Gautam Adhikari on The Intolerant Indian
13 years, 11 months ago

Gautam Adhikari on The Intolerant Indian

Hindustan Times  

Renowned journalist and writer Gautam Adhikari's book, HT Image The Intolerant Indian: Why We Must Rediscover a Liberal Space delineates how extremist ideologies obliterate the concept of Liberal Democracy. The perspicacious book deciphers the esoteric meaning in India's version of Secularism and how religious fanaticism has time and again, resurrected the deprecating arguments against Pluralism. The Indian state appeases all religious communities, whether by implementing a cow-slaughter ban or by changing the law to bypass a court decision upholding the right of a divorced Muslim woman's claim to proper alimony. 3 In its review of the book, The South Asian Idea Weblog mentions '' The book starts off on the wrong foot right from the Preface by choosing an 'Us' versus 'Them' frame, For 'Us' substitute the enlightened, the reasonable, the few, the ones above the pettiness of narrow identity; for 'Them' substitute the unenlightened, the unreasonable, the many, those still clinging to anachronistic primordial loyalties''.

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History of this topic

'The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal' book review: Decoding freedom
8 months, 2 weeks ago

'The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal' book review: Decoding freedom

New Indian Express  

The personal essay as a literary artform is almost obsolete, just as the thinker seems a relic from another era. Those on social media know the term “liberandu” denoting a liberal whose lack of solidarity with the strident, and whose effete philosophy counters violence, and is therefore deemed dangerous. In The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal, Gurcharan Das reexamines his …

Why We Need to Redefine Our Secularism
1 year, 1 month ago

Why We Need to Redefine Our Secularism

News 18  

We are living in a time when the very idea of ‘Bharat’ as a modern nation-state has come under intense scrutiny. There is no gainsaying the fact that India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has seen a marked departure from the Nehruvian idea of secularism, demonstrating a palpable desire to embrace its ancient roots which Nehru once disparagingly referred to …

Secularism does not mean non-religious but equal respect to all faiths, says EAM Jaishankar
1 year, 4 months ago

Secularism does not mean non-religious but equal respect to all faiths, says EAM Jaishankar

Firstpost  

The senior BJP leader said the political and social changes seen in India in the last few years have partly been a reaction “at an intellectual and political level” to this sense of unfairness. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar emphasized that secularism in India entails equal respect for all faiths, dispelling the notion that it implies non-religiosity. Speaking during an …

Why Amit Chaudhuri’s slim book ‘On Being Indian’ is his manifesto of hope
1 year, 5 months ago

Why Amit Chaudhuri’s slim book ‘On Being Indian’ is his manifesto of hope

Live Mint  

On Being Indian, which is author, poet, and musician Amit Chaudhuri’s latest book, can be described as a reflection of an intellectual’s fearful journey through a period in India which has seen dissent being labelled as anti-national. Through the book—the second in the Literary Activism series, a collaboration between Ashoka University’s Centre for the Creative and the Critical and the …

Indian Secularism Has Evolved Beyond the Pale, Icy Definition Imposed by the British - News18
1 year, 9 months ago

Indian Secularism Has Evolved Beyond the Pale, Icy Definition Imposed by the British - News18

News 18  

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, during his visit to the United States last week, termed the Indian Union Muslim League a ‘secular’ party. Political secularism would deny the history of destruction and selectively celebrate the unique cultural identity of India. Without going into too many examples, let’s turn to the case of the Supreme Court of India which has fiercely guarded …

The Great Indian Secularism: Why We Need an Indigenous Model That Recognises Bharat - News18
2 years, 8 months ago

The Great Indian Secularism: Why We Need an Indigenous Model That Recognises Bharat - News18

News 18  

The Muslim clergy, representing the gargantuan chunk of one among the six notified minorities on TV debates, claim to believe in the neologism of Ganga-Jamni Tehzeeb. With the backing of the Nehruvian establishment, academics, ideologues and activists with political agendas and communist proclivities have cleverly advertised secularism and reduced it to having odious and pejorative opinions about the majority — …

From Babri Masjid to Gyanvyapi mosque: Why liberals fail to learn any lesson
2 years, 10 months ago

From Babri Masjid to Gyanvyapi mosque: Why liberals fail to learn any lesson

Firstpost  

Liberals in India need to understand that denial does not obliterate fault lines; it only deepens them With a ‘Shivlinga’ at the Gyanvyapi mosque in Varanasi and the Eidgah at the Krishna Janmabhoomi site being talked about, many commentators have weighed in on how Kashi and Mathura seem set to follow the path of Ayodhya, where the Babri Masjid not …

If Britain’s Christian roots don’t turn it theocratic, how will India’s Hindu identity make it less secular, democratic?
2 years, 10 months ago

If Britain’s Christian roots don’t turn it theocratic, how will India’s Hindu identity make it less secular, democratic?

