India’s revocation of Kashmir’s relative “autonomy” embodies everything that its new “Israeli” ally wishes it could do to Palestine such as eliminating its separate political status and giving non-residents of the UNSC-recognized disputed territory the right to buy property there as part of its long-term plan to wage demographic warfare against the locals, yet few...
Category: Special Column
Kashmir Crisis: 5 Signs of a Modi Misadventure in the Making
Aditya Menon Kashmir is in crisis but no one really knows what the crisis is. The only piece of information from the government in the public domain is a statement from Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satyapal Malik’s office that “there were inputs of a possible attack on the Amarnath Yatra”. J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik...
Clip of the Anti Talaq Bill passed by Lok Sabha for the Second Time
The #BJP4India led Government is propagating this Bill as against #TripleTalaq only and #IndianModia is airing it as #TripleTalaqBill. These are utterly misleading and untru By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi The socalled Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill (2019) which was passed by the Lok Sabha in Indian Parliament on 25 July 2019 for...
Why the Shudras are lost in today’s India- Final Part
This hurts their performance and their post-graduation prospects. Proficiency in only a regional language also restricts them to regional opportunity and discourse. For better or worse, the highest levels of Indian business, bureaucracy, diplomacy, media, education and so much more function primarily in English. A great number of global institutions do so too. Shudras have...
Why the Shudras are lost in today’s India- Part 3
In bringing them to where they are today, MK Gandhi and Ram Manohar Lohia were crucial not just as politicians, but also as thinkers who shaped Indian mores. Both were organic intellectuals of the Banias, both had prestigious Western educations and mastery over English, and both wrote and published extensively. They gained immense stature amid...
Why the Shudras are lost in today’s India- Part 2
NARENDRA MODI BECAME PRIME MINISTER in 2014 on the back of proclamations that he belonged to the Other Backward Classes, implying that he was a representative of the Shudras. Many accepted the proclamation without the scrutiny it deserves. Looking closely at Modi’s caste group, the Modh Ghanchis of Gujarat, we should be skeptical of his assertion...
Why the Shudras are lost in today’s India- Part 1
When the government implemented the Mandal Commission recommendations, in the early 1990s, it was meant to be a watershed moment for the Shudras. The measure reserved positions in government employment and public higher education for the Other Backward Classes—a category made up overwhelmingly of disadvantaged Shudra castes, traditionally labourers and craftspeople. The commission had identified...
What Is Fascism And ‘How Does Fascism’s Vicious and Grotesque Ideology Work’?
MD IRSHAD AYUB The term Fascism refers to “the aggressive, radical and ultra-nationalist ideology as well as right wing political system, which believes in the ideas of totalitarian, authoritarianism, centralised and corporate state.” The word fascism comes from fascio, the Italian word for bundle, which in this case represents bundles of people. Its origins go...
The case for peace
By Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam A few weeks ago I had written a piece, “Let’s give peace a chance.” In it I had argued for co-operating with the Supreme Court-ordered Ayodhya mediation committee that seeks to find an amicable out-of-court settlement of the dogged Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi conflict. I had argued for a settlement of...
Zaira Waseem, Choices, and a Clash of Worldviews
Zaira Wasim, the Bollywood actress who declared her dissociation from the industry last weekend, has grabbed many an eyeball both for the right and wrong reasons. While fellow Muslims, who have even the slightest bit of imaan and can see through the filth of Bollywood, have lauded her for her courageous move on the Path...