All posts by Nivedita Menon

Ecology/Environment, Violence/Conflict

Lions, Liars and Masters of the Universe: Shrinivas Dharmadhikari

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Guest Post by SHRINIVAS DHARMADHIKARI

Last month’s killing of Cecil, the 13-year-old, rare black-maned lion by American dentist Walter Palmer, was met with global outrage and condemnation. However, this foolish bravado cannot just be treated as another sign of American (or white) exceptionalism (read sickness)  because behind this is a much larger and thriving Trophy Industry.

A few facts will make the size and destructive power of this industry clear. Americans traveling to Africa make up more than 60 per cent of the foreign-participated lion trophy hunts carried out each year. This is according to John Jackson, president of the lobbying group Conservation Force. According to another scientist, Eric Jensen, a University of Warwick professor  who studies public engagement in wildlife issues, the Trophy industry caters to the human need for dominance and control of nature and provides in addition a sense of masculinity having hunted a large animal. Continue reading Lions, Liars and Masters of the Universe: Shrinivas Dharmadhikari →

Capitalism, Countryside, Movements, Politics

Saving ‘Development’ From Dangerous Women Activists: Kamal Nayan Choubey

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Guest Post by  KAMAL NAYAN CHOUBEY

The inclination of the Indian State to suppress any movement related to the just demands of marginalized sections has increased immensely in recent times. There is no question of dialogue. Coercive methods are generally employed to contain these movements. This is what has happened with the movement of tribal people are struggling against the Kanhar Dam in the Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. In this movement, women activists play a crucial role, and in order to contain it, the UP Police arrested two key women activists Roma and Sukalo, and six other women activists from the Robertsganj office of All India Union for Forest Working People (AIUFWP) on 30th June 2015.

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Roma is the General Secretary of the AIUFWP.

The UP police has registered cases of inciting rioting against the women activists and it has also reopened old cases against them, particularly against Roma. Apart from them, another tribal woman activist Rajkumari was arrested on 21st April.

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Sukalo

Continue reading Saving ‘Development’ From Dangerous Women Activists: Kamal Nayan Choubey →

Violence/Conflict

The Anthem of ‘Black Lives Matter’

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MEERA NANDA has sent us this moving and militant anthem of the Black Lives Matter campaign.

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R&B singer Janelle Monáe released a blistering 6 1/2-minute protest song on Friday called “Hell You Talmbout.” [African-American slang for “what the hell are you talking about.”] The song’s premise is simple, and that simplicity is the source of its power. The lyrics are the chanted names of black Americans killed by police and vigilantes, followed by the phrase “say his name” or “say her name.” The chorus is an anthemic, gospel-leaning repetition of the song’s title. Monáe is joined on the track by a drum line and the members of her Wondaland Arts Society collective: Jidenna, Roman GianArthur, Deep Cotton, St. Beauty and George 2.0. All of the vocals are raw, several to the point of breaking. None of the names are sung.

At the moment, Hell You Talmabout is available as a stream only. Here is the link.

And here are the lyrics. Note that some of the names are hyperlinked to tell you about the person being named.

Continue reading The Anthem of ‘Black Lives Matter’ →

Culture, Mirror Worlds

A Different kind of India-Pakistan Dialogue

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As NSA talks between India and Pakistan were suspended, another kind of cross border conversation was taking place.

The vocalist of Indian Ocean band, Rahul Ram along with Varun Grover and stand up comedian Sanjay Rajoura produced a song to the tune of Kishore Kumar’s ‘Mere Samnewali Khidki mein’ (from Padosan). Their song ‘Mere Samnewali Sarhad Pe’ is a delightful and gentle parody of the mirror image pathologies in both our countries.
In response,  Muhammad Hassan Miraj, who identifies himself as a Major in the Pakistan Army, wrote an equally disarming reply,  sung by Mujtaba Ali, with Ali and Kamran on guitar while Gul Durrani directed the video.
Here’s to cross border solidarities!
Education, Right watch

In Solidarity with the Students of the Film &Television Institute of India (FTII)

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We, the undersigned teachers, scholars and researchers within and outside the university system in India, are disturbed by the repeated and systematic attempts to undermine the academic autonomy of universities and other institutions of teaching and learning, such as the FTII (Pune), by the government. There is a concerted effort to monopolise academic spaces by replacing substantive academic autonomy with policies aimed at destroying academic excellence, diversity, creativity and an atmosphere in which students and teachers can think critically and function freely.