Firstpost  

At a time when the country is debating the Uniform Civil Code — though it would be ideal to call it the Common Civil Code — an important book, Unmasking Indian Secularism, by veteran journalist and writer Hasan Suroor, has hit the shelves. Sai Deepak explains, “Clearly, this is attributable to the Indian State’s embracing of colonial assumption that the …

Why It is Wrong to Equate Legitimate Hindu Concerns With a Political Party’s Agenda
3 years, 1 month ago

Why It is Wrong to Equate Legitimate Hindu Concerns With a Political Party’s Agenda

News 18  

Last week, I was on a TV news debate on the ongoing Hijab row in Karnataka. The dismissive attitude of this Nehruvian Marxist ecosystem and its false Eurocentric characterisation of Hindu concerns as “majoritarianism” or “Hindu Nationalism” are attributable to the existence of a colonialised mindset. It is a fact that at least in seven states, Hindus are in the …

The only thing that Indian 'secular liberals' have ever truly supported is Islamist patriarchy
4 years, 9 months ago

The only thing that Indian 'secular liberals' have ever truly supported is Islamist patriarchy

Op India  

In America, the outpouring of public anger and outrage continues. How much more is needed before Indian society comes to accept the reality of the oppression faced by Hindus? Whenever the painful history of Hindus is brought up, the Indian intellectual elite has another diversionary arrow in its quiver: talking about the caste oppression in Hindu society. The Indian elite …

Secularism is a western concept, India must reconsider its inclusion in preamble: RSS ideologue
5 years, 2 months ago

Secularism is a western concept, India must reconsider its inclusion in preamble: RSS ideologue

India TV News  

"Sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic" is how India is referred to in the preamble of the Constitution. However, J. Nandakumar, a key RSS leader and All India Convenor Prajna Pravah, a Sangh offshoot, wants India to reconsider the inclusion of the word "secular", claiming secularism is a "western, Semitic concept". He argued that India does not need a secular ethos …

CAA, NRC, Article 370 protests have called into question idea of India's secularism; answers lie beyond the Constitution
5 years, 3 months ago

CAA, NRC, Article 370 protests have called into question idea of India's secularism; answers lie beyond the Constitution

Firstpost  

Saying India is secular because the Constitution says so is an appeal to authority. The people of India deserve the dignity of an argument for secularism When the government abrogated Article 370 this year, there was a lot of conversation around the fact that the people of Jammu and Kashmir should only join India with their consent. The re-election of …

Are the foundations of India’s secular democracy crumbling?
5 years, 3 months ago

Are the foundations of India’s secular democracy crumbling?

Al Jazeera  

Gov’t says the controversial citizenship bill will protect minorities, critics say it discriminates against Muslims. The lower house of India’s parliament has approved a controversial law that the government says offers a home for people fleeing religious persecution but which opponents say undermines the country’s secular identity. The bill, which still must be approved by Parliament’s upper house, would bring …

‘India is Secular despite Hindus,’ Aakar Patel claims in Congress mouthpiece National Herald but is India really secular?
5 years, 10 months ago

‘India is Secular despite Hindus,’ Aakar Patel claims in Congress mouthpiece National Herald but is India really secular?

Op India  

In an article for the National Herald, Congress party’s mouthpiece, Executive Director of Amnesty International India, Aakar Patel, makes a rather bold assertion. If all of this wasn’t enough, we have the Hindu Charitable and Religious Endowments Act which grants the ‘secular’ government of India the right to administer and control Hindu Temples. However, it’s only Hindu Temples that the …

Watch: Is the Indian state really secular? No, according to this Supreme Court advocate
6 years, 5 months ago

Watch: Is the Indian state really secular? No, according to this Supreme Court advocate

Op India  

UpWord, a not-for-profit knowledge platform co-founded by Ashish Dhar and Ajaey Sharma, produces well-researched content in the form of short videos. It published a new video on YouTube today, featuring Supreme Court advocate Kanu Agarwal elucidating the manner in which certain articles of the Constitution discriminate against the majority faith in the country. In the video, Mr Agarwal asks the …

