Is online freedom under threat in India? How one religious scholar fought for women's rights and won. Oxford, United Kingdom - "Tradition" is usually taken to be an obstacle to reform. "Traditional societies" are assumed to be reluctant to change, or worse, harbour nostalgic notions of going back to some mythical golden age.
Gandhi was criticised for imagining an India of ancient "village republics" for which no historical evidence could be found. In the Islamic world, traditionalists are often assumed to wish to return to medieval times, in a pejorative sense. In many contexts the term "traditional" is actually used to mean "backward". But can some "traditionalists" bring about radical social reform of a very "modern" sort? One of the hallmarks of backwardness is how "traditional" societies treat women. Democracy, after all, is supposed to be a great equaliser. Some people argue that it is not possible to give a "liberal" twist to ancient scriptures and commentaries which were composed in very different times.
Hindu widow remarriage Modern reforms Abolition of 'sati' In pictures: Mumbai - Chronicles of a past life. Muslims hold the key in crucial Indian state - Features. Lucknow, India - Arif seems pleased as he drives us around the by-lanes of Lucknow and explains his good humour, ''We are spoilt for choice. All parties want our votes. Earlier there was only one criterion: to keep the right-wing Hindu party at bay. But now we will CHOOSE.'' The Muslim vote is being wooed like never before in Uttar Pradesh. UP, the most important of all states, is home to over 38 million Muslims.
Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP) managed to rope in the support of Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid (the central mosque of Delhi), Maulana Bukhari, who asserts, ''The promises made in the Samajwadi Party poll manifesto had convinced me there is a ray of hope for Muslims, and after talks with Mulayam Singh 'sahab' on the quota issue I came to Lucknow to issue an appeal to the minority community to support the SP''. Rahul Gandhi, who leads the Congress Party, has already proposed a 4.5 per cent reservation in jobs for backward among Muslims. Reservations for Muslims. Anti-corruption debate divides India - Features. Six months after millions of Indians took to the streets protesting against corruption, the government has rejected anti-corruption legislation.
Anna Hazare, an anti-corruption activist, whose two-phase fast-unto-death catapulted him to national hero status, is sick and the movement he spearheaded seems to have lost momentum. "The anti-corruption movement was a reflection of people’s anger and frustration. It was also the issue of maladministration and corruption in government agencies," Nikhil Dey, a social activist associated with the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, told Al Jazeera. Some degree of corruption has long been a seeming reality in Indian life, but a string of corporate scams - to the tune of some $40bn - involving senior federal officials has enraged the public. Mismanagement and financial irregularities in the organisation of Commonwealth Games, which was almost on the verge of being scrapped, hurt the pride of India’s nouveau riche middle class.