By Mosarrap H. Khan
Prof. Sen’s painstaking excavation of a past argumentative tradition in India does justice to our understanding of Indian democratic culture and shows us the relevance of such a tradition in our own times for finding solutions to sectarian politics. What we further require is an understanding of the psyche of the ‘Emotional Indian’ in the general framework of the ‘Argumentative Indian’.
By Shreya Ila Anasuya
Given that this law was passed in 1860 by the colonial government, it is doubly absurd that it is now being upheld in order to preserve ‘Indian culture’. Even a cursory interrogation of this law will place it firmly within the framework of Victorian morality, which then becomes violently translated into upper-caste, elite Hindu nationalism.
By Shreya Ila Anasuya
From singing Lady Gaga to a rousing Hindi protest song asking who it is – exactly – that can possibly be threatened by people asking for freedom. From warning the participants not to betray their queer communities by voting for a party that has expressly supported the Supreme Court verdict, to dancing to the wonderfully apt ‘Pyar kiya toh darna kya?’
By Nienke Boer
We should take courage from the public outcry that has followed this decision. Homosexuality in India is now, more than ever, a subject of public discussion, an issue for debate. The shame the Victorian legislators tried to brand onto this form of desire is being eradicated, and it is no longer a whispered taboo.
By Mosarrap H. Khan
About a month after I watched these two films in Kolkata, I landed in Dhaka toward the middle of December, 2011 with the twin purpose of attending a conference of Bengal studies and conducting research for my study on Muslim everyday life in the sub-continent. Once in Dhaka, I could feel an air of excitement and celebration on the occasion of Bangladesh’s fortieth anniversary of its independence.
By Mosarrap H. Khan
But why is the ‘speaking up’ so selective? Even if one leaves aside cases of rapes in the rural areas and those perpetrated by the Indian Army, what about the gruesome rape cases and killings during the Muzaffarnagar Riots in early-2013? Almost three months have passed since the Muzaffarnagar Riots, has the social media ‘spoken up’ for the rape victims?
By Shreya Ila Anasuya
The ‘Take Back the Night Calcutta’ event I hurriedly announced over the microphone at my university reunion, after having spontaneously decided with a friend to hold one in solidarity with those happening in Delhi and Mumbai, was similarly re-casted.
By Mosarrap H. Khan
Both the ANHAD and the Citizens’ Report detail the gruesome killings, looting, and assault on women during the riots. Vaseela from village Laakh narrates that her daughter was brutally gang raped and then burnt alive. On the 8th of September, when the family was fleeing their village, her daughter, who was keeping unwell, was caught by four men and gang raped. She was then burnt alive.
By Rama Akhtar
I live in a Muslim ghetto in Jogeshwari (East). I am aware that this sounds jarring and may reek of stereotyping right from the first sentence since ‘Muslims’ and ‘ghettoes’ have been co-related more often than not. My house is inside a narrow by-lane seconds from the main road and across this road lies a Hindu ghetto.
By Bina Shrestha
Jhumpa Lahiri does it again what she does best: vivid description of emotions, relationships, lifestyle in the simplest of language. She brilliantly describes the daily lives of a Bengali family, from the nitty-gritties like eating fish-stew made in mustard and chilly-paste ground on a stone slab, to the purposelessness of the Naxalite movement that claimed many innocent lives.
By Mahmud Hassan
In Samsherganj area of the Murshidabad district, an anti-liquor movement has been going on for the last few years. For a S2 concerted effort, people in the locality formed a civic body, Nagarik Adhikar Suraksha Manch, which includes people from different sections of the society such as social activists, local leaders, intellectuals and so on.
Cafe Dissensus Everyday 