-The Hindu The insights in the NCERT cartoon report can help to make the curriculum and the classroom more inclusive While the NCERT textbooks report has generated much heat, it has also shed positive light on the issue. It is time to reflect on this side of the debate and deal with the questions it raises. The committee’s mandate was to identify educationally inappropriate materials in textbooks and suggest alternatives, if necessary. The...

-The Hindu Shankar’s cartoon on Ambedkar and the Constitution has been discussed threadbare by now. The Thorat committee report has added more layers to the controversy. I would like to contribute to the ongoing debate in a different way — through more cartoons. Like most other contemporary issues in India, especially those related to identity and caste politics, this one too has conveniently assumed a complex, fudged nature, giving rise to three...

-The Hindu Rajesh Khanna may have immortalised a few lines that are easily recalled by everyone — “Pushpa, I hate tears” — but he will certainly not be remembered for his political speeches. Yet, one particular speech stands out in my memory. It was reported in the papers and it has stayed in my memory even though years have passed. In the speech, made in Calcutta during the 1989 general elections when...

-The Times of India A middleclass dream that politics can be redeemed by means other than politics has just ended, with Team Anna’s decision to launch a political party and join the fray. Many of his ardent supporters and well-wishers have registered deep disappointment. Anna is becoming part of the problem, they cry. The problem was with the hope that gods out of the machine can serve up deliverance on a...

-The Times of India India's growth story is undeniable. But the 68th National Sample Survey Organization's (NSSO) findings seem to reaffirm that the benefits from this boost in the economy have been cornered by the upper crust, while the poorest continue to languish in near destitution. Compared with the previous survey, which was conducted in 2009-10, the monthly expenditure of the poorest 10% population in rural India has risen by only...