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<title>Vadodara: 9 dead as bridge collapses, several vehicles fall into river</title>
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<h1>Vadodara: 9 dead as bridge collapses, several vehicles fall into river</h1>
<h2>While six persons were rescued, the search continued for those missing.</h2>
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<p>At least <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/ANI/status/1942831727929393491" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>nine persons died</u></a> and six were injured after several vehicles fell into the Mahisagar river following the collapse of a bridge in Gujarat’s Vadodara district on Wednesday morning, ANI reported.</p><p>The incident took place at about <a class="link-external" href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bridge-collapses-in-gujarat-s-anand-vehicles-plunge-into-mahisagar-river-disrupting-connectivity-101752037505998.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>7.30 am</u></a>.</p><p>The incident took place when a slab <a class="link-external" href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bridge-collapses-in-gujarat-s-anand-vehicles-plunge-into-mahisagar-river-disrupting-connectivity-101752037505998.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>between two piers</u></a> of the 900-metre <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/gujarat/vadodara-gambhira-bridge-collapse-vehicles-casualties-july-9-2025/article69790348.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>Gambhira bridge</u></a>, connecting Vadodara and Anand districts, collapsed, <em>The Hindu</em> reported. The bridge was inaugurated in 1985.</p><p>“We are yet to ascertain the identities of the people as we are focusing on the rescue work,” Dhameliya <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/vadodara-bridge-collapse-deaths-injuries-vehicles-into-river-10115157/?ref=hometop_hp" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>was quoted as saying</u></a> by <em>The Indian Express.</em></p><p>Local swimmers, boats and a team of the municipal corporation, the National Disaster Response Force and the police were trying to rescue the persons, the news agency quoted Vadodara Collector Anil Dhameliya as saying.</p><p>The persons injured in the incident were being treated at a Vadodara hospital. Dhameliya said that among the persons rescued, four had suffered minor injuries.</p><p>Two trucks, a van, a pickup truck and an auto-rickshaw had fallen into the river, he added.</p><p>The collector said that the portion of the bridge that collapsed was not over the deepest part of the river, <em>The Indian Express </em>reported.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1942817738562626016" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">STORY | 4 vehicles fall into river as bridge collapses in Vadodara; 4 persons rescued<br><br>READ: <a href="https://t.co/uGwfaZEUuL">https://t.co/uGwfaZEUuL</a><br><br>VIDEO: <a href="https://t.co/lSl1i8hDr0">pic.twitter.com/lSl1i8hDr0</a></p>— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) <a href="https://twitter.com/PTI_News/status/1942817738562626016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said that the road construction department had been <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/Bhupendrapbjp/status/1942835541692883050" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">ordered to immediately investigate</a> the accident.</p><p>“For this, the chief engineer – design and chief engineer – South Gujarat and a team of two other private engineers specialising in pool construction have been instructed to immediately reach the scene and conduct a preliminary investigation into the causes of the bridge collapse and other technical matters and submit a report,” Patel said on social media.</p><p>The chief minister also announced that the state government will offer <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/Bhupendrapbjp/status/1942846225428144199" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>Rs 4 lakh</u></a> each in compensation to the families of the deceased persons and Rs 50,000 to injured individuals, besides covering their medical treatment expenses.</p><p><strong><em>This is a developing story. It will be updated as new details are available.</em></strong></p><hr class="block-break">
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<title>UAE says reports of golden visa for Rs 23 lakh are false</title>
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<h1>UAE says reports of golden visa for Rs 23 lakh are false</h1>
<h2>The claims have no legal basis and ‘were made without referring to the competent authorities’, said the country’s immigration department.</h2>
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<p>The United Arab Emirates <a class="link-external" href="https://www.wam.ae/en/article/bkkw61s-uae-denies-rumours-about-lifetime-golden-visa-for" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>has denied</u></a> reports that its golden visas can be purchased by citizens of select nationalities, including Indians, for a one-time fee, the Emirates News Agency reported on Tuesday.</p><p>The clarification came following claims in Indian media about the Gulf nation’s visa scheme purportedly aimed at attracting Indian citizens. Indian reports had claimed that the golden visa, which allows long-term residency, could be purchased for Rs 23.3 lakh through a nomination process.</p><p>Currently, a foreign citizen <a class="link-external" href="https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/visa-and-emirates-id/residence-visas/golden-visa" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>needs to invest</u></a> at least Rs 4.6 crore, usually in real estate, or set up a company in the United Arab Emirates to qualify for a 10-year visa. Skilled professionals such as doctors and scientists can qualify for the golden visa without making financial investments if they are employed in select industries.</p><p>The Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security said that reports in local and international media were “<a class="link-external" href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/uae/2025/07/09/uae-golden-visa-india/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>false rumours</u></a>”, Abu Dhabi-based <em>The National</em> reported.</p><p>The claims have no legal basis and “were made without referring to the competent authorities” in the UAE, said the immigration department.</p><p>The department was quoted as saying that it will take legal action “against the parties, websites and entities that published these rumours to unlawfully obtain funds” from persons wanting to reside in the UAE “by exploiting their dreams and aspirations for a better life in a safe and secure country”.</p><p>The authority urged persons wanting to visit and reside in the UAE “not to respond to rumours, false news and never to pay money or provide personal documents to any party, office or agency that claims to provide the golden visa service”.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<title>US student visas for Indians from March to May lowest since 2022</title>
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<h1>US student visas for Indians from March to May lowest since 2022</h1>
<h2>F-1 visas issued to Indians during the three-month period decreased by about 27% as compared to the same period in 2024.</h2>
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<p>The number of United States student visas issued to Indians between March and May was at its<a class="link-external" href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/nonimmigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-nonimmigrant-visa-issuances.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> <u>lowest level since</u></a> the Covid-19 pandemic year 2022, showed data from the US State Department.</p><p>The number of F-1 visas issued to Indians between March and May decreased by about 27% as compared to the same period in 2024.</p><p>An F-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows students from other countries to study in the US.</p><p>The period between March and May is considered to be a busy period for student visa applications as the fall intake – which is the preferred entry point for most international students – begins in August and September at most US universities.</p><p>Between March and May this year, 9,906 Indians were granted F-1 academic visas. The number was 13,478 in 2024, just short of 15,000 in 2023 and 10,894 in 2022.</p><p>The decrease in Indians being issued F-1 visas came amid the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on international students. Trump began his second term as the US president in January.</p><p>Washington has taken aggressive actions to try to enforce its demands on universities, including freezing hundreds of millions of dollars in university funding, revoking visas and attempting to deport international students. However, many of these measures have been blocked by the courts.</p><p>The Trump administration had on May 27 instructed embassies globally to<a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1082876/trump-administration-halts-new-student-visa-interviews"> <u>halt student visa interviews</u></a> until further notice. Since the interviews resumed in June, all student and exchange visitor visa applicants globally have been required to make their<a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1083791/us-embassy-tells-student-visa-applicants-to-make-social-media-profiles-public"> <u>social media profiles public</u></a>.</p><p>The change was aimed at enabling background checks during the visa screening process to establish applicants’ “identity and admissibility”, said the US embassy in New Delhi.</p><p>Since 2019, the US has required visa applicants to submit social media identifiers, the diplomatic mission said in a statement.</p><p>More than<a class="link-external" href="https://www.iie.org/news/us-hosts-more-than-1-1-million-intl-students-at-higher-education-institutions-all-time-high/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> <u>1.1 million international students</u></a> were enrolled in US universities during the academic year 2023-’24, accounting for 6% of those pursuing higher education in the country, according to US-based non-governmental organisation Institute of International Education.</p><p>India sent the highest number of students, followed by China, it added.</p><p>However, the trend of a decrease in F-1 visas issued to Indians had started in 2024, before Trump returned to the White House. The number of US student visas issued to Indians<a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1076572/38-drop-in-number-of-us-f-1-visas-issued-to-indian-students-in-first-nine-months-of-2024"> <u>had fallen by 38%</u></a> in the first nine months of 2024, as compared to the corresponding period in 2023.</p><p>It was unclear if more visa applications were being rejected or if there had been a drop in the applications.</p><p>A US embassy spokesperson told <em>The Indian Express</em> that “adjudication of visa applications is<a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/education/us-student-visas-for-indians-lowest-since-covid-in-march-may-10114737/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> <u>critically important</u></a> to the national security and public safety of the US”.</p><p>“We encourage applicants to apply as early as they can and to anticipate additional processing time for these visa categories,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying. “Our overseas posts have resumed scheduling F non-immigrant visa applications. Applicants should check the relevant embassy or consulate website for appointment availability.”</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>Also read: </em></strong><a href="https://scroll.in/article/1083724/its-taking-a-gamble-as-us-vets-social-media-posts-for-student-visas-anxiety-grips-applicants"><strong><em><u>‘It’s taking a gamble’: As US vets social media posts for student visas, anxiety grips applicants</u></em></strong></a></p><hr class="block-break">