Further, we strongly protest the organised attacks against students and other individuals, in universities and elsewhere, for critiquing the state, be it through film screenings, books, talks or exhibitions. The growing number of censorships and bans is encouraging a widespread culture of intolerance and anti-intellectualism that is openly threatening the freedom of academic expression, democractic and participatory governance, and fundamental rights. Continue reading In Solidarity with the Students of the Film &Television Institute of India (FTII) →

Politics

Two Or Three Things I Know About My Country: Pradeep Jeganathan

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As the people of Sri Lanka complete the voting process for the Parliamentary elections of 2015, PRADEEP JEGANATHAN  reflects on his country’s history and politics.

We’ve never really had a father. We like to think we did, of course, be it D.S. Senanayake, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike or S.J.V. Chelvanayagam. But they never had a vision for Lanka that made sense, in the end. Unlike a Mahathir, Nehru or a Mandela, their vision was partisan, and the results plain to see. Senanayake’s great contribution was to disenfranchise the up country Tamils, and ignore the vernacular language question. Bandaranaike and Chelvanayagam were his children, fighting for the house that he never finished building.

We’ve gone along since, fatherless children that we are. So many have been killed, and so many have killed. Maimed. Seen the essence of inhumanity, lived with it, so it has become ordinary. Many of us like to think Rajapakse is our father, since it is said he rescued us from all this, took us over the mountains to the valley of peace. Certainly, he’s proclaimed himself father and king, and his sons princes. And he’s had his moments.

Read the rest of this piece in Colombo Telegraph.

The penultimate paragraph refers to a song by Nanda Malini:

We’ve always had our mother. She is Lanka. That is the third thing I know about my country, and when I say, our mother is Lanka, or Ilankai or Eelam (for that too is a name for Lanka), I do not mean it in the sense of an inanimate goddess that is to be adored, appropriated and used as a cover for racism, violence and inequality. No, I mean it in the sense of Lanka’s lament, in the great songstress’ lyric, “Deddahas Pansiya Vasarak. (For 2,500 years).” In this beautiful song, Nanda Malini sings Lanka’s lament, her almost helpless sadness and deep grief, at the robbers and killers she has given birth to, who have then become big men and women, clinging to power by selling her name.

Here is the song:

Pradeep Jeganathan is currently Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shiv Nadar University.

Capitalism, Debates

What did Colonialism do to India? Ram Puniyani

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Guest post by RAM PUNIYANI

A video of Shashi Tharoor speaking at Oxford on a debate related to the colonial period has been ‘viral’ on the social circuit for a while. In this video Tharoor makes a passionate plea to the British that they make reparations for the losses to Indian economy during the British rule. He puts the blame of India’s economic decline on the British and also recounts Jalianwala Bag, Bengal famine as the major highlight of British rule which reflected the attitude of British towards this colony of theirs’. Tharoor points out that resources from India were used by British to build there economic prosperity and to fund their Industrial revolution.

However, Dr. Manmohan Singh (2005), the previous prime minister, had made a very different kind of argument. In this Dr. Singh as a guest of British Government extols the virtue of British rule and gives them the credit for rule of law, constitutional government, and free press as the contributions which India benefitted from.

So where does the truth lie? Not only the context and tone of the speeches by these two Congressmen is totally different, the content is also totally on different tracks. Dr. Singh as the guest of the British Government is soft and behaving as an ideal guest and points out the contributions of the British rule and there is some truth in that. Tharoor as an Indian citizen with memory of the past; is narrating the plunder which this country suffered due to the British rule. He is also on the dot. These are two aspects of the same canvass. What Tharoor is saying is the primary goal of British and what Dr. Sigh is stating is an incidental offshoot.

Continue reading What did Colonialism do to India? Ram Puniyani →

Bad ideas

Sex Workers And Women’s Organisations Condemn DCW Chair Swati Maliwal’s Statement On Sex Work

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[While in complete agreement with the statement posted below, I would like to add a personal note. I am a citizen of Delhi who believes that in its short stint in office so far, and despite every attempt by the central government to paralyze its functioning, the Aam Admi Party has taken decisive, creative and positive steps in several fields – education, health, and above all in its strong assertion that water is a natural resource that should not be treated as a commodity.

