Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Education, Identities

IMA, NCERT and Existing Inequalities – Issues Around Availability and Accessibility of Health Care: Sarojini N. B. and Deepa V.

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Guest post by SAROJINI N.B. and DEEPA V

[A story appeared on 11 July 2015 in some newspapers about the Indian Medial Association demanding deletions from a class VII NCERT textbook. An immediate response appeared in Kafila to some of the issues raised by IMA.

This post, whose authors Sarojini and Deepa were centrally involved in the writing of the textbook in question, here put certain things in perspective. They present this as an initial clarificatory response to the news report. ]

We are writing regarding an article “Docs oppose ‘negative’ portrayal by NCERT” that appeared in the front page of The Hindu on 11 JUly 2015, Delhi edition by Bindu Shajan Perappadan. The article refers to the chapter “Role of the Government in Health” in the NCERT’s social science textbook on Social and Political Life-II for Class VII students. The article reports that the IMA has written to President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministries of Health and Education, pointing to the “objectionable description” of private healthcare services. The IMA has also demanded “immediate remedial action” stating in their letter that the “matter should be taken seriously and the NCERT should be directed to delete or re-write this chapter”.

In 2007, several NCERT text books were developed, including the textbook in question Social and Political Life-II for Class VII, through a consultative and contributory process in which many of us were involved. The process led by NCERT was a progressive attempt at reviewing and developing content on a range of subject areas and issues in the country, in order to generate knowledge that is as contemporary and comprehensive as possible, and encourages critical and analytical thinking on the part of students.  While the issues were complex, authors / contributors as a group attempted to develop chapters that would reflect an understanding that is rooted in social, economic and political realities, while making them interesting and comprehensible for class VII students. The chapters foreground existing inequalities and discuss the issues around availability and accessibility of health care – including some key characteristics of the private and public health sector. Continue reading IMA, NCERT and Existing Inequalities – Issues Around Availability and Accessibility of Health Care: Sarojini N. B. and Deepa V. →

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 →

Bad ideas, Ecology/Environment, Government, Politics

Who cares about the environment? Some notes on the ecological crisis in India: Shashank Kela

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Guest post by SHASHANK KELA

The past few months have been exceptional, in one respect at least, for the Indian press: a serious structural problem has actually been given the attention it deserves. The Economic Times continues to play a prominent part in discussing air pollution in Delhi – there is no other city in the world where it is so bad. Nor is this all: including Delhi, India now boasts thirteen out of twenty cities with the worst air. More recently, the uproar over supposedly high levels of lead in a brand of junk food led to a (very) few articles on groundwater contamination: after all, the reason why lead and other poisons get into food is because they are present in the soil in which crops grow. Another piece, in the Guardian this time, speculated that the recent Sahelian heat wave in the Deccan might be a symptom of climate change (an “extreme” climate event of the kind likely to become all too common).[1]

These stories are only a tiny fraction of those that could be reported, for we are already in the throes of an unprecedented environmental crisis. Large swathes of our agricultural soils are contaminated or saline. Pesticide residues and heavy metals form part of our food. The air of our major cities is unfit to breathe. Freshwater availability is declining; most rivers, especially in the south, do not flow at all, or only seasonally, since their runoff is impounded in dams and used for irrigation (with very high rates of seepage and evaporation loss). Groundwater tables are falling as a consequence of over extraction and the disappearance of vegetative cover enabling percolation. The pattern of weather is being reset with gaps and lags – the available evidence indicates that the onset of the monsoon is changing and precipitation becoming more uneven. Our offshore seas are denuded of marine life thanks to trawler fishing at ever greater distances. Himalayan glaciers are shrinking with obvious long-term consequences for the hydrology of river systems dependent upon snow-melt. Sudden, destructive floods, exacerbated by embankments and dams, the building over of river valleys and floodplains, have become a regular occurrence. Continue reading Who cares about the environment? Some notes on the ecological crisis in India: Shashank Kela →

Bad ideas

Should we ‘MAKE IN INDIA’ on the backs of our children?: Enakshi Ganguly

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Guest Post  By ENAKSHI GANGULY

(A response to THE CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION AND REGULATION) AMENDMENT BILL, 2015) 

The Government of India is presenting before the country an amendment to the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2012. This amendment had been first proposed by the UPA government in 2012.[2] The initial announcement that the law would now ban all forms of labour for children upto the age of 14 years and in hazardous occupations till the age in the 14-18 year age group was welcomed by activists. We felt that at last our plea of over two and a half decades to harmonise the child labour law with the right to education had been finally addressed.

Reading the final print of the law however raises a number of concerns. Frankly, apart from the distinction made in separating the children up to 14 years and 14 -18 years, in their treatment, and increase in penalties on employers, the law is not a huge progress between 1986 and 2015 or for that matter 1938, which was the first time a law child labour was enacted. This, despite the changes in socio-economic status as well as law and policy in the country in this period.

In fact, it is very much in keeping with the arguments offered by the government on social realities,  to continue with the reservation on Article 32 (dealing with child labour)  of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (which India ratified in 1992), with the it arguing “….that it is not practical immediately to prescribe minimum ages for admission to each and every area of employment in India – the Government of India undertakes to take measures to progressively implement the provisions of article 32, particularly paragraph 2 (a), in accordance with its national legislation and relevant international instruments to which it is a State Party”[3] Continue reading Should we ‘MAKE IN INDIA’ on the backs of our children?: Enakshi Ganguly →

Capitalism, Culture, Debates, Mirror Worlds

IMA’s Promotion of Healthcare Privatization Through Insidious Attack on NCERT Textbook

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Manali Shah (name changed on request), a 33-year-old software engineer working in the private  sector, lost her savings of eight years in a day when her father, 65, underwent a liver transplant in a private hospital. “Not only did my savings go, I also had to borrow money from the family to foot the bill. The procedure and hospitalisation cost almost Rs 30 lakh, and we have to continue spending Rs 10,000 each month for medicines, follow-up consultations and diagnostics,” she says

Each round of chemotherapy and radiation costs her almost Rs 1 lakh, but she didn’t consider AIIMS because the radiotherapy machine there is booked for the next seven months. [The cost of one round of chemotherapy in AIIMS was just Rs 750/- at that time, hence the overbooking]. From a report in Hindustan Times, 20 October 2013

Doctor, heal thyself, was my initial reaction when I read the front page report in The Hindu that ‘Docs’ were opposing ‘negative’ portrayal by NCERT. The objection raised by them is that the class VII textbook, Social and Political Life II, contained “objectionable description ” of the medical profession. Or so you believe till you realize, by the time you are into the third paragraph of the report, that the issue is not at all about the negative portrayal of the medical profession as such but of its elite practitioners who are making a killing in elite private medical institutions and hospitals at the expense of the ordinary people.

So it is not doctors in general – those who work in trying conditions in government hospitals – who are raising the objection but the Indian Medical Association that professes to be “the only representative, national voluntary organisation of Doctors of Modern Scientific System of Medicine, which looks after the interest of doctors as well as the well being of the community at large”.  The IMA says the news report, has written to the President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi “demanding immediate remedial action”. Continue reading IMA’s Promotion of Healthcare Privatization Through Insidious Attack on NCERT Textbook →

Culture, Debates, Genders, Images, Media politics

The Sociology of#SelfieWithDaughter : Saba M. Hussain

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This is a guest post by SABA M. HUSSAIN

Many, many Indian fathers are tweeting selfies with their daughters making it one of the highest trending topics on twitter recently. These selfies are being posted in response to PM Modi’s appeals to his country during his monthly radio address to the nation as a part of theBetiBachao, BetiPadhao (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter) campaign.Many including several celebrities from the sports and movie business have lauded this initiative from the Prime Minister of India by posting touching father-daughter pictures. Continue reading The Sociology of#SelfieWithDaughter : Saba M. Hussain →

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 →

Culture, Debates, Feminism

जसोदाबेन मोदी से क्यों ‘डरती है’ भाजपा ?

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Image result for jashodaben modi

Image : Courtesy : Indiatoday

कल्पना करें कि किसी मुल्क के प्रधानमंत्राी की पत्नी, एक सूबे में जहां सत्ताधारी पार्टी की ही सरकार है, एक संगठन के कार्यक्रम में उसके बुलावे पर पहुंचती है और आयोजन अधबीच में ही समाप्त कर दिया जाता है।

ऐसी किसी ख़बर पर सहसा यकीन करना मुश्किल हो सकता है, मगर पिछले दिनों ऐसा ही वाकया 120 करोड़ आबादी के इस मुल्क में ही नमूदार हुआ जब ‘नमो इंडिया सेना’ – जो जनाब मोदी के मुरीदों का संगठन है – द्वारा सूरत में आयोजित एक सार्वजनिक कार्यक्रम में सुश्री जसोदाबेन नरेन्द्रभाई मोदी पहंुची और सात दिन के लिए चलनेवाला उपरोक्त कार्यक्रम तीसरे ही दिन समाप्त कर दिया गया। /देखें, ‘शी हू बीजेपी कनाट स्टमक’, द टेलीग्राफ, 12 जून 2015/

ख़बर के मुताबिक जैसे ही ‘बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढ़ाओ’ शीर्षक उपरोक्त कार्यक्रम में जसोदाबेन पहुंची, जहां उन्हें बात रखने के लिए कहा गया था, मगर आयोजकों ने ही उन्हें मना कर दिया और कुछ समय बाद आयोजकों को स्थानीय भाजपा नेताओं ने बुलाया और उन्हें कार्यक्रम तत्काल खतम करने के लिए कहा। समाचार के मुताबिक आयोजकों की बात भाजपा अध्यक्ष अमित शाह से भी करवा दी गयी। आखिर अचानक ऐसा क्यों हुआ कि सूरत के भाजपा नेताओं ने एक ऐसे संगठन के कार्यक्रम में सीधे हस्तक्षेप किया जो किसी भी रूप में भाजपा का आनुषंगिेक संगठन नहीं था और किस वजह से मुख्य आयोजक को सहारनपुर स्थित अपने घर जाने की ‘सलाह’ भी दी गयी। Continue reading जसोदाबेन मोदी से क्यों ‘डरती है’ भाजपा ? →

Capitalism, Movements, Politics

Greece says OXI! Some resources

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g4

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!)

 

Bad ideas

हिंदू भारत, मुस्लिम भारत

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क्या भारत में दो संवेदना-क्षेत्र बन चुके हैं:हिंदू संवेदना क्षेत्र और मुस्लिम संवेदना-क्षेत्र? क्या यह नाटकीय वक्तव्य है,या ऐसी आशंका जिसे हकीकत बनते देर नहीं लगेगी और  जिसे भारत के राजनीतिक दल और बुद्धिजीवी भी स्वीकार नहीं करना चाहते.उनका कहना है कि भारत जैसे विशाल देश के क्षेत्रफल और जनसंख्या के लिहाज से अटाली,गाज़ियाबाद,शामली,मुज़फ्फरनगर,लखनऊ,जहानाबाद,नागौर,छीपागढ़,जैसी घटनाएं नगण्य हैं और इनसे पूरे देश के बारे में कोई भी निष्कर्ष नहीं निकाला जा सकता.लेकिन वे भूल रहे हैं कि टेलीविज़न और इंटरनेट के इस वक्त में कोई भी घटना,कितनी ही छोटी क्यों न हो,स्थानीय नहीं रह जाती.वह घटित की जाती है एक सीमित, स्थानीय स्तर पर लेकिन उसका लक्ष्य वह व्यापक जनसमूह है जो भौतिक रूप से बिखरा हुआ और उस घटना स्थल से दूर है, यहाँ तक कि अमरीका और ऑस्ट्रेलिया में. Continue reading हिंदू भारत, मुस्लिम भारत →

Capitalism, Centre watch, Education, Government

Slow and Steady : Abhipsit Mishra

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This is a guest post by ABHIPSIT MISHRA
“The Government of India would like to bring out a National Education Policy to meet the changing dynamics of the population’s requirement with regards to quality education, innovation and research, aiming to make India a knowledge superpower by equipping its students with the necessary skills and knowledge and to eliminate the shortage of manpower in science, technology, academics and industry.”
One can come to trust long sentences less; especially those which are promises made by the state to the citizens; in particular those that are interspersed with cleverly placed punctuation. Continue reading Slow and Steady : Abhipsit Mishra →

Right watch, Violence/Conflict

#SelfieWithDaughter – Ehsan Jafri and Nishrin Jafri Hussain

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350948-ehsan-n-daughter

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?

