In recent times, backed by the formidable power of the state, Hindu India and Islamic Pakistan have vigorously injected religion into both politics and society. The result is their rapid re-tribalisation through ‘meme transmission’ of primal values. A concept invented by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, the meme is a ‘piece of thought’ transferrable from person to person by imitation. Like computer viruses, memes can jump from mind to mind.
South Asia Citizens Web
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Why they lynched Mashal Khan and Pehlu Khan
by , 29 April 2017 -
India’s Growing Consensus
by , 29 April 2017Achin Vanaik on 2017 regional elections in India that handed Modi’s BJP important new majorities. How can it be stopped?
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Video: ’Emphasize citizenship over narrow identities’ - Dipankar Gupta interview
29 April 2017Well known Indian journalist Bharat Bhushan interviews the sociologist Dipankar Gupta on the question of identity politics. A video by Catch News
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India: Press Statement by Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (VVJVA) [A social movement opposed to displacement]
28 April 2017The Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (VVJVA) strongly condemns the home ministry’s move to suppress resistance against forced displacement and corporate land grab by terming peoples movements like Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti and VVJVA Jharkhand unit as Maoist party front organizations which must be crushed. This is a calculated strategy of the home ministry to create an atmosphere that will enable the repression of not just these movements but also many others who are putting up a strong resistance against the anti- people agenda of the corporate and the government.
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2017 US report on religious freedom says minorties & secular intelligentsia under attack
28 April 2017In 2016, the frequency of violent and deadly attacks against religious minorities, secular bloggers, intellectuals, and foreigners by domestic and transnational extremist groups increased
read the Bangladesh section from the full report here:
