-The Tribune The recent violence that consumed Delhi forces us to confront a horrific if familiar truth: media-constructed ‘enemies’ eventually turn into flesh-and-blood people. The pogrom against the Sikhs in 1984, as the work of academics like the Oxford-based Pritam Singh reminds us, was preceded by what Singh termed “deeply embedded institutional communalism” in the coverage of events like Operation Bluestar and Indira Gandhi’s funeral by government-run media All India Radio and...

-The Tribune Political psychologist Ashis Nandy, a pioneer of Indian critical thought, has over the years delved into areas other than routine academic concerns. Honorary Fellow at Centre for Studies of Developing Societies, New Delhi, Nandy is currently working on genocide. In an interview to The Tribune, he speaks of the psychology of rioters, the anatomy of violence and challenges of identity politics. Excerpts: * Delhi just witnessed a riot. What makes...

As body count due to Delhi Riots (some call it pogrom) rise above 45, it is essential to look at the official data related to communal incidents in the country. It is from the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), one gets information about the number of communal incidents in different years, apart from the number of persons injured and killed in those incidents. There is one...

-The Indian Express India’s citizenry is well and truly into a battle for constitutional values, which must be fought, most of all, with non-violent determination and vigour. In the historical scale of rioting, where do the recent Delhi Riots belong? And what is their larger political significance? The first question is statistical. During early to mid-1990s, Steven Wilkinson, now teaching at Yale, and I, set up a database for all recorded Hindu-Muslim riots...

-The Financial Express Focussing on women’s education, Access to sanitation & potable water, diet rich in proteinaceous foods and biofortification of grains can curb malnutrition President Donald Trump applauded India’s achievements in his address at the crowded Motera stadium. These ranged from religious freedom to reducing poverty to the giant emerging economy. This should have made every Indian feel proud, except that only in the next three days, riots in Delhi made...