Email: sabrangind@gmail.com
Beyond the ‘plum’ posting: Why the caste lens still defines bureaucratic success
Following my recent blog on former IAS bureaucrat Atanu Chakraborty’s sudden exit as non-executive chairman of HDFC Bank, a few colleagues from the Gujarat cadre — mostly those I...
IIT-Bombay to introduce caste awareness courses
As per the minorities cell, the decision came after aggrieved students recommended it
Shivaji in ‘secular’ Maharashtra
First published on: 19 Dec 2015The Shiv Sena threatens...
The interplay of caste and faith
While faith often overshadows special marriages, experts talk about how caste and religion both influence this social institution
Hyderabad: Interfaith couple attacked, man stabbed to death!
The couple had gotten married, against the woman's family's wishes, on January 22 this year
UP’s Dy CM’s “Brahmin a superior way of living life” a sign of poll panic?
Dinesh Sharma says proud to be Brahmin, at the same time ‘slams’ opposition for being ‘casteist’
Segregated burial grounds, a violation of the Constitution: Madras High Court
The court observed that allowing a separate burial ground based on caste promotes segregation, that is the opposite of the idea of Equality envisaged by the Constitution
Conversion will not change caste of a person: Madras HC
Judgment addresses matter of issuance of certificates in case of inter-caste marriage, and makes observations about impact on caste-based reservations
Gujarat: Dalit family attacked for entering Kutch temple
Six members of the family were attacked, their farmlands ravaged; 20 accused, five detained so far
Punjab: Newly-weds, hacked to death, allegedly by woman’s family
Both families are from the OBC community, but were from different economic backgrounds; 16 including woman’s kin booked
Karnataka: Dalit family fined Rs 25,000 for ‘purification ritual’ after toddler runs into temple
Days later, police register case under the SC/ST prevention of atrocities Act, arrest five
Related VIDEOS
ALL STORIES
ALL STORIES
Farm and Forest
A test for the Forest Rights Act in Assam
Eviction notices issued to four Taungya villages in Nagaon district have reignited questions about historical injustice, forest governance and the state's obligation to recognise forest rights before displacement
Culture
Delhi: Between Protection & Prayer: Stories of revered sites now under the protection of ASI
In Delhi, some monuments are not just remnants of the past. They continue to function as places of prayer, remain part of neighbourhood life, and exist within an ongoing struggle over who owns them, who maintains them, and who decides how they may be used. The authors examine the layered complexities involved
Dalit Bahujan Adivasi
Three decades after the PoA Act, justice remains elusive
A comprehensive 30-year review of the SC/ST Atrocities Act reveals a persistent gap between the law's transformative promise and the lived realities of Dalits and Adivasis confronting violence, discrimination, and impunity
Rule of Law
The Supreme Court in 2025: Deference, technicality and the retreat from rights
From citizenship and reservation to encounter accountability, privacy, environmental protection and minority rights, the Court's most contentious judgments of 2025 reveal an increasing preference for institutional deference and procedural compliance over substantive constitutional justice
Rights
Who owns Mumbai’s streets? The Bombay High Court, street vendors and a decade of regulatory failure
What began as a case about encroachments has become a searching inquiry into the State's failure to implement the Street Vendors Act, the rights of pedestrians and informal workers, and the growing role of identification and verification in urban governance
India
Defectors & Democracy: A critique of the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution
The right of voters to recall representatives who defect—as seen in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Goa and Arunachal Pradesh—and the requirement of intra-party democracy could form part of a broader institutional redesign. Such measures would deepen democratic values and, above all, signal a refusal by citizens to accept the corruption of their mandate. These may be among the reforms that India's Parliament and democracy most urgently need
Gender and Sexuality
A regressive 2026 amendment to rights of Trans persons is under legal challenge even as pride month is celebrated
Unable to stay the statute, High Courts have charted a middle path—protecting petitioners already undergoing hormone therapy while the broader constitutional challenge awaits adjudication by the Supreme Court