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<h1>Sivaganga custodial death: Madras HC tells CBI to complete investigation by August 20</h1>
<h2>The bench directed that an investigating officer should be appointed within a week.</h2>
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<p>The <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/sivaganga-custodial-death-case-madras-high-court-directs-cbi-to-complete-probe-by-august-20/article69786809.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Madras High Court</a> on Tuesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to appoint an investigating officer within a week to look into the custodial death of a temple security guard in Sivaganga, <em>The Hindu</em> reported.</p><p>It further ordered that the investigating officer should complete the inquiry into the death of B Ajith Kumar and submit a report to the court that has jurisdiction over the case by August 20.</p><p>A division bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and AD Maria Clete directed the investigating officer to collect <a class="link-external" href="https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/madras-high-court/madras-high-court-sivaganga-custodial-death-cbi-chargesheet-expeditiously-296884" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">relevant documents</a>, including an inquiry report prepared by a district judge as well as evidence, from the registrar (judicial) of the Madurai Bench of the High Court, <em>Live Law</em> reported.</p><p>The court passed the order while hearing a set of public interest litigation petitions related to the case.</p><p>The court also instructed the director general of prosecution to ensure that the post-mortem report is submitted before an appropriate court within a week, <em>Live Law</em> reported.</p><p>The court directed the inspector general of police (south zone, Madurai) and the superintendents of police of Madurai and Sivaganga districts to fully cooperate with the central probe agency during the investigation.</p><p>Besides, the state government was ordered to provide witness protection as per the Witness Protection Scheme.</p><p>The state government informed the court that in the interests of transparency, the inquiry into Ajith Kumar’s custodial death had been officially handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation through a government order, <em>The Hindu </em>reported.</p><p>It also said that it would transfer the investigation into an alleged theft in connection with the case to the central agency, adding that a separate government order would be issued for it.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>The case</strong></h3><p>The <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084257/tamil-nadu-police-commission-urges-strict-action-against-misuse-of-power-custodial-brutality"><u>29-year-old temple security guard</u></a> was picked up by a six‑member special police team on June 27 over a theft at the Madapuram Badrakaliamman Temple. He was allegedly subjected to torture at remote locations, which eventually led to his death on June 29.</p><p>However, it was unclear whether a first information report had been filed before Kumar was interrogated.</p><p>The post-mortem report revealed that Kumar had at least 44 external injuries in addition to signs of severe internal bleeding.</p><p>Following public outrage and criticism by the Madras High Court, <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/sivaganga-custodial-death-case-madras-high-court-directs-cbi-to-complete-probe-by-august-20/article69786809.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">six police personnel</a> were suspended, five members of a special police team were arrested and placed in judicial custody, <em>The Hindu </em>reported.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 07:15:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>BRICS set up to ‘degenerate our dollar’, says Trump</title>
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<h1>BRICS set up to ‘degenerate our dollar’, says Trump</h1>
<h2>‘What they’re trying to do is destroy the dollar so that another country can take over and be the standard,’ alleged the United States president.</h2>
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<p>United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/live/vL6PaBTA4I8?feature=shared&amp;t=2454" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>10% tariff</u></a> on imports from countries part of the BRICS grouping will be introduced “pretty soon”, citing concerns about the multilateral forum’s growing influence and its impact on the US dollar.</p><p>“If they’re a member of BRICS, they’re going to have to pay a 10% tariff... and they won’t be a member [for] long,” Trump said.</p><p>The comment during a Cabinet meeting followed Trump’s <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084256/aligning-with-anti-american-policies-of-brics-to-invite-additional-10-tariffs-says-trump"><u>warning</u></a> to countries on Sunday against aligning with the “anti-American policies” of the BRICS.</p><p>The BRICS grouping comprises India, Brazil, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Washington views the group as attempting to become an economic counterweight to the US.</p><p>Without offering evidence, Trump on Tuesday, accused BRICS of trying to weaken the US and undermine the dollar’s position as the global reserve currency.</p><p>“BRICS was set up to degenerate our dollar and take our dollar...take it off as the standard,” he said. “And that’s okay if they want to play that game, but I can play that game too.”</p><p>BRICS is “not, in my opinion, a serious threat,” he added. “But what they’re trying to do is destroy the dollar so that another country can take over and be the standard, and we’re not going to lose the standard at any time.”</p><p>Trump warned that the dollar losing its reserve status would be akin to “losing a major world war”, saying that it would fundamentally change the US.</p><p>At the recent summit in Rio de Janeiro, BRICS leaders had expressed <a class="link-external" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/trump-says-brics-nations-get-10-tariff-pretty-soon-2025-07-08/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>veiled criticism</u></a> of US trade and defence policies, Reuters reported.</p><p>Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pushed back strongly against Trump’s threat. On Monday, Lula said that the world does not want an emperor.</p><p>On Tuesday he added: “We will not accept any complaints about the BRICS summit. We do not agree with the US president insinuating he’s going to put tariffs on BRICS countries.”</p><p>Trump has not announced a timeline for additional tariffs on BRICS nations to take effect.</p><p>In January, Trump had <a class="link-external" href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/trump-repeats-tariffs-threat-dissuade-brics-nations-replacing-us-dollar-2025-01-31/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">warned members</a> of the BRICS against attempts to replace the US dollar as a reserve currency by repeating a 100%-tariff threat that he had made after winning the presidential election in November.</p><p>Trump’s recent warnings came as Washington said that the broader “reciprocal tariffs” it was imposing on dozens of nations <a class="link-external" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/06/business/bessent-tariff-deadline-trump" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">could be reinstated</a> to the levels introduced in April if countries failed to reach a trade deal with the US.</p><p>Trump’s tariffs, including a 26% “discounted” levy on India, had <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081140/donald-trumps-global-tariffs-take-effect">taken effect</a> on April 9. Hours later, however, Trump had <a class="link-external" href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/114309144289505174" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">reduced the rates</a> on imports from most countries to 10% for 90 days to provide time for trade negotiations.</p><p>The US president had repeatedly said he intended to impose a <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1076971/india-charges-a-lot-donald-trump-reiterates-threat-of-imposing-reciprocal-tax">reciprocal tax</a> on India, among others, citing high tariffs the countries impose on foreign goods.</p><p>The tariffs had led to concerns of a broader trade war that could disrupt the global economy and trigger a recession.</p><p>India and the US are <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084038/us-india-trade-deal-being-finalised-will-be-announced-soon-says-white-house">negotiating a trade deal</a>, which is close to being finalised and will be announced soon, the White House had said on June 30.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 05:26:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h1>Supreme Court refuses to halt release of film ‘Udaipur Files’</h1>
<h2>A man accused in the 2022 Kanhaiya Lal murder case had moved the court, arguing that the release of the movie amid the trial could prejudice the proceedings.</h2>
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<p>The Supreme Court on Wednesday <a class="link-external" href="https://www.barandbench.com/news/supreme-court-refuses-to-halt-release-of-udaipurfilesmovie-declines-urgent-relief-to-kanhaiya-lal-murder-accused" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>refused to urgently hear a plea</u></a> seeking to stop the release of the Hindi film <em>Udaipur Files</em>, which is reportedly based on the 2022 killing of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal, <em>Bar and Bench</em> reported.</p><p>The writ petition was filed by Mohammed Javed, one of the eight persons accused in the murder case. He argued that the release of the film would <a class="link-external" href="https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/kanhaiya-lal-murder-case-accused-moves-supreme-court-against-udaipur-files-film-release-296890" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>violate his right to a fair trial</u></a>, <em>Live Law</em> reported.</p><p>He had sought that the release of the film be postponed until the trial in the matter concluded. The film is scheduled to release in theatres on Friday.</p><p>A vacation bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymala Bagchi said that the plea could be mentioned before the appropriate bench when the court reopens on July 14 after the summer break. It added that the movie could be released in the meantime.</p><p>In June 2022, Lal, a tailor, <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1027157/tailor-beheaded-in-udaipur-killing-filmed-by-assailants"><u>was killed in Rajasthan’s Udaipur</u></a> for purportedly sharing a social media post in support of suspended Bharatiya Janata Party Spokesperson Nupur Sharma. She had made disparaging <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1025521/bjp-says-it-respects-all-religions-amid-row-over-spokespersons-comments-about-prophet-mohammad">remarks about Prophet Muhammad</a> during a television debate in May 2022.