I am Malala: I believe in education! As a little girl, I loved to go to school. Life dramatically changed for the worse when the Taliban took control of my hometown in the Swat Valley. They banned many things, including television and playing music. Those who defied their orders were given severe penalties. They did not allow the girls to go to school. Sadly, I had to leave my friends in 2009 when I was just eleven years old. At that age, I became an activist. I spoke out publicly on behalf of girls and their right to learn and began blogging about my experiences for BBC Urdu. In a speech which was widely covered by the media, I said, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” Yes, we must communicate; we must tell our stories loudly and clearly!

I am Malala: The Taliban, of course, did not like what I was doing. All fundamentalists have the same DNA; just look around you from the Ku Klux Klan in the US, to the Lehava in Israel, to the Hindutvadis. They are all the same! They feel threatened when someone stands up to them and is able to expose their heinous crimes. On that fateful day (9 October 2012), a masked Taliban gunman boarded my school bus whilst I was on my way home after writing my exam. He asked, “Who is Malala?” Recognising me, he shot me on the left side of my head. I woke up ten days later in a hospital in Birmingham, England. I was just fifteen then. My world had changed! My life given a second chanced I vowed never to look back!

I am Malala: Of the book ‘I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban’. It is the story of my life, from the time I was born till I was shot by the Taliban. It was co-written with Christina Lamb. Published on 8 October 2013, it became a bestseller all over the world. Though I know that it was banned in some places. The book has plenty of my own thoughts and insights.

I am Malala: So you can imagine my dismay when a prestigious school in Ahmedabad withdrew from its selection of additional reading, my book. ‘I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban’ together with the much-celebrated book ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ by Anne Frank. It is certainly within the right of any school to prescribe the books for their children. The sad part about this case is that the books had to be withdrawn after orders from the educational authorities and a fine imposed on the school. Imagine to what a rotten state education has fallen. It is not about ‘my’ book; but the fact is that the students are deprived at an early age of experiencing pluralism in thought. Ironically, it will be the parents of these children who will be desperate to send their children abroad for higher education.

I am Malala: It is heartening to note that a civil society group comprising more than 150 citizens from Gujarat and elsewhere issued a strong statement condemning the withdrawal of these two books and demanded that there should be no external interference in providing the students with the much-needed holistic education. The statement said, “We believe that both these books remain very important and timely resources for students to access. Yousafzai’s memoir recounts her fight for women’s, children’s and girls’ education rights in Pakistan, while Anne Frank’s diary stands as a historically significant personal account of life under Nazi occupation and the Holocaust”.

I am Malala: The Student and Youth Collective Ahmedabad must be applauded and appreciated for organising in Ahmedabad on 27 August ‘A Silent Reading Session’ in a public park. The young organisers made a very meaningful poster for the event which said, ‘Ban the Censorship, Not the Books’, and adding ‘for education free from fear, interference and conformity.’ Several (mainly students and other youth) participated in this unique protest. They read books that mattered, demonstrating to others the significance of these books and why they must be popularised in today’s India. The power of the youth was simply amazing!

I am Malala: Then the goons of the Hindutva brigade came in! There are striking similarities between them and the Taliban. They were shouting and yelling, not willing to listen. Of course, their levels of comprehension are below average. They came armed with sticks and hockey sticks. They beat some innocent citizens. They were able to prove just one thing: they were fascist thugs determined to destroy the idea of a pluralistic and secular India.

I am Malala: The attack has naturally been condemned by all except by their mentors. The Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (Gujarat) has issued a strong, unequivocal and detailed statement on this assault on democracy. The statement concludes, “The right to sit in a public garden and read a book is sacrosanct. People were hospitalized women were assaulted, and a young woman was threatened with disappearance for filming a crime. This did not happen because anyone at the reading broke the law, but because of the books in their hands and the religion the mob suspected they belonged to. A national anthem sung to calm a mob was answered with more violence, not less. PUCL Gujarat will closely monitor this case and expects the police to correct the record before this diluted version of events hardens into the official history.”

I am Malala: Because I am ME – I have dared to take on the fascist, fundamentalist, fanatic, feudalistic forces that tried to prevent my growth as a person! They did their best to put fear in me and in the lives of others! I fearlessly took them on! Today I tell them in no uncertain terms that I believe in freedom, justice and truth! I am not afraid to stand up to them. There is nothing that confines me! The world is my home. I have dignity, I have freedom!  I am inclusive and believe in the equality of all! We are all created in the image and likeness of God; we are all his children. I am yesterday, today and tomorrow. Remember, I will always live!

I AM MALALA:  but NOT the Malala you think I am. No, not the Malala who is a Pakistani or a Muslim. Though she is truly my inspiration and for millions of others too. I am Indian! I believe in the idea of India. I am the youth of India: The Gen Z and even the Gen Alpha. I am neither a coward nor violent. I do not hate; but yes, there is an honest rage in my heart and mind. Too much has been happening, and I am being throttled and excluded. You call me what you want: ‘cockroach’, ‘Dimagi Naxal’, ‘tukde tukde gang’, whatever. I am not afraid. You have destroyed our beloved nation with your corruption, communalism, casteism and crony capitalism. You have kept dividing, denigrating, discriminating, demonising us. I say ‘enough is enough’. Your time is up! I believe in the values enshrined in the Constitution: justice, liberty, equality, fraternity; unity, diversity, the rights and freedoms guaranteed to all! We will not stop! With the millions who are with me, I am convinced that ‘we shall overcome’! Satyameva Jayate!

August 29, 2026

(The author is a human rights, reconciliation and peace activist, writer & trainer.)

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The post I AM MALALA! Afghanistan or Ahmedabad why are fundamentalists wary of the right to education? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

According to the Times of India, Vandan was still dealing with jet lag when he participated in the tournament. After completing his four games, he went to bed without immediately telling his parents that he had played Carlsen.

Father found the result later

Vandan’s father, Alankar Sawai, a former banker, later checked his son’s Chess.com profile and found the game against Carlsen. He then asked Vandan about the result. The teenager confirmed that he had played against Carlsen and won.

As reported that Vandan’s mother, Dr Madhuri Alankar Sawai, said her son had simply informed the family that he had finished his four rounds. The significance of the result became clear to the family only after his father checked the games.

Vandan himself was initially unsure whether the result had come because of an error by Carlsen. He reportedly considered the possibility of a “mouse slip”, referring to an accidental online move.

His school friends also learnt about the result the following day. According to TOI, some of them initially did not believe that Vandan had defeated Carlsen. Vandan subsequently shared screenshots of the game with them.

The 50-move game

Vandan played with the white pieces and opened with e4. Carlsen replied with e5. The game developed through a Giuoco Piano variation.

