The Earth Speaks at Joshimath
A poem.
Vivekananda on Religion
Vivekananda was not a traditional Hindu monk but a modern ascetic with a scientific and materialist outlook. Unlike other saints, he did not offer prayers to the Almighty for his own salvation but sought salvation of the poor and the marginalised.
Joshimath – a Disaster Waiting to Happen: 2 Articles
Experts point out that this was a disaster waiting to happen because the authorities ignored multiple warnings over decades about the way roads and hydropower projects were being built.
Why the Bharat Jodo Yatra Could Be the Harbinger of a Resurrection; Also: ‘Puja vs Tapasya’
The ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ seeks to bring home to us the loss we are experiencing, and recalls us to a moral and systemic commitment that our leaderships prior to the era in hand had forged and nursed. Also: ‘Puja Versus Tapasya’: Why Rahul Gandhi’s Formulation Has Meaning.
A Battle Against Forgetting: Recording the Sordid Saga of Kashmir Since August 2019
Anuradha Bhasin’s new book, ‘A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir After Article 370’, goes deep into the saga of a people betrayed and promises broken.
One Year of Karnataka’s War on Muslim Women’s Right to Learn
Young Muslim women in Karnataka recount how a court order legitimised Hindutva prejudice and locked them out of an education.
2022 was the Year World Turned Against Strongman Politics. Bharat Jodo Is India’s Chance
From Brazil to the US to UK, this was the year mass democracies shifted the playbook of politics. India could be next in line to do that.
For Many Indian Women, Lack of Toilet Access Poses Health Risks
For low-income residents across India, and particularly women, bathroom use is dictated by poor toilet infrastructure.
In Gujarat: ‘Everyone Drinks, Only the Poor Die’
Hooch-related deaths in the state, more recently in Botad district, underscore the ineffective prohibition policy and lack of preparedness for public health emergencies like toxic alcohol poisoning.
Thomas Friedman and the Myth of Liberal Israel
Israel is putting together an aggressively racist rightwing government under the leadership of the unprincipled Benjamin Netanyahu. It is a logical outcome of a national point of view—represented by Israel’s Zionist state ideology—which has always been fundamentally racist.