ONE OF THE ‘Timbuktu Manuscripts’ on display at Ajanta Hall, National Museum, is an 18th-century volume on sexology which promises to be an elaborate treatise on physical intimacy between man and woman, perhaps an African Kamasutra. The statement beneath announces that its author Ghidado bin Ahmad discusses in these pages ‘life and relationship between men and women … Continue reading Manuscripts That Survived Al-Qaeda Reveal the Medieval Glory of Timbuktu
A sleepy coastal district in the scenic south Indian state of Kerala, Kannur has metamorphosed into a hotbed of political violence in the past few decades. Even as India heaves into the age of technology and economic growth, the town has been making it to the national news for brutal murders with sickening regularity. What … Continue reading Kannur: Inside India’s Bloodiest Revenge Politics (Penguin Viking)
IN THE SCORCHING afternoon of May 7th, speakers at what students of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) now call the ‘protest site’ close to Baab-e-Syed, the imposing gateway to its 450-acre campus, hold a crowd rapt with couplets, snappy one-liners and fiery protest speeches. The punishing sun does nothing to deter the eloquence and humour of … Continue reading Assertions of Religious Identity Versus Sectarian Politics in Aligarh Muslim University
SPEAKING TO DELEGATES in Hyderabad on the fourth day of the six-day 22nd Party Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), its triennial summit, General Secretary Sitaram Yechury poked fun at what he called the ‘bourgeois media’ for their distorted portrayal of communists. He specifically named the Malayala Manorama, a Kerala daily, for carrying allegedly … Continue reading A Report From the 22nd Party Congress of CPM
Outside AKG Bhavan, the CPM’s headquarters in Delhi’s Gole Market area, barricades are in place with armed policemen on duty. India’s biggest Communist party in mainstream politics has been at the receiving end of violent protests in the past few years by rival political parties, especially Hindu nationalists, some of whom had barged in, fulminated … Continue reading Can the Indian Left Reinvent Itself?
A SENIOR OFFICER OF the Enforcement Directorate (ED) who was part of its raid on the posh 115-A Jor Bagh residence of Palaniappan Chidambaram in Delhi was about to leave empty-handed when he spotted a few documents that the former Finance Minister said were his parliamentary papers. The officer was on the verge of giving … Continue reading Karti Chidambaram: The Sins of the Son
OVER THE PAST many decades, Thiruvananthapuram has earned a name for playing the perfect host to film festivals that invariably attract crowds from across the state, from as far as Kerala’s northernmost district, and even from metros across the world. South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk is a household name in this part of the country. … Continue reading A Lit Fest on Palace Grounds Gives Thiruvananthapuram a New Cultural Elan
INSIDE UTTAR PRADESH’S Jaunpur town, not far from its landmark 16th century Shahi Bridge on the river Gomti, RK Maurya runs a teashop that sells hot samosas and excessively sweetened tea. He does brisk business, assisted by two young adults, and saves enough money to send his son to an English-medium school with the hope that the … Continue reading How Modi Tapped the Wrath of ‘Lower’ OBCs for Political Mileage
ON MAY 30TH, 2002, Ramchandra Chhatrapati published an article in his Sirsa-based Hindi daily Poora Sach, a front-page story headlined ‘Dharm ke naam par kiye jaa rahe hain saadhviyon ke jeevan barbaad’ (In the name of religion, the lives of women ascetics are being ruined). It was an exposé on the rape of two female members … Continue reading The Cult and Crime of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Insaan
In the afternoon of August 23rd, Shayara Bano, 36, is back at her father’s quarters in Remount Training School & Depot, a defence training centre in Hempur Daya, Uttarakhand, resting after an overnight trip from Delhi. Within a few days she will resume travelling daily to Moradabad’s Teerthanker Mahaveer University, almost two hours one-way by … Continue reading The Impact of the Supreme Court’s Triple Talaq Verdict on Indian Politics and Muslim Society
