January 2, 2022
One of the myths about Prime Minister Narendra Modi is that he uses religion for politics. In fact, it’s the other way around. Modi uses politics for religious purposes. While at Varanasi yesterday, inaugurating the Kashi-Vishwanath corridor, Modi was seen performing elaborate Hindu religious rituals. This comes naturally to him. It is because he is more of a Hindu leader who happens to be in politics. And his lifelong ambition appears to be to unite Hindus and empower them so they are never again ruled by other religions as it was in the past, first by Islam and later by Christianity. One might differ with his interpretation of history, and one might call it a false consciousness, but that…
January 2, 2022
A popular majority is not a defence for arbitrary actions of the Government, said Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, while underscoring the importance.
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January 2, 2022
A surge in attacks on Christians in India is part of a much broader malaise, say experts. “The objective is clear — to isolate and demonize minorities so that a Hindu state is established,” a political scientist told DW.India is witnessing a sharp rise in attacks on Christian gatherings, churches and educational institutions, especially in states governed by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
January 2, 2022
I am 85, now with one foot in the grave, as the proverb says. I am leading a retired life. I am generally aware of what is going on in India and the rest of the world. And there is plenty to feel disturbed about.
I was about 10 when India became independent. But Independence was preceded by extremely violent communal riots and ultimately, the partition of the country. Massive numbers of people were forced to leave their homes and migrate – Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan to India, and Muslims from India to Pakistan. The suffering they underwent cannot be described in words. It could only be felt. Yet, the wise men who met in the Constituent Assembly of…
July 10, 2021
By Rev Valson Thampu, Former Principal of St. Stephen’s College
I don’t know if Fr. Stan Swamy’s soul will rest in peace. Given his sincerity to the cause of Dalit and adivasi rights, it is unlikely that it would, so long as the present situation continue. One thing, however, is certain. The present dispensation can now rest in peace. An octogenarian, enfeebled by Parkinson’s disease, unable even to hold a spoon with steady hands, will not destabilize the mighty Indian State anymore. Mera Bharat Mahan!
Why don’t I mourn Fr. Stan’s death, though it is ‘untimely’? His death is ‘untimely’ because senseless imprisonment expedited it. If so, the plain truth is that he is killed. But, if you ask me, ‘Who…
July 10, 2021
The State is responsible for Stan Swamy’s death, but the shame of it and the loss it signifies are the Indian people’s
It was not an assassination but a slow death. Death in custody. When the priest, Stan Swamy, was arrested last October like certain poets, journalists, teachers and lawyers in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case, he was ailing and elderly, but active. He had fought lifelong for the rights of tribal people, against their land alienation and the imprisonment of young tribal men as Maoists when they protested. It is a bitter irony that, after a rapid worsening of his health, he should die in custody, accused of Maoist links. The State’s attitude was made clear when he…
July 10, 2021
The routinised evil of bureaucracy that led to Father Stan Swamy’s death
Nitika Khaitan writes: That our criminal justice system is based on presuming innocence appears to be an empty reassurance, when prima facie truth suffices for years of incarceration under the anti-terror laws.
Where to begin apportioning blame for Father Stan Swamy’s death? How to fix accountability for actions, both institutional and individual, for guilt that is both historical and specific to today?
1967 is a good place to start. The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), as enacted then, contained none of the anti-terror provisions that Swamy was booked under, nor the harsh bail restrictions that denied his release. These owe their origins to the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities…
July 10, 2021
Posterity will blame the judiciary for the incarceration and unfortunate death of Father Stan Swamy
It has been 81 years since Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon was first published. The novel is set in the backdrop of the Great Purge of the late 1930s in the Soviet Union under Stalin. This period was marked by, among other things, political repression, police surveillance, general suspicion of the opposition, imprisonment, and executions. Decades on, thousands of miles away, darkness fell at noon in India too, when Father Stan Swamy passed away at a private hospital in Mumbai on July 5. Ominously reminiscent of the macabre world Koestler had drawn, Fr. Swamy’s death is much more than the death of…
July 8, 2021
Father Stan Swamy transcended narrow confines of his ethnicity and religion: Fr Cedric Prakash
“Identifying with the Adivasis”, he tried to work towards “a more humane, just, dignified and peaceful life” for them. “Fr Stan was one of the 16 people arrested in Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy case”
Father Stan Swamy transcended narrow confines of his ethnicity and religion: Fr Cedric Prakash
“Identifying with the Adivasis”, he tried to work towards “a more humane, just, dignified and peaceful life” for them. “Fr Stan was one of the 16 people arrested in Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy case”
July 7, 2021
Swamy dedicated his life to Adivasi rights. And that’s what made him so ‘dangerous’ in the eyes of the state.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
∼ 2 Timothy 4:7
I write this seething with rage. Livid about the injustice, the cruelty, the sheer inhumanity of the senseless death of a simple, committed human being who gave his life for the people he loved and worked for all his life. I’m ashamed of my country being turned into a Banana Republic, slowly but surely.
Father Stan Swamy fought the good fight till his very last breath. He died on Monday, July 5, 2021, after several months in prison. His lifelong battle for the…