Author: Parthanil Roy

There was a time when India’s history and social science official texts though burdened with a slew of dates and events in a top down linear narrative nevertheless celebrated the reality of the evolution of a rich and diverse civilizational ethos. Today, the corrosive power of exclusion and hate runs deep: eleven days ago, April 14, reports of a deeply-disturbing incident caused concern on social media but was met with a deafening silence by India’s political class: an 11-year-old boy was allegedly thrashed and stripped simply to pressurise him into “chanting religious slogans” in Madhya Pradesh's Indore. That is how deep of hate flows now in India’s veins