Call it the Babri verdict fallout: a group of Dalit rights activists has decided to approach the government demanding that Buddha and Jain viharas that have been converted to Hindu temples should be returned to the original owners. The group, made up of Ambedkar followers, academics, advocates and activists, has also decided to approach the Supreme Court with the demand. Several Buddha and Jain viharas were there in the country from sixth...

India has possibly the largest number of active non-government, not-for-profit organizations in the world. A recent study commissioned by the government put the number of such entities, accounted for till 2009, at 3.3 million. That is one NGO for less than 400 Indians, and many times the number of primary schools and primary health centres in India. Even this staggering number may be less than the actual number of NGOs active...

A Dalit father of two and his upper-caste lover were allegedly stoned to death in an Andhra village in a suspected honour killing case being dubbed the state’s first. The bodies of S. Sunkari Srinivas, 32, and Swapna Reddy, 22, bearing injury marks caused by stone hits, were found on the outskirts of Krishnajiwadi village in Nizamabad district last night, police said. The attackers were alleged relatives of Swapna, who could...

It is rare nowadays to come across people of unflinching and unquestionable integrity. It is even rarer to find in such people a strong sense of personal and intellectual honesty that demands that they interrogate their own actions and arguments with as much sincerity as they turn on others. And it is rarest of all to find such people engaged in public life, where they would constantly have to face...