The game remained competitive during its early stages. The Times of India reported that a key moment came around the 26th move, when Vandan’s bishop put Carlsen’s king under attack. Carlsen moved his king rather than taking the bishop, after which Vandan gained material. Vandan continued the game and eventually won after 50 moves. Carlsen had a rating of 2,823 for the game, while Vandan was a Candidate Master with a FIDE classical rating of 2,288, as reported

He was initially reluctant to play

Vandan had not originally planned to participate in the tournament. His mother told the Times of India that she encouraged him to play after his return from Europe. He also did not inform his coach beforehand that he was taking part.

The tournament was organised online through Chess.com. According to the earlier TOI report, titled players participate in the platform’s events, where Carlsen also plays.

Vandan played his usual opening approach in the game rather than making specific changes because his opponent was Carlsen.

Started playing chess at eight

Vandan began playing chess when he was eight years old. According to the Times of India, his mother introduced him to the game after learning it from her brother.

He initially developed an interest in chess puzzles and later began participating in competitive chess.

Vandan has trained with FIDE Master Gurpreet Pal Singh and International Master Kushager Krishnater, according to the newspaper.

The Delhi report also stated that Vandan is a class topper. He has not yet decided whether he wants to pursue chess professionally, although he has set his sights on becoming an International Master. After the victory, Vandan’s family planned a visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The family also planned to undertake sewa during the visit.

The family’s plans followed the online victory and the attention it received after details of the game became known.

Ambedkarite background

Vandan is being identified by his family and community as an Ambedkarite student. His achievement has subsequently been discussed within the Ambedkarite community in the context of education and academic development.

The details reported about Vandan’s academic record, chess training and family support form part of his background as he continues his schooling alongside competitive chess. His victory over Carlsen came in an online blitz game, while Vandan continues to compete and train as a young chess player.

From school and puzzles to international competition

Vandan’s chess journey began with learning the game at eight and solving chess puzzles before moving into competitive play. He has since obtained the Candidate Master title and reached a FIDE classical rating of 2,288, according to the Times of India.

The August 18 game against Carlsen was one of four games Vandan played that night. He won three of them and only later discussed the Carlsen game with his family.

His immediate response after completing the tournament was to go to sleep. As his mother told the Times of India, the family’s reaction came only after his father examined the games on Vandan’s Chess.com account and realised that one of his opponents had been Magnus Carlsen.

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The Mechanism of Caste

The post The Ambedkarite Champ: 15-year-old Vandan Sawai defeats chess great Magnus Carlsen appeared first on SabrangIndia.

There is a detail worth pausing on before the argument even begins. The account’s bio carried a line from B.R. Ambedkar, “Educate, Agitate, Organise,” – before it was removed – which presented, evidently, as the spirit animating the campaign. It is hard to imagine a more complete inversion of what that phrase was meant to do. Ambedkar issued it to the very communities that reservation exists to protect, as an instruction for building collective power against a system stacked against them.

He was, not incidentally, also the principal architect of constitutional reservation itself. An account campaigning to dismantle his signature achievement, while quoting his most famous call to arms as its own mission statement, has not so much misread Ambedkar as run his words backwards.

That confusion turns out to be the whole story. RHA is being sold as something new – a fresh generation, fed up with a broken meritocracy, finally saying what previous generations were too timid to say. It is not new. The demand to “remove reservation” is one of the oldest, most recycled slogans in independent India’s political life, and it has failed, in more or less identical form, every single time it has been tried – against Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST) quotas as much as Other Backward Classes (OBC) ones, in state after state, for nearly fifty years before Gen Z existed as a demographic category.

Before Mandal: A fight older than the word “OBC”

The template was set in the late 1970s. In 1978, Bihar’s socialist chief minister Karpoori Thakur implemented 26% reservation for backward classes, based on the Mungeri Lal Commission – the first major state-level rollout of its kind in north India. It triggered a destructive anti-reservation movement, with upper-caste protestors, including some allied to his own coalition partners, taking to the streets against him. The quota outlasted his tenure; Thakur lost the chief ministership within a year.

Three years later, in 1981, a movement erupted aimed squarely at SC and ST quotas rather than backward-class ones. Ahmedabad saw India’s first big anti-reservation agitation, triggered by a state government move to raise reserved medical college seats for SCs and STs. It turned violent quickly, with Dalit students and neighbourhoods bearing the brunt of the backlash – an early, ugly template for what “antireservation” mobilisation would come to mean on the ground: not abstract policy debate, but targeted intimidation of the communities the policy served.

In December 1989, a separate wave of protest broke out in Uttar Pradesh, this time against Parliament’s routine decision to extend reserved SC/ST legislative seats for another ten years – a renewal that had never before drawn street opposition. Both agitations fizzled without altering the underlying quotas.

Then, in 1985, Gujarat erupted again, this time over a further hike in the OBC quota under chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki. What began as boycotts and marches by upper-caste students spiralled into months of rioting between February and August, killing well over a hundred people, before curdling into communal violence against Ahmedabad’s Muslim residents, who had played no role in the reservation dispute at all. The army patrolled the city; curfews ran for weeks; Solanki was forced to resign. The quota hike stood regardless.

1990 and 2006: Bigger stages, identical outcome

Then came 1990, the moment anti-reservation politics entered the national bloodstream in earnest. Prime minister V.P. Singh’s implementation of the Mandal Commission’s 27% OBC quota in central government jobs set off an agitation that spread across north India, marked by the self-immolation attempt of Delhi University student Rajeev Goswami – his image still invoked today by both sides of the debate. Dozens of copycat attempts reportedly followed, some fatal. The reservation survived regardless. The Supreme Court’s 1992 verdict in Indra Sawhney upheld it, adding only a creamy-layer exclusion and a 50% ceiling as concessions.

Sixteen years later, the argument resurfaced almost unchanged. When the government moved to extend 27% OBC reservation to the IITs, IIMs and AIIMS in 2006, a new organisation called Youth for Equality sprang up almost overnight, drawing medical students, engineers and general-category doctors into one of the most disruptive protest waves independent India had seen.

AIIMS doctors struck work, reducing hospitals to emergency services only; nearly a hundred thousand people rallied in Delhi; blockades shut down roads and rail lines across three metros for weeks. The protestors demanded a rollback, a white paper, merit-based alternatives to caste quotas. The Supreme Court instead upheld the quota in 2008, with additional seats added to protect general-category numbers rather than shrink them. Youth for Equality still exists today, now largely as a legal and political lobby rather than a street movement – itself a quiet admission that the agitation route did not work.

