The Persistence of Aurangzeb -Reaping the perils of the secularisation project in history
THE PAST HAS violently collided with the present in Nagpur. A movie about a dour, puritanical, Mughal tyrant who usurped power 300 years ago on the back of a regicidal bloodbath was the trigger for communal clashes. Indeed, politicians on both sides of the aisle discovered that Aurangzeb’s bloodstained legacy—brought to life in the Bollywood […]
Read MoreThe Sangam Sutra – The Maha Kumbh has succeeded in evoking a sense of oneness
WE’RE TOLD THAT an astonishing 60 crore visited the Maha Kumbh to celebrate the benefaction of a once-in-144-years celestial alignment and the redemptive confluence (Sangam) of rivers. Even by the most modest of measures, it is safe to say that the record for spiritual migration anywhere on Earth has been shattered many times over at […]
Read MoreDunki Business – America could end up poorer for Trump’s populism
TRUMP’S MAGA BASE has been fattened on a diet of fetid prejudice. Sample this scrap: “They’re [illegal immigrants] poisoning the blood of our country.” Now, after having primed the MAGA base to receive their daily pound of flesh, President Donald Trump has moved quickly to slake their thirst. And he is going for the lowest […]
Read MoreCapital Crime – Who’s responsible for the dysfunctional Delhi?
DELHI IS A STATE without true statehood. Its chief minister has powers but no absolute authority. As we count down to the Delhi Assembly election scheduled for February 5, it is worth remembering these clichés. It could be convincingly argued that the very outcome of the election hangs on how voters comprehend them. The Delhi […]
Read MoreLittle I.N.D.I.A. – Has Congress become a liability for the Opposition alliance?
IN JUST FIVE SHORT months, the momentum in Indian politics has dramatically shifted. In the days after the BJP-led NDA’s underwhelming performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Lutyens’ illuminati was convinced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was no longer a vote winner. A platoon of Congress patricians even posited that Modi’s survival in […]
Read MoreThe Diversity Trap – What’s wrong with the AMU judgment?
IN THE TIME Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud wielded the gavel, he reminded us about the difference being different makes. Such was his commitment that one time he even presumed to re-write the coda of biology. Confusing sex with gender, he observed, “There is no absolute concept of a man or an absolute […]
Read MoreOriginal Sin – Isn’t it time to dismantle the laws that nationalised Hinduism?
A FOULED GUN CARTRIDGE, in its time, has been known to spark an insurrection, but a laddu? While the jury is still out on who greased the holy laddus offered at the Tirumala Tirupati temple, one shouldn’t underestimate their power to trigger sectarian anxiety. The Hindus who turned on the British in 1857 for handing […]
Read MoreYogi Adityanath: The Last Action Hero
Can Yogi Adityanath restore the grand Hindu social coalition? THE WORDS IN Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s vocabulary are a blunt instrument. Like the bulldozers he routinely sends out to supposedly level the playing field of justice, his unfiltered words bludgeon their way to the top of the national talking points trend list. […]
Read MoreAsylum Is the Answer
Protection of Bangladesh’s Hindus is NDA’s burden WHEN THE PIERCING glare of the world began to strip away the barely disguised veneer of bigotry, when Hindus, for once, spoke up as one, Muhammad Yunus, the interim head of the Bangladesh government, went into damage control mode. Acknowledging the rising tide of xenophobia directed against the […]
Read MoreTowards Pakistan 2.0?
t least Sheikh Hasina got to set the terms of her departure from office. The military got her to sign her own resignation, rustled up a chopper, and flew her out to India. A few saris and a brave face, we are told, was all she was allowed to carry with her. Her own father, Sheikh […]
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