communalism Archive04 October- 23 December 2003

23 December, 2003

Social Engineering To The Fore -
BJP Sweeps the Assembly Elections
By Ram Puniyani

It is not just the electoral victory for Sangh Parivar but also is the success of its Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram

11 December, 2003

Defeat And Its Consequences
By Mani Shankar Aiyar

The Hindutva brigade have installed three of the ugliest faces of communalism in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, and virtually handed over Chhattisgarh to the tender ministrations of Dilip Singh Judeo. The secular parties must rise from their slumber and form a rainbow coalition

Ayodhya Celebrating Intercommunity Relations
By Ram Puniyani

On 20th November hundreds of Muslims came to the biggest and most popular temple in Ayodhya, Hanuman garhi. They offered Namaz and broke the fast in the sacred precincts of this temple

05 December, 2003

Trishul To darkness
By Rahul Bose

India seems destined to pass through a dark tunnel before it sees light again

01 December, 2003

Hitler, Hindutava And Its Allies
By Balram

The violent dance of death is being played all around the world. It's clothed in saffron these days in India. This Hindutva terrorism in saffron robes which Gujarat has suffered and which is being sought to be spread in rest of India, is borne out of the same psycho-space where Jihadi terrorism takes roots

25 November, 2003

War Films Are Right Up The Parivar's Street
By Saibal Chatterjee

An influential section of the Mumbai film industry has willingly accepted the onus of furthering the one cause that is central to the perpetuation of the might of the rightwing - kindling and sustaining the fire of patriotism in the hearts of the masses. Hasn't anybody around here heard the old adage about patriotism being the last resort of the scoundrel?

23 November, 2003

Manufacturing History
By Ram Puniyani

Islam spread in India first due to the Arab traders. Later it spread here due the influence of Sufi saints. Those who converted to Islam were the low caste untouchables who wanted to escape the tyranny of Brahmins and Janindars, those who aspired for entry in the places of worship which was barred to the low caste, those who aspired for social equality

20 November, 2003

'Promise Of India'- A New Beginning
By Raju Rajagopal And Aruna Srinivasan

Recently, some 80 NRI organisations came together to form an umbrella body called 'Promise of India' (POI), with a view to voicing their collective concerns on communal harmony and development issues. An interview with Raju Rajagopal who chairs the steering committee of POI

12 November, 2003

Learning In Saffron: RSS Schools Orissa
By Angana Chatterji

Sangh Parivar's tentacles have spread and thickened in Orissa during the last five years with the spread of Sangh Parivar education institutions throughout the state

06 November, 2003

Poison Myths
By Anil Chamadia and Subhash Gatade

There is no correlation between the rate of growth of population and religion. Population growth rates are influenced by socio-economic and cultural factors

03 November, 2003

Keeping Habib Tanvir’s Naya Theatre Onstage
By Githa Hariharan

Every new attack on the already shrinking spaces of our cultural practitioners restricts and falsifies their art. Equally, it deprives the right of our people to information, ideas, debate

02 November, 2003

Orissa: A Gujarat In The making
By Angana Chatterji

With little resistance to its aggressive onslaught, the sangh parivar looks well set to meet its 2006 deadline for reshaping Orissa into the next ‘laboratory for Hindutva’

01 November, 2003

Hindutva versus Hinduism
By Saral Jhingran

The core of traditional Hinduism is religious toleration. In contrast, Hindutva's central message is aggression and destruction of enemies, real or imagined

31 October, 2003

Rambhakti Unveiled
By Ram Puniyani

Why is the meter of Rambhakti breaking the upper barriers whenever elections are announced?

Of Sense And Sanskrit
By J Sri Raman

Politics and ideology are driving the aggressive promotion of Sanskrit and this has given the language - the mother of many South Asian languages - an image it does not deserve

30 October, 2003

A Saint Marches In...
By Poornima Joshi

The formidable Mahant Gyan Das builds up a popular resistance to the VHP

Hindutva's Strategic Crisis
By Praful Bidwai

The Sangh Parivar faces a strategic crisis after the failure of the "Sankalp Sammelan" and the isolation it faced in Ayodhya

28 October, 2003

Gandhi: An Apostle Of Violence?
By C Rammanohar Reddy

One of the ads in the `India Shining' series put out by the Government of India quoting Mahatma Gandhi out of context as though he is exhorting the people to violence is the last in a series of efforts by the government to distort history

25 October, 2003

Ayodhya's Forgotten Muslim Past
By Yoginder Sikand

Hindutva ideologues insist that Ayodhya must be theirs alone. Reinventing tradition and myth, they claim that Ayodhya has always been Hindu, thus promoting it to the status of a Hindu Vatican. But it did have a Budhist and Muslim past

23 October, 2003

Ayesha And the Scarf
By Ram Puniyani

Its time we struggle against the deeper disease which gives rise to the symptom of terrorism rather than letting a particular religious community be demonized by the vested elements globally and locally

13 October, 2003

Muslims In The Forces
By A.G. Noorani

Even over half a century after Partition, communal prejudice continues to blight Muslims hopes of economic advancement in India

12 October, 2003

Misquoting To Save Advaniji
By Manoj Mitta

Anju Gupta was in charge of Advani’s security on the day Babri Masjid fell. Her testimony is the most damning against him. And yet, Rae Bareli magistrate quotes her to discharge Advani

09 October, 2003

Ayodhya's Voice
By Asghar Ali Engineer

"Hindu-Muslim unity is more important than the temple" This is the voice from Ayodhya

08 October, 2003

Marad Settlement Mocks The Justice System
By The Moderator, India Thinkers Net

The youth of Kerala can now be assured that being a goonda,preferably a communal goonda or terrorist is much more worthwhile than being a model citizen. If one gets injured or killed in a clash , there will be 'state insurance' for huge amounts plus government jobs

07 October, 2003

Historical Pedagogy Of The Sangh Parivar
By Tanika Sarkar

The urgency of building up counters to the Sangh entails the construction of alternative histories that the Sangh cannot accommodate, that provide the vital lie to the Sangh’s monochromatic narrative of Hindu community and its others

04 October, 2003

The Riot Economy:The Ganj Basoda Case

The riots erupted on the 14th of January, 2003 in Ganj Basoda, a small town of Madhya Pradesh was attributed to the slaughter of a cow. This article following the incident and its surroundings inverts this modality to argue that the alleged ‘cow-slaughter’, far from being a reason of the riots could only have been a necessary appendage of the economy of the riot itself

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