-Scroll.in An excerpt from the introduction to Yadav’s new book, ‘Making Sense Of Indian Democracy: Theory as Practice’. That was foreshadowed by Congress’ victory in the wake of the Sikh massacre and followed by Modi’s victories in the Gujarat assembly elections, held in the wake of the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002. We should have known about the dark side of Indian democracy. At any rate, we are no longer now looking at...

As body count due to Delhi riots (some call it pogrom) rise above 45, it is essential to look at the official data related to communal incidents in the country. It is from the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), one gets information about the number of communal incidents in different years, apart from the number of persons injured and killed in those incidents. There is one...

-The Hindu Forgiveness can play a reparative role provided it is seen as complementary to justice, not a substitute for it Post-Partition, India has witnessed innumerable acts of collective violence of which three clearly stand out as the most barbaric: the Nellie massacre in Assam in 1983; the horrific slaughter of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984; and the diabolical pogrom in Gujarat in 2002. Need for retributive justice No society that calls itself civilised...

-Frontline.in Data from various surveys prove that India is anything but a vegetarian nation, but ever since the BJP came to power at the Centre there have been attempts to demonise meat-eating and to impose the vegetarian food habits of certain sections of Hindus on the rest of India. In parts of Gujarat, eggs are not sold openly. They are placed inside black bags, just like sanitary napkins sold in chemist’s shops....

-Hindustan Times We live in a social regime where women are seen as an embodiment of men’s izzat (honour). Attacking ‘their women’ then becomes the undoing of the whole community. Bilkis Bano. The name and the face have been haunting me since the judgment was announced on her case by the Bombay High Court on May 4. In March 2002, our group of six women arrived in Ahmedabad to document what had...