Articles

December 6, 2022 will mark the completion of three decades since the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The time bomb that was planted in the wake of India’s independence, with the surreptitious installation of idols at the mosque on the night of 22-23 December 1949, exploded in broad daylight on 6 December 1992 afternoon, when a mob pulled down the mosque in the cheering presence of top BJP leaders. If future historians ever seek to identify a specific moment to trace the rise of communal fascism in today’s India, the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 will undeniably be that moment. India has changed dramatically since that demolition. With every passing day we are now realising ever more acutely that the Ayodhya campaign of the Sangh-BJP camp was not about demolition o...

Posted by: John Phoenix ‘Survival of the Richest’ is the title of the Oxfam Global Inequality Report 2022 released on January 16, 2023. The report, coinciding with the annual global jamboree of the rich and the powerful in the World Economic Forum, gives us a revealing picture of the growing income and wealth inequality, inequality that grew alarmingly during the pandemic and is reinforced constantly by the regressive taxation pattern in the neoliberal era where the poor are taxed heavily while the rich get away with paying very little taxes. This global picture becomes all the more shocking in Modi’s New India where the richest are having a gala carnival. The 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement had drawn the world’s attention to mounting inequality with the slogan ‘We Are the 99 P...

by the Modi Regimeby Dipankar Bhattacharya Having narrowly retained power in Tripura, the Modi government has launched an all-out offensive against the opposition by using the lethal combination of street power, propaganda and state power that has become the hallmark of this fascist regime. After relatively peaceful elections in Tripura, the Sangh brigade has unleashed a renewed reign of post-poll terror, vendetta and violence in the state, targeting opposition parties, their voters and even the fact-finding team of Left and Congress MPs and MLAs who were on a visit to the terror-stricken state. At the same time, to blunt the oppositional edge of the TIPRA Motha, the regional party which emerged in the elections as the leading non-BJP party in the state assembly, the Modi governmen...

by Clifton D’Rozario Earlier last week, Modi, in the customary address before the start of Parliament session, stated that India assuming presidency of the G20 was opportunity for the world to know India as “the mother of democracy, with its diversity and courage”. This theme has become recurring, as Modi faithfully peddles RSS’s mantra that “India is the mother of democracy”. We heard this in Modi’s speech at the UN General Assembly in September 2021 and more recently in his Independence Day speech. No surprise then that the theme of the Constitution Day celebrations (November 26) this year, was “India: The Mother of Democracy”. Accompanying instructions issued by the Union government in this regard, was a Concept Note by the Indian Council of Hist...

by Akash Bhattachary Demystifying Saffron Since July 2022, a short and accessible 64-page book giving a comprehensive overview of the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been making waves. Divided into three parts, the book provides a thorough critique of the RSS and connects its overall political-ideological program with the saffron politics of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and a range of “autonomous” outfits such as Sri Ram Sene, Bajrang Dal and others. Originally published in Kannada, it sold over 40,000 copies in no time. It gradually translated into multiple Indian languages. Laden with quotations from leading RSS ideologues, especially M.S. Golwalkar, it is a powerful manifesto of resistance. The book is intended for people grappling with the seemingly all-pervas...

by Shankar V On the face of it, Tamil Nadu is one of the weakest states for the BJP from where the party has no representation in Lok Sabha and only four members in the State Assembly. Because of the deep roots of the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu and the powerful influence of progressive social values, it is often thought that the soil of Tamil Nadu is impenetrable for the BJP and its regressive social outlook and Hindi-dominated Hindutva ideology. But it will be a major mistake to ignore the BJP’s growing political presence and ideological influence in Tamil Nadu. Riding on the back of a faction-ridden AIADMK and various other anti-DMK parties in Tamil Nadu, the saffron camp is quietly but steadily gaining ground in the state. Apart from trying various permutations and comb...

by Maitreyi Krishnan The lynching of Idrees Pasha on 31st March in Ramanagara district (of Karnataka), at the hands of religious extremist Puneet Kerehalli and his associates from Rashtra Rakshana Pade points to the manner in which law and order in Karnataka has been held ransom by Hindutva Extremists in the name of cow protection.   Idrees Pasha, along with two others Syed Zaheer and Irfan, were in a vehicle transporting cattle when they were intercepted by Puneet Kerehalli and his associates in front of Sathanur police station. These extremists made unfounded allegations of illegal transport of cattle for slaughter, hurled abuses and remarked that they should "go to Pakistan". According to reports, Idrees Pasha ran a distance away before a police constable intervened and ...