History

Vande Mataram and the 2026 Amendment: From voluntary honour to penal coercion

While the slogan Vande Mataram galvanised millions during India’s struggle for liberation from the clutches of colonial rule, this essay demonstrates that the 2026 Amendment –that the BJP has orchestrated--does not represent historical continuity, but rather a contemporary majoritarian redefinition of a complex national symbol.

The Taj Story & Resurgence of a Myth, the ideological engineering of a Brahmanical narrative of pseudo-history

Tejo Mahalay & Mina Bazar: P. N. Oak’s Pseudohistory demeaning both Muslims & Rajputs, is both Communal and Casteist; P. N. Oak’s legacy is not one of historical revision but of ideological engineering. His “Tejo Mahalay” myth and “Mina Bazar” fantasy are not just anti-Muslim—they are anti-Rajput and fundamentally Brahminical

Babri Mosque Demolition: When the Indian State succumbed to majoritarian propaganda

Reassertion of obliterated historical facts has always been a project of the powerful majority and this crucial piece, once again, exclusively in SabrangIndia, counters this propaganda

How Muslims treated non-Muslims in early Islam

Every discussion about the treatment of non-Muslims under Muslim rule tends to revolve around one subject — the Jizya, or the so-called “discriminatory” poll tax

What Indian Cities Owe to Islam

The cities created in the Deccan by Muslim leaders introduced the concept of public space to the Indian world.

Distortions in the syllabus of history books, an uncomfortable perspective

The normalisation of an everyday majoritarianism, Neo-Hindutva, has been facilitated by the silence of the Muslim liberal; an urgent challenge is being able to move out of the confines to reaffirm wider processes of secularization as a counter

The true story behind a ‘real’ photograph of Rani Lakshmibai

A seven-year-long forensic search that went from India to...

Emergency regime and the role of RSS

The RSS’ claim that they were the main force of ‘resistance’ during the 15-month period of the Emergency is not borne out by record

On the 50th anniversary of India’s formal ‘Emergency’, how the RSS betrayed the anti-emergency struggle

How the authoritarian proto-fascist RSS not only in a sense supported India’s formal Emergency (1975-77), filed mercy petitions for early release from prison but also –in sharp contrast—played no part in the fierce and challenging struggle for India’s freedom against colonial rule

Mughals deleted from curriculum: history as political tool

The new education policy 2020 is being implemented gradually....

Mahabodhi Vihar, Gaya: a conspiracy of silence across the political spectrum

Despite several months-long agitation for the management of the shrine to be handed over to Buddhists, none from the opposition parties, be it the INC, RJD, SP or TMC have leant any voice to this demand

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Deaths, Denials and Delayed Action: The Balaghat crisis

From malnutrition and disease to protests and court intervention, Balaghat’s Adivasi villages reveal a crisis that the administration appears to have recognised only after the deaths became impossible to ignore  

Why Swatantra Bhardwaj is a pawn in our politics

As a fellow Bihari and a native of Darbhanga, my heart goes out to the middle class parents who pawn jewellery and mortgage ancestral property to send their ladlas and ladlis to a big city…

CJP files four complaints over hate speeches at gatherings across Maharashtra

The complaints separately identify the speakers, locations, dates and statements, while urging police authorities to investigate the speeches under applicable criminal law and act in accordance with Supreme Court directions concerning hate speech

‘Subjective Satisfaction’ Cannot Be Built On Conjecture: Allahabad HC quashes NSA detention of Akriti Chaudhary

The Court finds no material linking Chaudhary to the violence that erupted after her arrest, finds the Section 130 BNSS notice prima facie prepared retrospectively, warns that unchecked bureaucratic power could turn Uttar Pradesh into an “Orwellian Dystopia”

Penguin’s Shenanigans

Penguin has repeatedly crossed the line between due diligence and outright censorship. Small publishers, who have a lot more to lose, seem to have more of a spine.

Four decade-long misogyny of a law academic? Tahir Mahmood’s defence of Manusmriti echoes in his criticism of the 1985 Shah Bano verdict

The author argues that the positions of the legal scholar, Prof. Tahir Mahmood over forty years --defending the Manusmriti in 2026 and his opposition to maintenance for Muslim women at the time of the Shah Bano verdict in 1985 –reveal a cohesive, conservative worldview that normalises gender hierarchy under the guise of legal protectionism.