The earlier article on ‘Citizen resistance in the age of Hindutva’ had mentioned different forms of resistance after 2014. These included resistance by writers & artists (Award Waapasi), Dalits (Una protest), Dalits & Student community (Rohit Vemula protests), Students & Teachers (JNU Nationalist debates), Muslims & others (Anti CAA protests), Muslim women (Anti hizab restriction protests), Journalists (Independent youtube media[Read More…]

India has witnessed growth and acceleration of Hindutva agenda from 2014 onwards. The growth of BJP, penetration of communal propaganda through social media, decline of independent media, decline of institutions, and emergence of autocrat leader who gets identified as liberator of majority has contributed to this trend. However, the acceleration of Hindutva agenda has also been equally accompanied by different[Read More…]

In the recent act following Nupur Sharma’s statement on Prophet Mohammad, the BJP acted against her by suspending her from Party’s membership. This was after there was reaction by Middle Eastern countries. The BJP in its statement pointed that “The BJP strongly denounces insults of any religious personalities of any religion. The BJP is also against any ideology which insults[Read More…]

  The recent years has seen increasing attacks on minorities particularly the Muslims. This seems to be aimed at achieving the BJP regimes intended aim of reducing the minority spaces in the socio-political-cultural and economic life and their engagement and participation as equal members of the nation-state. Psycho-cultural spaces: The severest form of attack has been on the psycho-cultural-spaces. In[Read More…]

Covid 19 has brought migrant crises to the forefront. While migrants had always faced challenges, this has only become more visible now. This also presents with an opportunity to look back at the immediate implications of the crises, draw lessons from the same and to develop a migrant inclusive policy in urban areas. Implications Loss of Trust: The news reports[Read More…]

In the Post-COVID situation, the issue of migrant workers has come to the forefront. While on the one hand, it provides an opportunity to reflect and correct, on the other hand it also brings out the deeply held biases in Government decisions. While Migrants go on to build a city, they never form part of mental frame of the decision[Read More…]

The announcement of lockdown on March 24, 2020 as a preventive step for spread of Corona brought to the forefront the issue of migrant workers. The migrant workers were left with four hours in which they had to take action. Millions of migrant workers were struck in their host states. They had come from home states in search of employment[Read More…]

Name of the Book: Borders of an Epidemic: Covid 19 and Migrant Workers Name of the Publisher: Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG), Kolkata Editor: Ranabir Samadar Year of Publication: 2020 COVID 19 is a major health challenge the country is currently witnessing. As on 29th April 2020, India is said to have 31,332 COVID cases and seen 1,008 COVID deaths.[Read More…]

Despite its limitations, Indian Democracy has been a successful experiment in a country which was driven by challenges of its times. Unlike many newly liberated countries, where military dictatorships or theocratic bent regimes had taken over, Indian democracy allowed for parliamentary democracy with multi-party system to prevail. While India was still driven by parochial caste, race and religious identities, dominance[Read More…]

The recent attack on students and teachers at JNU by right-wing goons associated with Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) exposes the threat being felt by the BJP. The party which believes in an ideology of exclusion and hardly pays attention to the real concerns affecting people, JNU is a nightmare. JNU is seen as troublesome in building their agenda of[Read More…]

The movement of Students along with other Universities and Institutes of Excellence in the country do raise questions on the importance of Public Education. Education in India has always received a low priority with only about 3% of the National Budget spent on Education. Even within this, there is a lot of inequity with IITs, IIMs receiving the larger share[Read More…]

The Ayodhya Judgement to hand over the disputed land for construction of Ram temple and providing alternative land to Muslims for construction of Mosque is being welcomed not only by the Sangh Parivar but also the parties which claim to be secular. This includes Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Telugu Desam Party. This is being[Read More…]

The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in recent Vijay Dashami speech pointed out that ‘Lynching’ is a ‘Western concept’ and alien to India. It has its origins in Bible and that ‘lynching’ is being used to defame India. He was in a denial mode for the criticism being raised on incidents of ‘lynchings’ in India. It does not really matter whether[Read More…]

