Last week, when most mainstream media was in the middle of yet another paroxysmal bout of Islamophobia over a thirteen-year-old child’s wish to wear the hijab to school, I was thinking: why is hijabophobia the most acceptable manifestation of the hatred of Islam in Kerala? Why is it that it seems to provoke many non-Muslim women to the point of anti-Muslim hysteria?
Continue reading Rotting Civil Society, Mounting Insecurity: Understanding Hijabophobia in KeralaCategory Archives: Culture
Postcolonial Theory and the “Decolonization of the Indian Mind” : Professor Meera Nanda
Indian Diaspora Washington DC lecture series
Topic: Postcolonial Theory and the “Decolonization of the Indian Mind”
Speaker: Professor Meera Nanda
Javed Akhtar, Bollywood and Urdu’s Ghostly Existence – Rashid Ali
Guest post by RASHID ALI
Javed Akhtar’s recent ‘exile’ from the West Bengal Urdu Academy event did more than generate headlines. It dwarfed a bigger debate about Urdu in Hindi cinema, which was the event’s main theme. The media precipitately reduced the whole issue to the conflict between the lyricist and the Urdu Academy. The controversy carried a tinge of ‘Muslim fundamentalism,’ reflecting today’s cultural and political ideologemes. However, the discussion on Bollywood’s uneven relationship with Urdu was lost in the sound and fury of cultural climate of the country. Et tu, Brutus?’ finds a new stage – ‘Et tu, Bollywood?’ You speak against the very world that gives you voice. Continue reading Javed Akhtar, Bollywood and Urdu’s Ghostly Existence – Rashid Ali
Red Dreams, Saffron Marches – Longue Durée of India’s Struggles and Strategies of Power: S. M. Faizan Ahmed
Guest post by S.M. FAIZAN AHMED
[The author writes about the current scenario, reflecting on the one hundred years of the communist movement as well as of the RSS. In these important reflections Ahmed recounts the great achievements of the communist Left, while at the same time speculating on where the RSS scored over it – leaving us with a number of questions to seriously ponder about. – AN]
On October 1, 2025, a day before Gandhi’s birth anniversary, long revered and associated with ahimsa and moral conscience, the government unveiled a ₹100 coin at the Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, 15 Janpath, marking a century of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. A day earlier, as if to turn ideology into spectacle, a Shakha parade, named Path Sanchalan, traced its way through Jawaharlal Nehru University—once a fortress of dissent and the audacious poetry of thought. The rhythmic march of uniformed bodies through corridors once alive with debate did more than display ceremony; it signaled a shift in the republic’s moral conscience, where the choreography of discipline seeks to mute the dialectic of doubt, and the university—once a sanctuary of questioning minds—becomes a stage for the theatre of obedience. Continue reading Red Dreams, Saffron Marches – Longue Durée of India’s Struggles and Strategies of Power: S. M. Faizan Ahmed
Decolonizing the ‘Colonial-Brahmanical’ – Thinking outside Modernity: Sunandan K N
[This post is the sixth essay of the series in Kafila titled Decolonial Imaginations. Links to the previous essays are given at the end.
The terms ‘decolonization’ or ‘decolonial’ have become quite critical now, given that the impulse of justice lies at the core of these concepts. Neither postcolonial nor decolonial perspectives are compatible with right-wing ideologies but the fact that Hindutva ideologues in India and the rightwing globally are now trying to appropriate that language makes it seem to some that the very idea of the postcolonial or decolonial is suspect. We believe that this demonizing of decolonial theory from a position defensive of the European Enlightenment needs to be unpacked in the interests of a mutually productive debate. Kafila will be publishing a series of interventions on what the idea of the decolonial imagination involves, locating decolonial theory as speaking from the margins, drawing attention to identities which the orthodox Left subsumed under ‘class’ and which the rightwing in India seeks to assimilate into Brahminism. Additionally the orthodox left’s rejection of spiritual beliefs and inability to engage with them is also a factor that may have produced the space for right wing appropriations of a field marked “religion”.
