There are structural aspects to a problem as complex as corruption. These cannot be tackled through punishment alone. Just as our society tends to latch on to holy men for miracle cures, in recent weeks, the urban middle classes have placed great hopes on an anti-corruption movement led by a pious man in a Gandhi cap. (The other claim on leadership by a holy man in red robes did not...

Gate erected by caste Hindus to be removed A gate erected on Dalit Street 35 years ago to prevent Dalits from entering the area occupied by Upper Caste Hindus will be removed. Though it was kept open in the last five years, the 75-odd Dalit families used to avoid the street fearing repercussions. They used to go to MGR daily market via Royakottai main road. The street falls in the Reserved Ward...

Anna Hazare's campaign may lead to a new Lokpal Bill, but it has legitimised middle-class vigilantism and other kinds of civil society mobilisation. NOW that Anna Hazare has declared victory, it is time to take stock of one of the most powerful recent mobilisations of people in India, focussed on influencing policy or lawmaking processes. The victory, however, is largely symbolic. The original demand of the movement, carefully built around Hazare's...

Gandhi’s struggle was to get Indians to choose their destiny, not letting a moralist to decide on their behalf During the 12 days of melodrama when India apparently solved the problem of corruption, one claim Kisan Baburao Hazare​’s followers consistently made was that his fast was a non-violent, Gandhian protest. If Mohandas Gandhi could go on a fast-unto-death to force a government to relent, so could Hazare. Hazare’s media-savvy handlers ensured that...

In the name of God, hapless girls are still being made to become devadasis which in stark terms means being raped by the priests, secretly auctioned to brothels and finally dying of AIDS. Deebashree Mohanty speaks to a few of these unfortunate women who died everyday of their life for a farce called service of the God I was nine when I got married to my village deity Yellamma. The mahajan,...