Indian Opinion

Mukesh Devrari Surely, many of us are not agree with many of the decisions and policies of Nehru. Some of us might have the notion that India would have done better without the socialist bias in the policies of the Nehru government immediately after independence.  Few of us hate Nehru’s commitment to the idea of ‘socialist pattern of society’. Others hate him as he was not socialist enough. Hindu nationalist despise Nehru as he was committed to the idea of secularism. Nehru with Edwina Mountbatten Hindu nationalists feel Nehru should have learned from Pakistan how to treat religious minorities. They still want Muslims should be treated similarly as Hindus are being treated in Pakistan.  Ultra Hindu nationalists outrightly reject the partition of India on religious lines, but they also claim that once it was accepted it should have been absolute. No Muslim should have been allowed to stay here, no Hindu needed to stay in Pakistan. The list of grievances against Nehru do

Mukesh Devrari How the feminists should fight for gender equality in India is an elusive question? What should they demand is a settled narrative?  At the first level, feminists should fight to reform the law. It must be based on rationality. It must not be discriminatory and biased. At least women in India are fortunate that the moral conscience keepers of our society were always sympathetic to the concerns of feminists. Immediately after the independence first Prime Minister of India decided to amend the Hindu Code Bill on the modern lines despite the opposition from Hindu fanatics within Congress party. He successfully dealt with fundamentalism of the majority community but decided to bow its head in front of fanatics within the Muslim minority. Perhaps that’s why uniform civil code could not be implemented in India. Feminists in India must ask for the changes in laws that are gender biased and discriminatory. That is the first battleground. At the second level, fem

Mukesh Devrari M.A. Jinnah is perhaps the most abused man in India. Nationalists hate him. He is considered responsible for dividing India. He started his career as nationalist and ended up as a most vocal critic of the concept of India.  How this ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity turned rogue? This question still eludes a convincing answer.   Jinnah’s life can be divided broadly into two parts. In the initial part of his life, he was the loyal member of Congress party. According to the Pakistani historians he believed in the constitutional methods to achieve political goals. He disagreed with Gandhi’s methods of mass mobilization and protests.   Muslim historians, including Ayesha Jalal who glorifies ideas and achievements of Jinnah, prefer to highlight the non-religious lifestyle of Jinnah. He is also projected as a secular man who has nothing to do with the ideology of Islam as such. It helps Muslim historians to draw an inference that secular man became the most

Mukesh Devrari What do cities represent and signify? This question needs to be answered to evaluate the role of cities in social transformation. The common denominator among people living in cities is principally a way of life, a frame of mind, and perhaps a manner of thinking, speaking, and behaving. It is a spirit that makes a city. Again what is that spirit? The spirit of the city arises from its social heterogeneity. The city is culturally and even racially is a heterogeneous place. It’s a place where different languages are spoken, different customs practised and different gods worshipped. (Friedman, 1961, p.88). The central idea of this article is that the cities play a key role in transforming human relations, which in turn influences society at large. The impact of creation and expansion of cities resulted in the individualism in our society. Here the term of the individual means the changes in the aims, objectives, fantasies and dreams of people. Generally, t

Mukesh Devrari Can Hindi be our national language? Sometimes people in North India wonder whether South Indians especially people in Tamil Nadu hate Hindi because of their love for their mother tongue or their hatred for Hindi is based on their new found love for English. During the raj, British experts on South Asia used to teach newly recruited civil servants before deploying them on actual service that India is not a country. It is a loosely tied nation which could exist as one unit only because of the British Empire. Tamil Nadu and Himanchal Pradesh are more different from each other than Poland and Britain.  India is ethnically and linguistically more diverse than Europe. Chinese still believe India is not a nation. It is too diverse to be a nation and loosely tied by the Hindu religion.   English became the Trojan horse for India, initially, it was gifted but its actual purpose was to destroy India culturally. If India has any culture at all. There is no point