We hope that these interventions will clear the ground for productive conversations on the left rather than polarised and accusatory claims.]
This short essay builds on the articles published in this series and has already explored the various ways in which the concept of de-colonization is articulated, appropriated and adapted in various historical contexts in India and elsewhere. This note aims to map, in a preliminary fashion, the divergent engagements with questions concerning caste across three key groups – colonialists, nationalists (including the Hindutva nationalists), and postcolonial and decolonial practitioners in the last two centuries. This note does not purport to break new empirical ground but instead assembles and juxtaposes existing academic and public arguments to construct a focused framework for comparison.
It is important to begin with the now established argument that concepts are not static but dynamic entities, formed, transformed and deployed along historical processes. In larger Humanities and Social Science disciplines, historians, philosophers, anthropologists and linguists have increasingly shifted the question from ‘what does a concept or a category or just a noun mean’ to ‘what does it do’. This shift posits that meaning is not a stable core but a secondary effect created from practice through a process of ‘densification’. We can observe this in Foucault’s inquiries into the concept of madness or Wittgenstein’s exploration of the performative nature of language. While the dominant forces have the power to deploy a category more widely and to limit its interpretations or in other words have the power to solidify and concretize the uses and effects of the category, they cannot guarantee to reduce this category to a singular use/meaning or limit its interpretation. Hence the importance of the analysis of the travel and transformation of categories in various routes, its adaptations and mutations across various historical contexts and times. Continue reading Decolonizing the ‘Colonial-Brahmanical’ – Thinking outside Modernity: Sunandan K N
Books as Crime ? – Whether J and K High-court Will End the ’Unprecedented Situation’ ?
‘So you are the little woman who wrote the book that made this great (American) civil war’
— Abraham Lincoln to Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The Writers’ Police !
Bruno Fulgini, a nondescript employee at the French Parliament, would not have imagined in his wildest dreams that his tedious and boring job at the Parliament library would lead him to a treasure hunt of another kind.
Nearly two decades back one witnessed him metamorphose into an author and editor, thanks to the sudden discovery of old files of the Paris police, which provided details of its surveillance work done way back in 18 th century. A report filed by AFP then, quotes Fulgini tell us that ’Beyond criminals and political figures, there are files on writers and artists. In some cases, they go far in their indiscretions.’….
It was clear to these protectors of internal security of a tottering regime that the renowned literati then viz. Victor Hugo, Balzac or Charles Dickens, might be writing fiction, but their sharp focus on the hypocrisy of the aristocrats or the livelihood issues of ordinary people is adding to the growing turmoil in the country. They knew very well that they might be writing fiction for the masses but it is turning out to be a sharp political edge that hit the right target and is becoming a catalyst for change.
The Parisian police was engaged in tracking down the daily movements of the writers, was more subtle in its actions; its present-day counterparts in the West do not seem to have such patience.
The strongest democracy in the world namely the US has of late become a site of an ’unprecedented’ ’Multi-level barrage of US book bans’ as per PEN America [1]….
And now there are indications that the biggest democracy in the World namely India is keen to follow the footsteps of the strongest democracy ?
Or it is too early to say that .[ Read the full article here : http://mainstreamweekly.net/article16227.html
Rightwing-Rightwing ‘Bhai Bhai : Who Fears Javed Akhtar?
A ‘unity of purpose’ has been witnessed between Hindu and Muslim supremacists, who consider themselves the sole spokespersons of ‘their community’.
There are rare occasions when literary academies associated with governments wilt under mob pressure.
Rarer are occasions when they even cancel the very programme they had organised with much fanfare.
It has been more than 10 days that West Bengal witnessed such a spectacle, when the West Bengal Urdu Academy suddenly postponed a programme where it intended to discuss ‘Urdu in Indian Cinema’ for four consecutive. Javed Akhtar — one of the foremost living Urdu poets — was also invited as a key speaker in the programme.
