits and other marginal communities is  increasing with each passing day. Killing of dalits and muslims on smaller pretexts is going on with no stop to these heinous[Read More…]

by 27/01/2018 1 comment India
Mothers Of Disappeared Of Kashmir Ask For Justice 

Mothers Of Disappeared Of Kashmir Ask For Justice 

             I was recently talking to a mother , who is still waiting for his son’s return. Although she was not wailing, but her moist eyes was saying it all. The pain and agony was visible on his face. She has seen her son disappear before her eyes. She has tried everything, from going to army camps to police posts[Read More…]

by 09/01/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights, Kashmir
Reading  “Kaalu Bhangi” In Today’s India

Reading  “Kaalu Bhangi” In Today’s India

                Krishan Chander(1914-1977) is considered one of the great short story writers, Urdu literature has produced  Krishan Chander was a firm believer in the upliftment of the oppressed and downtrdden. Krishan Chander dreamt and strived for a society, in which every human being is respected irrespective of his religion, caste and sect and which is free of exploitation and oppression.[Read More…]

by 23/12/2017 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature