The Monster in the Mirror – Arundhati Roy
December 14, 2008, 8:55 pm
Filed under:
Indian Subcontinent | Tags:
AB Vajpayee,
Afghanistan,
Ahmedabad,
Babri Masjid,
Bangalore,
BJP,
Civil War,
Delhi,
Gujarat Genocide,
Guwahati,
Hafiz Saeed,
Hindu,
Hindustan,
India's 9/11,
Indian Mujahideen,
Indian Troops,
Islam,
Islamic Republic,
Jaipur,
Jammat-ud-Daawa,
Jews,
Kashmir,
Lashkar-e-Taiba,
LK Advani,
Malegaon,
Mohammed Afzal,
MS Golwalkar,
Mumbai Attacks,
Muslim,
Narendra Modi,
Pakistan,
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,
Sabarmati Express,
Shias,
Shimla,
Shiv Sena,
Sindh,
Suicide Bombing,
Terrorism,
US Senator John McCain,
Vishwa Hindu ParishadThe Mumbai attacks have been dubbed ‘India’s 9/11′, and there are calls for a 9/11-style response, including an attack on Pakistan. Instead, the country must fight terrorism with justice, or face civil war.
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12 December 2008
We’ve forfeited the rights to our own tragedies. As the carnage in Mumbai raged on, day after horrible day, our 24-hour news channels informed us that we were watching “India’s 9/11″. Like actors in a Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood film, we’re expected to play our parts and say our lines, even though we know it’s all been said and done before.
As tension in the region builds, US Senator John McCain has warned Pakistan that if it didn’t act fast to arrest the “Bad Guys” he had personal information that India would launch air strikes on “terrorist camps” in Pakistan and that Washington could do nothing because Mumbai was India’s 9/11.
But November isn’t September, 2008 isn’t 2001, Pakistan isn’t Afghanistan and India isn’t (more…)
Gujarat: Blame The Middle Class – Ashis Nandy
December 6, 2008, 11:19 am
Filed under:
Indian Subcontinent | Tags:
Bajrang Dal,
Communalism,
Congress Party,
Gandhi,
Gujrati Urban Middle Class,
Gujurat Elections,
M A Jinnah,
Narendra Modi,
Propaganda,
Rajiv Gandhi,
Sangh Parivar,
Secularism,
Sikh Militancy,
V D Savarkar,
Vishwa Hindu Parishad
BJP Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, at a rally in Bangalore on 6 May 2008
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( Dated Article – 14 January, 2008 )
Times Of India
Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, we can afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra Modi had lost the last elections, it would not have made much difference to the culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. Most of the state’s urban middle class would have remained mired in its inane versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and the Bajrang Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. Forty years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, electorally and socially.
The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so conspicuously by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of both V D Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two hostile (more…)