The Prime Minister in the recent event in Houston ‘Howdy Modi’ went on to state that everything is fine and all is well in the country. This was stated in eight different languages to put across the point. The statement only goes on to show how defining the ‘wellness’ of a Nation has changed in the current times. A country’s[Read More…]

The emotional journey between hope and fear has come to an end with the fear triumphing. There was the hope that the forces of divisive nature and hatred would be defeated. And the forces of solidarity and harmony would win over. There was the fear that the divisive forces would come back and haunt the country for another five years.[Read More…]

The mark of last five years has been to make consistently inconsistent and unscientific statements. The difference between science and non-science has been reduced. Exploration of truth through investigation of natural, social and economic phenomenon, understanding the basic laws of science and social processes has been done away with. This is being replaced by an imaginative truth which does not[Read More…]

The current Government came to power with the slogans of ‘Ache Din’ and ‘Sabka saath, Sabka vikas’ in which promises of better days and an inclusive model of development was promised. Lot of public relations exercises through advertisements, interviews in government favouring news channels tried to project its ‘development’ orientation. In reality, the travel made thus far shows a different[Read More…]

The saffron forces find their foothold in North-eastern states in recent elections to Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. This new found sense of power pushes them towards acts of vandalism of statues. It starts with Lenin in Tripura. This is later followed by Periyar Rama Swamy in Tamilnadu and Ambedkar in Uttar Pradesh. There can be no doubt that ideological differences[Read More…]

The recent elections in Gujarat no doubt brought back BJP into power once again. But however, their influence has certainly declined. Going beyond the electoral results, a major development is the emergence of alternative voices which questioned a fake and make believe model called ‘Gujarat Model’. These alternative voices broke the dominant narrative which tried to project Gujarat as a[Read More…]

A claim often made by the Government is that India is emerging as a strong nation. Military alliance with powerful nations is shown as a sign of this growing strength. Growing alliance with United States, Israel and more vocal stand against Pakistan and China is cited as reason for the same. Defining strength is often dictated in the ‘militaristic’ sense,[Read More…]

India’s saffron wing finally seems to be losing the war in Social Media. The foothold it had achieved in social media appears to be ending. Social Media had played an important role in widening its support base among sections of the middle class and youth. It had built up a cadre of supporters ideologically in line with the saffron forces.[Read More…]

The DNA of New India is being redesigned. Genetic Engineering for a new India is being undertaken. This new India legitimises the usage of mob violence by Lynchers. The new India creates an environment where lynchers are assured that they have unprecedented freedom to undertake their actions. They will never be punished for their actions, even if they are criticised[Read More…]

The game of cricket is the most popular sport in India. It evokes a variety of emotions among the audiences – from extreme forms of happiness, excitement to disappointment. Based on audience connect with the teams, these extreme forms of expressions are at display. From an era where international cricket (between nations) was the most popular, a shift has occurred[Read More…]

For the proponents of Hindu Rashtra, the University and Academic spaces acquire importance for the propagation of the concept of Hindu Rashtra. Rather than treating them as spaces to foster critical thinking, they are seen as spaces to manufacture and condition a ‘Hindu mind’ in its Communal Avataar.  These spaces are seen merely as extensions of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS)[Read More…]

Following the talk of Áche Din’, India of the past two and half years saw a series of events. It saw the eagerness of the state to push the Hindutva agenda. Efforts in the direction of picking and punishing those opposed to the agenda were undertaken. Similarly those wedded to RSS ideology saw a garlanding. In the process several sections[Read More…]

Gorge Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty Four depicts a situation of extreme state power in which the super state is controlled by a privileged few of the Inner Party. It is overseen by Big Brother who enjoys intense cult of personality. In this state there is omnipresent government surveillance. The government persecutes those with independent thinking which is considered as thought[Read More…]