Numbers don’t lie

There is a structural reason none of these movements – 1978, 1981, 1985, 1989, 1990, 2006 — have ever succeeded: reservation is not a policy preference that a hashtag, or even a riot, can talk a government out of. It rests on constitutional protection, a court-enforced ceiling upheld across decades of litigation, and a cross-party political consensus that no electoral coalition has found worth breaking, whatever its private sympathies. Every time an anti-reservation campaign has gathered visible pace, a far larger counter-mobilisation has followed within days, not years, because reservation is tied to the political identity and material stake of hundreds of millions of Indians. One popular response to RHA’s overnight follower spike put the arithmetic plainly: for every lakh who want reservation gone, crores will show up to defend it.

Counter-mobilisation arrived within a day

The 2026 instalment has now supplied its own case study, and it has run true to form. RHA had sought permission for a demonstration at Jantar Mantar, and on August 21, Delhi Police instead issued a no-objection certificate for the alternative venue of Ramlila Maidan, capping the crowd at 500 people until 4 pm. Organisers cried foul, calling it a deliberate attempt to shrink their numbers. Hundreds of protesters – drawn, by their own account, from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan among other states — showed up at Jantar Mantar anyway and refused to budge even after the Ramlila permission window lapsed. By evening the standoff had escalated: Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed, and over fifty protesters were detained, with traffic diverted around Sansad Marg, Tolstoy Road and Ashoka Road for hours.

The demands articulated at the site – laid out by Ajeet Bharti, who addressed the crowd – were a government white paper on nearly eight decades of quota policy, a “quota within quota” so benefits reach the most deprived within reserved communities, strengthening of Economically Weaker Section (EWS) reservation, and minimum qualifying marks for reserved-category candidates. Other protesters went further, demanding a “one family, one reservation” rule and withdrawal of the UGC’s 2026 caste-equity directives – closer, whatever the semantic hair-splitting, to the abolitionist reading the campaign’s own name invites.

The counter-mobilisation arrived within a day, exactly as the arithmetic above predicts. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav both framed the Jantar Mantar mobilisation as an assault on constitutionally guaranteed SC/ST/OBC reservation. By August 24, Union Minister Chirag Paswan had delivered the government’s own rebuttal in unusually blunt terms, calling reservation a constitutional right no power on earth can abolish, and pointing to continuing caste-based humiliation – Dalit grooms still barred from wedding-procession horses, a Dalit leader’s stage still “purified” after his visit – as evidence the underlying problem hasn’t gone away. RHA, for its part, claimed on August 22, that the government had agreed to talks and that a minister would meet protesters personally – the same face-saving off-ramp virtually every one of its predecessor movements eventually took.

RHA also skips over what actually brought people onto the streets in the first place, and that omission is the tell. The CJP’s protests were about something specific and recent – a NEET examination scandal, a minister seen as unaccountable, an exam system that today’s students experience as rigged by coaching-centre capital and administrative failure, not by their classmates from reserved categories.

Turning that anger toward reservation isn’t a continuation of the youth movement. It is a hijacking of it, substituting a fifty-year-old argument that has never once won for the fresh, generation-specific grievance that actually filled the streets, and doing so under the borrowed authority of a thinker whose entire political project was to make that argument impossible to win.

Viral campaigns rise fast and vanish faster when the argument underneath them doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. RHA has the follower count of a trending hashtag, a bio quote it has fundamentally misread, a single Friday’s worth of detentions and traffic diversions passed off as a movement, and the record of every decade since the 1970s standing against it. History suggests it will have the shelf life of both – a brief surge of shares and outrage, followed by the quiet realisation that nothing about the underlying arithmetic, legal architecture, or political coalition around reservation has moved even slightly.

The post The ‘Reservation Hatao Andolan’ Isn’t a Gen Z Uprising. It’s a Rerun appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Bharat Chodo Slogan was coined by none less than Yusuf Meherali, the historic venue for the launch of the Quit India Movement was the Gowalia Tank Maidan, thereafter named the August Kranti Maidan in Mumbai.
112 years ago, and 37 years before the Quit India Movement, the words and melody of the Rakhee Sangeet by Rabindranath Tagore filled the streets of Bengal and Hindus and Muslims poured out on the streets to say ‘No’ to the Partition of Bengal. The Partition was revoked and east and west Bengal were re-united on December 12, 1911 by the British. A new partition which divided the province on linguistic, rather than religious grounds followed, with the Hindi, Oriya and Assamese areas separated to form separate administrative units: Bihar and Orissa Province was created to the west, and Assam Province to the east. The administrative capital of British India was moved from Calcutta to New Delhi as well.

Rakhee Sangeet
During the swadeshi and anti-partition agitation people in both the Benglas took out processions in the streets of towns and villages and sang swadeshi and patiotric songs. An English version of one such song, originally composed in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore, is reproduced below.

Let the earth and water of Bengal,
Let the air and fruits of Bengal, be sacred, be sacred, be sacred, my god.
Let the homes and marts of Bengal,
Let the forests and fields of Bengal, be full,  be full, be full, my god.
Let the promises and hopes of Bengalis,
Let the deeds and language of Bengalis, be true, be true, be true, my god.
Let the lives and hearts of Bengalis,
Let all the brothers and sisters in Bengali homes, be united, be united, be united, my god.

Excerpts from Gokhale’s Presidential Address
Bengal was at its peak of the united nationalist movement at the dawn of 19th century, which eventually emerged as a formidable threat to the British Raj. Divide and Rule has always been the policy of the rulers be it the British or those who rule from Delhi today.

To curb this nationalist movement, the Britishers decided to divide Bengal, a move vehemently opposed by various leaders of the time, including Rabindranath Tagore.

The decision was taken at a meeting between Lord Curzon and a Muslim delegation in Assam in June 1905, where the Muslims were convinced of the idea of a separate state to keep their identity. The plan was to divide the Hindu majority regions of West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha from Muslim-dominated areas of Assam and Sylhet. The British government passed the orders of partition in August 1905, which came into effect on October 16 of the same year. However, the date fell in the month of Shravan, when the festival of Raksha Bandhan was celebrated by the Hindu community.

Tagore masterfully used the concept of brotherhood, togetherness and ‘the thread of protection’ as a medium to protest against British’s partition policy by showing a picture of unity among the two communities.

