When Girish Karnad Joined the Fight to Preserve Bababudangiri
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When Girish Karnad Joined the Fight to Preserve Bababudangiri

When the saffron brigade had laid siege to the Bababudangiri Dargah in Karnataka, calling it the ‘Ayodhya of the South’, journalist Gauri Lankesh mobilised writers and intellectuals to rally against the Hindutva surge in the historical site. In this piece published on December 3, 2003 in Lankesh Patrike, Gauri had recalled how Girish Karnad had…

AIFRTE Condemns Threats to the Life and Liberty of Dr. Ram Puniyani

AIFRTE Condemns Threats to the Life and Liberty of Dr. Ram Puniyani

Press Statement by Presidium, AIFRTE All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE) unequivocally condemns the dastardly threats to the life and liberty of noted academic and former Professor of IIT Mumbai, and a leading figure in the movement for defence of civil liberties, Dr. Ram Puniyani. The articles, lectures and books of Dr. Puniyani,…

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A False Step

Pranab  Mukherjee has accepted the invitation to visit the RSS headquarters at Nagpur to address the cadre. To quote RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, “Mukherjee was graceful enough to accept the invitation.” Mukherjee accepting the invite is a surprise because the place never put up the picture of Mahatma Gandhi because he represented an ideology of…

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Secularism and the State: Categorising the Nehru Model

Anil Nauriya The “Nehru Models”: The Historical Nehru Model and the Posthumous Nehru Model In most circles where opinion making on behalf of minorities takes place, one of the reasons for appreciation of Jawaharlal Nehru’s approach towards the minorities generally is his statement that majority communalism, that is, sectarianism, is more dangerous than minority communalism….

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The Enigma Called Gandhi

Politics in independent India has shown a tremendous obsession with Gandhi.  Khadi, worn by most politicians, protests through Satyagraha, hunger strikes, voluntarily courting arrest, civil disobedience, all carry the indelible stamp of the politics practised by Gandhi during the course of the national movement. Most rituals and symbols of Indian politics today emanate from Gandhi….

Archbishop’s Letter: Storm in a Tea Cup
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Archbishop’s Letter: Storm in a Tea Cup

The gross over reaction of the Sangh Parivar to the letter of Archbishop of Delhi, Anil Couto, dated 8 May 2018 and addressed to all parish priests and religious institutions in the Archdiocese of Delhi asking them to pray for ‘our nation’ seems to be well calculated. The letter begins with the observation: “We are…

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Guilty Men of Two-Nation Theory: A Hindutva Project Borrowed by Jinnah in India 

No other fascist organisation, in the present world, can beat Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in demagogy, double-speak and unabashed use of conspiracies. A leading Indian English daily, in the aftermath of 2002 genocide of Muslims in Gujarat, candidly wrote that in case of the RSS, what George Orwell termed as “doublespeak” would be an understatement….

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Guilty Men of Two-Nation Theory:  A Hindutva Project Borrowed by Jinnah in India 

No other fascist organisation, in the present world, can beat Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in demagogy, double-speak and unabashed use of conspiracies. A leading Indian English daily, in the aftermath of 2002 genocide of Muslims in Gujarat, candidly wrote that in case of the RSS, what George Orwell termed as “doublespeak” would be an understatement….