</p><p>The assailants and several other persons accused in the matter were arrested by the Rajasthan Police. A video showed two men claiming responsibility for the killing of Lal as they brandished the cleavers used in the murder.</p><p>The <a href="https://scroll.in/tag/Kanhaiya-Lal"><u>murder case</u></a> was investigated by the National Investigation Agency and the persons accused in the matter were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The trial is underway in a Special NIA Court in Jaipur.</p><p>The petitioner has argued that the film, based on its trailer, appeared to be communally provocative.</p><p>Releasing the film at this stage of the trial in the murder case, portraying the persons accused in the matter as guilty and the story as being conclusively true, could prejudice the proceedings, <em>Live Law</em> quoted the petitioner as having argued.</p><p>Maulana Arshad Madani, the chief of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, has moved the Delhi High Court to stop the release of the film.</p><p>Madani argued that the film’s trailer portrays that the murder of the tailor was committed with the complicity of the leaders of the Muslim community and that such a narrative <a class="link-external" href="https://www.barandbench.com/news/jamiat-ulema-i-hind-moves-delhi-high-court-against-udaipur-files-movie-about-kanhaiya-lal-murder" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>could create a wedge between</u></a> Hindus and Muslims, <em>Bar and Bench</em> reported.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<title>Delhi: Ban on fuel for ‘end-of-life’ vehicles deferred till November 1</title>
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<h1>Delhi: Ban on fuel for ‘end-of-life’ vehicles deferred till November 1</h1>
<h2>Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the government will use the time to work collaboratively toward a long-term and practical solution.</h2>
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<title>Why Indian cities flood within hours of rain</title>
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<p><strong>W</strong>hen the monsoon arrived in Delhi last year, it brought welcome respite from the relentless heat. But for Rahish, this comfort was short-lived.</p><p>With just a short spell of rain, the street in front of his tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri was waterlogged with about a foot of rainwater. It took around four hours for it to subside.</p><p>But Rahish was expecting it. After all, he had seen the pattern repeat year after year for the last 30 years. This year, the water even entered his shop and damaged some of his cloth material. “I am still paying for the losses,” he said, as he finished the final stitches on a pair of trousers for a customer.</p><p>“The biggest problem is that there is no exit for the water that collects,” said Rahish.</p><p>Tigri is adjacent to Sangam Vihar, one of Delhi’s largest unplanned colonies, where waterlogging occurs frequently.</p><p>Excess rainwater is meant to flow into the Barapullah stormwater drain here, but most of the smaller drains that connect to it are blocked with solid waste. As a result, water seeps through manholes and flows into the sewerage system under the roads.</p><p>“But since the pipes are small, very soon it starts giving out backflow,” Rahish said. When this happens, rainwater, mixed with sewerage, flows out and contributes to the waterlogging.</p><p>This is what happened last year when water entered his home in Tigri. “We could not even use the toilet because we have an Indian-styled one, and it was covered with sewage water,” he said.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1428" data-height="1071" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/ygouopifkq-1750440721.jpg" alt="" title="Rahish (seated) has a tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri. He has seen the street in front of his shop become waterlogged during the monsoons for 30 years. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Rahish (seated) has a tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri. He has seen the street in front of his shop become waterlogged during the monsoons for 30 years. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>It isn’t just low-income neighbourhoods like Tigri that are affected by waterlogging. During the monsoon last year, rainwater also stagnated in Defence Colony, an upscale residential colony around eight kilometres north.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Numerous basements flooded here, and people lost about Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh worth of furniture and other things they had stored,” said Bhavreen Kandhari, a resident of the colony.</h3><p>The story is a familiar one across Indian cities and towns, most of whose stormwater drains are proving inadequate for increasing bouts of heavy rainfall. Last month was Mumbai’s wettest May in more than a hundred years – rains left roads waterlogged and commuters stranded, and even gushed into a newly inaugurated metro station. Media reported that the rains revealed <a class="link-external" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-rain-bmc-plans-to-revamp-drainage-capacity-targets-120mm-rainfall-per-hour/articleshow/121794660.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>80 new places</u></a> that were prone to flooding, and municipal corporation officials stated that they were planning to increase drainage capacities of vulnerable areas.</p><p>Similar scenes of flooding played out in Bengaluru, where three people were also killed in rain-related accidents.</p><p>While part of the reason for frequent flooding in Indian cities is the changing rainfall patterns – more rain tends to fall in shorter periods – another <a class="link-external" href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/gaps-in-dealing-with-bengaluru-floods-3555392" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>key factor</u></a> is poor drainage. The pattern across cities is common: poorly planned expansion means that existing drains typically lack adequate capacity; and even these are poorly maintained, almost guaranteeing their failure during days of high rainfall.</p><p>In Delhi, both Defence Colony and Tigri are adjacent to the Barapullah drain. This is a naturally occurring seasonal stream that is a tributary of the Yamuna, and earlier came alive only with the monsoon, thereby acting as a natural stormwater drain. It originates from Mehrauli in south Delhi, and flows past congested homes in Chirag Dilli, the localities of Defence Colony and Jangpura, and the busy Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station, shortly after which it meets the Yamuna.</p><p>Numerous smaller, local drains constructed by the Public Works Department are connected to this natural drain – they are supposed to collect rainwater and feed it to Barapullah, which should then carry it to the Yamuna. With these smaller drains included, Barapullah has a vast catchment area – it covers <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>91%</u></a> of South Delhi and 95% of Central Delhi.</p><p>Other stormwater drains carry out similar functions in other parts of the city – Najafgarh drains out West Delhi, while across the Yamuna, the Shahdara and Ghazipur drains carry out the same function. In all, 201 natural drains flow through Delhi.</p><p>However, <em>Scroll</em>’s ground reporting found that in numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1428" data-height="1071" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/iouximrmmf-1750441005.jpg" alt="" title="In numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">In numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>“The drains are all connected to each other, but because of such blocks the water does not reach the main drain,” said another Tigri resident Prem, pointing to a blocked drain next to the road on which a gift shop she runs is situated. She explained that the road gets waterlogged every year.</p><p>The Delhi Traffic Police has identified over <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>260 hotspots</u></a> that face frequent waterlogging in the city. This urban flooding occurs even during short spells of rain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">In Sangam Vihar, for instance, a Centre for Science and Environment <a class="link-external" href="https://www.cseindia.org/water-and-wastewater-visioning-for-large-dense-unplanned-urban-settlements-in-an-era-of-climate-risk-12177" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>report </u></a>found that with sewage lines also working as stormwater drains, flooding and sewage spillover occurs “even in a short 15-minute rainfall episode”.</h3><p>In response, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has focused on desilting the network of stormwater drains to ensure that they function at optimum capacity. As of early July, the corporation still had to <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/nearly-1-4th-of-mcd-drains-in-delhi-are-yet-to-be-desilted-report-10096657/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">complete 25%</a> of this work.</p><p>But experts told <em>Scroll </em>that while desilting is important, long-term answers to Delhi’s waterlogging would involve taking into account the natural topography of the city, delinking sewage with waste water, reviving old ponds and finding alternate exit routes for rainwater that exceeds the carrying capacity of drains.</p><p>“The administration is not looking at the issue as a system,” said AK Gosain, former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, who has worked extensively on problems of water resources engineering. Without such a holistic approach, he added, tackling individual issues through strategies such as desilting was unlikely to produce the desired results.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>This story is part of </em></strong><a href="https://scroll.in/topic/56439/common-ground"><strong><em><u>Common Ground</u></em></strong></a><strong><em>, our in-depth and investigative reporting project. Sign up </em></strong><a class="link-external" href="https://scrollstack.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f11eeab993ed2fbea0bfb512e&amp;id=e2fc1bf83f" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong><em><u>here</u></em></strong></a><strong><em> to get the stories in your inbox soon after they are released.</em></strong></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>D</strong>elhi sees broadly two kinds of flooding.</p><p>The first results when there is a rise in the level of the Yamuna, on whose banks Delhi is situated. When this occurs, usually in the monsoons, water from the river flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city.</p><p>“In such cases, the irrigation and flood department shuts the gates that connect the drains to the Yamuna, so that the river’s water does not go into the city,” said Rajender Ravi, founding member of the People’s Resource Centre, which researches infrastructure, rivers and urban agriculture. But, he added, this also prevents water in the city from draining into the Yamuna, leading to waterlogging anyway.