‘New secularism’ of Indian liberals is a scary kind of fundamentalism
6 years, 10 months ago

‘New secularism’ of Indian liberals is a scary kind of fundamentalism

Op India  

A few years ago, Al-Shabab, the radical Islamist group in Somalia, made a decision to put a ban on samosas. How different is Al-Shabab’s 2011 war on samosas from what I call the “new secularism” that is practised by Indian liberals of today? This mutant form, which I call “new secularism” is much more aggressive than anything seen in the …

Debating secularism
7 years, 8 months ago

Debating secularism

The Hindu  

JUSTICE VIKRAMJIT SEN, A RETIRED JUDGE of the Supreme Court, once observed during the hearing of a case in 2015: “India is a secular country, but I don’t know how long it will remain so.” A sense of exasperation might have been behind his observation, but events since then could make one wonder whether the judge’s remark was meant to …

Liberals, It’s Do or Die in an Increasingly Conservative India
7 years, 11 months ago

Liberals, It’s Do or Die in an Increasingly Conservative India

The Quint  

Three years after the regime change at the Centre, contemporary liberalism in India is under political siege. Even liberals have appeared uncertain about what they stand for. Not just liberals, leaders of some mainline opposition parties have been reluctant to articulate a compelling public philosophy that would appeal to the people at a time when large sections of the electorate …

UP election results will herald a funeral of 'counterfeit' secularism in India
8 years ago

UP election results will herald a funeral of 'counterfeit' secularism in India

Firstpost  

The counter-secularism forces have registered a decisive victory in UP and this trend is likely to continue through the 2019 elections and beyond. On Saturday, when the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election results were announced, I had argued in Firstpost Decode – the website’s live election day coverage – that BJP’s landslide victory will herald in the “funeral of secularism”, whose …

When Secularism Hasn’t Served Its Purpose, Will ‘Areligious’ Do?
9 years, 3 months ago

When Secularism Hasn’t Served Its Purpose, Will ‘Areligious’ Do?

The Quint  

The inability to do or find something could, at times, be the mother of transcendence. The need arose when discussions on the Constitution, held in Parliament on 26-27 November 2015 – to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of the father of that great piece of literature B R Ambedkar – took place. Speaking in the Lok Sabha on that occasion, …

‘Liberals’ jumping the gun with falsehood: a rebuttal to an article on Firstpost
9 years, 10 months ago

‘Liberals’ jumping the gun with falsehood: a rebuttal to an article on Firstpost

Op India  

The online portal First Post recently carried a piece by one of their senior editors, G. Pramod Kumar, suggesting that the BJP is only promoting Hindu icons and this is an attempt at imposing a monochromatic narrative of Indian history. If someone argues that G. Pramod Kumar’s reference was only in the context of the celebrations being planned by the …

Saving secularism from the ‘secularists’
11 years ago

Saving secularism from the ‘secularists’

Live Mint  

In 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appointed the Sachar committee to study the social and economic condition of India’s Muslim community. In January 2014, in an astounding display of New Delhi’s executive interference in the functioning of states’ police and judiciary, Shinde wrote to all chief ministers asking them to set up special screening committees to look at cases where …

India First - Who is afraid of Narendra Modi's definition of secularism?
12 years ago

India First - Who is afraid of Narendra Modi's definition of secularism?

India TV News  

‘Secularism' basically is a western concept that separates government institutions and functionaries from religious institutions and dignitaries.It basically means that the state has no religion of its own and that it will neither influence religious institutions nor will get influenced by them.The constitution that India adopted post independence did not include ‘secularism' in its Preamble. After the country was partitioned …

'Can learn a great deal from India on harmony'
14 years, 3 months ago

'Can learn a great deal from India on harmony'

The Hindu  

At a time when nations around the globe are losing ground to extremism, India’s tradition of tolerance and its management of a large and diverse society can be an important learning ground for the world, a U.S. cable from its New Delhi embassy said in 2006. “India’s large Muslim population, and that community’s relatively positive relations with its Hindu majority, …

Rising Communalism and Religiosity, a Threat to Secularism in India
15 years, 1 month ago

Rising Communalism and Religiosity, a Threat to Secularism in India

The Hindu  

Secular India has undergone several convulsions during the past 60 years, so much so that doubts about its survival were entertained by many. With the decline in the commitment of the state to secularism during the post-Nehru era, secular space in society became progressively smaller, which was eventually colonised by communalism. What affected the secular character of Indian society most …

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