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Marginalization of Muslims has steadily increased since 1947. The more prosperous a state become the more widespread becomes this marginalization, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka…. How it affects different levels of social institutions?
It has happened. I guess it had to. Perhaps, it happened (…)
Much has been said about the Ayodhya verdict especially on the legal technicalities and historical loopholes. This comment is not on these aspects but on the socio-political implications of the verdict.
To recapitulate, Allahabad High Court on September 30, 2010, has given judgment on the six (…)
Sixty years after the shadowy appearance of idols of Ram under the central dome of Babri Masjid, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court delivered its verdict on September 30, 2010. My first reaction after the pronouncement of the judgment was a sense of pride because of the maturity and (…)
On the eve of the Allahabad High Court verdict on Ayodhya, we had said the verdict would be a “test case for India’s secularism, democracy and justice.” Now, following a close look at the shocking verdict, we must say it has failed this test in every possible way. 30 September, 2010 will now be (…)
This essay was written within a day of the Ayodhya judgement, and we realise that we should be presenting a more elaborate essay. However, due to problems with our website we were unable to do anything for some time. We therefore present this essay as the one promised at the time the judgement (…)
At a point of time there was a slogan by RSS combine, Pehle Kasai Phir Isai (First the Muslims then the Christians). And lo and behold that was the pattern of communal violence. First it began against Muslims and in the decade of 1990s Christians were also put on the chopping block. It must be a (…)
Text of a talk given at the University of Pittsburgh in April 2009.
Communalism is the term used in India, and more generally throughout South Asia, to denote the politics of religious sectarianism. Communal politics in India and Pakistan are premised on one fundamental assumption: that India (…)
Paper presented at the workshop on “Empowering Harmony at the Individual and Community level” organised by Sakti, Banglore at ISI from 17-21 March, 2009.
Introduction
India is witnessing social turmoil and conflict based on religion, caste, language and ethnic differences as never before. (…)
After the initial cautious distancing, the Sangh Parivar and BJP have now shifted their stance to open embrace of the Malegaon blast accused. A recent conclave of the Sangh Parivar in Panipat, BJP President Rajnath Singh declared that politics and religion were inseparable ; that his party would (…)
The scale and level of students’ anger and outburst against attack on North Indians in Mumbai and Maharashtra was historic on the day of Bihar Bandh called by All India Students’ Association. The whole State machinery was out to stop the agitating students from expressing their anger and shock (…)
After a lapse of more than three years the National Integration Council met last week against a backdrop of raging communal violence in several parts of the country punctuated by periodic bomb-blasts in major cities. The response of the state to such a situation conforms to a by now familiar, (…)
HOW SECULAR IS INDIA TODAY?
There is always a big gap between theory and practice, theology and history. Indian constitution, no doubt, is one of the best in the world. It is truly secular in spirit so much so it was secular even when word secular was not added to it until 1975 i.e. during (…)
The violence against the people of Christian faith in Orissa, that started on 24th August, is still continuing and till the time of reporting no political party or people are being allowed by the Navin Patnaik Govt. to visit the areas gripped by saffron terror and violence. The Orissa CM Navin (…)
IN 2002, a pregnant Bilkis Bano saw thirteen of her relatives murdered, her baby daughter killed, while she was gang raped by a communal mob in the Gujarat riots, a state-sponsored pogrom against the Muslim community. Six years later, a special CBI court in Mumbai has sentenced eleven of the (…)
(New York, December 7, 2007) The Indian government should immediately order an investigation of Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, for statements apparently endorsing the extrajudicial execution of a terrorism suspect by the police, Human Rights Watch said today.
Gujarat’s (…)
See also, in the section “The Left”: A Forgotten History — From Rashid Jahan to Taslima Nasreen, the CPI (M)
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West Bengal’s Left Front government, already reeling under the ignominy of Nandigram, has earned yet more embarrassment by throwing Bangladeshi writer (…)
We all know how caste panchayats try to stop inter-caste marriages in the interiors of North-Western India. They hold kangaroo courts and deliver instant and exemplary ‘justice’ hoping such brutal acts would deter all potential ‘deviants’ to try and cross caste boundaries. We also know how (…)
The UPA’s capitulation to the Sangh Parivar on Ram Sethu violates its obligation to defend secularism and hands a victory to majoritarian politics.
CONTRARY to what much of the corporate media claim, it is not the Left, with its 59 members in the Lok Sabha, which wields an effective veto over (…)
LOVE AND BE DAMNED
by Ram Puniyani
* Issues in Secular Politics, October II 2007.
When Rizanwanur Rahman, a graphic designer, was found dead on the railway tracks of Kolkata, the police chief without ’wasting’ any time, instantly proclaimed that it is a case of suicide. He had no (…)
India’s United Progressive Alliance came to power in 2004 on a secular platform. But it has now beaten an ignominious retreat on the Ram Setu (Adam’s Bridge) issue pertaining to the proposed Sethusamudram ship-canal project in the Palk Straits by caving in to the Sangh Parivar.
Having (…)
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