Two prominent Islamist organisations in Kolkata, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and the Wahyahin Foundation, had protested the invitation, as they considered Akhtar’s views on religion problematic, labelling him as someone who “speaks against religion and God”.
Akhtar is a declared atheist and openly talks about it on public fora, and that had irked these people.
The organisations even threatened to launch a state wide agitation — much on the lines of their agitation against Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen which as everyone knows had forced her to leave the state (2007) — if the government did not heed their demand.
Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister, did not want to take any risk as elections to the state Assembly are not too far.
( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/rightwing-rightwing-bhai-bhai-who-fears-javed-akhtar)
RSS Centenary: In Search of an Icon!
[Centenary celebrations of RSS – the biggest ‘self-proclaimed’ cultural organisation in the world — comprising of Hindus are on.
Much is being said about its longevity etc., and much will be said about it in coming days, it remains to be seen if it is ready to take a fresh look at some discomforting aspects of its own history when it is embarking on a journey towards what it calls as ‘new horizons’]
Ram Lila, the dramatic folk re-enactment of the life of Rama is still popular in Northern India.
Anyone who has watched this programme — especially in villages or towns — might have noticed a particular scene where god curses a sage for his misdemeanour that he will get a donkey’s face for his actions and will not even realise that he has got this new face.
One is reminded of this story — which tells us the great hiatus between claims and reality — whenever an individual or a formation starts bragging about its achievements that have no basis in reality.
Leaders of the Hindutva Supremacist movement in this part of South Asia look no different when they declare from the rooftops the “great role their political ancestors have played during the freedom movement”. It is a different matter that any objective student of India’s history — especially of the Independence struggle — is conversant with hundreds or thousands of pages, books, monographs written or documented to underline the contrary, their meek behaviour and compromising role during the very struggle. [https://www.newsclick.in/rss-centenary-search-icon]
Punjab: Why Proposed ‘Law Against Blasphemy’ Needs to be Discarded
The CCG’s concern that the proposed PPOHS Act is ‘unconstitutional’ and is an ‘open invitation to ‘oppressive misuse’ needs to be heeded.
Image : Courtesy Fiickr
Whether history will repeat itself, that is the question being asked about Punjab government’s renewed attempt to enact a law supposedly against ‘sacrilege’?
Anyone who is a keen observer of the social-political developments in the state knows very well that it has a history of such efforts (2015 and 2018) where similar attempts were made to amend laws related to sacrilege, and both attempts proved unsuccessful as they failed on the yardstick of constitutionality.
As per reports, the proposed Punjab Prevention of Offences against Holy Scriptures Bill, 2025 (PPOHS Act), which was recently referred by the state legislature to a committee for further discussion, has come under the scanner of experts of the Constitution and concerned citizens.
A leading voice among them, namely the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG) — a platform of retired civil servants and diplomats– has in an open communication underlined how Punjab government’s proposed ‘PPOHS Act’ is ‘unconstitutional’ and is an ‘open invitation to oppressive misuse’ .
[ Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/punjab-why-proposed-law-against-blasphemy-needs-be-discarded]
Not Another Salacious Sex Scandal, Please: Althea Women’s Collective Statement on Mainstream Public Discussions of Complaints against Rahul Mankoottathil
[ A translation of the statement from the Kerala Feminist Forum is appended to ours. Both are translated by Gayatri Devi, a member of Althea.]
The way political parties and mainstream media in Kerala have framed the public discussion on the complaints against Rahul Mankoottathil comes as a real shock to anyone who sees Malayali women as citizens with equal rights and equal dignity, and to those who are committed to the welfare of children.
Continue reading Not Another Salacious Sex Scandal, Please: Althea Women’s Collective Statement on Mainstream Public Discussions of Complaints against Rahul MankoottathilWhen Police Comes Visiting Bookshops!
How saffron forces weaponise ignorance and stigmatise intellectauls
Silence gives consent
[Qui tacet consentire videtur – In Latin]
“Intellectual terrorists” are “more dangerous than cross-border terrorists”
These were the pearls of wisdom of the then Human Resource Development minister, who was addressing a conference of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (December 19, 2001). Murli Manohar Joshi had even asked the ‘nationalist youths’ to counter ‘both types of terrorism effectively.’
