Articles by: Cynthia Stephen

Gail Omvedt : A tribute

Gail Omvedt : A tribute

Gail Omvedt was a towering figure in the social sciences in India for decades. Author of over 25 books and a series of well-received columns for the Hindu of yesteryears, she was also an incisive and insightful analyst of Indian society, and a grounded grassroots activist as well. Despite being born and educated in the US, she made India her[Read More…]

by 05/09/2021 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Patching up livelihoods of folk artistes in Corona times

Patching up livelihoods of folk artistes in Corona times

As the Covid-19 lockdown kicked in March, Bangalore and most other cities in India witnessed an exodus of migrant workers returning to their homes in northern and eastern India, by every conceivable means including by cycle and by walking, with women carrying their small children. But there were some people who could not even leave, because they were not migrant[Read More…]

by 16/08/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Renegades vs the true children of Mother India

Renegades vs the true children of Mother India

There’s a well-known story, often included in children’s story anthologies, about the legendary wisdom of King Solomon. Once a dispute between two women was brought to him to resolve. Both of them were mother’s of two small babies, and they lived in the same house. One morning one of the babies was found dead, smothered in bed. Then each of[Read More…]

by 16/12/2019 Comments are Disabled India
A garland in the wrong hands

A garland in the wrong hands

The state of the nation is disturbed. The economic data is at a historic low – GDP, Employment, NPAs in banks, cost overruns, even falling demand not only in the automotive but also in rural markets for FMCGs, even undergarments! For the first time in my memory we are seeing falling demand for POWER!! Thermal power plants are shutting down[Read More…]

by 14/12/2019 Comments are Disabled India
Whither The India of Today and tomorrow?

Whither The India of Today and tomorrow?

I have recently been reading and re-reading some of the important works which attempt to understand the various strands that make up the tangled strands of present-day India. In my day to day work too I have been encountering facets of the Indian state and its institutions as encountered by the women especially those marginalised in society. Their access to[Read More…]

by 17/10/2019 1 comment India
When Will We Hear A Peaceful ‘Ram Ram’ Greeting?

When Will We Hear A Peaceful ‘Ram Ram’ Greeting?

Dehko, o deewano, yeah kaamnakaro, Ram kanaambadnaamna karo… The plaintive song from the past runs through my head as one reads the news reports of the competitive slogan mongering that rang through the hallowed portals.of.the Parliament ad the fresh lot of MPs were sworn in. It doesn’t augur well for the monsoon session, that MPs are heckled by their colleagues[Read More…]

by 28/06/2019 Comments are Disabled Communal Harmony
Will India Take the Road Less Travelled – and Make All the Difference?

Will India Take the Road Less Travelled – and Make All the Difference?

The social ferment presently being witnessed all over India and abroad, where the Indian diaspora has spread out, is the background in which Modi has set out on his latest whistle-stop tours abroad.The month of April has been very restive, with country-wide Bandh call on 2nd April by the Dalits who constitute about 17% of India’s population. This was followed[Read More…]

by 21/04/2018 Comments are Disabled India
A Poem For Today’s India

A Poem For Today’s India

Namo…nnamaha! Vande Mataram!
Mothers and sisters, our salutations to you!
Only make sure your limbs are fully swathed
Smothered with textile, yard upon yard of silk or polyester
Head covered, face veiled with ghungat or scarf.

by 10/10/2017 1 comment Arts/Literature
Heroes And Sheroes Of Plural India: Savitribai Phule

Heroes And Sheroes Of Plural India: Savitribai Phule

  This article is part of a series called “Heroes And Sheroes Of Plural India” under #AnHourForCommunalHramony campaign to celebrate the Heroes and Sheroes who struggled to shape modern India in all its plurality.  Today we celebrate Savitribai Phule “The First Lady of Indian Women’s Education”. All are welcome to contribute an hour of your day, in celebrating these Heroes and Sheroes[Read More…]

by 08/08/2017 2 comments Uncategorized
Patients Before Profit: Public vs Private , The Debate In Karnataka

Patients Before Profit: Public vs Private , The Debate In Karnataka

Affordable health care is now becoming increasingly inaccessible to the poor and lower middle classes in India, given the drive to privatization in all parts of the social sector.  Sally Ogun, a patient’s rights activist from America says, “The provision of health care … is part of a social contract, one that assures citizens access to the tools they need[Read More…]

by 06/07/2017 1 comment India
Dusty Memoir: “Eat Dust: Mining And Greed In Goa”

Dusty Memoir: “Eat Dust: Mining And Greed In Goa”

“Eat Dust! Eat Dust!”, chanted the villagers who had gathered in the Public Hearing by the Environment ministry on the environmental impact of a mining lease which was due to be extended. As they chanted, they tossed fistfuls of the crushed red earth in the air. They were enraged by the attitude of the governmental officials who were there to[Read More…]

“Who Killed Swamy Laxmananda?” 

“Who Killed Swamy Laxmananda?” 

The events in Kandhamal in 2008 shook the entire country.  The large number of tribal and Dalit Christians in this remote district of the then Orissa (now Odisha) state were subjected to months, even years of displacement, dispossession , death for a few and ‘forced conversion’ for those who remained, by the saffron forces which termed it ‘ghar wapsi’ or[Read More…]

In Chennai, TPDK Hails A Victory Of Good Over Brahmanism

In Chennai, TPDK Hails A Victory Of Good Over Brahmanism

The festive season in India begins with Nag Panchami. Ganesh Chaturthi follows. A few weeks later come the ten-day festivities of Dussehra, culminating in Ram Leela where effigies of Ravana are burnt in public functions in towns and cities across north India. Finally, there is Diwali, the festival of lights. Almost all Indian festivals – from the ever popular Diwali[Read More…]

by 05/11/2016 1 comment Annihilate Caste
Mahishasur In The North, Ravan Leela In The South

Mahishasur In The North, Ravan Leela In The South

The ongoing Mahishasur movement in North India has stirred up the Dravidian subconscious in south India. This year, on the day of Dussehra, effigies of Ram, Sita and Lakshman were burnt in Chennai. Eleven Periyar supporters who dodged a large police presence to burn the effigies were arrested. These Periyarites have been demanding a ban on the practice of burning[Read More…]

by 15/10/2016 1 comment Annihilate Caste
Book On Kandhamal ‘A Wake-Up Call For The Nation’

Book On Kandhamal ‘A Wake-Up Call For The Nation’

 Investigative book ‘Who killed Swami Laxmanananda?’ authored by senior  journalist Anto Akkara, came in for wide acclaim at its release in Bangalore on July 23 with eminent jurist and former Advocate-General of Karnataka Ravivarma Kumar describing it as a ‘wake up call for the nation’. “The content of the book has grave implications for Indian democracy,’ remarked Kumar while releasing[Read More…]

by 26/07/2016 3 comments Communal Harmony
BP Mahesh Guru’s Arrest Widely Condemned

BP Mahesh Guru’s Arrest Widely Condemned

  A journalism professor accused of making insulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union minister Smriti Irani has been jailed for insulting Lord Rama. Professor BP Mahesh Guru, who teaches at the Mysore University, was arrested on June 17 when he appeared before a Mysore court in connection with a case registered against him for allegedly insulting the Hindu god[Read More…]

by 23/06/2016 2 comments Communal Harmony