2024

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, January 27, 2024
Select thousands saw in person the pomp and grand spectacle of the inauguration of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya on 22nd January by our showman Prime Minister doubling up as a Hindu Priest. A brazen breach of secular norms just days before India’s 75th Republic Day. Live broadcast of this event marking the making of a veritable ’national temple’ being showered with flowers by taxpayer-paid helicopters, was shown in cinema halls, government (…)

A brand new state, independent "India", emerged — out of and covering a major chunk of the erstwhile British India — shedding the shackles of a century-old direct foreign imperial rule as the successful culmination of around three decades-long mass participatory epic freedom movement on August 15 1947.
On January 26 1950, it, in due course, became a "sovereign republic" and adopted a (dynamic) Constitution meant to embody the democratic, egalitarian and humanistic values espoused and (…)

25 January 2024
Communally surcharged atmosphere has only worsened. Shots and visuals of Hindutva mobs attacking Muslim property, chanting provocative slogans right in front of mosques, and raising saffron flags atop mosques and churches. To compound this frightful situation stand out the blatantly communal comments of the Right-Wing politicians. And seemingly no action against any of them. After all, they are part of the ruling brigade, out to instil fear in the minority community.
The (…)

Politics has been ubiquitous in India. Indians have a love and hate relation with it. From a teenager to a centenarian every one prefers to analyse and put forward his own perception on the political discourse. They claim to hate the politics of hate and deceit. But unfortunately the more the contour of politics is debated and discussed in public domain it is getting more and more murkier. Probably a common Indian must not have witnessed the murkiest face of politics in past as is seen (…)

India is in the midst of a massive political controversy (among many others). This was triggered by a speech made by the Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin at a Conference of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers, held at Chennai in September 2023 when he had remarked that Sanatana Dharma is against social justice and (hence) should be eradicated. This statement was enough to trigger panic buttons within a lot of circles: political, religious and many others. What followed was a list of (…)

Make no mistake, India is no more a Secular, Socialist, Democratic Republic. It is pronouncedly anti-secular (the word itself is an anathema to PM Modi and his party the BJP), so is the mention of socialism which raises the saffron brigade’s hackles the moment you mention it. And Democratic? A leader who in his 21 years of being in the government has not once taken a direct question either in the legislature or in a press conference, can by no stretch of imagination claim to be democratic? (…)

With the consecration of the Lord Ram Lalla in the Ayodhya temple, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the RSS have realised one of their long-held belief and the BJP has fulfilled it’s election pledge. Prime Minister Modi has also kept his promise reportedly made years ago that he will return to Ayodhya only when the Ram temple comes up there. He even apologised to Lord Ram for the inordinate delay in bringing him back to his original place. Now that the hysteria surrounding the inauguration of (…)

On January 22, 2024 India witnessed a unique political event. Thousands of people participated in the consecration ceremony of Ram temple at Ayodhya, physically and digitally. The uniqueness of the event lies in the fact that this modern way of celebrating Ram, the epic hero, was a fully state-sponsored public spectacle. The consecration ceremony carried different meanings in the public sphere. On the eve of the ceremony. the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, called for an end to ‘bitterness’, (…)

25 January 2024
Hindu-majority Nepal’s secular Constitution respects all religions equally - as does India’s. On the day of the theatrical Ram consecration in Ayodhya, many Nepalis, like Indians, watched or participated in the religious ceremony. But many also protested against what it implies. Days before India’s Republic Day on 26 January, the theatrical consecration of the idol of a Hindu deity demonstrating the ‘reclaiming’ of the land at Ayodhya to build the Ram Mandir has further (…)

’Desh Kagaz Par Bana Naksha Nahin Hota’ (1948) by Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena
(Translation from Hindi by Ayesha Kidwai)
If one room in your house is ablaze Can you just go sleep in another one? If in one room of your house, corpses rot and decay, Then can you just pray in another one? If yes, Then I have nothing to say to you. The nation is not a map drawn on a piece of paper so that even if an edge frays the remaining parts stay intact; and rivers, mountains, cities, villages hold fast to (…)