India

Image: Police officers on patrol during the coronavirus lockdown in Mumbai, India, last week.(Credit…Divyakant Solanki/EPA, via Shutterstock) The coronavirus outbreak has allowed authoritarianism and anti-Muslim sentiment to flourish. NEW DELHI — For decades, India embraced many of the ideals that are the hallmarks of a liberal democracy. But since the election of Prime Minister Narendra […]

Image: Family members of Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer who was allegedly lynched by vigilantes for transporting cows in Rajasthan in April, sit on a dharna to demand justice for him. In recent months, a string of deadly mob attacks on Muslims has triggered outrage across India, with critics accusing the Narendra Modi government of not […]

Image: The suburban train system in Mumbai is used by millions of women and men everyday, who rely on safe transport to access education and job opportunities.(Annette Dixon’s picture) BY Annette Dixon, Co-authors: Joe Qian Last week, I took a journey on Mumbai’s suburban train system, which carries a staggering 8 million women and men, […]

Image: Rehabilitated manual scavenger, Usha Chaumar, 40, stands on the stairs of her newly built three storey house in Alwar, Rajasthan, India on 24 September 2016. Credit: Anindito Banerjee. By Anindito Mukherjee  Nai Disha is an initiative that rehabilitates manual scavengers, especially women, and provides them with vocational training to find alternative livelihoods. She didn’t […]

SUKUMAR MURALIDHARAN. Thursday, October 13,2016 NEW DELHI: Since the September 18 attack on an Indian army post in the north Kashmir town of Uri, the media in this country has plunged into a mood of bellicosity, extreme even by its usual standards. It was a matter of some convenience that in the near-religious fervour with […]

(Khurram Parvez; Image- scroll.in) (SLB/23rd September 2016) Number of Sri Lankan Civil Society groups and individuals has called on the Indian Government to release Mr. Khurram Parvez, Chairperson of the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) and Program Coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS). Mr. Parvez was barred by immigration authorities in […]

(Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the nation during Independence Day celebrations in Delhi, 15 August 2016,  REUTERS/Adnan Abidi) This statement was originally published on pen-international.org on 19 September 2016. An inefficient legal system and what amounts to unchecked abuse of vague and overbroad legislation have contributed to a chilling effect on free speech within […]

( Killed in a face encounter) LUCKNOW, INDIA // A special court in India has sentenced 47 policemen to life in prison for killing a group of Sikh pilgrims in 1991 whom they had claimed were militants, a prosecutor said on Tuesday. The officers were convicted of shooting dead the pilgrims to try and earn […]

BAREILLY: Uttar Pradesh minister in charge of dairy development, Ram Murti Verma, has been charged with murder after a Shahjahanpur-based journalist, who had mounted on social media a relentless campaign again him, died of burn injuries late Monday evening. Jagendra Singh, his family alleged on Tuesday, was set on fire by a bunch of cops […]

(The Hindu) By saying that ‘caste is class,’ the Left has checkmated itself and made itself irrelevant, says writer-activist Arundhati Roy. Photo: K. Pichumani The writer-activist observes that the Left needs an intellectual re-evaluation of the role played by caste in Indian society. The fortunes of the Left in India are not going to change […]

Ayman al-Zawahiri calls on Muslims across Indian subcontinent to join ‘caravan of jihad’ Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaida, has announced the formation of an Indian branch of the extremist organisation, calling on Muslims across the subcontinent to join the “caravan of jihad”. In a 56-minute video posted online on Wednesday, Zawahiri also renewed a […]