2018

EDITORIAL
It was a remarkable march in many respects, as openly acknowledged in several newspapers. The Hindu described the farmers’ action, originally aimed at gheraoing the Maharashtra Assembly to sensitise the State Government to their problems, as “a model protest”. It editorially pointed out:
....many Mumbaikars not only backed the stir but also pitched in to help with food, water, medical aid, and even footwear. While Opposition parties as well as BJP ally Shiv Sena backed the (…)

There is a grain of truth in Kashmir leader Farooq Abdullah’s statement that Mohammad Ali Jinnah was not responsible for partition. But Farooq is wrong to blame Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel for it. I am witness to that era and this is how I understood the events. Jinnah was an “ambassador” of Hindu-Muslim unity, as Sarojini Naidu, a top Congress leader, put it. He was driven to partition.
It is clear that the differences between Hindus and Muslims had become so acute by the beginning (…)

MUSINGS
As encounters and encounter killings in Uttar Pradesh are ongoing—as many as 1142 encounters were recorded between March 2017 and January 2018, and 38 alleged criminals were killed—I have been wondering how many of the killed or wounded or hounded out could be innocents. And now ask these innocents (those still alive and in a position to speak the truth, without fear of the aftermath): who is a terrorist? Quite obviously their answer will be—the state!
It’s time we ask: who is a (…)

The drubbing that the Communist Party of India-Marxist just received in Tripura deepens the crisis the Indian Left has been facing. Is the Left’s demise in the country inevitable? Will the Tripura Assembly election results dampen the morale of Left-liberals who have been opposing Hindutva for the last four years? Will it aggravate the tension in the CPI-M over the issue of whether or not to align with the Congress in 2019?
Ajaz Ashraf spoke to Sumanta Banerjee, an avowed Leftist (…)

When the old man, Akhlaque, was done to death inside his house, allegedly for storing beef in his refrigerator by a murderous, vandalising, vigilante mob, the Supremos said nothing. Sundry satraps said a lot nobody who swears by the Constitution should say. They went unchecked. It was said occasionally that the law would take its course. In point of fact, not the law but the vandals and vigilantes took their course.
The same when the equally innocent Pehlu Khan was lynched and killed: the (…)

The following is the text of the author’s Sir Syed Memorial Lecture delivered on October 17, 2007. It was organised under the auspices of the Sir Syed Foundatin, New Delhi at the Jamia Millia Islamia. It is being published now as its relevance has not in the least diminished even after a gap of more
than ten years since it was delivered; rather it has grown in the present circumstances.
Sir Syed never lived to see the twentieth century. He saw most of the 19th. How should an Indian in (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
Fundamentalism has become a much-used term today—in politics and in the academia. And there are in vogue various types of the so-called fundamentalists—political, religious and cultural.
But before cataloguing these various tribes of fundamentalists, it is important to clarify what precisely is meant by fundamentalism. The Oxford English Dictionary says the term, funda-mental, pertains to “the basis or groundwork, going to the root of the matter”. But the word (…)

by Muzaffar Ahmad Ganaie and Sajad Hussain Wani
Introduction
The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), formerly known as the London Club, is a group of 48 countries formed in 1975 in response to India’s nuclear test of 1974 to control the export of nuclear material and technology that could be used for the development of nuclear weapons. The main objective of the group is to contribute to the goal of nuclear non-proliferation through export controls of nuclear and nuclear-related material, (…)

I did have a dream,
not the dream to walk on the ramp or on the red carpet,
or to be bracketed with Freida.
Never dreamt of becoming
princes of the fairyland,
and marrying the prince
or to have the world as my oyster.
I did have a dream,
a dream to wipe out a
tear from my Baba’s eye.
in the twilight years of his life,
who would now never
wait for me to return
to the middle class flat
in the periphery of Delhi’s
affluent urban suburb,
I did have a dream
to (…)

by L.K. Sharma
Violent political activists in India, used to attacking fellow humans, have now turned their attention to statues. Within a week they demolished or damaged the statues of Lenin, Ambedkar, the Dalit icon, and Periyar, the social reformer who fought against upper-caste hegemony.
In India statues of leaders command an immense political significance which now characterises even the idols of Hindu Gods. These come in all sizes and colours. Prime Minister Modi is seeking to (…)