Diversity & nationalism are complementary and not antagonistic to each other. The Constitution is built around the principle that Indians can love their country without surrendering any other equally legitimate identity. Ideas to think about on 15 August.
The story of the Vikassheel Insaan Party or VIP, a party of the Nishad community in Bihar, is important for understanding the positives and negatives of the rise of small caste-based political parties whose only agenda is reservation and representation.
Article 370 is a permanent and not temporary provision of the Constitution that assures Jammu and Kashmir autonomy. Its content may have been hollowed out but it remains important for the people of Kashmir. Calls to scrap it are based on a misinterpretation.
Cultural factors do not explain why so few women are in paid work. The demands of housework and the need to care for the elderly limit the ability of many women to work outside. When they do look for work, it is neither available close by nor easy to get to.
The deep insecurity of nation-states in a networked world makes governments demand that internet data be retained in the country where it is generated. India’s approach is in line with this approach but the idea of “data sovereignty” is meaningless today.
Renewable energy capacity has expanded globally but this does not as yet mark a shift away from fossil fuels. On current trends, energy use from CO2-emitting fuels will continue to rise in the future. Talk of decarbonisation of the world economy is premature.
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The rout in the Lok Sabha polls need not mark the demise of the Left in Kerala. If the Left were to draw on the power of its historical social reform movement that was
rooted in a civilisational ethos, it can hold its ground against the BJP in the state.
In making the shift to renewable energy, India has to manage the disruption of long-standing institutional and political arrangements in ways that enable clean energy in a sustainable manner.
Two recent books that talk about India’s Constitution as a people’s charter and its transformative character remind us why it remains an enduring document.
Mainstream media was delegitimised over the past five years by the BJP government. Co-option and self-censorship by this media have followed. Alongside, the use of social media has grown hugely, making the likes of Whatsapp powerful weapons in elections.
An affectionate tribute to the low-brow humorists of the British Empire who wrote in the early-mid 20th century. Or is this a symptom of "a post-colonial condition brought on by the native collaborator’s false nostalgia for colonial master narratives"?
"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”.
