-Outlook Aamir Khan not only deviously censored any discussion of Ambedkar and Reservation, but seemed content to use the 1920s language of high-caste reformers This Sunday morning I received a call from a friend who alerted me to the tenth episode of Aamir Khan-anchored Satyamev Jayate since the focus was on caste and untouchability. I mumbled something about his spoiling my Sunday, but tuned in nevertheless. It began with Kaushal Panwar narrating...

-Deccan Herald Despite many laws, untouchability remains a part of rural India “We were warned against going to the temple; they threatened us with dire consequences if we dare to lodge a complaint with the police,”   said Badlu Lal, a resident of Sahasa village in the Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh. The warning came not because Lal and his fellowmen did something wrong; their only fault was that, they belong to...

-The Hindu ‘Law declared insofar as spectrum cannot be extended to other natural resources’   The far-reaching nature of implementing the 2G judgment insofar as it was extended to auctioning of all natural resources (other than spectrum) would have a huge impact on Foreign Direct Investment and other investments in this country, argued Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati in the Supreme Court on Thursday. Justifying the Presidential Reference and the need for an advisory opinion...

-The Hindu Love marriages, unescorted visits to the market and even the use of mobile phones — women up to the age of 40 in Uttar Pradesh’s Bagpat area can have none of these. The decision, which seems inspired by a Taliban-style diktat, has been taken by the panchayat in the Baraut tehsil of Bagpat, ostensibly to safeguard women from “teasing.” The panchayat issued a “farman” (diktat) barring women up to the...

-Kafila.org Almost a century ago, Katherine Mayo published a book titled ‘Mother India’ that criticized the Indian way of living, and Rudyard Kipling  spoke of the ‘White Man’s Burden’. These writings reflected the colonial perspective that what colonizers did was in the best interest of the colonized people. Consequently, most well-meaning citizens of colonial powers were alienated from the horrible plight of the colonized. Purpose well served – unopposed exploitation. Years later,...