</p><p>Low-intensity floods of this kind, where the river does not rise above its warning level of 204 metres, occur almost every monsoon. </p><p>Occasionally, these floods can also occur at a much greater intensity. This is what happened in the 2023 monsoon, when the Yamuna flowed at a level of 208.66 metres above sea level, breaking the earlier record of 207.49 metres in 1978. The irrigation and flood control department’s <a class="link-external" href="https://ifc.delhi.gov.in/ifc/flood-problem-due-river-yamuna" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>website</u></a> notes that the city saw eight such floods between the 1960s and the 1990s.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1641" data-height="1002" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hohszakyzs-1750849450.jpg" alt="" title="One kind of flooding that Delhi sees is when the Yamuna’s level rises, and water flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city. Photo: Reuters/Parth Sanyal (India Environment Society)" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">One kind of flooding that Delhi sees is when the Yamuna’s level rises, and water flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city. Photo: Reuters/Parth Sanyal (India Environment Society)</figcaption></figure><p>Such floods have also occurred when water levels rise in manmade tributaries of the Yamuna. One such tributary begins in the Najafgarh lake, which is fed by the Sahibi river, a natural tributary of the Yamuna. In 1865, the British <a class="link-external" href="https://cwp-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/White-paper-of-Najafgarh-basin-1.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>drained</u></a> this large lake out to create more arable land – to do this, they created a new channel to the Yamuna, which came to be known as the Najafgarh drain. In 1967, this channel as well as the lake itself flooded.</p><p>But a far more frequent kind of flooding is the waterlogging that occurs within localities even when the Yamuna is not in spate.</p><p>These floods are primarily caused by unplanned construction as the city has expanded. “Because of so much concretisation, there is a lot of surface flow of rainwater which is not percolating into the ground naturally, because there is no soft space for the water to enter,” said Manu Bhatnagar, who heads INTACH’s natural heritage division, and has led work on rejuvenation of drains in Delhi.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">He added that there was also a lot of “poor engineering” of drainage systems – for example, the openings of several engineered drains are higher than the grounds they are supposed to drain.</h3><p>A major impediment to tackling this problem is the fact that administrative authority over stormwater drains is currently spread out between ten institutions, including the flood and irrigation department, the Delhi Jal Board, municipal corporations and public works department.</p><p>The Delhi government has attempted to tackle the problem. To start with, it asked Gosain and his team at IIT Delhi to consolidate data from various government departments on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains, and then indicate points at which there were problems. The government also asked the team to suggest possible solutions. They were to compile the information and recommendations in a drainage masterplan – the first such to be drawn up since 1978.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/kqlgjpwwok-1750441474.jpg" alt="" title="The Delhi government asked a team at IIT Delhi to consolidate from various government departments data on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Delhi government asked a team at IIT Delhi to consolidate from various government departments data on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>When the team began gathering available data, they came up against stark limitations.</p><p>In some instances, “We found only a line was made on a GIS map,” said Gosain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“There were no dimensions, no invert levels,” he added, referring to measurements that are essential to ascertain the capacity of the stormwater drains. “These are the basic data that have to be used to understand why water is not being evacuated.”</h3><p>The team also struggled because several departments delayed providing information to them. Gosain suggested that in some instances, team members could themselves collect data from the ground, and submit it to departments for vetting.</p><p>For the next 18 months, his team collected this data, both from the ground and from different departments, analysing the functioning of stormwater drains and identifying areas that faced the most waterlogging. They also made recommendations, such as correcting the slopes of artificial drains to prevent stagnation. In 2018, they put together a <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>new masterplan</u></a>.</p><p>But the report noted that though government departments had agreed beforehand to vet the data that the team compiled, not all departments had done so. It stated that “It was unfortunate that various departments passed on the survey data without vetting the data properly.” Some departments, like the Delhi Development Authority, did not even send the data the team had sought.</p><p>Though the government itself was responsible for some of these shortcomings of the report, a government committee that reviewed the master plan put the master plan on <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-govts-technical-panel-rejects-drainage-master-plan/article37182454.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>hold</u></a><u> in 2021, </u>citing “discrepancies in data”.</p><p>It was only this April that the Public Works Department announced that by June this year, it would <a class="link-external" href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/pwd-likely-to-finalise-project-report-for-delhi-drainage-master-plan-by-jun-101743608155790.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>finalise</u></a> a detailed project report for the drainage masterplan.</p><p>Gosain hinted that he was disappointed with the delay in implementing his team’s solutions, “We prepared this huge scientific database,” he said. “It is possible to reduce the extent of flooding by implementing the recommendations made by our study and accepted by the government, as long as they do it with proper intent and effort.”</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>A</strong>mong the major measures that the government undertakes each year to try and tackle flooding is the desilting of stormwater drains.</p><p>In May, across Delhi, workers with large spades were seen entering manholes and clearing wet mud from the manmade drains. Along the larger natural drains, like Barapullah, large bulldozers did the same work. This work, typically done before the monsoon, is aimed at increasing the capacity of the drains.</p><p>But experts pointed out that poor planning has made it impossible for desilting to be carried out to the extent needed. Specifically, in many areas of the city, long stretches of these drains have been covered over in ways that leave them inaccessible. “When we were analysing the data and preparing the master plan, we found many stretches of drains around 1 km to 2 km, where there is no access to the drain and desilting is not possible,” said Gosain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Stormwater drains are only supposed to be covered temporarily so as to gain access whenever required,” he added. “But now, most are permanent. Unless you break them you won’t know if the drain is silted or not.”</h3><p>In Defence Colony, the Delhi Development Authority covered large portions of Kushak drain – a part of the Barapullah drain – to create a park. Kandhari said that residents had raised their voices “for years to not cover the drain since it prevented routine inspection, desilting and maintenance which caused silt to build up, stagnate, and lead to foul odour”.</p><p>This year, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is attempting to rectify this mistake. An official told <em>Scroll </em>that they had broken large rectangular tracts of the covered portions of this drain so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1660" data-height="1200" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/indvczeeoh-1750441739.jpg" alt="" title="After building over the Kushak drain in Defence Colony to create a park, this year the Municipal Corporation of Delhi broke rectangular tracts of the covered portions so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.&nbsp;Photo: Special arrangement" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">After building over the Kushak drain in Defence Colony to create a park, this year the Municipal Corporation of Delhi broke rectangular tracts of the covered portions so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.&nbsp;Photo: Special arrangement</figcaption></figure><p>“It is such a waste of resources,” said Kandhari, who recorded a drone video along the Kushak drain where these bulldozers can be seen at work.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1929738271732781204" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kushak Drain Saga ⬇️ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DefenceColony?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DefenceColony</a> <br><br>*Started covering: 2009<br>*Stalled: 2013<br>*Abandoned: 2014<br>* <a href="https://twitter.com/rsuri54?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rsuri54</a> moved NGT: 2015 → SC twice over→ Yamuna Committee (till 2021)<br>*2025: Back to NGT<br><br>Citizens suffer for decades while absurd decisions go unchecked.<br><br>Video as on 2/6/25 ⬇️ <a href="https://t.co/abzwQvHmZh">pic.twitter.com/abzwQvHmZh</a></p>— Bhavreen Kandhari (@BhavreenMK) <a href="https://twitter.com/BhavreenMK/status/1929738271732781204?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>It was not only residents who opposed this work. In 2015, the National Green Tribunal <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Reply%20by%20DPCC%20in%20OA%20No.%20274%20of%202022%20(Prem%20Aggarwal%20&amp;%20Ors%20Vs.%20Govt.%20of%20NCT%20of%20Delhi.).pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>noted</u></a> that work of covering drains had begun in Defence Colony and other parts of south Delhi, but that this would have “very adverse impacts upon the environment and ecology of Delhi”. It added, “This would result in more flooding, explosion of diseases and clogging of drains.”</p><p>Many smaller drains within colonies have also been covered, such as with footpaths, or with extensions of shops.</p><p>“In most of the colonies, rooftop water is connected to the sewer line, which is not designed to get the stormwater,” said Gosain. </p><p>Elsewhere, drains have temporary coverings. In Tigri for example, Prem pointed to a few shops that had covered the naalas running outside their shops with cemented slabs, but ensured that they had iron handles that would allow them to be lifted. But allowing this access has not helped residents.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“These can be opened,” she said. “If the MCD comes tomorrow to clean these drains, no one will say no. But they should at least come.”</h3><p>It was not just silt that hindered the flow of water in the drains. Prem also pointed towards a cave-like cemented structure on one side of Tigri’s market – this was an opening to a stormwater drain, towards which the ground around was intended to slope, so that water would flow into it.</p><p>The opening to this drain had not been cleaned for years, she said. It was choked with plastic packets and other waste, and had no water in it. During rains, too, residents said, this drain did not carry any water at all.