India’s maharajahs during colonial rule were much more than the stereotypes we have of profligate spenders and incompetent rulers. They were complicated personalities who could subtly resist imperial pressures and at times supported the nationalist cause.
Until the recent killings of minorities, there was an unusual silence in Kashmir valley. Kashmir’s situation reveals the tell-tale signs of a region pushed into a vortex of irrecoverable misery, thanks to monumental official blunders.
"What does it mean then to remember the ‘horror’ of partition at a time when identities are so polarised. Do we remember only what was done to us, leaving out all that we did to others and to our own?"
"Algorithm recommendations help us find exactly what we like in an incomprehensible number of options. The question is: who decides what the labels are, what gets put into these boxes and, therefore, what we end up watching, listening to and reading?"
There is ample scientific and epidemiological evidence to indicate it is safe to reopen schools for children of all ages. It is not a question of whether to reopen schools, but what should be done to bring children back to the classroom.
Even as courts begin to consider the lawfulness of restrictions on same-sex marriages, queer groups should engage with the burdens of legal marriages and help build on feminist efforts to turn marriage into an equal partnership.
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Zia’s ethnography of Kashmiri women activists seeking redressal for the enforced disappearance of their relatives resonates with the struggles faced by many across India's conflict zones.
Islamophobia in India erases Muslims even as it hyper-visiblises them: disempowering them and diminishing their worth. Ironically, even secular-minded people diminish its seriousness by asking Muslims to ignore the hate campaigns and focus on 'real issues'.
The push worldwide to give everyone a legal identity was to allow people better access to financial and public services. But this endeavour has quickly morphed into promoting Digital IDs that are increasingly used for surveillance and control.
Arguing that race in America is actually caste, Isabel Wilkerson seeks to startle the readers who may have become numbed by debates on race. But by overplaying what is not much more than a clever analogy, she might actually be weakening her argument.
"The peak of language capacities is not in simply effective usage, but rather in giving language to that which is hitherto unsaid." An experiment in Bihar responds to the aspiration for English through 'counter-stories' that challenge mainstream narratives.
"In a conflict-ridden space like Kashmir, can working-class people express and understand the world in a language that is not their own, while simultaneously aspiring to be upwardly mobile? Is that desire worth the struggle it takes to reach there?"
Challenging India's legal system that privileges the father for custody of a child was a painful process. However, much was gained. My case was a legal first in India for women.
Achievements and struggles of India’s Insolvency Code
In its first five years, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has recorded some high-profile successes but also a failure to ensure a higher recovery of debt. Implementation has to improve if the code is to successfully balance the interest of all stakeholders.
While attempts by the ruling party to control the media and the messaging are not new in India, what we see now is the use of new technology to ‘curate’ and exercise ‘centralised control’ to spread disinformation in order to harass and intimidate critics.
The principle that Hindus can rule and marginalise others has firmly established itself beyond the BJP and the RSS. This emerging ethnocracy in India draws on electoral victories and legislative majorities, making formal suspension of democracy unnecessary.
"Tiffin" is a snack that keeps you going until the next meal. Tiffin also conveys the sense of an occasion where you engage in friendly conversation and discussion. In that spirit, “Tiffin”-- also linked to our acronym TIF -- is a new section that will offer articles covering topics other than “contemporary issues”.