Gopal krishna Gokhale’s Presidential Address at the Banares  Congress Convention (1905), where the made a detailed analysis of the question  of the partition of Bengal and the Swadeshi movement are worth a recall:
“Gentlemen, the question that is uppermost in the minds of all at this moment is the partition of Bengal. A cruel wrong has been inflicted on our Bengalee brethren, and the whole country has been stirred to its deepest depths in sorrow and resentment, as had never been the case before. The scheme of Partition concocted in the dark and carried out in the face of the fiercest opposition that any Government measure has encountered during the last half-a-century, will always stand as a complete illustration the worst features of the present system of bureaucratic rule-its utter contempt for public opinion, its arrogant pretensions to superior wisdom… Lord Curzon and his advisers… could never allege that they had no means of judging of the depth of public feeling in the matter. All that could possibly have been done by way of a respectful representation of the views of the people had been done. As soon as it was known that a partition of some sort was contemplated, meeting after meeting of protest was held…. The Secretary of State for India was implored to withhold his sanction to the proposed measure. The intervention of the British House of Commons was sought, first by a monster petition, signed by sixty thousand people, and later by means, of a debate on the subject raised in the House by our over-watchful mend, Mr. Herbert Roberts. All proved unavailing…. To add insult to injury, Lord C m n described the opposition to his measures as “manufactured”-an opposition in which all classes of Indians, high and low, uneducated and educated, Hindus and Mahomedans had joined, an opposition than which nothing more intense, nothing more wide-spread, nothing more spontaneous had been seen in this country in the whole course of our political agitation.. . .

The tremendous upheaval of popular feeling, which has taken place in Bengal in consequence of the partition, will constitute a landmark in the history of our national progress. For the first time since British rule began, all sections of the Indian community, without distinction of caste or creed, have been moved by a common impulse and without the stimulus of extend pressure to act together in offering resistance to a common wrong. A wave of true national consciousness has swept over the province…. Bengal’s heroic stand against the oppression of a harsh and uncontrolled bureaucracy has astonished and gratified all India, and her sufferings have not been endured in vain, when they have helped to draw closer all pasts of the country in sympathy and in aspiration….”

On July 19, 1905, British governor-general Curzon announced the partition of Bengal into two provinces-Eastern Bengal and Assam, and the rest of Bengal which included Bihar and parts of Orrisa.

The main political aim of the partition decision was a divide the Bengal population and to weaken the nationalist movement of which Bengal was the most important entre.

The British move was also to disrupt Hindu-Muslim unity by convincing upper class Muslims that the newly created province with its Muslim majority was in their interest. However, it only served to arouse and bring in all sections of the people in Bengal into an unprecedented mass movement which soon spread too many other parts of the country.

The anti-partition agitation assumed a militant from on August 7, 1905 when thousands of people at a meeting in Calcutta resolved to boycott British goods until the partition proposal was withdrawn.

The Partition of Bengal came into force on October 16, 1905 which day was observed as a day of national mourning throughout Bengal. It was during this movement that Swadeshi or use of Indian goods and boycott of British Goods became an integral part of the freedom struggle. At thousands of meeting people took the pledge of Swadeshi and boycott. Resolutions supporting Swadeshi and boycott were also passed at the Benares session of the Congress under the presidentship of Gokhle in December 1905, although the Moderates then and later tried to restrict their scope. The message of Swadeshi spread to the entire country and helped in promoting Indian Industries. A large number of educational institutions were also opened by nationalists and a National Council of Education was set up. The movement which had begun in Bengal over the question of partition was transformed into a wider movement for freedom of the country. The British rulers, in order to crush the rising tide of nationalism, unleashed naked repression.

Congress Resolutions on Partition, Swadeshi and Boycott Movement

At the annual session of the Congress held in 1906 in Calcutta, the resolutions passed at the preceding session (1905) against the Partition, were re-asserted and further resolutions were passed, supporting the Boycott and Swadeshi.

Some excerpts from the resolutions VI, VII and VIII read”

VI.       The Partition of Bengal-This Congress again records its emphatic protest against the Partition of Bengal and regrets that the present Government, while admitting that there were errors in the original plan and that it went wholly and decisively against the wishes of the majority of the people of Bengal, is disposed to look upon it as a settled fact….

This Congress, composed of representatives from all the Provinces of this country, desires earnestly to impress upon the British Parliament and the present Liberal Government that it will be not only just, but expedient to reverse or modify the partition in such a manner as to keep the entire Bengali speaking community under one undivided administration and thus restore contentment to so important a province as Bengal

VII.     Boycott Movement-Having regard to the fact that the people of this country have little or no voice in its administration, and that their representations to the Government do not receive due consideration, this Congress is of opinion that the Boycott Movement, inaugurated in Bengal by way of protest against the partition of that province was, and is legitimate.

VIII.    Swadeshi-This Congress accords its most cordial support to the Swadeshi Movement and calls upon the people .of the country to labour for its success by making earnest and sustained efforts to promote the growth of indigenous industries and to stimulate the production of indigenous articles by giving them preference, wherever practicable, over imported commodities, even at a sacrifice.

Widespread Protests at Meeting in Agra and Surat

Protest meetings against the Partition of Bengal were organised in all parts of the country on and after October 16, 1905.

From the Archives of the Amrita Basar Patrika.
AGRA CITY, Oct 22
At the Swadeshi Mass Meeting held in the Mankameshwar temple, over ten thousand people, both Hindus and Mahomedans, were present. Native Christians sent a sympathetic message explaining their absence that it was a Sunday. Lala Kedarnath Vakil was elected Chairman. The meeting commenced and terminated with singing national songs. A resolution was passed for the adoption of country-made goods….

Surat, Oct. 23…Public meeting of over 5000 people was held here-Parsis, Hindus, Mahomedans…. Israel and Native Christians attended. Lawyers, merchants, landlords, pensioners, artisans-in short, men of all classes and creeds assembled in the ball which was crowded to overflowing. Rai Bahadur Krishamukhram Mahata, retired Small Causes Court Judge, presided, supported by Divan Bahadur Ambalal Des     ai (Ahmedabad). Ali Mohamed Bhimji (Bombay) and Maulvi Abdul Halim Monghyr spoke in favour of the Swadeshi movement. Great enthusiasm prevailed. The proceedings lasted for three hours…. Handicrafts were exhibited A committee was formed to carry out the objects of the meetings.

Background of theBengal Partition and the Swadeshi Movement

What were Curzon’s  Aims  in Partitioning Bengal ?
The following  excepts from Curzon’s letter of February 2, 1905 to St. John Broderick, Secretary of state for India, give an idea of his aims in partitioning  Bengal.
“Calculation is the centre from which the congress party is manipulated throughout the whole of Bengal and indeed the whole of India. Its best wirepullers and its most frothy orators all reside here. The perfection of their machinery, and the tyranny which its enables them to exercise are truly remarkable. They dominate public opinion in Calcutta; they affect the high court; they frighten the local government and they are sometimes not without serious influence on the government of India.

