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: HINDUTVA TARGETING BOLLYWOOD
Vinod Mubayi and Raza Mir
For better or for worse, the Indian film industry, sometimes referred to as Bollywood, remains an important marker of the Indian identity. Bollywood is truly a contested terrain where forces of neoliberalism clash with socialism, where communalism engages secularism, where rampant sexism meets the forces of feminism and caste ideology is reinforced and contested. Read more…
REVISITING P.C. JOSHI IN TODAY’S CONTEXT
Sobhanlal Datta Gupta
It is an irony of history that P.C. Joshi, the architect of united front politics in pre-independence India, is a much-maligned, almost forgotten, figure in today’s Left circles, although it is precisely his idea of forging unity with the secular, nationalist forces under the slogan “Left-democratic unity” that is the key issue which now engages the Left. Read more…
INSTITUTIONAL RIOT SYSTEM AND CULPABILITY IN COMMUNAL VIOLENCE
Irfan Engineer and Neha Dabhade
Whenever confronted by increasing intolerance and increase in incidences of communal violence in the country, the standard response of the BJP leaders and spokespersons is that incidences of communal violence took place even during UPA regime in particular and Congress regimes in general. They point out the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 in Delhi and other states; and various communal incidences that took place when Congress Party was in power. Besides the fact that incidences of communal violence have actually increased in the year 2015 to 650 from 644 in 2014, it would be simplistic equate the incidences of violence merely on the basis of statistics. Read more…
FIRST PERSON: A POLICE OFFICER’S ACCOUNT OF BEING HARASSED FOR STOPPING A RIOT IN RAJASTHAN
Ajaz Ashraf
Superintendent of Police Pankaj Choudhary stopped a riot, but got a call from the Inspector General in the Chief Minister’s Office to release Sangh activists arrested for triggering it. Read more…
WORMS FOUND IN BABA RAMDEV’S PATANJALI ATTA NOODLES
Ajay Kumar
Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Atta noodles, which were set to raise competition in the market, seem to be falling prey to controversies with worms being found in a packet in Narwana city of Jind district in One Vinod Kumar bought the Patanjali atta noodles packet containing worms from an authorised shop selling Patanjali products which was situated in Model Town road area of Narwana on Thursday. “I had gone to purchase half kg of ghee from the shop. Read more…
BANGLADESH: EXECUTIONS POLARIZE BANGLA ALONG LIBERAL & RADICAL LINES
Jaideep Mazumdar
DHAKA: Last week’s executions of two war criminals, convicted of genocide during the 1971liberation war that led to Bangladesh’s creation, have polarised the country along liberal and radical lines. Liberals say Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) functionary Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed’s hangings were necessary to defeat forces opposed to secular and progressive ideals the country was founded on. Read more…
INDIA, PAKISTAN TO RESUME DIALOGUE, BUT NO CRICKET YET
Amitabh Pashupati Revi
Sushma Swaraj, who went to Islamabad on Tuesday to attend a meeting on Afghanistan, today met Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Read more…
TETE A TETE WITH HISTORIAN IRFAN HABIB
Manjula Sen
The Yamuna Expressway scoops up the car from Noida, on the outskirts of Delhi, and deposits you at the other end where a forked market-lined road eventually leads to Aligarh. There the 138-year-old Aligarh Muslim University’s sparkling campus sits picture perfect. Read more…
JOINT STATEMENT CALLING ON THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF PAKISTAN TO VOTE AGAINST THE PREVENTION OF ELECTRONIC CRIMES BILL IN ITS CURRENT FORM
Article 19, Digital Rights Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, the Association for Progressive Communications and other organisations remain seriously concerned by the proposed Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill in Pakistan. Read more…
WILL A SRI LANKAN WOMAN BE STONED TO DEATH IN SAUDI ARABIA?
Faizer Shaheid
A verdict of death has once again been delivered in the great Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and this time it was rather a question of morality than that of murder. The unnamed Sri Lankan woman has been found guilty of fornication and has therefore been sentenced to be stoned to death. Such is the infamous Shari’a law applied in Saudi Arabia. Read more…
I WORRY ABOUT MUSLIMS
Mohammed Hanif
KARACHI, Pakistan — I worry about Muslims. Islam teaches me to care about all human beings, and animals too, but life is short and I can’t even find enough time to worry about all the Muslims. Read more…
INDIA UNDER MODI IS LIVING THROUGH A DARK AGE: PROFESSOR DN JHA
Teesta Setalvad, of Communalism Combat interviews Professor DN Jha on Dietary Traditions in Early India, the calculated mis-representation of Early Indian and Medieval History by the present government under the direct control of the Sangh Parivar and the ‘dark age ‘ of Superstition and un-Reason being promoted by the current political dispensation. Read more…
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