Nevertheless, it is unfortunately increasingly clear that on gender related issues, AAP’s functionaries exhibit the deepest conservatism – from Kejriwal’s speech on March 8th, which thanked his wife for keeping “his” home running, to Somnath Bharti on making Delhi safe enough for even “beautiful women” to be out at night, as if sexual violence is a tribute and compliment to the beauty of women, to Swati Maliwal’s aligning herself with the deeply conservative abolitionist position on sex work.

This conservatism is at odds not only with “elite activists”, as AAP may think, but with the views of the majority of ordinary people, who poured out into the streets after December 16th 2012, and sent scores of petitions to the Justice Verma Committee, expressing basically the belief in the rights of all women to public spaces at all times, and condemning victim blaming; sex workers are ordinary people too, and so are housewives, who even while they run homes with devotion and efficiency, are not unaware of the unfairness of the shared domestic space being considered to belong to the husband and “his” family. A March 8th message could have recognized women in their different roles, as housewives, domestic servants, CEOs, political activists. As a party that has learnt from other social movements, AAP needs to urgently start a conversation with women’s organizations of different kinds, including sex workers’ organizations.]

The statement follows:

The National Network of Sex Workers and women’s organisations in India strongly condemn the observations and statement of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), Ms. Swati Maliwal calling sex work and prostitution akin to “rape” and calling for its “eradication”. We call on her to immediately withdraw her statement and tender an unconditional apology to the all women in sex work, whose dignity has been impacted by her observations.

The Honorable Supreme Court has recognized the need to ensure that sex workers are able to live a life of dignity. The Court set up a panel to discuss “Conditions conducive for sex workers to live with dignity in accordance with the provisions of Article 21 of the Constitution.” (Budhadev Karmaskar vs. Government of West Bengal).

 The Chairperson of DCW should do her homework before launching into a campaign that has not engaged with the ongoing debates and dialogues to recognize the rights of adult consenting workers to remain in sex work and ensure that their human rights and dignity are protected, such a short sighted and uninformed perspective demeans the office of a Commission set up to protect the rights and dignity of women. Continue reading Sex Workers And Women’s Organisations Condemn DCW Chair Swati Maliwal’s Statement On Sex Work →

Bad ideas, Feminism

Coming up! Must-have new products for women

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Thanks to Kalyani Menon-Sen!

 

Porcupine Jacket – free hugs to molesters

 

Bagzilla – portable monster assist

 

Intergalactic Pest Control

Debates, Law, Politics

Response to ‘Open letter by a Cop’ on Yakub Memon: Ishani Cordeiro

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Guest post by ISHANI CORDEIRO

A reply to ‘An Open Letter By A Cop To Those Opposing Death Penalty To Yakub Memon’ by ‘ A Thulla’.

Dear ‘Thulla’

Let me begin by stating, for the record, that a lot of people who have raised their voice against death penalty (and not just Yakub Memon’s) are not necessarily sitting in ‘plush AC offices’ or writing ‘editorials seeking clemency for a murderer’ or visiting TV studios and shouting themselves hoarse. A lot of them are activists and lawyers and the aam aadmi – working on the ground. Having said that, let’s not disregard the voices of the public based merely on where they decide to park their backside! Also, I would like to bring to your notice that terms like human rights, due process and fake encounter are not ‘ramifications’ of pulling a trigger per se. The term ‘ramification’ implies an unwelcome consequence of an action. Human rights and due process are pillars of a democracy and fake encounters are constitutional infringements. The fact that ‘terrorists’ don’t consider these of much value but you have to consider these burdensome terms before taking any action also implies that the law (read constitution) considers you to be ‘reasonable person’ and not the ‘terrorist’. Continue reading Response to ‘Open letter by a Cop’ on Yakub Memon: Ishani Cordeiro →

Capitalism, Movements

Rapping Some Sense into Unilever for Mercury Pollution

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Sent to Kafila by Nityanand Jayaraman
Hitting where it hurts Unilever most, a new music video that is turning many eyes uses rap to expose Unilever’s crimes in the South Indian hill town of Kodaikanal. Sofia Ashraf, a Chennai-born rapper, wrote the lyrics and sang the song which was set to video by Chennai-based filmmaker Rathindran R. Prasad. 
Set to Nicki Minaj’s racy song “Anaconda,” this song asks Unilever to clean up the toxic contamination in Kodaikanal and compensate mercury-affected workers. Unilever operated a mercury thermometer factory in Kodaikanal for 18 years, and was shut down in 2001 after it was caught having dumped broken thermometer waste in a scrapyard in a crowded part of the town. Now, 15 years later, Unilever has neither cleaned up the contamination nor compensated workers.