The whole of their activity is directed to creating an agency so powerful that they may one day be able to force a weak government to give them what they desire. Any measure in consequence that would divide the Bengali-speaking population; that would permit independent centres of activity and influence to grow up; that would dethrone Calcutta from its place as the centre of successful intrigue, or that would weaken the influence of the lawyer class, who have the entire organization in their hands, is intensely and hotly resented by them. The outcry will be loud and very fierce, but as a native gentleman said to me-‘my countrymen always howl until a thing is settled; then they accept it’.

Partition Proclamation   
The text of the Partition of Bengal Proclamation issued from Simla on  September 1, 1905 is reproduced below:
The following Proclamation to which the sanction of His Majesty the King-Emperor of India has been signified by the secretary of state for India in council is published:
The governor general is pleased to constitute the territories at present under the administration of the chief commissioner of Assam to be for the purposes of the Indian councils Act 1861…a province to which the provisions of that Act touching the making of laws and regulations for the peace and good order of the presidencies of Fort St. George and Bombay shall be applicable and to direct that the said province shall be called and known as the province of Eastern Bengal and Assam…

2. The Governor General in council is pleased to specify the sixteenth day of October,1905 as the period at which the said provisions shall take effect and 15^th  as the number of councilors whom the Lieutenant Governor may nominate for his assistance in making laws and regulations.
3. The Governor General in council is further pleased and appoint that upon the constitution of the said province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, the districts of Decca, Mymensingh, Faridpur, Backergunge, Tippera, Noakhali, Chittagong, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Rangpur, Bogra, Pabna, and Malda which now form part of the Bengal Division of the Presidency of fort William Shall cases to be subject to or included within the limits of that Division, and shall thenceforth be subject to and included within the limits of the Lieutenant –Governorship of the province of Eastern Bengal and Assam.

Calcutta in Morning
The first part of a news item, which appeared in the Amrita Bazaar Patrika of October 17, 1905 entitled “Calcutta  in Morning-A Unique Sight”, describing the situation in Calcutta on October 16, 1905, the day Bengal was partitioned, is given below.
Yesterday was one of the most memorable days in the history of the British administration of India. It being the day on which the Bengal partition scheme took effect, the day on which our unsympathetic government forced a measure by a proclamation in the official gazette against the wishes of the whole population, the day on which our rules tried to separate the Bengali speaking people of the East Bengal from those of the West Bengal, the people of Calcutta, irrespective of nationality, social position, creed and sex, observed it as a day of mourning. The leaders of the Bengali community-Hindus and Mahomedans-did not however silently mourn and weep. They did something more. They as a legacy to posterity and as a landmark to British administration laid the foundation of the Federation Hall. They also took a practical step towards the furtherance of the Swadeshi movement by opening the National Fund.

The Scene on the Bank of the Hooghly
From the small hours in the morning till noon, the bank of the Ganges from Bag bazaar to Howrah presented a unique spectacle. It looked, as if it were, a surging sea of human faces. From all streets, lanes and bye-lanes, leading to the bank a quick succession of streams of people all bare-footed-found their way to the bank to have a plunge in the sacred river.

As the day advanced, the gathering thickened more and more and by 10, about a lakh of the male population of the metropolis-all in mourning-thronged the bank and the Ghats of tender sex.

They cry of “Bande Mataram” now and then, broke the silence of the still air and reverberated through it imparting a chastening influence on the minds of those who gathered together there…innumerable processions consisting of scores and hundreds of men, after arriving at the bank of the sacred river and wearing Rakhi (yellow thread) proceeded in procession singing ‘Bande Matram’ all the way.

Several thousands of such processions passed all over the city especially the northern quarter of it from 8 am. To 2 pm. They accosted on the way everyone they met with “Bande Mataram” in embracing each other and putting on “Rakhi”. It was a sight for the gods to see….

Roads and Streets
The scene in the roads and streets of whole Calcutta was quite novel and was perhaps never before witnessed in any Indian city….No purchasers were there and thus no sellers had to exhibit their articles…All the mills were closed and the mill hands paraded the city in procession…The only cry that was heard was of “Bande Mataram” . Bands of Mahomedans and Marwari’s joined the processionists and greatly enhanced the enthusiasm.

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The Shompen of Great Nicobar Island stand out as one of India’s most distinctive and endangered tribal communities. Living deep within the island’s forests, they have traditionally followed a semi‑nomadic life of hunting, gathering and horticulture. Their diet—coconuts, bananas, tubers, fish, wild animals and honey—reflects a sophisticated understanding of the forest ecosystem. Their indigenous methods of storing water in bamboo, their linguistic uniqueness and their customary practices have long fascinated anthropologists and administrators. Yet these very characteristics also make them exceptionally vulnerable to external pressures.

Historically, the Shompen have maintained minimal contact with outsiders, a factor that helped preserve their culture but also left them exposed to new risks as interactions increased. Their population numbers tell a story of extreme demographic fragility. Estimates have fluctuated sharply over the past century: 348 in 1901, 375 in 1911 and 1921, dropping to 200 in 1931, plummeting to 20 in 1951, rising again to 212 in 1981, falling to 135 in 1991 and reaching 229 in 2001. These swings must be interpreted cautiously, given the difficulty of enumerating isolated communities, but they nonetheless reveal how even minor disruptions—disease outbreaks, habitat loss or food scarcity—can have catastrophic consequences for such a small population.

Health remains one of the most serious concerns. Indigenous groups with limited historical exposure to communicable diseases are at heightened risk when contact with outsiders increases. The Andaman Islands have witnessed outbreaks of measles, mumps and tuberculosis among other tribal communities, underscoring the dangers of uncontrolled interaction. For the Shompen, healthcare policy must strike a delicate balance: ensuring access to essential services without exposing them to infectious diseases or creating dependency on external institutions. Preventive, culturally sensitive strategies—surveillance, vaccination where appropriate, nutritional support and emergency response—must be designed with respect for autonomy and minimal intrusion.

The Shompen’s survival is inseparable from the forests of Great Nicobar. Their traditional economy depends on access to wildlife, water sources and forest produce. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956 sought to safeguard indigenous territories by restricting land transfers and outsider access. Yet protected areas can create dilemmas when conservation measures unintentionally limit indigenous communities’ access to resources they have relied on for generations. Protection must therefore prioritize tribal rights rather than impose rigid administrative boundaries. Encroachment, agricultural expansion, commercial extraction and unauthorized entry threaten both the forest ecosystem and the Shompen’s livelihood security.

Contact with outsiders remains one of the most sensitive policy issues. Tourism, settlement and infrastructure development have increased opportunities for interaction, often with harmful consequences. Experiences involving other indigenous groups in the islands reveal how treating tribal communities as tourist attractions can lead to exploitation, cultural disruption and nutritional decline. When traditional food systems are replaced by market commodities, diets may become inadequate or unhealthy. Policy must follow the principle of minimum necessary contact, ensuring that interaction occurs only for essential purposes such as healthcare, protection or administration.

