A parable of contemporary India
Photo: Sid Ganesh
Santa Singh’s love for Indian Railways was legendary. Everyone in Medi Mallasandra, Santa’s ancestral village, knew about his famous attachment to trains, tracks, stations and almost everything to do with the railways. In fact, Santa’s great-grandfather, Master Bantokh Singh was instrumental in bringing the railway line to the erstwhile [...]
Connecting strategy, law and history
This is an extract from the brilliant introductory chapter of Philip Bobbitt’s remarkable The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History. Bobbitt disputes the view—including The Acorn’s—that law exists in practice because of the state. Be that as it may, what is interesting about Bobbitt’s thesis is his [...]
India’s First Amendment
A lurker on Atanu Dey’s blog pointed to two fantastic reports from TIME magazine’s archives.
May 28, 1951…Part of the Indian press, said (Nehru), is dirty, indulges in “vulgarity, indecency and falsehood.” To teach it manners, Nehru proposed an amendment to India’s constitution that would impose severe restrictions on freedom of speech and [...]
…must be punished
There is an urgent need to crack down hard on ‘leaders’ (especially in Uttar Pradesh) who issue public calls for assassination.
In the Gurjjar stronghold of Sarsawa in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district, Akhil Bharatiya Gurjjar Mahasabha president Chaudhary Virendra Singh has put Rs 5 crore reward on Vasundhara Raje’s head. “The Rajasthan CM is [...]
A statue to end all your troubles
A bunch of violent thugs attacked the residence of Kumar Ketkar, editor of Loksatta for writing a satirical piece criticising the Maharashtra government’s decision to engage in monumental folly. In support of Mr Ketkar’s freedom to write what he thought was right, and in support of writing what was [...]
Epics out of proportion
Over at Varnam, JK has pithy on a commenter:
T.R.Ramaswami: Would you not also classify epics like the Mahabharatha and Ramayana, whose historic authencity is doubtful and also other religious texts as instruments for political and social control?
JK: No. Socialism has been used for political and social control in India. [Varnam]
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The BJP didn’t forcefully counter the UPA government’s communal socialism. It’s paying for it in Rajasthan
Let there be no mistake: those who organised the violent mass agitation demanding entitlements that go with a scheduled tribe (ST) status, including its leader Kirori Singh Bainsla, are responsible for the deaths and injuries that resulted. Surely in a [...]
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