…It would be 25 years soon since these objectionable remarks were targeted at India’s topmost historians, scholars, public intellectuals, even provoking followers to deal with them effectively’ like the way they deal with ‘cross border terrorists.’
Later commenting on these controversial remarks, the legendary historian Romila Thapar had famously said: ‘And then the government fell. But the books continued!”
Time for Thought Police?
As everybody can see, there is a sea change in the situation since the past more than a decade in this part of South Asia…
…..The target of attacks has now become broader, more expansive and more unpredictable. It is no longer restricted to ‘leftist’ ‘progressive’ writers, historians.
The recent move to ban 25 books on Kashmir history at a single go ‘for propagating false narrative and secessionism‘ — written by a spectrum of national and international scholars — which even do not share a similar world view, books which had been in circulation for years, even decades together is a case in point.
This list of authors includes, A G Noorani, Arundhati Roy, Anuradha Bhasin, Sumanta Bose, Victoria Schofield and several others… [Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/when-police-comes-visiting-bookshops]
Citizens as Infants? – Judiciary ‘Schools’ People in Patriotism
Could it be argued that Bombay HC’s highly debatable decision on a peaceful rally against Gaza genocide is an attempt not to inconvenience the ruling dispensation?
It was the year 1763, when Genevaís ecclesiastical assembly ordered one Robert Covelle to genuflect and listen to a reprimand for having fathered an illegitimate child. Covelle refused to kneel and turned to Voltaire for help.
Voltaire, a leading light of enlightenment, outraged at the very idea that religious authorities daring to make a citizen kneel, wrote a pamphlet against genuflection comparing the act with a tyrant punishing slaves or pedant correcting children. The rest of the philosophes rallied behind Voltaire and after six years of agitation, the Genevaís ecclesiastical assembly was forced to abolish genuflection from its code
Meera Nanda, writer and historian of science discusses, this episode in one of her monographs
Rereading this episode and seeing if around two-and-half centuries ago, the Church could be compelled to see incongruence, injustice and unreason in its own ruling, can a a similar thing be possible vis-à-vis the judiciary in the 21st century in the ‘biggest democracy in the world’?
This poser is related to a recent debatable decision of the Bombay High Court, which has rightly received enough opprobrium.
( Read the complete article here : https://www.newsclick.in/citizens-infants-judiciary-schools-people-patriotism_
Why No ‘Gita’ Recitation in Schools ?
Is a resistance of some kind slowly emerging from the teaching community to save the secular character of education and foil Supremacist designs?
Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Pexels
“To learn to read is to light a fire.
Every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” –
– Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo, (1802- 1885), the great French poet, novelist, and dramatist, once considered a national hero and a living symbol of republicanism in France, would not have imagined in his wildest dreams that a day would arrive where one of his famous quotes ‘“There is in every village a torch – the teacher; and an extinguisher – the priest”, would suddenly start reverberating across a section of learned people engaged in educating future generations in far away India, rather discreetly.
Close on the heels of an intervention by concerned citizens/activists on education in Uttar Pradesh, to stop Ramayana and Vedic workshops in Schools, as it violates Article 28 of the Constitution that specifically enjoins the State not to use public funds for religious instruction, one has come across two important and bold interventions from honourable members of the teaching community themselves, especially in the Hindi belt.
FIR For Asking ‘Light the Lamp of Knowledge’?
