What Hindus can and should be proud of. A bhadralok friend of mine is of the view that the Government of India should celebrate every December 16 as Vijay Diwas, Victory Day, to mark the surrender in 1971 of the Pakistani forces in Dhaka to the advancing Indian Army.
My friend argues that such a celebration would take Indians in general, and Hindus in particular, out of the pacifist, defeatist mindset that he claims has so crippled them. The triumph in Dhaka represents for him the finest moment in a millenia otherwise characterised by Indian (and more specifically Hindu) humiliation at the hands of foreigners. I was reminded of my friend’s fond fantasy when reading about the posters in Mumbai recently put up by members of the Bharatiya Janata Party. These carry portraits of a prominent BJP leader, with two accompanying slogans: ‘I AM A HINDU NATIONALIST,’ in English, and ‘Garv sé Kaho Ham Hindu Hain’, in Hindi. The latter slogan needs perhaps to be translated for south Indian readers, and set in context for younger ones. Judicial overreach. No pink chaddis for PMK. …turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path.
B.R. Ambedkar, in Annihilation of Caste, 1936 In 2009, around Valentine’s Day, when Sri Rama Sene, a fringe Hindu chauvinist group led by Pramod Muthalik, targeted pub-going women in Mangalore, it became international news. Their infamy owed in no small measure to the “Pink Chaddi Campaign” by the irreverently named Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women. From The New York Times to our raucous news channels, everyone enjoyed the spectacle of young, articulate, savvy, urban women neatly pitted against Hindutva bigots opposed to their drinking or dating. Since November 2012, in northern Tamil Nadu, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has led a campaign with far worse consequences. This cycle of violence culminated in the July 4 death of E. In sheer scale — both of moral policing and damage to lives and property — Ramadoss and the PMK have far exceeded Muthalik and Rama Sene. India may be a middle-income country, but that doesn't make it wealthy.
Women sew scarves inside an ashram shelter for widows in Vrindavan.
Shunned by society, India's widows are vulnerable to poverty. Photograph: Nicky Loh/Getty Images Last month, I gave evidence to the UK's House of Commons select committee inquiry on the future of UK development co-operation. A range of issues were discussed, but three misunderstandings stood out. First, middle-income countries are not "rich".
It is sensible to make the case that the UK has to prioritise its scarce resources, and should therefore focus on the very poorest countries. To suggest that India is "wealthy enough to deal with its own problems" and "no longer needs aid" – comments that are quite common – is ridiculous, verging on inhumane. Unfortunately, we have been enticed into thinking in this way because the $1 and $2 a day poverty lines are so ingrained in our analysis. So devising arguments about why not to give aid to India is one thing, saying it's a rich country quite another. Anglo-Indians: Is their culture dying out? 4 January 2013Last updated at 01:46 GMT A product of the British Empire, with a mixture of Western and Indian names, customs and complexions, 2,000 Anglo-Indians are to attend a reunion in Calcutta.
But their communities in both the UK and the subcontinent are disappearing, writes Anglo-Indian Kris Griffiths. Southall in west London is home to Britain's first pub accepting rupees, railway station signs in English and Punjabi, and main thoroughfares alive all year with street food stalls, colourful saris and Bhangra music. It's my hometown, where I spent my first 20 years among the country's most concentrated population of Indians, but as one of the minority 10% white British inhabitants. Indeed, I was the only white person on my avenue in the years before I left. My mother is Anglo-Indian, raised in Jamshedpur, near Calcutta, before moving eventually to London's own "Little India".
Continue reading the main story About the author. Answer to Narendra Modi: How do rational and liberal Modi supporters convince themselves about his innocence regarding the 2002 riots. Is it a ‘police stand’? A most shocking case of policemen apprehending poor young boys on a complaint of theft by a few traders and subsequently not only chaining and locking them up but also of brutalising them has come to light recently.
The police brass first tried to cast aspersions on the media house that had broken the story and when they realised that this was one ghost that was not going to go away, a handful of constables have been suspended. No one in her or his senses is prepared to believe that the guilty police officers will be punished. In fact if you were to interview a large section of the population you would realise that the police have successfully earned the distrust of almost everybody. You would be told that sooner than later the suspended constables will be back at their duty in the same police station or in another nearby.