CAB and NRC: Why Both are Terrible Ideas
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CAB and NRC: Why Both are Terrible Ideas

Ujjwal K. Chowdhury   The Citizenship Amendment Bill has passed in the Lok Sabha, after a marathon discussion on 9 December. This proposal was a part of the manifesto of BJP in the last 2019 general elections.   What does it basically entail?   The Bill provides for persecuted minorities professing to be Hindu, Christian,…

Ayodhya Letter
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Ayodhya Letter

Constitutional Conduct Group   On 6 December 2019, 46 former civil servants, most having held positions of great prominence during their careers, wrote an open letter addressed to the people of India expressing deep concern on where the nation stands today, 27 years since the Babri Masjid was demolished by Hindu activists on December 6,…

Ayodhya’s Forgotten Mahant and His Message of Peace
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Ayodhya’s Forgotten Mahant and His Message of Peace

Valay Singh   As the 26th death anniversary of Baba Lal Das approaches, his memory stands virtually erased from Ayodhya. On November 16, 1993, Lal Das, a strident opponent of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, was shot dead in the middle of the night in Ranipur Chattar village, just 20 km from…

Protests Against Firoz Khan: Undoing India’s Glorious Tradition
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Protests Against Firoz Khan: Undoing India’s Glorious Tradition

Minakshi Rajdev   Who is Firoz Khan? What is his identity in Indian society? How did he develop an interest in learning the Sanskrit language? Is it because of something beyond the narrow peripheries of religion but a reason which is deeply rooted in the culture of India?   Firoz Khan, the newly appointed assistant…

The Ayodhya Verdict is Based on a Strange Feat of Logic
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The Ayodhya Verdict is Based on a Strange Feat of Logic

Markandey Katju   The recent Ayodhya verdict of the Supreme Court will go down in the annals of Indian legal history in the same category as its 1975 decision in ADM Jabalpur vs Shivakant Shukla—except that unlike the latter, in this one there is not a single courageous dissent   In substance, the court has…

The Ayodhya Judgment in India’s Enveloping Darkness
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The Ayodhya Judgment in India’s Enveloping Darkness

Harsh Mander   Something has shifted, something has changed, something has broken in India, after the momentous ruling on the disputed land in Ayodhya.   The learned judges of the Supreme Court of India could not have been unmindful during their marathon hearings in the case that this was not simply a title dispute over…

Phool Walon Ki Sair: A Festival of Communal Harmony among Hindus and Muslims
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Phool Walon Ki Sair: A Festival of Communal Harmony among Hindus and Muslims

Abhishek Kumar & Harshvardhan    Phool walon ki sair (Procession of the Florists) is one of the oldest public festivals held annually in Delhi. The origin of this festival goes back to the early decades of the 19th century during the rule of the penultimate Mughal Emperor, Akbar Shah II (1806-1837). The festival is held…

Gandhi-Nehru Tradition and Indian Secularism
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Gandhi-Nehru Tradition and Indian Secularism

P.C. Joshi   Among the developing countries, India is distinguished by its proclaimed commitment to secularism as the guiding principle of state policy and action. The conception of Indian secularism is not just an intellectual abstraction; it is not a product only of logical constructions and academic debates. It acquired flesh and blood, a moral…

Has Supreme Court Caved in to Hindutva?
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Has Supreme Court Caved in to Hindutva?

Ajaz Ashraf   The Supreme Court’s majority decision to club the issue of women’s entry into the Sabarimala temple with pending matters of similar nature and refer all these to a larger, seven-member bench for consideration echoes, even though subliminally, the Hindu Right’s arguments and cribs against religious reforms.     These pending matters include whether…