The police case against a school teacher from Bareilly for a Kanwad song is a case in point. The ‘offence’ of the teacher, Rajneesh Gangwar, is that he was singing a song in front of students asking them “not to bring kanwars“, instead “go light the lamp of knowledge’. A purported video of the incident, has gone viral. [ Read the complete article here : https://www.newsclick.in/why-no-gita-recitation-schools]
South Asian Futures in a Tri-Polar World : Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy
Democracy Dialogues Series – Lecture 40
Organised by New Socialist Initiative
Theme :
South Asian Futures in a Tri-Polar World
Speaker :
Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy
Eminent Physicist, author, public intellectual
Time and Date :
6 PM (IST)
Sunday , 27 th July 2025
The lecture is also live streamed at facebook.com/newsocialistinitiative.nsi
Abstract:
The Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union are long behind us, and we’re now hurtling toward a tri-polar world dominated by America, Russia, and China. These three powers vy to shape global influence, often competing but sometimes colluding. As the saying goes, “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.” So, the central question for this lecture is: What path are the nations of South Asia—including Afghanistan and Iran—likely to take? What alternatives and tools do they possess to navigate this landscape? Most importantly, what vision of society and power should guide them toward a viable future?
Speaker :
Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy is a nuclear physicist, author, and a prominent activist who is particularly concerned with promotion of freedom of speech, secularism, scientific temper and education. He is the founder-director of The Black Hole in Islamabad and as the head of Mashal Books in Lahore, he leads a major translation effort to produce books in Urdu that promote modern thought, human rights, and emancipation of women.
Prof Hoodbhoy received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from MIT and has taught physics and mathematics at Forman Christian College-University in Lahore, at the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) in Islamabad and later at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
He is a recipient of the Baker Award for Electronics and the Abdus Salam Prize for Mathematics. He was visiting professor at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Maryland. In 2003 he was awarded UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science.
Here is a list of a few of his publications :
– Pakistan: Origins, Identity and Future, published by Routledge (London, New York), 2023.
– Confronting the Bomb – Pakistani and Indian Scientists Speak Out, (edited) Oxford University Press, 2013.
– Education and the State – Fifty Years of Pakistan, (edited) Oxford University Press, 1998.
– Islam & Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality, published by ZED Books, London, in 1991 with translations in Turkish, Malaysian, Indonesian, Arabic, Spanish, Sindhi, and Urdu.
– Proceedings of School on Fundamental Physics and Cosmology, co-edited with A. Ali, World Scientific, Singapore, 1991.
Democracy For The Few ?
Is Bihar being turned into a test case of disenfranchising people?
Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Flickr
India pledged to usher in a democracy with universal adult franchise.
It was the late 1940s, when India, a newly independent nation, whose less than 10% population was then literate, embarked on this unique experiment, unheard of in those times.
The architects of Independence rejected all the Western prescriptions that openly said that .’.. India had no democratic future‘ (Winston Churchill) or ”monarchial arrangement best suited the Asian people‘ (British Prime Minister Clement Attlee to Nehru, 1949), and (to quote a student of history) ‘met the imperial argument on direct terms, firmly believing in the possibility of creating democratic citizens through democratic politics.’ (India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy by Madhav Khosla)
What is worth emphasising is that all those great leaders who shaped a forward-looking Constitution were on the same page when it came to granting the right to vote. For example, B.R Ambedkar, who was chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, firmly believed that ‘To limit the franchise, was to misunderstand the meaning of democracy ... ‘
None of them dithered over this provision despite knowing well that even the Western countries had not fully adopted universal adult franchise. Remember, Switzerland granted the right to vote to women only in 1971.
Much water has flown down the Ganges, the Jhelum, the Brahmaputra, the Godavari or the Kaveri.
A good 75 years after the adoption of the Constitution (1950), today we are faced with a challenge that at first looks unbelievable, the present ruling dispensation seems to have embarked on a journey in an exactly reverse direction. [Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/democracy-few]
Dark Shadows of Emergency!
How they have become arsenal for the majoritarian Hindutva forces to convert the sovereign, independent, secular, socialist republic into a Hindu Rashtra.
25 th June 2025 happened to be the fiftieth year of the internal emergency imposed by the then Indira Gandhi regime. Much has changed during all these years but till date we are still far away from a balanced review of that period.
What really prompted Indira Gandhi to declare emergency , whether drive for personal power was the key factor, as has been reiterated multiple times…..
