South Asia Citizens Web

Hindu assertion, like other forms of contemporary political chauvinism, is deeply connected with structural transformation and new modes of social aspiration. It reflects not only a changing alignment of upwardly mobile and dominant classes. It also points to a reaction against the erstwhile paradigm of postcolonial development, a paradigm that buckled under the pressures it was subject to.

An odd silence has surrounded the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the last few months — as if food insecurity were a thing of the past. It may be recalled that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), far from opposing the Act, vociferously demanded a more comprehensive law when the NFSA was being discussed in Parliament in 2013.

When exactly did we lose basant and what precisely do we want revived?

Coming down from Sikkim, you will see the River Teesta wind its way down resplendent with natural energy gurgling down to Siliguri, where it evens out. I am told Teesta Setalvad was named after the river — perhaps mystically drawing energy from it. Amongst the secular forces which came together to speak for the victims of the Gujarat holocaust of 2002 and combat communalism were Teesta Setalvad and the trusts: Sabrang and Citizens for Justice and Peace. The BJP rulers of Gujarat have never taken too kindly to this intervention, and attacked them using the strategy of criminal intimidation.

Hindi translation of Dilip Simeon’s article ’The Abolition of truth’ of 29 January 2015 on Gandhi and Godse worshippers.