...those who have sullied India's proud tradition of tolerance Indian parliament discusses anti-Christian pogrom The bogey of forced conversions The illegal acts of the Bajrang Dal and other Hindutva organisations in Karnataka are justified as a reaction to forced conversions, very much like the genocide of Muslims in 2002 in Gujarat was justified as a reaction to the Godhra incident.

...attacks. Because, despite their secular pretensions, influential sections of India's Hindu-owned, so-called mainstream media are deeply anti-Muslim, they maintain a stony silence on the possibility of Hindutva terrorist outfits being behind several such blasts, as has been alleged by many Muslim as well as secular human rights' organisations. This is not to say that I do not agree that some fringe...

...is wrong to blame Islam for terrorism. Of course, this is the only stand they will publicly offer (leave the Muslim-bashing to loons on the internet), but Advani also took the opportunity to happily equate Hindutva with Hinduism. He said that Hindu scriptures could also be misinterpreted and it would be "intolerable if people malign Hindutva because of that" . Boo. Yeah, that's it. Sorry.

Violence over religious conversions continues in Orissa , while spreading to Karnataka and Kerala . The Karnataka CM is unhappy with "forced conversions" and his government wishes to examine the...two, because it reduces the number of Hindus. Both are, of course, ridiculous reasons to oppose conversion. But I think it is by and large true that they lie at the root of the anger over conversion

OMG, such pro-"Azaadi" article in Indian not-so-left media? Meanwhile Nitin writes : Advocates of a plebiscite and secession though have a duty to articulate what happens next—to Kashmir and to...there; all because of this wretched Valley. Since the people of Valley so intensely pine for hell, leave them to rot in that - so that we, particularly our soldiers, won't have to suffer so much

Is Indianness just a German ideology? In the first of a two-part analysis of neoliberalism in the sub-continent, Neil Gray traces the history of Hindu cultural nationalism, from a colonialist mystique of pure spirituality to today’s fascist pogroms and economic polarization .

Sacred cows and religious nationalism .

George Orwell on Antisemitism in England : above a certain intellectual level people are ashamed of being antisemitic and are careful to draw a distinction between “antisemitism” and “disliking Jews”...in modern civilisation, and as a result we are all more or less subject to this lunacy of believing that whole races or nations are mysteriously good or mysteriously evil. Remind you of anything

There has been a whole lot of literature regarding the period of transition of our country after the independence gained in 1947, to the present globalization days, to mention a few gems - Gurcharan...months. I will post them in coming blog posts. For now, grab this book, grab a pack of potato chips or whatever is that you like to munch on, and hit the most comfortable sofa or bed in your place

Pathik chides Hindutva people for keeping on talking about "Hinduism in threat". To be sure, he isn't being like those liberals and libertarians ( I don't know if Pathik belongs to either group ) who refuse to discuss demographic shifts - and dogmatically brand anyone who does so as spiteful. Being a ( genuine ) Hindu himself, and talking from love rather than hatred/contempt/disregard for Hindus...