Opinions

The decision of the University of Mumbai to drop the Booker-nominated novel of Rohinton Mistry Such a Long Journey from its BA syllabus following objections from the Shiv Sena students’ wing sets a dangerous precedent. This not the first time that the rightwing party has managed to armtwist someone into complying with its chauvinistic assertions, but this episode sends out portentous signals in being an exemplar for many things that are not right. On September 14, the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena...

The Union government, last month, decided to go in for an enumeration of castes other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Caste-wise enumeration had been given up as a matter of policy after Independence. The last census when caste-wise data was collected, tabulated and published in detail was the 1931 census. So why is the self-proclaimed progressive government harking us back to the past? It cannot be denied that the caste system does not exist in modern India. It does, but not in the...

Yemen is now a classic example of how and why a government hemmed in by all sides militarily and economically takes it out on its own people. It ought to be a cause for worry too, for there is more to it here than meets the eye. If you don’t look for it, you won’t see it. Instability caused by internal conflict and religious terrorism, coupled with brazen corruption and merciless repression of freedom of expression make a heady and potent mix. See this in the light of the fact that nearly a...

The debate over the death penalty resurfaces in India every time a judgment on a murder is delivered. There is however very little to the debate, and it is more about mass hysteria with people all around screaming for blood. It is as if this is the only form of salvation. All voices and reasoning against the death penalty is drowned in this shrill, rabid cries for blood. There is, indeed, very little debate over the issue in India. It is not debated hotly in Parliament by representatives most of...

For those still high after the "spectacular" Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, there's something that ought to bring them down a peg or two — India is Number One in the world in terms of the number of hungry people. And that would be 237.7 million at the last count. Proud moment for us all. No? The sobering number comes from The State of Food Insecurity in the World report released by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Wednesday. The study is a...

Languages have their own laws of evolution, ones that are not too different from those about species. Some languages survive, grow. Others become extinct. Some merge themselves into other languages. Others combine with another, and a third is born. The history of linguistic evolution is the history of dead languages. Humanity is a melting pot of cultures and languages are in a flux. Changes take place all the time, but most of these are not always discernible since the mutations are usually...

On December 24, 2008, Adama Kamara was six months pregnant and went into premature labour. By the next day it became clear she was suffering prolonged labour. The family observed her for one day before transporting her to a government hospital in Kambia, Sierra Leone. Transporting her to the hospital cost Le40,000 (US$13), which her husband borrowed from his neighbours. When they arrived at the hospital, Abu Kamara had to pay Le2,000 (US$0.67) for registration and Le10,000 (US$3.30) for a...

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA, for short) is very much in the news. And so are a host of officers of the Armed Forces, both retired and serving, who have voiced their desire for the Act to continue. It needs to be seen why they are being strident about an Act that has been repeatedly called “draconian” by many who are knowledgeable about it. What also needs to be exposed are the deceptive arguments they have been dinning into our ears. The Chief of Army Staff, Gen VK Singh...

The Omar Abdullah government knows how to instill faith among the people of Kashmir. By heaping insult upon injury, of course. It has shamelessly been doing so for the past so many months, and it has done so again by reinstating four police officials who had been suspended after the sensational killing and rapes of two women in Shopian last year. The suspension period of the four police officials has been treated as on-duty and they have been absolved of all charges. They have been reinstated on...

For a country where the bulk of its population is below 25, here's a finding that won't surprise many: a majority of people from India do not consider themselves to be old – more than the international average. But here's something that not many would know: Indians in the age group of 18-24 years fear heart diseases most in old age (25 per cent) followed by diabetes (24 per cent) and cancer (16 per cent). The findings are from Bupa Health Pulse 2010, an international healthcare survey which...