Hate & Harmony

A spate of criminal activities have emerged again recently where several suspects deliberately try to pass off crimes they commit as those committed by Muslims. It takes no rocket science to deduce that this has led to the further criminalisation of Muslims and a sharp stigmatisation and spiralling animosity directed at them.

Apart from an assertion of a false narrative – Goswami Tuslidas who authored Ramacharitmanas 37 years after the so-called destruction of the temple by Babar makes no mention of the ‘demolition’—the event on January 22 at Ayodhya involves a problematic consecration ceremony, and is in fact a crass political gimmick meant to bolster one person alone, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi

In the past few years, the central government has made big claims of development for farmers and laborers, but the latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau shows that the reality of these claims is different. According to the latest NCRB data, suicides of farmers and laborers have increased in the country.

Bilkis Bano has fought a hard, challenging battle. As one of the 1,958 women Muslim survivors of the targeted violence in Gujarat in 2002, she can now breathe some sighs of relief, if the convicts are “found” by the Gujarat police and report to prison by January 22 (the deadline set by the Supreme Court). There is also a possibility that these convicts now approach the Maharashtra government for remission under section 432 of the CrPC

First published on January 19, 2016Supply Sodium Cynanide and...

Ahead of the Lord Ram temple inauguration in Ayodhya on 22 January, the supreme spiritual leaders of Sanatan Hindu Dharma have made a public statement that they would not participate in the inauguration ceremony in Ayodhya, causing a big embarrassment for the ruling Hindutva forces. 

The civil rights network, Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization (FACAM), which held a protest gathering at Delhi University Arts Faculty against the cutting of trees and land grab of Adivasi peasant land in Hasdeo, Chhattisgarh, leading to massive displacement in Kaimur, Bihar, has said that as many as 195 paramilitary camps have been built within 5 years of Operation Samadhan-Prahar in order to quell any unrest in the region. 

An interfaith couple were assaulted, abused, and kidnapped from their hotel room in the state. The police have arrested some of the accused, while the remaining are still at large.

On January 10, 2024, the ‘grand old party’, the Congress, finally declined to attend the inauguration of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya on January 22, stating the blatant politicisation of religion and state behind the event as its reason, in its rather belated and vacillating response. Now, with the BJP attacking this move, the Congress has gone all out to counter the BJP’s ‘anti-Hindu’ slur

Narratives of violence and political polarisation are rife in the news, however are all ordinary Indians hostile to interfaith interactions? These incidents remind us that they are not.