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>W</strong>hile in many places, rainwater enters the sewer system and causes floods, elsewhere, sewerage is directly released into stormwater drains, polluting them and choking their capacity.</p><p>On an early June morning, a portion of the Barapullah flowing in Chirag Dilli was a muddy green channel with plastic waste and cloth material on its banks. But experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/dsnkyeklue-1750441872.jpg" alt="" title="The Barapullah drain near Chirag Dilli. Experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Barapullah drain near Chirag Dilli. Experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>“Over a period of time as urbanisation surrounded them, stormwater drains have been used as a substitute to sewer systems,” INTACH’s Bhatnagar said. “Earlier in the non-monsoon period there was never any flow. Now around the year the flow is there and that is basically sewerage.”</p><p>During the rains, since stormwater drains are already carrying sewage, they have limited capacity to take on excess rainwater.</p><p>A court-appointed Yamuna Monitoring Committee flagged this problem in 2020 – it found that sewage was mixing with stormwater in <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>144 places</u></a> in the city. The IIT Delhi Master plan found that at least 50% of the capital territory does not have access to the engineered sewer system, and that “sewage generated from these areas is inevitably discharged into the storm water system”, which leads to “overflows and sluggish movement of the storm water within the drainage network”.</p><p>Not just sewage, even industrial waste flows in these drains. When the Yamuna Monitoring Committee did a random survey of industries in Bawana and Narela between 2019 and 2020, they found that <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>29 industries </u></a>were discharging their wastewater into stormwater drains.</p><p>The National Green Tribunal also issued directions to the Delhi Jal Board in 2015, 2017 and 2019 to ensure that stormwater drains do not carry sewage. In 2017, the board claimed that it had indeed stopped the entry of sewage into 11 out of 17 drains where it had been mixing with stormwater. But upon ground verification, the committee <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>found</u></a> that a number of these drains were still carrying sewage.</p><p>The Municipal Corporation of Delhi official agreed that sewage and industrial waste continues to flow into nalas. “But that is anyway the responsibility of Delhi Jal Board,” he said.</p><p><em>Scroll</em> emailed Delhi government authorities, seeking their responses to criticisms of poor planning and management of the the city’s stormwater drain system. This story will be updated if they respond.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>I</strong>n some parts of Delhi, the Public Works Department has <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-pwd-begins-preliminary-work-redeveloping-18-km-stormwater-drain-9665443/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>proposed</u></a> that it will lay drains of a larger width to prevent waterlogging. But experts argue that this would not be practical because it would entail digging up large parts of the city.</p><p>“The other option we have is to use and rejuvenate all the existing waterbodies, induce infiltration through rainwater harvesting, create retention storages in the city to reduce the stormwater and flooding to some extent,” said Gosain.</p><p>Indeed, in the master plan, Gosain and his team created simulations based on the data of slopes and drains they collected, to see if waterbodies in Delhi could naturally absorb the rainwater run-off. After mapping existing lakes and ponds in the three major drainage basins – Najafgarh, Barapullah, and Trans Yamuna – they found that waterbodies “could store a considerable volume” of water.</p><p>In Budhela, an urban village in south-west Delhi, residents explained that up till about two decades ago, an old pond or johad, played exactly this role. “This is where we used to take cows and goats for a swim, and we would swim ourselves,” said Ramniwas, a resident of the village. He explained that the natural incline of the area was such that during rains, runoff from the interiors of the densely laid streets of Budhela would flow into this rainfed lake. The village is part of the Najafgarh drainage basin, and the main Najafgarh drain flows less than a kilometre from Budhela.</p><p>But in 2002, Delhi Development Authority acquired the pond from the gram sabha and handed it over to Delhi government’s cultural wing to develop a building to host cultural events. To make the ground stable, the Delhi government filled the pond completely in the years following it.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Since that time, we have started seeing waterlogging issues in a few of our streets like this one,” said another resident Harmohan, as we walked on a street adjacent to the boundary of the pond.</h3><p>Budhela’s waterlogged street in the rains has also presented a health hazard – Harmohan explained that numerous mosquitoes breed on the still water, raising the risk of diseases spreading among residents.</p><p>It was only in late 2023 that the construction of the building began on the land where the pond had been. In 2024, a resident challenged the project in the Delhi High Court, arguing that the court had set precedent in 2013, when it directed the Delhi Development Authority to cancel all allotments of land on waterbodies wherever the land was still vacant – the court had also ordered the authority to revive these water bodies.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/gddlemzcyx-1750441983.jpg" alt="" title="In 2002, the Delhi government acquired a pond in Budhela village in south-west Delhi to construct a building to host cultural events. Since then, the village has seen significant waterlogging. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">In 2002, the Delhi government acquired a pond in Budhela village in south-west Delhi to construct a building to host cultural events. Since then, the village has seen significant waterlogging. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>This March, the Delhi High Court stayed the construction of the building.</p><p>When <em>Scroll</em> visited the johad on a hot June morning, a half constructed two-storey building stood in the depression of the dry pond. “We want the pond to be used as a pond, so that it can be used for the village residents,” said Ramniwas.</p><p>Experts also suggest other methods to tackle excess water that do not rely on stormwater drains – though they cautioned that the authorities had delayed acting on the problem. “Public parks also might have certain depressed areas where the stormwater can collect and recharge acquifers,” said Bhatnagar. He explained that rainwater being collected from roofs in homes around those localities could be directed into these depressions, rather than into into stormwater drains.</p><p>For now, residents are unsure of how much the desilting work in the city will help during the monsoon. Tigri’s Rahish said that he had been writing to different authorities for years to pay attention to the waterlogging in their locality, but that nothing had changed. “When it rains, the water stops, our lives stop for a few hours,” he said.</p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Vaishnavi Rathore</author>
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<title>Marang Buru vs Parasnath: The conflict over Jharkhand’s highest peak</title>
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<p><strong class="drop-cap">I</strong>t was 8.30 pm in the town of Madhuban in Jharkhand, and Itwari Soren and Ramesh Murmu sat listless outside a lavish Jain mansion.</p><p>The two, who are palanquin bearers and belong to the Santal Adivasi community, were waiting for shops on the town’s main road to close so that they could sleep.</p><p>“We sleep on the roads with just our gamchas to lie down on,” said Itwari, referring to the towel also often used as a headscarf. “The mosquitoes keep biting us and if it rains, we get drenched. There are several guesthouses around here for pilgrims, but no facilities for us doliwale to stay.”</p><p>The two had not had any work that day in mid-May, or in fact that week. “This is the off season. The peak season is between March and October when Jain pilgrims visit in flocks,” Itwari said. “Then, we compete to book passengers and carry them up the hill.”</p><p>The hill he was referring to is the highest point in Jharkhand, and goes by two names. To Jains, it is Parasnath Hill, named after Parsvanatha, the twenty-third of 24 Jain tirthankaras, the central spiritual figures of the religion. Jains know the sacred site atop the hill as Sammed Shikarji and believe that 20 tirthankaras attained salvation there.</p><p>But the hill is also a sacred site to Itwari and Ramesh’s community. The Santals call the hill Marang Buru, after the foremost hill deity in their pantheon. They have three key sacred sites – the dishom manjhi thaan, where the headman worships ancestors and deities, the jug jaher thaan, a sacred grove, and the lo bir vaisi bodra darha, where the traditional court of Adivasis of the region is held.</p><p>At the same time, the hill is also a crucial source of employment to thousands of doliwalas like Itwari and Ramesh, who depend on Jain pilgrims and other visitors for a livelihood for at least six months in a year.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1800" data-height="806" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lstaeqzytd-1750157310.jpg" alt="" title="Ramesh Murmu (centre) and Itwari Soren (right) work as palanquin bearers in Madhuban, Jharkhand. They earn a living by carrying Jain pilgrims to the top of the Parasnath hill, where a Jain shrine is located. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Ramesh Murmu (centre) and Itwari Soren (right) work as palanquin bearers in Madhuban, Jharkhand. They earn a living by carrying Jain pilgrims to the top of the Parasnath hill, where a Jain shrine is located. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>“Pilgrims, especially older ones, are not able to climb to the top,” said Sikandar Hembrom of the Marang Buru Sanvta Susaar Baisi, an organisation which is fighting for the rights of Adivasis over the hill – Hembrom is also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.</p><p>He explained that it was typically Adivasis, as well as members of a few other marginalised groups, such as the Ghatwar and Turi communities, who carried pilgrims to the peak.</p><p>The palanquin bearers usually set out at 2 am, and take at least eight hours to complete the trek of 27 km. Two bearers charge Rs 2,300 to carry a person who weighs less than 49 kg, and Rs 2,760 for a person who weighs between 50 kg and 69 kg. For those who weigh more, bearers usually use chairs carried by four people, for which rates start at Rs 4,600.</p><p>These rates haven’t changed since 2019, Itwari said, showing me a rate card. During peak season, the bearers get regular work and earn between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 a month. For the remainder of the time, they work on their fields in neighbouring villages and do small odd jobs. “It is not an easy job, carrying so much weight while climbing a hill,” said Ramesh. “But we don’t have a choice and are compelled to do it. There are no better opportunities around here to earn a living.