I remember, as a young child, going with my father one Onam in our ancestral home to watch the local Onam sports-and-games.My admittedly-fuzzy memory is of a large crowd of men gathered in an open paddy field or ground (I remember a lovely cloud of dragon-flies hovering above doing some sort of crazy-excited dance), getting ready for Onathallu — physical combat between
two men. Continue reading Onathallu Redux? Some thoughts on Onam
In the shadow of AFSPA – Not so uncommon lives: Chonchuirinmayo Luithui
Article on Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur by CHONCHUIRINMAYO LUITHUI received via Repeal AFSPA list
![AFSPA Nagaland_thumb[1]](https://kafila.online/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/afspa-nagaland_thumb1.jpg?w=474)
My father was picked up from home by the Indian Army late one evening, tortured till dawn, he was pushed down a slope and left for dead. It was a miracle that he survived that night. I had just started kindergarten and was learning the Alphabets. I remember screaming the A B Cs outside the window of his room at the hospital so that he could hear me because I was told not to make noise inside. I wanted him to know what I was learning at school. I was a few months shy of my fourth birthday.
It was from that age that my idea of the ‘enemy’ was drawn. Any big guys in uniform were the real life villains. Dogra Regiment, Sikh Regiment, Assam Rifles, etc were common names. You could only hate them. But this was not an exceptional situation. It was common to most of the children from my generation in the Naga areas. We grew up knowing of, at least, one person tortured or killed by the Indian army and associated them with everything that we were scared of. Parents would frighten us when we were out of line that the ‘shipai’ (soldiers) were coming or that they would give us to the ‘shipai’. Not the best way to discipline a child but it worked. We might never witness the violent acts of the Indian army but we heard and knew when the grownups talked in hush hush manner. Children are smart that way. Continue reading In the shadow of AFSPA – Not so uncommon lives: Chonchuirinmayo Luithui
If It Happened There … the Government Shutdown: Joshua Keating
This is the first installment by JOSHUA KEATING of “If It Happened There,” a regular feature on SLATE in which American events are described using the tropes and tone normally employed by the American media to describe events in other countries.
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 30: The sun sets on an uneasy capital.
WASHINGTON, United States—The typical signs of state failure aren’t evident on the streets of this sleepy capital city. Beret-wearing colonels have not yet taken to the airwaves to declare martial law. Money-changers are not yet buying stacks of useless greenbacks on the street.
But the pleasant autumn weather disguises a government teetering on the brink. Because, at midnight Monday night, the government of this intensely proud and nationalistic people will shut down, a drastic sign of political dysfunction in this moribund republic.
Can Narendra Modi Apologize to Four Hundred and Five Million Rural Women in India?
Rural Indian Women (Courtesy India Post) and An Urban Indian Man (Narendra Modi)
I watched the television broadcast of BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s speech at the Japanese Park in Rohini in Delhi on Sunday morning with breathless anticipation and some trepidation. With the restless anxiety that he would spin at least half a new idea, that could induce some naive fence-sitters in Delhi, my city, to sign up behind his juggernaut along with the rest of his zombie horde.
Would his spin doctors have worked hard and tirelessly overnight to give their client a new teflon coating? Would his savvy advisers have given him a sharp new statistic to play with, an incontrovertible fact, a compelling argument that would persuade my fellow citizens? Continue reading Can Narendra Modi Apologize to Four Hundred and Five Million Rural Women in India?
Modi says sorry to Kafila
Invitation from Kafila
Dated: Saturday, 28 September, 2013
Dear Narendrabhai,
We at Kafila would like to invite you to a small get-together in Lodi Gardens tomorrow (Sunday 29th) at 10 am. We really really (really!) hope you can make it.
Best wishes forever,
Kafila Team
From the Office of Mr Narendra Modi, CM, Gujarat
Dated: Monday, 30 September, 2013
Dear Kafila team,
We thank you for your kind invitation to Mr Modi. He sends his regrets that he was unable to attend your get-together as he was otherwise occupied on Sunday 29th at 10 am.
Aadhaar – What next after the SC ruling? Kalyani Menon-Sen
Guest Post by KALYANI MENON-SEN
Poor Mr Nilekani. Just when everything was going swimmingly for him – adulatory interviews in the foreign press, tantalising rumours of a Congress ticket for the 2014 polls, lots and lots of votes on a poll to select the Greatest Living Indian – comes another well-aimed spanner in his works from that bunch of litigacious Jokers who have been playing rasta roko with his Batmobile for some time now.
The Supreme Court ruling of 23rd September is curt and unequivocal – a) two other challenges to Aadhar in the High Courts of Chennai and Mumbai to be clubbed with this one and heard by a Constitution Bench; b) an immediate freeze on linking Aadhar to benefits under social schemes; and c) a direction to tighten up the registration process to make sure that only Indian citizens are enrolled.
Every line of this ruling is a painful blow for Aadhar. It’s bad enough that the Court has taken seriously the charge that Aadhar violates Constitutional rights. The implication that there are serious errors in the registration process is even worse, and pulls the plug on one of the main arguments in support of the UID – that it will stop leakages in government schemes by weeding out bogus beneficiaries. Worst of all is the decoupling from the “Apna Paisa Apne Haath” bandwagon. If the UPA decides not to jettison the cash transfer scheme – its big-ticket strategy for the 2014 polls – it will find a way to keep it going without Aadhar. Whether or not this strategy pays off, Aadhar will be the loser. Continue reading Aadhaar – What next after the SC ruling? Kalyani Menon-Sen
World’s Biggest Old Age Home with Cheapest Canteen
Information received via Rakesh Chaturvedi
The only place in India where food is cheap.
Tea- 1.00
Soup-5.50
Daal-1.50
Meals-2.00
Chapati-1.00
Chicken-24.50
Dosa-4.00
Biryani-8.00
Fish-13.00
Rakesh Chaturvedi suggested that instead of the Food Security Bill, let the Government give food to the poor at the Parliament canteen rates.
Good idea. That may allay the corporate media’s fears that the Food Security Bill may further strain India’s weakening economy.
Taking off from this interesting price list, some idle research on this rainy Sunday morning yielded the following information: There has been a noticeable shift in the age profile of MPs in Lok Sabha. Continue reading World’s Biggest Old Age Home with Cheapest Canteen
Get Clicked With Dead Animals for Wards’ Scholarship, Dalits told
The chief architect of Indian constitution Dr. B. R. Ambedkar had declared in 1948 ‘democracy in India is a top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic.’ How true this is, even after sixty years of Indian democracy! Why have all the legal provisions, and valiant struggles of dalits to emancipate themselves failed to annihilate Caste system? As the ruling elites of India celebrate their arrival on the world scene, these are the skeletons in the cupboards of their rule they are most ashamed to admit. Continue reading Get Clicked With Dead Animals for Wards’ Scholarship, Dalits told
Online mapping of sexual harassment in Mumbai
After the spate of rapes and molestations in Mumbai and of course, the daily sexual harassment of women, AKSHARA CENTRE decided to launch HarassMap-Mumbai. it is a socio techno tool using crowdsourcing to enable women to report their experiences and citizens to spot and report unsafe spaces. The idea is to get women to report and engage local groups and the police to take action. This is possible if people use their mobiles and internet connections.
Check it out: HarassMap-Mumbai
भगत सिंह और आज का नौजवान: अपूर्वानंद
कभी कभी हर समाज में ऐसे क्षण आते हैं जब उसे अपने अस्तित्व के तर्क की पड़ताल करनी पड़ती है. उस समय वह अपने किन बौद्धिक संसाधनों का प्रयोग करता है और किन स्रोतों से तर्क की सामग्री जुटाता है, यह काफी महत्वपूर्ण है.क्या एक समाज के रूप में भारत के लिए अभी ऐसा ही कोई क्षण उपस्थित हो गया है? एक ऐसा तबका है जो भारत नामक किसी एक सामाजिक इकाई के बौद्धिक औचित्य को ही नहीं मानता. उसकी बात जाने दें.भारत अभी भी अनेकानेक लोगों के लिए एक यथार्थ है जिसकी अपनी भावनात्मक और बौद्धिक वैधता है.वे उसे बार-बार समझने और अपने लिए आयत्त करने की कोशिश करते हैं.इस क्रम में वे किनकी ओर देखते हैं? Continue reading भगत सिंह और आज का नौजवान: अपूर्वानंद
Commonwealth giving Sri Lanka carte blanche for human rights abuses: Amnesty International
This release was put out by AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL on 27 September 2013
Sri Lanka’s disturbing human rights record means it should be barred from hosting a key Commonwealth summit in November or chairing the organization, Amnesty International said ahead of a key meeting of Commonwealth foreign ministers today.
The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group – made up of foreign ministers and Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma, who gather to address violations of the Commonwealth’s fundamental values, including human rights – is meeting in New York today.
“Today’s meeting is an opportunity for the Commonwealth to show some real leadership on human rights. The organization has been shamefully silent so far about Sri Lanka’s human rights crisis– including the persistent lack of justice for past crimes and ongoing attacks on human rights defenders and other activists,” said Polly Truscott, Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia- Pacific Director. Continue reading Commonwealth giving Sri Lanka carte blanche for human rights abuses: Amnesty International
Twenty myths about the Pakistani Taliban: Raza Rumi
PUCL statement on the police raid at Prof GN Saibaba’s residence
24th September, 2013
STOP THE WITCHHUNT!
PUCL STATEMENT CONDEMNING THE POLICE RAID OF PROF. GN SAIBABA’S RESIDENCE
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) condemns the illegal raid and search of the residence Professor GN Saibaba of Delhi University on 12th September, 2013. Professor Saibaba is a differently abled person and is wheel chair bound. Ironically, over 50 police persons and intelligence officers raided his house! Prof Saibaba and his entire family including his minor daughter and the driver were all locked in different rooms, during the three-and-half-hour search. It is believed that the raid is pre-cursor to the imminent arrest of Prof Saibaba.
SEARCH WARRANT ILLEGAL
Continue reading PUCL statement on the police raid at Prof GN Saibaba’s residence
In the relief camps of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli
This report was prepared by a group of citizens (whose names are given at the end), and released on 20 September 2013.
A human tragedy unfolds, as the State watches, In the relief camps of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli Districts
A Preliminary Citizens’ Report
September 20, 2013
A. On September 17-18, 2013, an 11 member team consisting of both independent activists as well as activists affiliated with 5 organizations based in Lucknow, Chitrakoot, Muzaffarnagar and Delhi visited relief camps in two affected districts of Muzaffarnagar (3 Relief Camps – Madrasa camp at Bassi Kalan, Madrasa camp at Tawli and camp at Haji Aala’s house, Shahpur) and Shamli (3 Relief Camps – Madrasa camp on Panipat Road in Kairana, Malakpur camp in Kairana, and the Idgah camp in Kandhla). In Shamli District the team also met with senior members of the district administration – the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police.
B. This was not conceived of as a fact-finding visit, but was a recce visit to determine the human needs on the ground in the relief camps, and to see how we might plan to help survivors in initiating procedures towards criminal justice (lodging of FIRs and complaints), accessing compensation for death, injury, destruction of property, planning rehabilitation, and also to confirm unverified news reports of sexual violence against women. Continue reading In the relief camps of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli
In Support of Professor UR Ananthamurthy: Statement from the PEN Delhi Centre
September 21, 2013
Professor UR Ananthamurthy, the highly respected Kannada writer, has been harshly attacked for expressing his considered opinion of Mr Narendra Modi, who is a prime ministerial candidate in the forthcoming elections. Some of these attacks have been made by leaders of the BJP, who have called Mr Ananthamurthy “undemocratic” for criticizing Mr Modi. *
Such attacks are not unusual; over the past decade, several Indian writers, artists, film-makers and ordinary citizens have been attacked and sometimes threatened by interest groups and political supporters from almost all of the country’s major parties, for acts of political criticism. All of us at the newly established PEN Delhi Centre would like to say that Mr Ananthamurthy does not stand alone, and nor do any members of the literary community who have faced threats for exercising their right to free expression. Criticising any leader, political party or indeed any institution is both a democratic right and part of an artist’s right to interrogate the world that he or she inhabits. Continue reading In Support of Professor UR Ananthamurthy: Statement from the PEN Delhi Centre
भाषा का फासीवाद
भाषा का कार्य न तो प्रगतिशील होता है और न प्रतिक्रियावादी, वह फासिस्ट है: क्योंकि फासिज़्म अभिव्यक्ति पर पाबंदी नहीं लगाता, दरअसल वह बोलने को बाध्य करता है. रोलां बार्थ का यह वक्तव्य पहली नज़र में ऊटपटांग और हमारे अनुभवों के ठीक उलट जान पड़ता है. हम हमेशा से ही फासिज़्म को अभिव्यक्ति का शत्रु मानते आए हैं. लेकिन बार्थ के इस वक्तव्य पर गौर करने से, और हमारे आज के सन्दर्भ में खासकर, इसका अर्थ खुलने लगता है. इसके पहले कि हम आगे बात करें, यह भी समझ लेना ज़रूरी है कि बार्थ की खोज कुछ और थी. वे अर्थापन की नई विधि या पद्धति की तलाश में थे. अंततः उनकी खोज अर्थ से मुक्ति की थी, एक असंभव संधान लेकिन दिलचस्प: स्पष्टतः वह एक ऐसी दुनिया का स्वप्न देखता है जिसे अर्थ से मुक्ति हासिल होगी( जैसे किसी को अनिवार्य सैन्यसेवा से छूट मिली होती है). हम हिन्दुस्तानियों के लिए इसका पूरा अभिप्राय समझना कठिन है लेकिन एक अमेरीकी या रूसी या इस्राइली के लिए नहीं. उन्हें पता है कि वयस्क होते ही राज्य उनको सेना में भर्ती होने के लिए बाध्य कर सकता है. प्रसंगवश अनेक न्यूनताओं के बावजूद भारतीय लोकतंत्र के पक्ष में यह बात भी है कि उसने अपने नागरिक को सैन्य पदावली में परिभाषित नहीं किया. भारतीय होने की शर्त या उसकी कीमत अपना सैन्यीकरण नहीं है. Continue reading भाषा का फासीवाद
No Country for Visually Challenged Persons ?
Yesterday I got a call from Lucknow regarding an article I had penned down for a Hindi newspaper.
The focus of the write-up was the plight of four candidates – all of them visually challenged – who had cleared the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) examinations way back in 2008, scored more marks than many ‘normal’ students and were still waiting for appointment letters. The Commission as everybody knows is India’s central agency authorised to conduct civil services and other important examinations.
The caller said that he was one among the four and shared with me the long struggle he along with others were engaged in to get their due. Apathy exhibited by people in the higher echelons of the Commission as far as visually challenged persons are concerned is really disturbing. And it was not for the first time that it had failed to give appointment letters to such candidates. Merely three years back Ravi Prakash Gupta had to approach the highest courts of the country namely the Supreme Court to get his appointment letter. Last February it was the Prime Minister’s Office which had to intervene so that seven candidates from similar category could join their duty. Continue reading No Country for Visually Challenged Persons ?
Muzaffarnagar 2013 – Violence by Political Design: Centre for Policy Analysis
This fact-finding exercise was coordinated by the CENTRE FOR POLICY ANALYSIS. Team members were the human rights activist and former civil servant Harsh Mander; former Director-General of the Border Security Force, E N Rammohan; Professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy of Jawaharlal Nehru University; National Integration Council member John Dayal; senior journalist Sukumar Muralidharan and CPA Director and senior editor Seema Mustafa.
Introduction and Overview
The first impression of the Muzaffarnagar countryside, now green with the sugarcane ripening for harvest, is of utter desolation. Villages are tense with fear. Kasbas and hamlets are purged of their Muslim presence and the Hindu quarters have also emptied out in a self-imposed curfew even at midday, as women and children peep out from behind closed doors and windows, their menfolk having fled to avoid arrest as criminal complaints are made out against them. Fear is in the air. The atmosphere reeks of embitterment and betrayed trust, with neighbour now unwilling to trust neighbour, and apprehensive of ever returning to their accustomed lives. All the evidence points towards people who were forced to flee their habitations in sheer terror and seek out the safety of gathering among others of their own faith, occupying any vacant space in areas where they could be sure of not being targets just because of who they were.
“We will never go back to our villages”, say Muslim women refugees in a makeshift camp in the tehsil town of Budhana, some twenty kilometres from Muzaffarnagar. Continue reading Muzaffarnagar 2013 – Violence by Political Design: Centre for Policy Analysis
Common sense and Hindu nationalism – Why the Catholics in Goa are not Hindu: Albertina Almeida & Others
This Guest Post by ALBERTINA ALMEIDA, AMITA KANEKAR, DALE LUIS MENEZES, JASON KEITH FERNANDES AND R. BENEDITO FERRÃO is a response to a statement by Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar.
Can a Goan Catholic be Hindu? Can Catholics professing a tradition of Catholicism that is over five centuries old be considered Hindu in culture? This is what the Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar, sought to suggest in a recent interview with Sambuddha Mitra Mustafi of the New York Times India blog India Ink, where he said:
I am a perfect Hindu, but that is my personal faith, it has nothing to do with government. India is a Hindu nation in the cultural sense. A Catholic in Goa is also Hindu culturally, because his practices don’t match with Catholics in Brazil [a former Portuguese outpost like Goa]; except in the religious aspect, a Goan Catholic’s way of thinking and practice matches a Hindu’s. So Hindu for me is not a religious term, it is cultural. I am not the Hindu nationalist as understood by some TV media – not one who will take out a sword and kill a Muslim. According to me that is not Hindu behavior at all. Hindus don’t attack anyone, they only do so for self-defense – that is our history. But in the right sense of the term, I am a Hindu nationalist.
Parrikar’s bizarre statement was in response to the question of whether he saw himself as a Hindu nationalist. Of course, a quick and easy response to his statement would be to summarily dismiss it as expected rhetoric flowing from his saffron affiliations; yet, questions persist, not least because of the peculiar and oft-misrepresented Goan scenario. Continue reading Common sense and Hindu nationalism – Why the Catholics in Goa are not Hindu: Albertina Almeida & Others
NaMo NaMo or Namaste Sada Vatsale ..
Image Courtesy : http://www.truthofgujarat.com
It is now time for NaMo NaMo in BJP.
To quote a newspaper, Hindutva poster boy Narendra Modi has been declared candidate for Prime Minister’s post by the highest body of the Party.
As planned earlier there were celebrations at different party offices of the BJP spread over the country. It is a different matter that the party could not hide the fact that it was not a unanimous decision rather a majority decision. The ‘tallest leader’ or ‘mentor’ of the party L K Advani made his displeasure clear in a letter the very same day. And not only Advani till a day ago three members of the highest body – whose strength is 12 only – were vehemently opposing the proposal that the candidature be announced immediately and wanted it to be deferred till the assembly elections to five states were over. Two amongst them – Ms Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi – could be persuaded to join the anointment at the last moment only.
The comical part of the whole anointment has been the gentleman who had only a week ago declared that he would like to serve the state – where he was elected CM for the third time – till 2017, had no qualms in dropping all pretensions and rush to Delhi for the coronation. Continue reading NaMo NaMo or Namaste Sada Vatsale ..
In Delhi’s defence
By SHIVAM VIJ: The census counts ’urban agglomerations’, and the Census of India says that Mumbai is India’s largest urban agglomeration. This includes Mumbai’s suburbs. In counting Delhi, the suburbs are not added because They are separated by state boundaries. If you were to add suburbs of the ’National Capital Region’, Delhi’s population would be not 16 million but over 22 million, making it the world’s largest urban agglomeration after Tokyo. This bustling urban centre is made of its people. Today’s Delhi cannot be stereotyped as just the seat of power. There is more to Delhi than the endless roundabouts of Lutyens’ capital.
Delhi’s core – the Partition refugee Punjabi – is not xenophobic like the Marathi ’manoos’ of Mumbai. In fact Delhi today is what Bombay once was, India’s foremost cosmopolitan metropolis. It is the city of choice for people from across India to migrate to with dreams of riches.
A lot has been written about “the Delhi gang-rape”. 16 December 2012 started a conversation that doesn’t seem to end. This conversation has largely been about rape, not about Delhi.
Continue reading In Delhi’s defence
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 