2016

Editorial
As we approach yet another Independence Day, it has a special significance for all of us. For, next Monday we shall observe our seventieth Independence Day.
Ever since the BJP, headed by PM Narendra Modi and party President Amit Shah, came to power at the Centre with absolute majority in the Lok Sabha two years ago, that is, in May 2014, there have been concerted attempts to attack minorities turning them into ‘outsiders’. First came the spate of communal riots in UP, most (…)

Here is how the holy cow seems to have hooved the Sangh Parivar for now: following the Prime Minister’s chest-thumpingly politic outburst against those that use the cow to beat the Dalit (Uttar Pradesh which goes to the hustings soon has 24 per cent Dalits), the Hindu Mahasabha has come out with scathing condlemnation of the numero uno, calling him anti-Hindu, and suggesting he resign office since he was supposed to be a Hindu Samrat. The VHP has said they always protected cows, and they (…)

by M.Hamid Ansari
The following is the text of Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari’s Valedictary Address at the Centenary Celebrations of Mysuru University (July 22, 2016).
One hundred years is an important milestone in the life of any institution. For a university, which ignites the light of knowledge in the minds of women and men, it is especially so. For the past hundred years, your university has been contributing to the making of India’s knowledge society. Thousands of students and (…)

Religion has emerged as a major source of conflict all across the globe. A perceptive writer points out that ideological strife has now given place to the “clash of civilisations” and predicts that in the foreseeable future, religion will be a major source of conflict within and among nations. Samuel Huntington asserts that possibi-lities of conflict are greater in what he calls the “fault-lines of civilisation”, those areas such as India where different cultures and religions do meet. (…)

Yet another Dalit family was hacked to death because it was suspected to have eaten beef. The laboratory tests of the “beef” showed that it was some other cattle. Some time ago, the Kerala House in Delhi was attacked by gau rakshaks because beef was served there. But the most shameful aspect is that there was no repentance among the upper castes and even the leaders of the RSS, who are supposed to work for social upliftment, did not utter a word of either condemnation or sorrow.
All (…)

The Kashmir situation is getting from bad to worse. The State has been on the boil since July 8, the day the Indian security forces took credit for exterminating a dreaded terrorist—the 22-year-old Burhan Muzaffar Wani, a commander of the separatist Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. The ‘encounter death’ (a phrase which has become all too familiar over the years and decades with all its sinister implications—from the North-East to Maoist-dominated areas to Jammu and Kashmir) of Wani, son of a headmaster (…)

MUSINGS
I do realise that for the last four weeks I have been focusing on the Kashmir Valley—a region I have been covering and reporting from for over twentyfive years, a region and its people I bond with.
It gets emotionally traumatic for me to see the Kashmiris going through the toughest possible phase. Unabated violence and havoc. Uncertainty-riddled conditions affecting each segment. Stress looms large and the scale of violence hits; trapped sit the inhabitants in a war-like zone. (…)

INTERVIEW
The following is the interview of Shujaat Bukhari, Editor-in-Chief of Rising Kashmir, Buland Kashmir (Urdu daily) and Sangarmal (Kashmiri daily) based in Srinagar, on the current situation in the Valley and the difficulties and hardships faced by the media in its functioning there. He replied to a set of questions (including one on what should be done now to improve the situation) from Mainstream.
1. You are one of the leading professional journalists in Kashmir who had been (…)

Bulbuls are numb
And wonder where humans have fled
Pigeons haunt the shrines
To search the hands that fed them
Dogs with long faces
Loll about on empty streets
The gardens too are distraught
And flowers reluctant to bloom
A pallor hangs on every branch
The gentle breeze draws back
Loathe to disturb the stillness
The eerie stillness
Of this graveyard.
—Nusrat Bazaz

MEDIA
by Mohd. Afsar
Since the past few years, a section of the national media is misrepresenting the image of Kashmir in India either by exaggerating the events or by spinning the facts. It seems to be a part of some political strategy or pressure. So there is nothing surprising to see the kind of information which is being provided by the national media on the ongoing Kashmir events after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani by the security forces. The (…)