South Asia Citizens Web

In both cases an entrenched secular-nationalist elite had been dislodged by a coalition that explicitly embraced the religion of a demographic majority.

A November 2014 television debate in Hindi on India’s state run Rajya Sabha TV with : Siddharth Varadarajan (Senior Journalist & Sr. Fellow, Centre for Public Affairs & Critical Theory) ; Zoya Hasan (Former Professor of Political Science, JNU & National Fellow, ICSSR) ; Mridula Mukherjee (Historian, JNU) ; Sambit Patra (National Spokesperson) ; Manoj Kumar Jha (National Spokesperson, RJD)

There had always been in Pakistan the Deobandi school of thought, co-existing easily and without conflict with other denominations and sects of Islam. The occasional sectarian clash did occur but it was rare. However, under the impact of the Afghan ‘jihad’, in which Deobandi religious parties stood in the forefront, sectarianism and bigotry acquired harder edges in Pakistani society.

Rajya Sabha TV on 21st Nov. 2014 organized a very good discussion in its ‘DESH DESHANTAR’ programme on the subject “Business of Faith” in the context of latest episode regarding arrest of so called Baba Rampal in Haryana.
This programme ought to be helpful to all those who are engaged in the fight against evils of blind faith and superstitions which are one of the prime causes of political, social and economic exploitation of the poor and ignorant mass of India. I wish this discussion to (…)

November 2014 briefing by The India Study Group:
Faster environmental approvals and land acquisition feature on most newspapers’ "top five" priority lists for India’s economic reforms. But will these reforms actually achieve what they’re intended to achieve?