On the other hand, whether it could be said that she correctly perceived how sinister forces in the subcontinent were hell bent on sabotaging the democratic experiment at the behest of imperialist powers , who were even found to be provoking police and security forces to pursue their dubious agenda.
No doubt such a holistic review is a need of the hour but one thing cannot be denied that the biggest beneficiary of this whole exercise has been the Hindutva rightwing forces who are keen to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra
[ Read the full article here : https://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article15924.html]
Review : ’And Quietly Comes the Dawn’
The ‘Other Haryana’ Which Rarely Gets Discussed
BOOK REVIEW
And Quietly Comes the Dawn:
Haryana —Its Identity Issues, Grassroots Movements and Alternative Endeavours
by Tarun Kanti Bose
Kamgar Prakashan | https://kamgarprakashan.com
What image does one conjure up when Haryana finds mention anywhere !
It is the image of the millenium city Gurgaon – with offices of leading MNCs or neighbouring Nuh – the Muslim majority district with one of the lowest literacy rates in India or the dominant Jat peasantry, the growing gender imbalance in the society which even gets reflected in the phenomenon of purchasing of brides from Bihar or other areas, etc
Various cases of dalit oppression add another gloomy layer to the not so bright picture.
Rarely does one find voices of the ’other Haryana’ getting reflected in the public discourse.
….Writer, journalist, left activist Tarun Kanti Bose’s new book, ’ And Quietly Flows the Dawn : Haryana— Its Identity Issues, Grassroots Movements and Alternative Endeavours breaks a new ground in this dominant discourse and brings before us many such unheard voices.
( Read the full review here : https://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article15848.html )
बच्चों के लिए सैनिक प्रशिक्षण : आखिर महाराष्ट्र सरकार की यह नई योजना क्यों एक चिन्तित करने वाली पहल है ?
‘मैंने जापान में जनता को अपनी स्वतंत्रता की सीमाएं अपनी सरकार द्वारा स्वेच्छा से स्वीकार करते हुए देखा है…लोग इस सर्वव्यापी मानसिक दासता को प्रसन्नता और गर्व के साथ स्वीकार करते हैं क्योंकि वे अपने आपको शक्ति की एक मशीन, जिसे राष्ट्र कहा जाता है, में बदलने की तीव्र इच्छा रखते हैं…’
-रवीन्द्रनाथ ठाकुर, ‘नेशनलिज्म’
बच्चों के लिए फौजी तालीम !
भारतीय संघ के सबसे समृद्ध सूबा कहलाने वाले महाराष्ट्र ने स्कूली शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में एक नयी पहल हाथ में ली है। वह स्कूली छात्रों के लिए कक्षा 1 से ही बुनियादी फौजी प्रशिक्षण देना शुरू करेगा ताकि बच्चों में ‘देशभक्ति, अनुशासन और बेहतर शारीरिक स्वास्थ्य की नींव डाली जा सके।’ एक स्थूल अनुमान के हिसाब से चरणबद्ध तरीके से लागू की जाने वाली इस योजना में लगभग ढाई लाख सेवानिवृत्त सैनिकों को तैनात किया जाएगा। …..
यह प्रस्ताव कई स्तरों पर चिन्तित करने वाला है:
एक, जैसा कि जानकारों एवं शिक्षा शास्त्रियों ने बताया है कि राज्य का शिक्षा जगत एक जटिल संकट से गुजर रहा है, जिसका प्रतिबिम्बन कमजोर होती अवरचना / इन्फ्रास्टक्चर /infrastructure, अध्यापकों की कमी और नीतियों को लागू करने के रास्ते में आने वाली प्रचंड बाधाओं में उजागर होता है। ..अगर सरकार की तरफ से कक्षा एक से आगे फौजी प्रशिक्षण प्रदान करने की योजना को लागू किया गया तो उसका असर स्कूली शिक्षा के लिए आवंटित किए जा रहे संसाधनों में अधिक कटौती में दिखाई देगा।
[ Read the full article here :https://janchowk.com/military-training-for-children-why-is-this-new-scheme-of-maharashtra-government-a-worrying-initiative/]
Maharashtra: Military Training for School Children!