Mukesh Devrari  There was not much to read in the victory speeches of the man of the moment Narendra Modi. He led BJP to its biggest victory. BJP won staggering 283 seats and Congress has to contend with 43 seats. Even in 1977 general elections, which were held immediately after an emergency, Congress could win 154 seats in Lower House of parliament out of 543. BJP ideologue Balbir Punj said that he had never imagined that in his lifetime BJP would come to power on its own. If BJP leaders could not imagine this spectacular win, how could others? So far, the highest score of BJP was 182 seats in 1999 general elections under the charismatic leadership of A.B Vajpayee. The Modi is now our Prime Minister. The focus of this article is to highlight an ideological structure, if there was any, in his victory speech. During his campaigns, Modi promised that development will be his priority. The entire corporate world stood behind him because as a Chief Minister of Gujarat he ensure

Mukesh Devrari Promises of politicians are hollow. There are no exceptions. People believe in false promises amid despair. In the widespread hopeless environment propaganda works better. False promises during election campaigns by BJP went unnoticed. Modi wants all Bangladeshi Muslims to go back to Bangladesh as India is already overcrowded and they are snatching the opportunities and land from local population. His logic is as Bangladeshi Muslims can immigrate or seek asylum in any Muslim country. They must not come to India.   Now the BJP is in power on its own and Modi is a Prime Minister. If you think new dispensation is going to take any steps to make its poll promise of sending illegal Bangladeshis back home, then you are wrong. It is not going to happen but maybe during the next assembly election or general election BJP may raise this bogey of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants again.   Modi also observed in his subtle speeches during the poll campaign that Hindus w

Mukesh Devrari The situation in this country has reached to such a level that even a beast would revolt, but still every individual is tolerating all the hardships at his own level. It is a miracle why bomb blasts are not happening in our country, why yet there is no civil war in our cities and why Maoist rebels are not getting support of youngsters?   Just take a look at the despair and hopelessness spreading all around. Every year millions of youngsters pass out from thousands of colleges based in our cities and country sides. Each one of them carries a degree in their hands, but don’t have job.  In states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand whenever government notifies even ten vacant posts of clerk, g enerally hundred thousand applications turn up. On the day of the examination government runs special trains to cities like Patna and Ranchi, so that these job aspirants could come and appear in exams and return without posing a threat to law and order in the cities.

Mukesh Devrari What is communal writing? It includes a style of writing, which tends to create rift among different communities. It also promotes and preaches hatred. It encourages communities to indulge in violence against each other. It draws a picture as if communities are pitted against each other and always vying to establish hegemony over each other. In a country like India, communal writing can lead to rioting, loss of life and property. India has seen many communal conflagrations. In 1984 riots many Sikhs were killed by the supporters of congress party after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was murdered by her Sikh bodyguards. In the ensuing riots after the demolition of controversial Babri Mosque in 1992thousands of Hindus and Muslims killed each other brutally. In 2002 Gujrat riots many Muslims were killed in Gujrat with the connivance of state government led by Narendra Modi.   Communal writing is an immoral thing, but at times even debate around the social noti

Mukesh Devrari Supreme Court Judge A. K. Patnaik said, “Freedom of speech and expression is incomplete without the right to information act as uninformed opinion has no meaning. It is of no use. People must have access to information so that they could have an informed opinion on issues. Supreme Court of India gives paramount importance to personal liberty and freedom of speech and expression. It vigorously guards these rights against state’s encroachment”. He was delivering a lecture on Right to Information Act (2005) in the CUJ (Central University of Jharkhand) on 12 April 2014. Justice Patnaik described in detail the rationale behind introducing RTI act and procedure of using it. He also highlighted the grounds on which information can be denied. It includes anything which harms sovereignty and integrity of India, forbidden to be published by court of law, considered as a breach of parliament or state legislatures, fiduciary relations, information received from foreign

Mukesh Devrari Ramchandra Guha brings a narrative style to the history writing that his books become more interesting read than the Khuswant Singh’s ‘In the company of women”. Perhaps he is a most celebrated and genius historian of contemporary India. His profound observations and remarkable writing style are reflected in all his works. His books are read by the general public as well as hardnosed academicians. Above paragraph seems highly subjective and hagiographical account of an author, but it can be kept aside for a time being. Despite the remarkable fan following and eminence, his works lack objectivity and criticality. It seems Guha is enamoured by the charm of Nehru as Nehru was by the charm of Lady Mountbatten.  In his book ‘India after Gandhi’ Guha has kept Nehru and his policies at the centre of India. Guha finds no fault of Nehru for the ills of India. He ignores policy blunders and treats Nehru with kid gloves. He justifies all his actions as a politician on t