Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
EDITORIAL: RIGHT TURN AHEAD
Vinod Mubayi and Raza Mir
The news continues to be bleak for progressive activists the world over, especially in India. Murderous attacks on minorities and the marginalized by savage mobs, calling themselves “gau-rakshaks” (cow protectors) continue unabated. The police, instructed by ruling BJP politicians, look the other way or harass and arrest the victims as happened in the case of the dairy farmer Pehlu Khan, lynched by a Hindutva mob in Alwar, for the “crime” of transporting a milch cow he had legally purchased. Read more…
ETHICS IS THE ANSWER
Anand Patwardhan
With fiery orange hidden under a newfound tricolor, Narendra Modi’s rise to power saw a mushrooming of the RSS and affiliates like the ABVP. Pseudo “nationalism” invaded every campus. Read more…
THE CONSPIRACY BEHIND BABRI MOSQUE DEMOLITION
Ram Puniyani
After the long wait, the Supreme Court Chief Justice J.S. Khehar opined that long pending dispute of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid should be settled out of court. (March 2017) He even offered to mediate himself in the matter. Read more…
DELHI POLICE FAIL TO IDENTIFY MEN WHO BEAT UP BUFFALO TRADERS, BUT BOOK VICTIMS FOR ANIMAL CRUELTY
Abhishek Dey
“My friends pleaded for mercy. They kept screaming that they were transporting buffaloes and not cows. All this fell on deaf ears.” Read more…
HOW THE SP AND BSP HELPED ADITYANATH GET AWAY WITH HIS HATE SPEECHES
Shahnawaz Alam
If a political figure finds general acceptance as a ‘firebrand’ leader in a country like India, it only reveals the flaws in our democratic system. Read more…
GAINED IN TRANSLATION: LIFE LESSONS FOR MY STUDENTS
Perumal Murugan
I am a teacher in a government college, where 90 per cent of my students are first-generation learners. These are students, who during their school days, juggle classroom work with jobs that involve some form of physical labour. Read more…
SINKING VALLEY
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
It is an unmistakable sign of the corrosion of Indian democracy that an odd combination of illusions and nauseating bravado is being spun in Delhi around the grim political situation in Kashmir. Read more…
WHERE ARE INDIA’S DISSENTING HINDUS?
Harsh Mander
As anti-Muslim rhetoric festers, the Hindu majority continues to fail to raise its voice against the BJP’s toxic politics of hate. Read more…
AN INTERVIEW WITH ANAND PATWARDHAN
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
For over 40 years Anand Patwardhan’s documentary films have stood for freedom of expression. He faced censorship on numerous occasions, took the government to court, and won each time. Read more…
KANDHAMAL: WHITHER JUSTICE FOR VIOLENCE VICTIMS
Ram Puniyani
Book Review: Kandhalmal: Introspection for Initiative for Justice 2007-2015, Vrinda Grover and Saumya Uma, Media House and United Christian Forum, Delhi 2017 Read more…
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH REPORT ON ATTACKS ON STUDENTS, TEACHERS, AND SCHOOLS IN PAKISTAN
Attacks by the Taliban and other militant groups are having a devastating impact on education in Pakistan, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released a day before the Second International Conference on Safe Schools in Buenos Aires, Argentina. … Read more…
I, MIGRANT
Kamila Shamsie
One London night, a few weeks after Brexit, something happened as I was walking to a bus stop that had never happened in the 9 years since I’d moved to the UK: a man (white, young, Londoner by his accent) shouted abuse at me and followed up with ‘Go back where you came from’. Read more…
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