Will South Asia Go Blind?
Amid reports of large-scale violence against Hindus in Bangladesh, P Chidambaram, in his column for The Indian Express, wonders that if the Muslim identity in India is 'taunted and terrorised,' will it not have a cascading effect in the neighbouring countries where Hindus and Sikhs are in minority?
Citing the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the recent onslaught of attacks on commercials that celebrate pluralism, Chidambaram illustrates how communally charged events in India impact Hindus in Bangladesh.
"Will a multi-religious country tolerate the pernicious theory of love jihad when two young persons belonging to different faiths fall in love or wish to be married? Will a modern nation pressure Tanishq, a popular brand, to pull out an advertisement which suggested that an inter-faith couple are living happily with the husband’s family? Will a multi-lingual country take offence to an Urdu name given to the launch of a line of clothes by Fabindia, an international brand, on the allegation that it gave an Islamic colour to a Hindu festival that was two weeks away?"P Chidambaram in The Indian Express.
We Need To End Harassment Through FIRs
In his piece for The Times of India, Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar opines that traditional tools of suppression – used by governments against those housed in different ideological or political quarters – have now been supplemented by a growing trend of First Information Reports (FIRs) filed by the self-righteous over hurt religious sentiments.
Referring to the recent allegations of harassment levelled against the Hindu IT Cell by activist Rana Ayyub, Aiyar says that such groups now have just one task – filing FIRs.
"In multiple FIRs across India, the director and actors of Amazon’s web series Tandav were accused of hurting religious Hindu sentiments. The actors argued that views expressed by a character in a film could not be attributed to the actors. Sadly, the Supreme Court held that they could. Where does this leave us? Once, the courts gave wide latitude to freedom of speech and restricted it only in very severe cases. It now seems courts will entertain any claim that religious sentiments have been hurt, although the very concept of an entire community like Hindus having one sentiment is highly dubious."SA Aiyar in The Times of India.
New Problems in Kashmir
The end to targeted attacks in Jammu and Kashmir – that threaten to overtake the uneasy calm post Article 370 – doesn't only lie in naming and shaming the perpetrators, but also in giving back the union territory its right to an elected government, writes Tavleen Singh, in her piece for The Indian Express.
Singh fears that the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan – which a Pakistani minister hoped would help his country 'win Kashmir' – may provide renewed energy to terrorists in the valley.
"The most obvious and urgent need is for intelligence and security to be strengthened visibly, but it is also time that a political process began. The former state of Jammu & Kashmir must become a state once more and elections must be held as soon as possible. No Governor installed in the splendid heights of Srinagar’s Raj Bhawan can find the political solutions that are needed, because it is not just his magnificent, fortified residence that is too far from what is happening on the ground. He himself is."Tavleen Singh in The Indian Express.
Who Joined the Dots?
In her short, yet pensive piece for The Telegraph, Upala Sen writes how those claiming to uphold what the country really stands for, had found sudden outrage not in Lakhimpur Kheri, but in the bindis that so dotingly went missing from a Diwali commercial for a popular clothing brand.
But while different camps debated for and against the bindi – with one gentleman even comparing the missing bindi on a woman's forehead with the absence of drumsticks in sambar – was it actually the festive spirit of Diwali that went missing?
"Others claimed the bindi bestowed spiritual benefits, worked as the third eye, and is a matter of pride, worn with pride. Camp 2 held the bindi impasse as an attack on secularism. But instead of putting forth cogent arguments took out their outrage on the beleaguered dot. Suddenly, in the dot they could see all that they opposed, oligarchy, patriarchy, and for this reason No Bindi — as opposed to No Bindi No Business — became a lesser chant. Other divisions revealed themselves --- South and North, brand and brand. At the end of it all, indeed something was missing from the pre-Diwali sparkle — and it was not the bindi."Upala Sen in The Telegraph
Development That Is Mindful of Nature
The recent washing away of life and property in parts of Kerala, caused by landslides and heavy rain, must lead to a serious review of the land-use pattern in the state, which has a population density of 860 persons-per-square kilometer, in comparison to the national average of 368, writes Srikumar Chattopadhyay in The Hindu.
"Kerala is experiencing high growth of residential buildings. The Census records that during the decade between 2001 and 2011, the population grew by 5% whereas the number of houses grew by 19.9%. Such a pace of construction has serious implications for the geo-environment. Not only the locations for siting settlements but also the demand for construction materials, with the attendant quarrying and excavations, is altering the landscape through terracing, slope modification, rock quarrying, and the construction of roads. The basin characteristics of all rivers have been altered. This has resulted in gross disturbance of the character of the terrain evolved through weathering and formation of soil under natural vegetation cover. Consequently, the water-absorbing capacity of the river catchment is lost, contributing to increasing surface run-off and reduction in ground water recharge. Road construction in hilly areas, even when cutting across the toe of the slope, is destabilising and creates conditions conducive to landslides."Srikumar Chattopadhyay in The Hindu.