Culture, Debates, Education, Government

Stand in Solidarity with FTII Students on 3rd July in Delhi : An Appeal by FTII Alumni

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Guest Post by FTII Alumni

(Image : ftii hashtag on twitter)

The students of Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) have been receiving tremendous support from across the country for their strike against the appointment of Mr. Gajendra Chauhan and others in the Governing council of FTII.

As a result of sustained public pressure , I&B ministry has opened up a channel of communication to discuss the issue and a meeting has been fixed with a delegation of students and alumni of FTII on 3rd July, 2015 at the Information and Broadcasting Ministry office, Shashtri Bhavan at 3 pm.

The students efforts at reaching out to more and more has been met with blocking of their various social media platforms.The mainstream media is sending out contradictory messages. This has left the
students vulnerable.

The struggle by FTII students becomes important for all of us since this is not an isolated attack on education and cultural institutions. When looked through the lens of the recent appointments at institutions like ICHR, NFDC, IIT Delhi, CFSI and CBFC or the de-recognition of Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle among others, the resistance of students at FTII becomes even more pertinent and important.

We, as alumni of FTII, urge you to come and stand in solidarity with FTII students as they talk with the ministry. We will assemble at 2pm outside Shastri Bhawan, I&B Ministry (next to Central Secretariat Metro Station). Continue reading Stand in Solidarity with FTII Students on 3rd July in Delhi : An Appeal by FTII Alumni →

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 →

Politics

ADMIN NOTICE: KAFILA COLLECTIVE

STATEMENT BY KAFILA COLLECTIVE

The Kafila collective takes serious note of the accusation of sexual assault/rape against one of our members, Mahmood Farooqi. We stand by the rights of both the complainant and the accused to a fair investigation and hope for a speedy and just resolution to the issue. Until then, Mahmood Farooqui is suspended from Kafila and will not be writing in it.

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 →

Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Left watch

Praful Bidwai Is No More

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Praful Bidwai is no more. He died in Amsterdam on Tuesday evening due to a cardiac arrest, With his death we have lost the ‘best left-wing journalist’ in this part of South Asia whose articles appeared in many newspapers and magazines in the subcontinent and in the middle east and was frequently published by The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique as well. Praful will be missed by thousands and thousands of his readers (this pen pusher included) who were ‘groomed’ by him in a career spanning more than four decades. For them he was one such voice who remained uncompromising in his strident criticism of communal fundamentalisms of various kinds and the crony capitalism which is having a field day these days. He was a leading voice for nuclear disarmament and peace as well and had written extensively on it. It was a strange coincidence that we met last in the capital when a memorial meeting was organised by Communist Party of India to remember the legendary Comrade Govind Pansare who was assassinated few days back. He was to speak in the meeting. The meeting was yet to start and I could steal some time to talk to him. He told he is working on a book – which was near completion – on the left movement in the country and had interviewed many activists associated with the movement to listen to their understanding of challenges before the left. And in that connection he had long meeting with Com Pansare – once in Kolhapur and one possibly in Mumbai. He shared his fascination about the energies he still had at that age for ‘the cause’. Few days after the meeting, there was a call from him asking for a phone number of a dalit activist which incidentally I did not have. Yes, that was the last time I spoke to him.

Continue reading Praful Bidwai Is No More →

Bad ideas

Hindu Rashtra, village by village -Understanding Atali

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Atali, the site of recent attacks on Muslims by their Hindi co-villagers, is a metaphor for India. Or,a mirror India should look into, to ‘re-cognize’ itself. To know that it is gradually turning into a majoritarian society. A society in which neighbors turn into strangers and yet keep feigning /pretending affinity and love for each other. A nation with a Hindu sensibility-zone and a Muslim sensibility zone.