The video is being used to promote a petition targeting the Anglodutch MNC’s CEO Mr. Paul Polman. Unilever spends more than $8 billion marketing itself as an ethical, transparent, caring and environmentally responsible company. However, for more than a decade, it has failed to walk its talk in Kodaikanal. Its CEO talks exhorts other corporate leaders to be responsible and compassionate, and is a great proponent of a concept called “Inclusive Capitalism.” Kodaikanal is proof of how Unilever is no different from Union Carbide.

Law, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

The courts of this country are on trial, not Teesta: Indira Jaising

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INDIRA JAISING writes in The Times of India

The hounding of Teesta Setalvad is timed to coincide with the publicly articulated urge of the Prime Minister to get a “clean chit” from the courts in relation to the ongoing cases in Gujarat, which Teesta has been doggedly pursuing. She is the victim of the pursuit for justice.

We are being asked to roll back the clock, consign the 2002 Gujarat carnage to the dustbin of history and replace Teesta Setalvad as the villain, who hounded the then chief minister…Can the collective amnesia on the Gujarat riots, and the view that we must move on be legitimized?

All this could possibly happen if Zakia Jafri and Teesta Setalvad, who are doing everything constitutionally and legally possibe to hold the head of the then government accountable, are checkmated, preferably gagged, and put into jail.

Read the rest of this damning indictment of the Indian justice system here.

Bad ideas, Right watch

Animal rights or Hindutva Wrongs? Sriranjini R

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Guest Post by SRIRANJINI R

Finally it has happened. ‘Debeefing Kerala’ has arrived. That’s not what the leader of Hindu Makkal Katchi said, though. He said that he’s out to defend animal rights. Really? Then, do animal rights in India help to protect all animals or only specific animals?

These were the questions that popped into my mind when I saw the news of Hindu rightwing activists physically preventing the export of beef from Tamil Nadu to Kerala (The Hindu, Trivandrum edition, July 21, 2015).  The trucks carrying the cattle for slaughter to Kerala, are being stopped by the Hindu Makkal Katchi and the Hanuman Sena on the Tamil Nadu border and taken to a Goshala near Coimbatore, where these animals are supposedly being taken care of. But according to the traders, the cattle are being mistreated in the Goshalas. If this is true, it is not only the traders who are in big trouble, it is also the cattle that probably prefer quick and painless deaths rather than life as pawns of the Hindutvavaadis in the Goshalas!

And all this is happening because the leader of Hindu Makkal Katchi, Arjun Sampath, claims that almost 50 heads of cattle are being stuffed into a truck during transportation, such that they are not able to drink water or even move. The Hindutvavaadis are out to stop this. This is where the animal rights card is being played. Even if we consider all these as violations of animal rights, then the question arises: why does the Hindu zealot have no mercy for other animals apart from cattle? Elephants, chickens, goats – these animals also go through terrible things humans do to them. Don’t they deserve animal rights?

Continue reading Animal rights or Hindutva Wrongs? Sriranjini R →

Bad ideas

Resolution of Feminist Economists on EU conditions on Greece

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Signed by over 135 delegates at 24th Annual Conference of International Association for Feminist Economics as  a personal expression of concern.

We are shocked that the EU institutions and European leaders are imposing on the people of Greece a further program of austerity that will severely undermine the living conditions of women and men and plunge them into a deep crisis of deprivation. This hits Greek women particularly hard as they will have to provide the safety net of last resort through intensified work of taking care of their families, friends and communities.

As feminist economists, as well as many other economists, have stressed over many years, the debt burden is unsustainable, this fact has recently even been acknowledged by the IMF. Thus, the hardship imposed on Greek people will not resolve the problem of its indebtedness, but it will rather worsen the great depression. Continue reading Resolution of Feminist Economists on EU conditions on Greece →

Debates, Politics, Right watch

Hindutva Media – An Online Upheaval: Saif Ahmad Khan

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Guest Post by SAIF AHMAD KHAN

The year 2004 saw the Indian electorate defying the verdict of psephologists by voting out the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre. The fundamental reason behind the defeat of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government was the slogan of “India Shining” which was perceived by the voters to be nothing more than a poll gimmick as millions of ordinary Indians were trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty and struggling due to high inflation.