Squaring Off Again in the Himalayan Heights
From Barahoti in Uttarakhand to the frontiers in Arunachal Pradesh, the People's Liberation Army of China remains singularly interested in keeping tensions alive in the border, primarily to maintain its status among China's other defence services and to offer a response to increased Indian presence along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), writes Sushant Singh for The Hindu.
"The first is its institutional interest as the ‘army of the revolution’ which is now losing its primacy to the PLA Air Force and PLA Navy when it comes to Taiwan or the South China Sea... The second driver is the PLA’s view that the Indian military has been registering a greater presence on 'Chinese territory' in the border areas in the last 10-12 years. After the United Progressive Alliance government decided to build infrastructure and raise additional forces for the China border, a larger number of Indian patrols have been going more frequently into areas which they would rarely, if ever, visit."Sushant Singh in The Hindu.
The 'Just Leave It Alone' Lesson From the Dolled Up Jallianwala Bagh
Writing a thought-provoking piece for The Economic Times, Mudar Patherya says that his recent visit to Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab's Amritsar ended in tears – "Not for the martyred, but for the place."
Expecting to spend a quiet afternoon in memory of the Bagh's most horrifying moments, Pathreya says that he instead encountered disproportionate murals and undulated greens that took the tragedy out of a memorial that was supposedly built to honour its martyrs.
"The intention of the designer would have presumably been to evoke riqqat (pathos). However, the net result was a feel-neutral place where everything appeared prim. The only place where you kind of felt that this had been the theatre of a tragedy was in the audiovisual enclosures where a security guard periodically whistled to hustle visitors off to the next enclosure. If I hadn't remembered from school that Jallianwala Bagh had marked the beginning of the end of the British Empire, I may have assumed from the decor that some local havildar had indiscriminately fired, some passersby had died, and a few had reported missing."Mudar Patherya in The Economic Times
Today, Like on the Field, Let Cricket Come First
Ahead of the much-discussed India-Pakistan T-20 World Cup match, Sandeep Dwivedi, in his piece for The Indian Express, writes that the "bitterness and toxicity" that fans from across the aisle supposedly harbour for each other, does not match the mood at the stands.
To drive his point home, Dwivedi recalls a moment of realisation he shared with a fellow Pakistani reporter in during the 2003 World Cup.
"Shahid Hashmi, a seasoned reporter from Pakistan, had been a fellow traveller on the month-and-a-half-long journey across South Africa — sharing media-box space, late night cabs, takeaways and press conference quotes. He too was finally faarigh. Free. With him wanting to shop for his sons, we ended up at a crowded merchandise outlet where heavily discounted official World Cup team shirts were flying off the shelves. I cut through the crowd first, and almost instinctively, turned to Shahid bhai and pointed to the Pakistan section with green jerseys. He moved towards the hangers with India blues, and said, “Kyon bhai, hamare bachche Tendulkar ki T-shirt nahin pehen sakte (Why? Can’t our kids wear Tendulkar T-shirts?).” No amount of essential reading on Pakistan, and certainly not the narrative back home, would have prepared me for the reaction. On the last day of my very first foreign assignment, I got to know our neighbours better and saw through the farce played out in the lead-up to the games between the two great cricketing nations."Sandeep Dwivedi in The Indian Express.
Why Korea’s ‘Story of Losers’ Resonates Well in India
Popular Netflix show Squid Game – infamous for its disturbing portrayal of gore – is based on the director's own struggles with economic disparity and resonates well with contemporary totalitarian regimes, writes Shobhaa De in her piece for The Times of India.
"Behind the psychological manipulation and physical torture is a universal story about shared anxieties and fears. It is also a critique of totalitarian regimes that exercise control over citizens. It is about blanket surveillance, surrender of personal rights, emphasis on obeying orders, bowing down to authority, dealing with bullies, conforming to arbitrary laws, following diktats, betraying one another, capitalising on and creating divisions to dominate people, encouraging hate and feeding on fear. It is equally about basic human values and how far participants will go to win at all costs. It is about all the nastiest baser instincts we all pretend we don’t possess, and which surface without a warning when we are tested."Shobhaa De in The Times of India.
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