The rites of passage are familiar. The majority has to be persuaded and convinced that it has to graduate from its present complacent position to a more respectable position of power, which was always its due but which it could not get because of the policies of ‘appeasement of the minorities’. After a long, sustained education, a ceremony, an event is organized in which majority has to participate as one person. It has to be a violent event in which blood would be shed. Had not Bhima drunk the blood of Kauravas? Or, Draupadi untied her hair with a vow that she would tie it only after washing it with the blood of Duhshasana? Continue reading Hindu Rashtra, village by village -Understanding Atali →

Culture, Everyday Life, Genders

Women’s Mosque of America – Women Carving Out Spaces of Prayer: Azza Basarudin and Khanum Shaikh

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Guest post by AZZA BASARUDIN and KHANUM SHAIKH

In the past decade, the efforts of women in communities of Muslims to claim leadership roles within their communities of worship have animated heated debates around the role and place that Islam ascribes to women. Questions of whether women are allowed to call congregants to prayer (adhaan), deliver sermons (khutba), lead prayers, and participate in mixed-gender prayer with women and men standing side-by-side are religiously permissible acts have been thrown up into the air, gaining support from some Muslims, and intense resistance from others. Within the United States, these contemporary debates can be traced back to a mixed-gender Friday prayer service led by Dr. Amina Wadud at Synod House of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York in 2005.[1] Numerous women-led prayer sessions have since taken place in cities across the United States, and in various global locations such as Toronto and Barcelona.[2] Widespread condemnation, heresy charges, and death threats swiftly followed some of these acts of defiance by Muslim women who are tired of being excluded from and/or given marginal spaces/roles within mosques for prayer, i.e. usually behind men or in less than ideal spaces where it is difficult to see/hear the sermon (khutba). Nonetheless, voices of support and acceptance are also prevalent—not that the women trailblazing this mode of leadership in ritual practices need anyone’s approval. It is into one such space—a newly created women-only Friday prayer organized by the Women’s Mosque of America—that we made our way on May 22, 2015 in Los Angeles. Continue reading Women’s Mosque of America – Women Carving Out Spaces of Prayer: Azza Basarudin and Khanum Shaikh →

Debates, Everyday Life, Government

Hey Ram ! Madhav

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(Picture : Courtesy ‘Youth ki Awaaz)

Ram Madhav, the first official spokesperson of RSS (later removed or discharged from this role) and these days ‘loaned’ to BJP as a ‘senior leader’ engaged in what an analyst called double delete asana on International Yoga Day. The first of this kind of ‘asana’ – unheard before – was rather necessitated by the impetuosity with which the net savvy leader twitted about ‘absence of Vice President Hamid Ansari’ from the celebrations and the ‘blackout of the programme by Rajya Sabha TV which is chaired by him’ and later twitted ‘an apology about the confusion’ and within no time deleted both the twits.

By evening it was clear that not only the Rajya Sabha TV had provided a live coverage of the programme but also provided clarifications about honourable Vice President’s absence. It was revealed that he was not invited for the programme by the concerned minister. In fact his office had to issue a press release to the effect because of the insinuations which were being spread targeting him and perhaps also tell the likes of Ram Madhav that there is something called protocol which the Vice President has to follow.

One does not know whether it would be possible for Mr Ram Madhav to comprehend such nuances of democratic procedures because for him such details are of no consequence. In fact if he was really concerned about absence of Vice President of India in the said programme, he could have easily phoned his office and made further enquiries. But as we know he just wanted to underline his absence from such a programme of ‘national glory’ when India was supposedly ‘leading the world’. It was an indirect way to further the illiberal and exclusivist agenda he has been exposed to since younger days. Continue reading Hey Ram ! Madhav →

Education, Government, Identities

‘Merit’ Kills: An Open Letter to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes from Kerala

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[This was sent to me by a group of concerned people. They prefer to stay nameless only because our educational institutions, especially technical institutions, which were never really liberal at any point, are now turning notoriously illiberal. The letter points to grave injustice which needs to be investigated and ended. The death of the young female Dalit student is a repeat almost of a similar suicide in Kerala by another female dalit student of Engineering a few years ago, who met her end strangled by ‘merit’, greed, and callous indifference. Here, the greed of the private sector in technical education cannot be blamed.]

Continue reading ‘Merit’ Kills: An Open Letter to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes from Kerala →

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