However, a decade after 2004, one has reason to believe that “India Shining” was a blessing in disguise for the BJP. Traditionally, BJP was an anti-technology party owing to its Swadeshi leanings. When computer technology was being introduced by the Rajiv Gandhi government during the 1980s, the socialist parties opposed the move and argued that mechanization would lead to unemployment. The Sang Parivar echoed similar sentiments.

The general elections held in 2004 brought about a paradigm shift in BJP’s approach towards technology as the saffron party ran India’s first computer-centric, Hollywood-style electoral campaign. The most talked about thing of the 2004 elections was the “Indian Shining” slogan of the incumbent government. Prathap Suthan, National Creative Director of Grey Worldwide, was the man responsible for coning the term. India Shining was originally an initiative of the Central Government which sought to promote the country’s economic achievements and industrial progress on a global scale.

Continue reading Hindutva Media – An Online Upheaval: Saif Ahmad Khan →

Government, Politics, Violence/Conflict

Remember the Indian commitment to Palestine! Palestine Solidarity Committee in India

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Personally, it’s reached a point where there isn’t one single thing done in the name of ‘India’ that doesn’t make me deeply ashamed…(NM)

Statement from Palestine Solidarity Committee in India

The Palestine Solidarity Committee, the All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation and Indian Campaign for the Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel condemns the government of India’s abstention from a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) vote for adoption of a UN Inquiry Commission report on Israel’s attack on Gaza, Palestine, last year. This is a blatant reversal of India’s longstanding policy of support to the Palestinians against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The vote in the 47-member Council was overwhelmingly against Israel; 41 countries vote in favor of the resolution, only one – the U.S. – voted against it; India was one of the 5 countries who abstained.

This is the first time India has abstained on such a resolution in the UNHRC. Even in July last year, New Delhi voted in favour of a UNHRC resolution criticizing Israel for the Gaza war.

Continue reading Remember the Indian commitment to Palestine! Palestine Solidarity Committee in India →

Capitalism, Movements, Politics

Greece says OXI! Some resources

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Chomsky in March 2015 on Europe’s “savage response” to Greek push-backs on austerity (Democracy Now!)

“Democracy Cannot Be Blackmailed”: Greek Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Creditors’ Austerity Demand (Amy Goodman in Democracy Now!)

What was good for Germany in 1953 is good for Greece in 2015 (Larry Elliott in The Guardian)

The Greeks Have Spoken: What Happens Next? (Kavaljit Singh in Madhyam)

Three Rarely –If Ever– Mentioned Facts In The Greek Tragedy (Saskia Sassen in Analyze Greece!)

 

Right watch, Violence/Conflict

#SelfieWithDaughter – Ehsan Jafri and Nishrin Jafri Hussain

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A picture that says more than a thousand words

Read the story in DNA

Read about Ehsan Jafri here.

Recently, under increasing pressure for the growing incidents of communally targeted violence by BJP and its allied Hindutva groups, the PM Narendra Modi met Muslim leaders and assured them he would be available to address their issues even “at 12 in the night.” In the face of this blatant hypocrisy we will remember that in Gujarat in 2002, Ehsan Jafri, his house filled with Muslims seeking shelter from the murderous mobs, made several desperate phone calls, including to Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time, and he got no response but abuses.

The Special Investigation Committee investigating the Gulbarg Society massacre concluded laughably, as we know, that Jafri’s death was caused by his “provoking a violent mob”, and predictably gave Modi and the state authorities the proverbial “clean chit”.

Are there any limits to the shamelessness of this Prime Minister, this party, this government?

Capitalism, Debates

Greece – The Story of Wrong lessons Learnt: Marc Saxer

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Guest post by MARC SAXER

Ten reasons Why Austerity is Dangerous Fallacy

Another European summit without any resolution has passed. Even if a last minute settlement for this round can be reached, it would most likely continue the austerity policies of the last years. In any event, the next showdown would be just around the corner. Instead of tackling the risks of a global financial crisis, the collapse of the European integration project or the undermining of democracy, Europeans are fraying over olive tree subsidies and pensions. The debate over Greece is out of touch with the real challenges, and leads to flawed policy responses.