Tourism, in particular, demands strict ethical safeguards. The controversies surrounding the Andaman Trunk Road illustrate how commercial interests can overshadow indigenous rights. The Shompen must never be approached, photographed or displayed for entertainment. Their privacy, dignity and right to determine the nature of contact must take precedence over tourism revenue. Responsible tourism requires prohibiting exploitative encounters and preventing entry into protected tribal territories except under strictly regulated conditions.

Education presents another complex challenge. The Shompen possess their own language, ecological knowledge and cultural practices. Conventional schooling, if imposed without sensitivity, may erode indigenous knowledge and produce limited outcomes. Experiences from Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh show that educational programmes become more effective when they incorporate local languages and traditional learning systems. For the Shompen, flexible, community‑based approaches—introduced only with their consent—may be more appropriate than mass‑schooling models.

Government policy in the islands has evolved from colonial settlement and penal administration to post‑independence efforts aimed at protecting tribal communities. The 1956 Regulation established a legal framework for safeguarding indigenous territories, and subsequent measures strengthened restrictions on unauthorized access, tourism and photography. Research institutions have contributed to documenting tribal societies and informing policy. Yet legislation alone cannot ensure protection; effective implementation, monitoring and coordination are essential.

The Shompen require a policy approach tailored to their unique circumstances. Their territorial rights must be protected from encroachment. Contact with outsiders should be strictly regulated. Healthcare interventions must prioritize disease prevention and nutritional security. Cultural preservation—including documentation of language and traditional knowledge—should be undertaken only with community consent. Traditional food systems and livelihoods must be strengthened rather than replaced. Tourism must never compromise their dignity. Governance should respect their choices and customary institutions. Data collection must be careful, ethical and non‑intrusive.

The way forward lies in protecting the Shompen’s relationship with their environment. Their traditional practices—hunting, gathering and horticulture—are finely adapted to Great Nicobar’s ecology. Development interventions must avoid disrupting this balance. Infrastructure and economic projects in the Nicobar Islands must be planned with sensitivity to ecological and tribal concerns. The goal is not assimilation into mainstream society, nor romanticized isolation that denies essential services. The appropriate path lies between these extremes: protection without exploitation, assistance without dependency, development without displacement and contact without coercion.

The Shompen’s future depends on decisions made today. Their small population, isolation and dependence on natural resources make them acutely vulnerable. The history of tribal administration in the islands shows that even well‑intentioned interventions can produce unintended harm when indigenous autonomy and ecological realities are ignored. Policy must therefore place the Shompen’s life, land, health, culture and dignity at its centre. Their survival should not be measured by integration into mainstream society, but by their ability to retain identity, knowledge, territorial security and dignity while receiving essential protection when needed.

*Associate Professor (Retd.), National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD)

Courtesy: CounterView

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Pradip Prabhu, Pradipbhau to many, particularly villagers among whom he worked, breathed his last on August 25 at the age of 78. He studied at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in his early years (later he also taught here and contributed in many ways to this prestigious institute). However he found his true calling when he played a leading role in the setting up of the Kashtkari Sangathan (translated as organization of those who toil) in Dahanu (Maharashtra) in 1978. Here he was involved in many struggles against exploitation and injustices, which ultimately helped to bring many-sided benefits to marginal and small farmers as well as landless workers, mainly of Adivasi (indigenous, tribal) communities.

It was in the course of these struggles that Pradip developed the deeper understanding and perspective which helped him later to contribute in important ways to national level legislations for strengthening the rights of tribal communities in the form of Forest Rights Act and PESA or Panchayats (Exension to Scheduled Areas) Act.

At various stages of his life Pradip Prabhu was closely associated with several prestigious academic and training institutes including, apart from TISS, the National Institute of Rural Development and the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy. Apart from his continuing work in the the Kashtkari Sangathan, he contributed in important ways to several other social movements including the Bharat Jan Andolan, Shoshit Jan Andolan, Campaign for Survival and Dignity and Barefoot Academy of Governance.  In fact it is in the course of the meetings of Bharat Jan Andolan that I first met him. Dr. B.D.Sharma, former Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Tribes in the Government of India, had after his retirement mobilized this social movement with the help of social activists in several parts of the country and one of the main demands that emerged in the course of this mobilization was in the form of extending decentralization of governance to tribal communities in a stronger form. Dr. Sharma found in Pradip Prabhu a very important friend and firm supporter to take this forward.

While rural decentralization in the form of Panchayati Raj was sought to be improved significantly in 1993, one criticism was that even the new law had not adequately strengthened the wider rural community as more powers were vested in the few elected representatives rather than in the community. However as this law did not apply to scheduled areas and there was provision of enacting different legislation for scheduled areas where most of the tribal communities live, there was still an opportunity for empowering entire tribal communities.

At this juncture an important role was played by Bharat Jan Andolan and its convener Dr. B.D.Sharma. This movement and Dr. B.D. Sharma along with friends like Pradip Prabhu played an important role in advancing the cause of a different decentralization law for scheduled areas which would strengthen tribal communities.

In the middle of a continuing campaign for this a committee under the Chairmanship of Dilip Singh Bhuria, Member of Parliament, consisting of several MPs and experts, was appointed for suggesting a suitable frame of decentralization legislation for scheduled areas. This committee submitted its report in January 1996.

However when there was no suitable follow-up action after this, representatives of Adivasi (indigenous, tribal) communities from various parts of the country went on a fast at Rajghat in Delhi. Both Dr. Sharma and Pradeep joined this fast. Members of various political parties came to extend their support and finally a consensus could emerge on new and different decentralization legislation for scheduled areas which would go a long way in strengthening the tribal communities.

On December 24, 1996 the Parliament finally passed the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 which is popularly known as PESA legislation. This legislation which applies only to scheduled areas (having a significant tribal population) firmly establishes the Gram Sabha as the most basic unit of Panchayati Raj in these areas. Section 4(d) of this Act says, “Every Gram Sabha shall be competent to safeguard and preserve the traditions and customs of the people, their cultural identity, community resources and the customary mode of dispute resolution.”

Section 4(e) says every Gram Sabha shall approve the plans, programs and projects for social and economic development before such plans, programs and projects are taken up for implementation by the panchayat at the village level. Section 4(f) states that “Every panchayat at the village-level shall be required to obtain from the Gram Sabha a certification of utilization of funds by that panchayat for the plans, programs and projects referred to in clause (e).”

Other clauses give the Gram Sabha important rights before any village land can be acquired for various projects or before any village land can be auctioned for its minor minerals. Similarly the Gram Sabha has been given significant power regarding minor forest produce, preventing alienation of land and restricting the sale of liquor.

