Stanford University anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen discusses the rise of anger, brutality, and violence in Indian public life. Thomas Blom Hansen is a Stanford University anthropologist and author of The Law of Force: The Violent Heart of Indian Politics. (Thomas Blom Hansen) Not many academics have studied Hindu nationalism with the intensity of Stanford University anthropologist Thomas … Continue reading The Modi Government Is a Regime of Low-Intensity Terror
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Tracking the links between Liberalisation and cultural nationalism in India
Professor Ravinder Kaur, Associate Professor of Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark In Professor Ravinder Kaur’s latest book, she peels off layers and layers of contemporary Indian history to prove, on her own terms, that the ‘manifestation of Hindu cultural nationalism and market liberalisation’ owe their dominance to each other. Her narrative is akin to the solving … Continue reading Tracking the links between Liberalisation and cultural nationalism in India
China Critic and Historian Olsi Jazexhi Says He is Worried About Anti-Muslim Campaigns in India
Olsi Jazexhi is an Albanian-Canadian historian and journalist who shot to fame following his controversial visit to China’s Xinjiang province last year as a guest of the Chinese government. While on a guided tour of the region, he uploaded videos from what China describes as vocational centres for Muslim minority Uighurs and claimed that they were more … Continue reading China Critic and Historian Olsi Jazexhi Says He is Worried About Anti-Muslim Campaigns in India
‘We Will See Redoubled Efforts at Infiltration, Recruitment and Weaponisation of Militants’
An alumnus of the University of Cambridge, Dr Radha Kumar’s specialisations include ethnic conflicts, peace studies and conflict resolution. She had served as an interlocutor appointed by the Government for Jammu and Kashmir from 2010 to 2011, and has worked in various parts of the world to bring peace to troubled areas. The 66-year-old author, feminist and academic has … Continue reading ‘We Will See Redoubled Efforts at Infiltration, Recruitment and Weaponisation of Militants’
Inside the Mind of the Indian Muslim Voter
KHALEED RASHEED FARANGI MAHLI, one of Lucknow’s prominent clerics, has a message for the people of his community this election: go out and vote in large numbers. Self-confessedly averse to interfering in politics, Farangi Mahli, a religious scholar of Farangi Mahal, an area near Chowk in Uttar Pradesh’s capital city that had in the past … Continue reading Inside the Mind of the Indian Muslim Voter
Will its Hindu revivalist past haunt West Bengal’s future?
DAILY-WAGE LABOURER Kinker Chandra Das from Kaikala village of Hooghly district in West Bengal is tight-lipped about his political affinities. The middle-aged man treats the question of whom he would vote for in the 2019 election as though it is a brutal assault on his privacy. He raises his eyebrows in disbelief. He isn’t ready … Continue reading Will its Hindu revivalist past haunt West Bengal’s future?
BJP Hopes Reservations to Economically Weaker Sections Will Help Retain Its Core Vote Base
SENIOR DELHI-BASED LAWYER Indra Sawhney is amused that her name has become part of India’s legal lore and that a case she fought decades ago keeps coming up whenever there is any talk of affirmative action. “So long as there is a reservation system in the country, I am sure my name will keep surfacing,” … Continue reading BJP Hopes Reservations to Economically Weaker Sections Will Help Retain Its Core Vote Base
There’s More to Moditva
PUNDITS HAVE BEGUN in right earnest to hang a phrase on the BJP’s stunning victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, gains in Manipur, and sharp tactics to retain power in Goa: an ‘Indira Gandhi moment’. While the BJP may resent comparisons with the late Congress leader, an astute politician who campaigned tirelessly and held sway … Continue reading There’s More to Moditva
The War Modi Cannot Afford to Lose
ON THE MORNING OF February 27th, the gruff police officer who stopped our SUV some 10 km from Mau where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to address a huge rally, his 16th in the ongoing seven-phased elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, told me curtly that there was a threat on the BJP heavyweight’s life … Continue reading The War Modi Cannot Afford to Lose
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