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hvonnjwwie-1750157379.jpg" alt="" title="Two palanquin bearers await customers in Madhuban. The rates for the work have not changed since 2019. Photos: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Two palanquin bearers await customers in Madhuban. The rates for the work have not changed since 2019. Photos: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1587" data-height="1200" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/ubokijgtpb-1750157787.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>Some locals claim that the two communities have co-existed in this fashion since time immemorial.</p><p>“Jains and Adivasis live harmoniously here,” said Amit Jain, the mahamantri, or general secretary, of Madhuban’s Jain community. “This practice of Adivasi doliwalas carrying pilgrims up to the peak has been going on for thousands of years.”</p><p>But this description also elides a tension that has long simmered between the two groups over their rights to the hill. It is centred around the very different relationships the two communities have with the site, and with their faith.</p><p>The most prominent point of contention is Sendra, an annual religious festival of the Adivasis, at which the community hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. A 2024 <a class="link-external" href="https://wap.hapres.com/htmls/JSR_1572_Detail.html#09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>paper</u></a> on Sendra in West Bengal and “ethnotourism” notes that the hunting in the festival is largely a “symbolic expression of ancient culture” through which tribes seek to “retain their ancestral legacy”.</p><p>Jains, meanwhile, see nonviolence as a core principle of their religion – over the years, some members of the community have challenged the hunt as a practice that hurts their religious sentiments.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1638" data-height="734" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jvsadqhzzs-1750245416.jpg" alt="" title="The most prominent point of contention between the Adivasi and Jain communities is an annual religious festival in which the former hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The most prominent point of contention between the Adivasi and Jain communities is an annual religious festival in which the former hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>In January, a Jain trust filed a petition in the Jharkhand High Court – among its demands was that the government “take preventive measures against activities that defile the sanctity of the Hill”. The petition also sought the implementation of a 2023 environment ministry memorandum, which effectively prohibited hunting, and the consumption of meat and alcohol, on the hill.</p><p>“This ruling fails to recognise Adivasi traditions, so we will challenge it and fight for our rights in court,” said Hembrom.</p><p>Some Adivasis argue that these demands contravene core tenets of Jainism itself. “The Jain religion is a beautiful one, they have a principle which says – live and let live,” said Bhagwan Kisku, an activist. “But in Madhuban, they are not practicing that. Instead, they are erasing Adivasis.”</p><p><em>Scroll </em>sent queries about the conflict over the hill to Jain trusts involved in litigation, as well as the environment ministry, local police and the state government. This story will be updated if any responses are received.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong class="drop-cap">C</strong>ommunities’ legal claims over the hill, and efforts to gain control over it, have a long and chequered history.</p><p>In 1893, for instance, the Calcutta High Court heard a dispute over the running of a pig’s lard factory on the hill, which offended the sentiments of Jains.</p><p>In its judgement in favour of the Jains, the court cited a previous order of a district judge, stating “the plaintiff’s witnesses have told us that in their estimation every stone of Parash Nath Hill is holy and an object of adoration”. That order noted that it could not mark out particular places as sacred because the tirthankaras “may have died anywhere on the Hill”.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1400" data-height="627" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/einwrvfbsn-1750242508.jpg" alt="" title="Communities attempts to gain control over the hill date back to at least the nineteenth century, when the Jain community protested a pig’s lard factory on it. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Communities attempts to gain control over the hill date back to at least the nineteenth century, when the Jain community protested a pig’s lard factory on it. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>But over the years, courts and administrative bodies have also upheld the rights of Adivasis over the hill.</p><p>For instance, the community’s hunting tradition was noted in a 1911 “cadastral survey”, which set out land rights of communities over particular tracts of land.</p><p>That same year, Maharaj Bahadur Singh, acting on behalf of the Shwetambar Jain community, filed<a class="link-external" href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/239245/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u> a case</u></a> in the Patna High Court demanding, among other things, that the entry about the hunt in the cadastral survey be expunged. The judge ruled in favour of the natives, stating that they had a “prescriptive or customary right” to the hill. He further quoted the “assistant settlement officer”, who had stated that “the hunting does not seem to me to do any harm to the worshippers of the temples and the hills, as the hunters do nothing which could hurt their feelings”.</p><p>The petitioners appealed this decision in the highest court of appeal in the British empire at the time. “The case went up to the Privy Council and it was held that the Santals have the customary right of hunting on Parasnath Hill,” the 1957 Hazaribagh district gazetteer stated.</p><p>The Jain community continued to try and gain exclusive control over the hill. Court <a class="link-external" href="https://www.courtkutchehry.com/Judgement/Search/AdvancedV2?s_acts=Bihar%20Land%20Reforms%20(Amendment)%20Act,%201954&amp;section_art=section&amp;s_article_val=4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>documents</u></a> show that in 1918, the Seth Anandji Kalyanji Trust, representing the Shwetambar Jain community, paid to gain rights to the hill from local rulers.</p><p>But these efforts were negated after India acquired independence and became a democracy. Specifically, in 1953, the state of Bihar passed the Bihar Land Reforms Act, which vested rights over the hill with the state government.</p><p>In the decades that followed, both communities used the hill as part of their customs without any significant disputes arising between them. In 1984, the government granted the area significant protection by forming the Parasnath and Topchanchi wildlife sanctuaries, which included large portions of the hill.</p><p>The area under protection was widened in 2019, when the ministry of environment, forests and climate change issued a new notification declaring a strip of land 25 km wide around the sanctuaries, amounting to a total of 208.82 sq km, as an “eco-sensitive zone”.</p><p>Developments that followed this left both communities worried about their rights over the hill, albeit for strikingly different reasons.</p><p>In 2019, the environment ministry instructed the state government to promote eco-tourism in the area and develop a “tourism master plan”. Accordingly, in February 2022, the Jharkhand government launched a tourism <a class="link-external" href="https://www.nsws.gov.in/s3fs/2022-10/Jharkhand%20Tourism%20Policy%202021.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>policy</u></a>, under which it stated that Parasnath, along with other sites, would be developed as a religious pilgrimage site. This move led to widespread outrage in the Jain community, which came out in large numbers across the country to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jain-protests-notification-sammed-shikharji-parasnath-hill-giridih-shetrunjaya-bhavnagar/article66346041.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>protest</u></a> the proposed changes to the site. “We were afraid that the promotion of tourism would desecrate the sanctity of the site,” said Amit Jain.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/tkgzxtzqsg-1750242879.jpg" alt="" title="The Jain community protested a move by the government in 2022 to promote the hill as a tourist site. They argued that doing so would desecrate its sanctity. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Jain community protested a move by the government in 2022 to promote the hill as a tourist site. They argued that doing so would desecrate its sanctity. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>In January 2023, under pressure from the protests, the environment ministry issued an office <a class="link-external" href="https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2023/jan/doc202315150001.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>memorandum</u></a> that stayed all activities on the hill related to tourism.</p><p>But the memorandum contained another directive that Adivasis argued impinged on their rights over the hill: it instructed the state government to “strictly enforce” provisions of a clause of the “management plan” of the Parasnath sanctuary “which protects the whole Parasnath Hill”. This provision includes a categorical prohibition on the sale and consumption of “liquor, drugs, and other intoxicants” and “committing injurious acts to animals”.</p><p>These prohibitions are in keeping with the Jain tenets of vegetarianism, teetotalism and non-violence towards all living creatures.</p><p>However, they are in direct opposition to customary Adivasi rituals that require the use of hadiya, or rice beer, and often include the sacrifice of animals like chickens. Thus, the Adivasi community believes that these policies favour the Jain community over them.</p><p>But the state government did not press forward with the implementation of these directions.</p><p>It was in this context that the Ahmedabad-based Jain trust, named Jyot, filed the petition in the Jharkhand High Court asking that the directions be implemented. After hearing the petition, the High Court <a class="link-external" href="https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/jharkhand-high-court/jharkhand-high-court-orders-parasnath-hill-sacred-to-jain-ban-tourism-liquor-non-veg-food-291116" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>directed</u></a> the state government to implement the clauses listed in the memorandum.</p><p>Following this order, Giridih’s superintendent of police told <em>Scroll</em>,<em> </em>the number of home guards in the area had been increased to ensure that the court’s orders were enforced. As of May 13, they had not received any complaints of the order being violated.</p><p>But several Adivasis in and around Marang Buru are outraged. “It’s not like we’re forcibly entering their temples to perform our rituals,” said Arjun Marandi, a local Adivasi leader from Sohraia village. “We’re doing it on our land, which is far away from their temples.”</p><p>Referring to the Ahmedabad-based petitioners, Hembrom argued that urban, non-Jharkhandis from outside the state had no right to dictate terms on Marang Buru. “As Adivasis we were here first,” he said. “We have co-existed in harmony with the Jain population here so far. How can those sitting in metropolitan cities decide that the hill belongs solely to them?”