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.

Growing Up In Downtown Tehran

I grew up in downtown Tehran. As a little...

Lying about Kashmir with old videos

When channels air old footage to tarnish demonstrators, they...

Germany and Islam – “Muslims are already German”

Many people these days are asking whether Islam and...

How exactly does the Indian media define a terrorist?

The English-language media's use of the term seems to...

Freedom of Speech in the University

Image courtesy Rabindranath Tagore’s utterances about nationalism, montouche“Even though...

The filming of Rumi – Everybody’s darling

A Hollywood film project and a joint attempt by...

The Word ‘Rashtra’

Eminent historian K.M. Shrimali critiques the concept of a timeless...

Did Ashoka’s embracing of Buddhism and Promoting Ahimsa Weaken India?

Image credit: bmmsa.org The sangh parivar's denigration of Emperor Ashoka...

The voyage of Nicolas Baudin and ‘art in the service of science’

Christine Judith Nicholls, Flinders University and Dany Breelle, Flinders...

Trending

Related VIDEOS

ALL STORIES

ALL STORIES

Reporter attacked on DU Campus, DUJ condemns assault

The body of journalists has condemned the attack on a female reporter as also the fact that the police remained ‘mute spectators’

Outside the World, Outside the Page: Why We Are More Receptive to Dalit Suffering than Dalit Anger

The author, a student in Bengaluru, asks why Dalit suffering is more readily received than Dalit anger in literature, cinema and public life. Is it because sorrow allows readers and viewers to remain sympathetic observers, while anger and refusal can challenge that comfortable distance?

Prioritise ecological security of country over “false narrative” of “highway development”: CCG to Govt & Courts

Former bureaucrats protest the “steady lowering of statutory safeguards for protecting India’s Environment and Forests” in an open letter to the government; both government and the judiciary need to prioritise the ecological security of our country and the health and life of its citizens over the false narrative of more roads, more buildings, more townships, more mines, more industries, more destruction of the natural world that is currently seen as progress.

Sit Where We Stand: The segregated back rooms for sanitation staff in urban spaces

The absence of dignified break rooms for sanitation staff in urban spaces is a visible residue of caste-exclusionary practices that have become normalised. Women who work here—whether in universities or elsewhere—are often left with no option but to rest on bathroom floors.

After some dithering, Odisha government rejects premature release of Graham Staines murder convict Dara Singh

Odisha Chief Minister, Mohan Charan Majhi, had in 2022, when he was a BJP legislator supported demands for Dara Singh’s early release, a demand vocalised by Sudarshan TV’s editor, Suresh Chavhanke