Why this latest move by the state government is a worrying development.
“I have seen in Japan the voluntary submission of the whole people to the trimming of their minds and clipping of their freedom by their government, which through various educational agencies regulates their thoughts, manufactures their feelings, becomes suspiciously watchful when they show signs of inclining toward the spiritual, leading them through a narrow path not toward what is true but what is necessary for the complete welding of them into one uniform mass according to its own recipe. The people accept this all-pervading mental slavery with cheerfulness and pride because of their nervous desire to turn themselves into a machine of power, called the Nation, and emulate other machines in their collective worldliness.”
-Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism
The richest state in the Indian union, Maharashtra, has embarked on a new initiative in the field of school education. It would provide basic military training to school students starting from Class 1, to promote “patriotism, discipline, and physical fitness among young learners from an early age”. Around 2.5 lakh ex-servicemen would be involved to deliver this training which will be introduced in a phased manner.
Undoubtedly, in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, this proposal will be able to gather enough eyeballs in the rest of the country and it would not be surprise that few other Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states would implement similar schemes in education.
This proposal is worrying at many levels. ( Read the full article here :https://www.newsclick.in/maharashtra-military-training-school-children)
Will Asjad Babu Get Justice in Today’s India
“Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them”
– George Elliot (English Novelist and Poet, 1819-1880)
Firdaus Alam alias Asjad Babu – age 24 years – is dead.
Details of this cold blooded killing have appeared in a section of the media and make chilling reading. (1)
Asjad – a native of a village in Kishenganj district of Bihar, married hardly 7 months back, worked as a tailor in Panipat, Haryana.That tragic evening, he was sitting with his friends including his brother Asad Raza in a playground when the accused approached him and started mocking him for wearing a skullcap.
None of the friends had any personal enmity with the accused Narendra alias “Susu Lala”.When confronted, he felt further agitated and attacked Asjad with a knife, inflicting serious fatal injuries.
Death of Asjad is no ordinary death.
It appears to be a hate crime.
Hate crime is a special crime where a person is targeted just because of hostility or prejudice towards that person’s colour, look, dress, which reveals the person’s community, religion or belief etc. One does not know whether the police or the law-and-order machinery would be ready to acknowledge this brutal murder as a hate crime (2) because that would entail stricter charges, which may be followed by stricter punishment.
What is even more disturbing, is to note that killings, like that of Asjad have become commonplace. ( Read the full article here : https://countercurrents.org/2025/06/will-asjad-babu-get-justice-in-todays-india/)
UP: Ramayana, Vedic Workshops in Govt Schools Challenged
Why the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government’s move of using public funds for imparting religious instruction violates Article 28 of the Constitution.
Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Pexels
“No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of State Funds” unless “established under any endowment or trust which requires that religious instruction shall be imparted in such institution”. (Article 28 of the Indian Constitution)
It has been more than 75 years since the founding fathers (and mothers) of the Constitution took this bold stand when they were shaping the guidelines around which the newly independent country would move forward. ..
…..Much water has flown down the Ganges, the Jamuna and all rivers of the country and it appears that slowly, but not so silently, attempts are on to water down the provisions of this Article and facilitating religious instruction in government schools through the back door.
The manner in which Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh has suddenly decided to hold summer workshops on the Ramayana and the Vedas in government schools across the state, without any broader consultation with the stakeholders involved in this endeavour, is symptomatic of the brazen attitude of the government. We are told that these workshops will be organised under the aegis of the International Ramayana and Vedic Research Institute, Ayodhya, and will include activities, like Ramlila, Ramcharitmanas recitation, Vedic chanting, painting, and mask-making.
As expected, this retrograde move by the Yogi government has generated anger among the broad masses as well as concerned citizens, who have demanded that this move be immediately rescinded. ( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/ramayana-vedic-workshops-govt-schools-challenged )
