-The Hindu Finding a home to rent in India's national capital is an arduous task for anyone - but, an investigation by The Hindu has found, almost impossible for citizens who happen to be Muslim. Homeowners and property dealers contacted by reporters often firmed up deals, only to be disqualified as soon as they revealed their religion. Housing apartheid was at its worst in New Delhi’s most affluent and educated neighbourhoods: New...

The National Federation of Indian Women has expressed its concern over the verdict of Delhi High Court upholding the marriage of a 15-year-old Muslim girl quoting Mohammedan Law on marriage. “Disturbing” “This is very disturbing because one of the reasons for India's high maternal mortality is early marriage. This will also prevent girls from enjoying their Constitutional rights like Right to Education, etc. At a time when anti-Constitutional bodies, including Khap Panchayats,...

Mohammad Sarfaraz stood in front of his burned-down store on Sunday, almost reduced to tears as he spoke of the communal violence that tore apart his town on Friday, claiming four lives and destroying hundreds, including his own. “I had invested my life in this shop, which was turned into ashes,” the scrap dealer said. “I do not have a single penny to start my life again.” The store in front...

The cartoon controversy shows the enthusiasm of our political class to create a quiescent, question-less environment The year was 1967. Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer had published a story — in Malayalam, of course — called Oru Bhagavad Gitayum Kure Mulakalum (A Bhagavad Gita and a Few Breasts). This Muslim was having good fun, writing about getting hold of a new edition of the Gita and watching a procession of half-naked nubile Nair...

Rudyard Kipling opens his superb novel with the street urchin Kim teasing the son of a wealthy man. Kim kicks Chota Lal, whose father, Lala Dinanath, is worth half-a-million sterling, off the trunnion of the mighty cannon Zam-Zammah. Kipling loved India and wrote that it was the only democratic place in the world. It warms us to read this, but of course this was quite untrue in Kipling’s time and...