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What can India Offer Pakistan?
With the recent tensions in the LOC, Pakistan was back again in the news. TV studios and newsrooms saw a lot of chatter, and arguments made with passion. On the one hand we had the hawks demanding ‘appropriate responses.’ On the other, we had the peace lobby also demanding ‘appropriate...
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Congress Party and Muslims – Part II
In part 1, we had checked out how the Congress Party has effectively kept the Muslims of India in ‘isolation’ using them to fulfill its political objectives. It might be worthwhile to explore how this has affected Muslims. (The term ‘explore’ is used to admit that the subject requires a more detailed...
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Nitish’s Options
Nitish Kumar is angry. From withdrawing a dinner invitation to practically avoiding any kind of contact with Narendra Modi, and having to explain handshakes with someone holding a constitutional position, he seems to have come some way in a road to Splitsville – away from his alliance partner. What now?...
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Looking at Liquor Policies in India
The recent bunching up of hooch tragedies brought to attention liquor policies in India. There was an article in The Hindu on AP liquor situation and some brief discussions in Twitter before the Kushwaha issue got pushed as the burning national issue. Moral and possible Gandhian considerations have consistently pushed...
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Crossing the Waves to Trade – 2500 years ago!
The Chennai based Tamil Heritage group along with REACH Foundation presented their monthly lecture today on Adichanallur Excavations. Link to invitation and profile of the speaker is attached here Prof Raghavan spoke about using the science of Skeletal Biology to identify races of the excavated skeletal remains. Apparently Cell Biology...
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FDI in Retail: Examining Some Issues in Agricultural Products
A lot of passion has been generated in the debate on FDI in Retail on the issue of impact on agriculture. One side takes the position that this is precisely what the farmer always needed. He will get a better price for his produce, cut out the middlemen and rural...
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FDI in Retail : The Indian Context
The term retail probably needs no explanation. But in the context of the debate on FDI in retail, we should clarify that the term refers to big retail outlets rather than entities like Selvam Stores or Dhanalakshmi Gruh Vastu Bhandar. It is unlikely that there is any FDI interest in...
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Congress Party and Muslims
Congress Party and Muslims Congress Party was founded in 1885. From an elite organisation set up largely to discuss issues and concerns ‘natives’ with the rulers, in the early part of the twentieth century it evolved into a mass organisation seeking independence from those rulers, and articulating the views of...
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DMK – What now?
Electoral defeats are as common as successes to political parties. One never writes off any political force so easily. Like life it does its best to survive and keep things going. Still the defeat of DMK in this election is unique in that it has come at a most inopportune...
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A Short Tribute to K. Balachander
(Ace film director K. Balachander has been chosen as the recipient of this year’s prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India’s highest award in cinema given annually by the Government of India for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. Our guest contributor Girish pens a short tribute to him focusing especially on some...
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TN 2011 – Dalit Politics in Tamil Nadu by Girish LN
(CRI commentariat is extensively analysing the series of state elections scheduled for the year 2011. We began with a primer on the prospects of two principal players-ruling DMK and opposition ADMK in the state of TN. Fellow CRI contributor Amar Govinarajan wrote on caste cauldron that is TN politics. In this post GirishLN analyses the Dalit equation...