Thus it is clear that the Adivasi (indigenous, tribal) communities in the form of Gram Sabhas in scheduled areas have been empowered in very significant ways under by the PESA law. While this has been widely appreciated by several people, this has also evoked a good deal of opposition by powerful interests. Hence there have been several obstacles in the implementation of this legislation and taking this forward in the right spirit for empowering tribal communities in a big way has been a big challenge.

The absence of Pradip Prabhu will be deeply felt whenever such challenges are being faced. He is survived by his wife Shiraz Bulsara who is a very highly regarded activist and scholar in her own right. Pradip’s memory will be cherished, apart from family members and close friends, by a very large number of people who stand for justice, by his numerous students and fellow-activists and by the people among whom he worked with continuity for many decades.

(The author is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now)

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Sonya was both feminist and communist, committed to working class and agrarian rights as much as gender consciousness within. She was secretary of the Maharashtra All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), known to all as Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana in Maharashtra and in the state party. Together with fellow women activists also committed to the laal bauta (red flag) she would learn about and organise women from the BDD Chawls Worli and Delisle Road, also in central Mumbai. As fellow AIDWA leader Mariam Dhawale recalled, when she took charge as AIDWA secretary in Maharashtra, she overcame the language barrier and took the organisation forward in the state.

Less than a week ago, Sonya and Sainath were in Hyderabad to celebrate his elder sister’s 75th birthday. That sister-in-law was bereft today as she travelled from afar to bid her farewell. She recalled to me what her mother, Sonya’s ma-in-law, would often say to Sainath, admiring the couple’s work, “You – you do all the writing, but Sonya does all the work!”

One moment she was there and the next moment she is gone, Sainath said to me, lips trembling as sobs took over, while the now familiar CPI(M) party tribute and farewells were paid this afternoon at the Janshakti office in central Mumbai. Fellow women activists from the Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana, AIDWA, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) Mumbai and national CPI(M) members, as also writers, civil liberties activists from fraternal organisations paid tribute. Comrade Sonya Gill ko Laal Salam, Comrade Sonya Gill Amar Rahe, were the slogans that burst forth accompanied by the raised arm and fist!

Never before have I witnessed this man of suave turn of phrase, depth of thought and perspective so bereft, at a loss, shaking his head in utter disbelief at the loss of a forty-year steely companionship. Forty years, Sainath said to me, forty years we were together, how do I even think of how I will cope?

Not a week passed that she did not visit either the Worli or Azad Maidan offices of the party, constantly at work, rebuilding a vision of left mass organisations and politics, he said.

This party, the people stand by you through thick and thin, he said, still in disbelief. Last evening, after her sudden demise, Sainath had, apart from his Sonya now gone, Sugandhi Francis, a 38-year old saathee from Janwadi, a fellow working class organiser, Shailendra Kamble, Mumbai president of the party, CITU’s Dr Vivek Monteiro, all by his side while the formalities were completed. Today, comrade S.K. Rege and Mariam Dhawale, national vice president of AIDWA were also present.

Sugandhi, wife and partner of Dr Monteiro is heartbroken. They were, for many of Mumbai activists, a duo seen everywhere, their close cameraderie of 38 years, one an academic trained at the famed Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the other a foot soldier of the party from the working class. Sugandhi recalls the ease with which Sonya related and reflected with all. Sugandhi was self-effacing about her own natural ease and charm with people and within the organisation.

The first post on social media that I read, bringing this loss to us all, was from the revered People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) network, of which Sainath was founder and Sonya the cofounder and trustee. Among the first of many to deepen notions of reportage and journalism, PARI has grown to be a formidable voice over the past decades.

People’s Democracy, the CPI(M)’s weekly organ, the Janwadi’s booklets and pamphlets, all had writings by Sonya Gill, be it on public health, right to an equitous public distribution system or communal harmony. They can still be read online.

But it is the training workshops conducted by the mass women’s organisation of the party, where activists were trained, where Sonya Gill with other women comrades regaled new recruits with historical accounts of valour by women comrades – the February 1946 shooting to death of veteran communist comrade Kamal Donde during the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) uprising at the Parel junction in Mumbai, while Ahilyatai Rangnekar and Kusum Ranadive also faced the bullets – that are remembered with awe.

Sonya Gill’s own quiet revolutionary journey will and must be treasured, by comrade husband Sainath, family, women saathees and party as it undoubtedly will. Adieu and Lal Salaam, Sonya.

Teesta Setalvad is co-editor of Sabrang India and secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP).

Courtesy: The Wire

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In its report released Tuesday, August 25 in Geneva, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has, first and foremost, criticised the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, and raised concerns about the subjecting of Bengali-speaking Muslims to “systematic and structural racial discrimination”.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has published findings on India first time after 2007, after 19 years, and urged the Indian government to address discrimination, hate crimes: this UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) evaluates every country on the basis of its implementation, or not, of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The CERD Committee has therefore called for the suspension of the NRC and urged New Delhi to review its legislative framework, and “urgently address discrimination, hate speech, and hate crimes against Rohingya, Bengali-speaking Muslims, migrants, and asylum-seekers”.

Interestingly, the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process was also called out in the observations, with the committee raising concern that Bengali-speaking Muslim voters were reportedly disproportionately impacted in West Bengal and Assam.

The “concluding observations” on the combined twentieth and twenty-first periodic reports of India raised wide-ranging concerns over caste discrimination, attacks on minorities, shrinking civic space, racial profiling, the treatment of migrants and the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India.

“The Committee was gravely concerned about reports of large-scale violations perpetrated by law enforcement officials against ethnic and ethno-religious groups, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, including Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, particularly Dalits, and non-citizens,” the press release has stated.

“These included racially motivated violence, excessive use of force, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and prolonged detention without due process, torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence.”

The Committee called on India to conduct prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into all such allegations and ensure accountability for those responsible.

Hence, the UN’s CERD Committee has called upon the Indian government to urgently address discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes against Rohingya, Bengali-speaking Muslims, migrants and asylum-seekers.

The Committee urged the State Party to protect their rights, refrain from collective expulsions and ensure access to international protection in line with the principle of non-refoulement.

The Committee welcomed the submissions of the State Party and constructive dialogue that took place earlier this month on August 11 and 12 with Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India, leading the high-level delegation.

Despite this pushback from the Indian government, during the session, Stamatia Stavrinaki, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur, said independent monitoring recorded over 1,300 anti-Muslim hate-speech incidents in 2025, including recurring rhetoric attributed to senior officials.

The delegation responded that legislation from 2023 criminalised acts amounting to hate speech and hate crimes. When offences were conducted against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, additional protections applied.  Freedom of religion was a constitutional guarantee in India, the delegation added.

