The uncaring state
What much of India barely acknowledges is that the Indian state has substantially transmuted into a hard, majoritarian Hindu state which is callous to, and sometimes even at war with, its minorities.
Terms of forgiveness
Amidst the clamour for retribution, we must listen carefully to the gentle voices that talk of forgiveness and compassion. These alone light the way to locate, deep within ourselves, our own capacities for goodness.
Returning to Hapur
This is what India has become: One more pitiless lynching. This time of two older men, a petty goat trader and a marginal farmer in a village in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, a two-hour drive from the national capital.
Pehlu Khan, one year later
A full year has passed since dairy farmer and cattle trader Pehlu Khan was lynched on a busy Rajasthan highway in April. As this year elapsed, his family and other Muslim dairy farmers have tumbled into bleak times.
At Ankit Saxena’s birthday prayer meet, a glimpse of India as it should be
Photographs of the young man adorned several large posters. They showed him with gelled spiked hair, colourful shirts, dark glasses, ear studs, teasing laughter and loads of attitude. This collage of his pictures was surrounded by the symbols of various religions.
With his multi-faith Iftar in Delhi, Ankit Saxena’s father sets an example for these fraught times
The Mahatma would have approved! On Sunday, a humid midsummer evening in a claustrophobically narrow lane in the West Delhi suburb of Raghubir Nagar, I often felt his presence among us.
A crime of hate, A journey of love
We began this New Year with a journey of the Karwan e Mohabbat into Bengal. Few parts of India are untouched by the swirling tides of hate, therefore we had resolved to take our Karwan to at least one state every month, visiting the homes of families hit by acts of hate violence.
Don’t look away from stories of oppression and exclusion around us
I have never known the disdain of my teachers who believe I am undeserving of a future because I was born to be without merit. To be beaten because I aspire to worship in a temple that people say will be defiled by my step or touch or veneration.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat may have called for a nationwide ban on cow slaughter only now, but the rot had set in much earlier
The powerful RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has called for a nationwide ban on cow slaughter, describing this as a ‘sacred duty’, and adding that in states where the RSS has dedicated swayamsewaks in power, strong laws are already in place.
BJP can’t ignore new zeal in Dalit resistance against caste violence
“Is there a problem if we are good-looking?” a young Dalit man, who was thrashed by Rajput men of his village for sporting a moustache, asks a reporter.