</p><p>A group of activists from the area, including Hembrom, filed a counter-petition in the high court on May 5. The petition asserts Adivasis’ claims over Marang Buru and seeks the protection of their right to conduct their customary practices and rituals on the hill.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong class="drop-cap">E</strong>ven as the dispute between the communities plays out, Adivasis argue that their presence on the hill and their rights over it have to a large extent been erased.</p><p>This is despite the fact that there are far more Adivasis in the region than Jains. According to the 2011 census, Scheduled Tribes form 44% and Jains form 0.6% of the total population in Pirtand block, where Madhuban is located.</p><p>The eco-sensitive zone also has a large Adivasi population. Giridih’s district collector Naman Priyesh Lakra told <em>Scroll</em> that many of the 99 villages located within this region were inhabited by Adivasis. But he noted that the last land survey in the area was conducted in 1911 and that official current data was unavailable. The administration planned to start work on a social profile led by the District Legal Services Authority soon, he added.</p><p>Meanwhile, in recent years, “none of the government notifications regarding Parasnath hill have recognised that the place is also sacred to Santals”, Hembrom said.</p><p>Indeed, the recent notifications by the centre and the state government, pertaining to environmental protections and restrictions on tourism on the hill, make no reference to the site as Marang Buru, or mention Adivasis. “This is despite the fact that multiple Adivasi chief ministers from the state, and even President Droupadi Murmu, have travelled to Marang Buru to pay their respects,” Hembrom said.</p><p>This was apparent on the route from Parasnath railway station to Madhuban, along which one only sees signboards directing travellers to “Parasnath hill”. Upon entering Madhuban, one is greeted by a tall ornamental gateway typical of Jain architecture. Inside the town, there are several grand temples, mansions and guest houses, all for Jain pilgrims who visit from across the country.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/gxeekjwwqs-1750242958.jpg" alt="" title="The gateway in Madhuban. The town has numerous grand temples, mansions and guesthouses for the Jain pilgrims who visit it from across the country. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The gateway in Madhuban. The town has numerous grand temples, mansions and guesthouses for the Jain pilgrims who visit it from across the country. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>The main pathway that leads to the top of the hill has a tall signboard with a logo of the government of Jharkhand that welcomes visitors to Shikarji Sammed. It is only below this that a much smaller signboard welcomes visitors to Marang Buru. A few steps ahead, a few Sarna flags can be seen near the manjhi thaan.</p><p>Some activists noted that Adivasis had been edged out of Madhuban by wealthier communities. “A lot of the land that has been developed in Madhuban originally belonged to the Turi community,” said the activist Bhagwan Kisku. “But today when you walk through the town, you’ll find it difficult to spot a Turi person. There are so many grand mansions there of different sects of the Jain community but the number of locals is very less.”</p><p>The Jain community’s dominance over land in Madhuban is clear atop the hill too. Lakra, the district collector, told <em>Scroll</em> that the Jain community owned only eight decimals of land on the hill. But Jain sacred sites stretch across the 27-km-long parikrama path, or circular pilgrimage path. “For the longest time there were only two temples on top of Parasnath,” said Kisku. “But after the 2000s, these grew in number and today there are a total of 32 sacred Jain structures on top of the hill.”</p><p>He noted that it was not just that Adivasi customs conflicted with the Jain religion, but also the reverse. “Adivasis worship trees and rocks. Haven’t Jains torn down these trees and rocks to build their temples? But nobody thinks of that as an issue,” said Kisku, who is a member of an association called Marang Buru Sansthan, which is affiliated to the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party.</p><p>Some local leaders from the Jain community sought to downplay the conflict. “We don’t deny that this is an Adivasi area. Adivasis have been living in the forest for thousands of years,” said Amit Jain. “Of course they have the right to practice their own customs in their homes and sacred sites.”</p><p>He added, “The actual community based here is far away from this conflict. It is small leaders who are spreading political propaganda to agitate local people.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/agzzvqudka-1750243870.jpg" alt="" title="The dishom manjhi thaan of the Adivasi community on the hill, where the headman worships ancestors. They argued that Jains had torn down rocks and trees to build their numerous temples. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The dishom manjhi thaan of the Adivasi community on the hill, where the headman worships ancestors. They argued that Jains had torn down rocks and trees to build their numerous temples. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>But when it came to specific rules and restrictions, it was clear that there was a lack of clarity among the communities, which was breeding resentment.</p><p>The question of consumption of meat and alcohol on the hill is among the most contentious of these matters. Upon entering the pathway to the peak, one is greeted by large hoardings installed by the Madhuban panchayat, which state that the “consumption of non-vegetarian food and alcohol is a punishable offence, as per orders from the district administration”.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1433" data-height="642" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/itfowavofx-1750243949.jpg" alt="" title="A board near the entrance of the pathway to the peak, which states that consuming meat and alcohol is punishable. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A board near the entrance of the pathway to the peak, which states that consuming meat and alcohol is punishable. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>Savita Tudu, the panchayat pramukh of Madhuban, and the sole Adivasi person mentioned on the hoardings, said that the rule only applied to the Jain community’s sacred sites and not everywhere on the hill. “It’s possible that Adivasis might give up alcohol and meat but our deities cannot do without them,” she said. “They are an inherent part of our culture.”</p><p>Jain, meanwhile, said that tourists to Parasnath hill consumed ... |
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<title>What does Trump’s ceasefire announcement mean for Modi's strongman image?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>follow</u></em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>At 5.25 pm on Saturday, the President of the United States posted a message on social media that brought relief to nearly two billion people. “After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE,” he said (caps are Trump’s, not mine).</p><p>It was only half an hour later that the government of India actually announced a ceasefire. “Both sides would stop all firing and military action on land, air and sea at 5 pm,” said Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in a press briefing that lasted less than a minute.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1220" data-height="1107" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/eaqcjqtfhy-1746948336.jpeg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>Why did another country announce that India’s armed forces are going to stop hostilities with Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack? And what does that politically mean for Modi’s strongman image?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Made in America</h3><p>The answer to the first question is simple: the US is claiming credit for brokering peace between the subcontinental twins. In fact, the US state department has put out a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/05/announcing-a-u-s-brokered-ceasefire-between-india-and-pakistan/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>statement</u></a> calling this a “US-Brokered Ceasefire between India and Pakistan”. </p><p>CNN has <a class="link-external" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/10/politics/vance-modi-india-pakistan-intelligence" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>reported</u></a> that the US received “alarming intelligence” on Friday that could lead to a “dramatic escalation”. The US Vice President then called Modi urging him to talk to Pakistan and “to consider options for de-escalation”. This was the “critical moment” that got India and Pakistan moving towards a ceasefire, according to CNN.</p><p>India’s long-held position has always been that its conflict with Pakistan is a bilateral matter and it does not want any mediation. Unsurprisingly, the Modi government has rushed to firefight these US statements, putting a flurry of anonymous quotes in the media denying that the US had any role to play.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="638" data-height="290" style=""><a href="https://x.com/sidhant/status/1921198484897546663" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jdmahldmik-1746948383.png" alt="" title="A journalist tweets out a statement from an anonymous source denying US mediation." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A journalist tweets out a statement from an anonymous source denying US mediation.</figcaption></figure><p>Even worse, the US’ statements seem to suggest that it thinks Kashmir is back as an issue internationally. On Sunday, Trump put out another <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/MichaelKugelman/status/1921419633824788981" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">statement</a> offering to mediate so that a “solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir”. Before that Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that India and Pakistan had agreed to “start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site,” contradicting Delhi’s position that it will not talk till Islamabad abjures terror.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="633" data-height="845" style=""><a href="https://x.com/MichaelKugelman/status/1921419633824788981" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/chmikmrloq-1746948424.png" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Strong, man?</strong></h3><p>India’s ideal war aim, as it bombed Pakistan on May 7, was to make the country bend completely. “India seeks for Pakistan to have an embarrassing defeat,” <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/clary_co/status/1921092414128767438" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>said</u></a> Christopher Clary, a US academic and an expert on South Asia’s security politics.</p><p>However, rather than a Pakistani military surrender as India achieved in 1971 when Indira Gandhi was prime minister, what Modi has managed to pull off is a ceasefire. The absence of a surrender is risky for Modi's strongman image. That the US is now claiming that it brokered the ceasefire is doubly so.</p><p>Notably, Modi has long attacked the Congress as being weak for reaching out to the US. “Our minister went to America and started crying ‘Obama, Obama’,” Modi had said in a viral <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/nehafolksinger/status/1921442607592263691" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>interview</u></a> from when he was Gujarat chief minister, making mock actions of tears.