In the concluding observations, the Committee also highlighted the increase in law enforcement operations targeting Rohingya, Bengali-speaking Muslims, migrants and asylum-seekers, particularly following the 2017 Home Affairs order and the April 2025 Pahalgam attack in Kashmir.

The Committee noted that the statistics provided by the State Party on scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and refugees are based on the results of the 2011 population census. It also notes the information provided by the delegation about the launch of the census in April 2026, after a five-year delay, which will collect data on caste and incorporate the principle of self-identification.

The CERD Committee remained concerned about the lack of disaggregated data on Indigenous / Tribal Peoples, ethnic and ethno-religious groups and non-citizens, such as migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons.

The Committee is also concerned that Bengali-speaking Muslims are categorised as “non-original inhabitants”, while noting the absence of a clear definition of this category in the legislative framework, and are reportedly subjected to more rigorous standards compared to other categories in relation to the verification process of the National Register of Citizens.

The entire report released on August 25 may be read here.

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The post Address Discrimination & Hate Crimes India told: CERD, UN appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In the letter, Rahul Gandhi said that tribal students across the state had been protesting for more than ten days. “Many Adivasi students come from remote villages and depend on government hostels to study in the cities. A new rule bars anyone over 30 from these hostels, excluding many who are still completing their studies or preparing for exams,” he stated. He added that hostels for these students are unsafe as they reportedly lack food, sanitation and medical care. Incidents of snakebites have also been reported. “I was shocked to learn that female students returning after an extended absence must undergo pregnancy tests and a range of other medical tests, to prove their ‘fitness’. It is a humiliation that presumes them guilty until they prove otherwise. This rule is an attack on their dignity and their humanity,” he said.

Adivasi students across Maharashtra started their protest after the BJP-led state government introduced a government resolution (GR) on Aug 4, which fixed the age limit for staying in hostels at 26. However, after the decision sparked protests, the GR was revised on August 14 and the age limit was increased to 30. The students, however, are demanding complete withdrawal of the GR, besides seeking better facilities at hostels run by the Tribal Development Department across the state. They are also demanding immediate recruitment of aspirants from tribal community for 12,500 vacant posts which they claim have been stuck for a long time.

In his letter to Mr. Fadnavis, Mr. Gandhi followed up on interactions with students in Pune during the Chhatron ki Gunj (echoes of students) programme last Saturday. He said students from across Maharashtra had told him about hostel rules that “strip them of their dignity and shut off their path to education”.

Mr. Gandhi expressed particular concern over facilities for women, saying female students returning after an extended absence were required to undergo pregnancy tests and other medical examinations to establish their “fitness”. “It is a humiliation that presumes them guilty until they prove otherwise,” he said, describing the requirement as an “attack on their dignity and their humanity”. Mr. Gandhi also flagged a rule barring those above 30 from hostel accommodation, saying it excluded many students still completing their studies or preparing for examinations.

He also alleged that hostels were unsafe and often lacked food, sanitation and medical care, with students suffering injuries and deaths, including from snake bites.

“These students are not asking for charity. They are demanding what is theirs by right,” Mr. Gandhi said, urging Mr. Fadnavis to hear the students’ concerns and resolve them immediately.

Earlier in the day, the party had sought a special committee to probe the deaths of tribal children allegedly due to malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh and of tribal girls following snakebite in Maharashtra and demanded action against officials found responsible.

Adivasi Congress chief Vikrant Bhuria also called for a safety audit of tribal hostels, citing alleged lapses in facilities in the two States. Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Bhuria claimed that 22 children from the Baiga tribal community had died of malnutrition and related diseases in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. He alleged that a nutritional meal delivered to households had been discontinued for six months and that the nearest primary health centre was 20 km away. Vaccination coverage in the area was also below 80%, he claimed. “I had asked in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly how much budget was allocated for preventing malnutrition in the State’s tribal blocks and projects from 2020 to 2025, and how much of it was spent. The response was extremely concerning. The government said malnourished children are given a nutritional meal worth only ₹12 per day,” he said.

On Maharashtra, Bhuria alleged that more than 70 girls at a tribal hostel in Gadchiroli were made to sleep on the floor in a single room. Six girls were hospitalised following a snakebite incident, of whom three died, he claimed.

Mr. Bhuria said students protesting in Nashik were continuing their hunger strike, demanding better facilities at tribal hostels. He sought a probe into the Balaghat deaths and action against officials found responsible.

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The revised schedule was issued by the Election Commission in an order dated August 19, following a request from the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra.

Under the revised programme, the draft electoral roll will be published on August 31. Voters will then have one month, up to September 30, to submit claims and objections.

The final electoral roll, which was earlier scheduled to be published on October 7, will now be released on November 4.

Claims and objections period extended

The revised schedule provides for the filing of claims and objections from August 31 to September 30. The notice and disposal of claims and objections will continue until October 29.

Under the earlier schedule, the draft roll was to be published on August 5, with claims and objections accepted until September 4. The notice and disposal process was scheduled to continue from August 5 to October 3. The changes therefore extend the overall timeline for scrutiny of the draft electoral roll and disposal of claims and objections before the final list is prepared.

Polling station rationalisation by August 24

The Election Commission has also revised the timeline for rationalisation and rearrangement of polling stations. The exercise, which was earlier scheduled to be completed by July 29, is now to be completed by August 24.

The revised programme also directs election officials to communicate the changes to all concerned officers and to publicise the revised schedule through available means. Political parties are also required to be informed about the changes in writing.

Enumeration process concluded on August 17

The house-to-house enumeration exercise in Maharashtra has already concluded. Booth Level Officers (BLOs) visited electors and collected filled and signed Enumeration Forms as part of the SIR process.

According to information released by the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra has around 9.78 crore electors. Of these, 7.71 crore electors, or 78.85 per cent, submitted their filled and signed Enumeration Forms during the house-to-house exercise conducted between June 30 and August 17. The remaining 2.07 crore electors have been categorised as “Uncollectable EF” under the prescribed norms and based on the factual status recorded during the exercise.

Original schedule began in June

The original SIR programme provided for preparation, training and printing between June 20 and June 29. This was followed by house-to-house visits by BLOs from June 30 to July 29. The house-to-house enumeration period was subsequently extended, and the collection of Enumeration Forms ultimately concluded on August 17.

The Election Commission has now revised the subsequent stages of the exercise, including publication of the draft roll, the claims and objections period, disposal of objections and publication of the final electoral roll.

October 1 qualifying date

The SIR in Maharashtra is being conducted with October 1, 2026, as the qualifying date.

The revised schedule will govern the remaining stages of the electoral roll revision, beginning with publication of the draft roll on August 31. Claims and objections will then be considered before the final electoral roll is published on November 4.

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