It is infuriating to watch Europe tumble down the path of austerity. Frugality! Discipline! Rules! The guardians of virtue seem to have turned a deaf ear to all expert advice. One Nobel Prize Laureate after the other cautions that too much fiscal bloodletting might just kill the patient. Amartya Sen. Paul Krugman. Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs. In Europe, Jürgen Habermas, Ulrich Beck and Thomas Piketty chimed in. Even the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Olivier Blanchard had to admit that the tax hikes and spending cuts have created more havoc than the architects of austerity have ever deemed possible.

Austerity is tomfoolery. Here are ten reasons why. Continue reading Greece – The Story of Wrong lessons Learnt: Marc Saxer →

Debates, Education

Do as iSay, not as iDo – Silicon Valley’s two faces on learning: Andrew Keen

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ANDREW KEEN writes in The Sunday Times (June 15, 2015) on E-learning, which Indian universities are promoting as the latest and best. It turns out that Silicon Valley IT bigwigs, all frantically developing the perfect software that can finally eliminate human teachers, (a goal being promoted enthusiastically by the Indian system through Massive Online Open Courses MOOC), are themselves sending their children to ‘Waldorf Schools’, in which computers, tablets and smartphones are banned (yes, indeed, BANNED), because, says the Media and Technology Philosophy Statement of Waldorf School:

Waldorf educators believe it is far more important for students to interact with one another and their teachers, and work with real materials than to interface with electronic media or technology.

Oh my. Are they taking us back to the Dark Ages, as Indian teachers want us to?

Or (Heavy Irony Warning) – do children need ‘traditional’ education with human teachers and human interaction, so that they can develop the creative skills necessary to develop the software that can eliminate humans? 

And of course, it will inevitably be e-education for the masses, and increasingly expensive “traditional education” for the elites. As Keen puts it:

It is yet another irony that, over in California, the Waldorf School of the Peninsula says it provides a “Renaissance education in Silicon Valley”. While an online humanities-lite education is good enough for the masses, the children of successful venture capitalists and digital entrepreneurs are being educated in an unambiguously low-tech environment dominated by the physical relationship between teacher and student and a body of core knowledge that stretches back for hundreds of years.

Keen quotes William Deresiewicz:

Moocs, Deresiewicz argues, are “about reinforcing existing hierarchies and monetising institutional prestige. The kids at Harvard get to interact with their professors. The kids at San Jose State get to watch the kids at Harvard interact with their professors.”

Full article by Andrew Keen starts here:

Online learning is yet to take off in Britain as it has in America, where the market research firm Global Industry Analysts estimates that revenue for the online learning sector will reach more than $100bn (Pounds 64bn) this year.

But if on-line education really is the future, why are so many IT moguls choosing traditional schooling for their own children?

Among the rich and powerful families of Silicon Valley, the new-new thing is to give their children a “Waldorf” education that outlaws computers, tablets and smartphones. Continue reading Do as iSay, not as iDo – Silicon Valley’s two faces on learning: Andrew Keen →

Culture, Debates, Right watch

Muslims, Yoga and the Empty Heart of Fanaticism: Kaif Mahmood

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Guest post by KAIF MAHMOOD

As a Muslim, a student of Comparative Religion and a practitioner of yoga for over a decade, I believe that both those Muslims who object to the practice of yoga on religious grounds and those others who force the practice on the unwilling, trivialise their own traditions in the service of power and identity politics. Neither is Islam an inane system of punishments and rewards, nor is yoga an ancient version of a modern gym. Both groups are a parody of what their traditions were meant to be, and pose to us the question of how to be culturally rooted without assuming an isolationist, chest thumping fanaticism of the religious kind on the one hand, and of a culturally deracinated, materialistic kind on the other – two sides of the same coin. I attempt here a reading of both the religious traditions involved in a manner that is both philosophical and personal.

The recent objections by certain Muslims over compulsory yoga in schools brings to mind a scene from Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi.

A group of RSS workers, waving black flags, stop Gandhi’s car and request him to not meet with Jinnah. Gandhi replies with a sorrowful agitation: “What do you want me not to do? Not to meet with Mr. Jinnah? I am a Muslim, and a Hindu, and a Christian, and a Jew, and so are all of you. When you wave those flags and shout, you send fear into the hearts of your brothers. That is not the India I want. Stop it, for god’s sake, stop it.” The car moves on, leaving the protestors, including Nathuram Godse, in anger and incomprehension.

The difference between one who breaks down walls of separation and one who creates them could not have been clearer. Continue reading Muslims, Yoga and the Empty Heart of Fanaticism: Kaif Mahmood →