</p><p>Will the Congress now be able to politicise this in the same way, attacking Modi’s as being weak for Trump’s claims of mediation?</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="631" data-height="372" style=""><a href="https://x.com/ShefVaidya/status/1921186640665415817" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lwraiplaku-1746948452.png" alt="" title="A prominent social media influencer and Modi supporter announces disappointment with the ceasefire" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A prominent social media influencer and Modi supporter announces disappointment with the ceasefire</figcaption></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">What happens now?</h3><p>The other risk for Modi is if Pakistan decides to continue its policy of supporting terror. Like the ceasefire after India’s and Pakistan’s tit-for-tat airstrikes in 2019, the current detente is premised on allowing both sides to go to their people and claim a Potemkin victory. However, 2019 is a poor template for Delhi: if India hoped that airstrikes would dissuade Pakistan from backing terror, that is clearly not the case, given the horror in Pahalgam.</p><p>Will the 2025 hostilities persuade Pakistan to end its support to terror if 2019 didn’t? There are already prominent voices of scepticism asking what India achieved by Operation Sindoor, given the ceasefire only three days later.</p><p>“We have left India’s future history to ask what politico-strategic advantages, if any, were gained after its kinetic and non-kinetic actions post Pakistani horrific terror strike in Pahalgam on 22 April,” former Indian Army chief Ved Malik <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/Vedmalik1/status/1921202136592879853" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>posted</u></a> on social media.</p><p>Even as journalists and analysts unpack the political losses and gains for individual players and states, one thing is certain: the people of South Asia simply cannot afford conflict. Both India and Pakistan are poor countries with large populations and nuclear weapons. War is simply not an option. A ceasefire is great news. Now we only need to hope that it sticks.</p>
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<pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 06:39:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>The importance of secular optics during ‘Operation Sindoor’</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>follow</u></em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>In the early hours of Wednesday, the Indian armed forces struck nine terrorist camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This was in response to the April 22 attack in Pahalgam that left 26 dead.</p><p>War is about weapons. But it is also about narrative. Even as India delivered a military response to Pakistan for its support to cross-border terror, its post-operation messaging was also strong.</p><p>For one, India’s name for the military attack, Operation Sindoor, highlighted the fact that the Pahalgam terrorists had shot dead men in front of their families. The Hindi word “sindoor” refers to the vermillion pigment many Indian women use on their heads as a sign of marriage. Even more vivid were the secular optics of the government briefing on Wednesday morning.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Communal terror</h3><p>Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri was emphatic that the aim of the terrorists in Pahalgam was to spread strife within Indian society. “The manner of the attack was also driven by the objective of provoking communal discord, both in Jammu and Kashmir and in the rest of the nation,” Misri said, referring to the fact that many male tourists in Kashmir had been shot dead after being asked about their faith; Hindus were targetted. “It is to the credit of the government and the people of India that these designs were foiled.”</p><p>The Foreign Secretary was flanked by Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, who provided details of Operation Sindoor.</p><p>By explicitly saying that the terrorists in Pahalgam intended to stoke communal conflict and including a Muslim army officer as part of the high-voltage briefing, the Indian government was using explicitly secular messaging even as India militarily stared down its nuclear twin, Pakistan.</p><p>Misri’s statement was not made in a vacuum. Pahalgam was followed by a wave of bitter communalism within India. Several Hindutva ideologues tried to attack Indian Muslims using the cover of the Pakistan-backed terror strike.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1920019600785158232" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Terrorists who attacked Hindus in Pehalgam wanted to provoke "communal discord" in India. <br>These accounts such as <a href="https://twitter.com/randomsena?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@randomsena</a> are helping them by targeting 25+ Crore Indian Muslims. Unfortunately the Indian government or the Police will never take any action against them. <a href="https://t.co/yxv2VMVTM1">pic.twitter.com/yxv2VMVTM1</a></p>— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) <a href="https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1920019600785158232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>The online hate was so bitter that even <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081984/womens-commission-condemns-online-trolling-of-pahalgam-attack-victims-wife-after-her-peace-appeal">Himanshi Narwal</a>, wife of Indian Navy officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, who was killed in Pahalgam, was not spared. Her statement asking Indians not to “spew hate” against “Muslims and Kashmiris” attracted a spate of abuse from Hindutva supporters. It was so intense, the National Commission for Women stepped in to condemn the online abuse.</p><p>But it was not just online hate. There were <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081835/after-pahalgam-terror-attack-anti-muslim-violence-reported-in-four-states">physical attacks</a> too. A day after Pahalgam, for example, Kashmiri shawl sellers were assaulted in Mussoorie, leading to at least 16 people fleeing from the city.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">An exception</h3><p>Even as the Modi government’s messaging post-Sindoor has been secular and attempted to counter the obvious aims of the Pahalgam terrorists, this level-headedness has been rare. Over the past decade, the Modi government has often stoked communal given its adherence to Hindutva as well as the electoral dividends that sectarian politics has paid for the BJP since the 1990s.</p><p>However, as Pahalgam and its aftermath shows, communal strife is not just a moral wrong – for India it is a major security faultline that its adversaries are more than happy to try to widen. India is a continent-sized country with most of its people desperately poor. To add constant communal strife to this mix is a surefire recipe for disaster.</p><p>The phrase “anti-national” is often thrown about loosely nowadays and I am always wary of using so blunt a phrase. But if there is one place it can be used, perhaps it applies to those who tried to exploit the Pahalgam terror attack to spread communal strife within Indian society.</p>
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<link>https://scroll.in/article/1082107/the-importance-of-secular-optics-during-operation-sindoor</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 13:10:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Caste census: Will the 50% reservation cap soon be history?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics (though this week, it intersects quite a bit with global politics).</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>follow</em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>After the Pahalgam terror attack, much of India was expecting a retaliatory attack against Pakistan. Instead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a surgical strike of a political kind. On Wednesday, the Union cabinet decided that caste would be counted as part of the upcoming census.</p><p>This is a major U-turn by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi. Just a year ago, Modi had denounced those lobbying for a caste census as “urban naxals”. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath, arguably the second-most popular BJP leader after Modi, set the line for opposition to the caste census with the slogan “batenge to katenge” – divided we will get slaughtered. </p><p>The graphic imagery refers to a long-held Hindutva belief that demands for caste equity will only end up fracturing Hindu society. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/supporting-the-spirit-of-yogis-batenge-to-katenge-slogan-rss-says-hindu-unity-is-in-national-interest/article68799885.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">backed Adityanath</a> on his call for purported Hindu unity.</p><p>Soon Modi <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4enF0Ssv7tA" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">echoed</a> Adityanath’s line with his own “ek hai to safe hai” – there is safety in unity. Clearly, the BJP was going hammer and tongs against the Congress party, which has pressed hard for a caste census as part of its social equity focus under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>An about turn</strong></h3><p>That the saffron party has turned on a dime and now sought to take credit for the caste census is a good indicator of just how popular the policy plank is. Clearly the BJP hopes to blunt some of the Dalit and Other Backward Class anger that led to it losing the support of these groups in the last Lok Sabha elections.</p><p>But even as the BJP is trying to run off with the Congress’ agenda, the main Opposition party has stepped up its game: it says it will now concentrate on getting the government to remove the 50% cap that has been set on reservations for seats in educational institutions and government jobs.</p><p>If it happens, it would cause a political earthquake that could be bigger than even the anti-Mandal agitation of the early 1990s. In 1990, the VP Singh government implemented the Mandal Commission’s recommendations, providing reservations to Other Backward Classes – a vast, varied collection of agricultural and artisanal castes that fall between upper castes and Dalits in the social ladder.</p><p>This doubled caste quotas to nearly 50%, drastically shrinking the general category dominated by upper castes. Angry at this, members of the upper castes launched an agitation with a young brahmin student, Rajiv Goswami, even setting himself on fire in Delhi.</p><p>This agitation was mirrored by a new politics of OBC assertion, especially in the Hindi belt. Parties such as the Samajwadi and the Rashtriya Janata Dal drew OBC votes away from the upper caste-led Congress with the claim that OBC interests would be better protected by OBC leadership.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Judicial award</h3><p>Eventually, a political compromise was hammered out – not by politicians but by the Supreme Court of India. In the landmark 1992 Indra Sawhney judgment, the court upheld OBC reservations but also put in place significant caps. Reservations could not extend beyond 50% and the “creamy layer” or well-off OBCs would be excluded from availing of the quota.</p><p>Notably, the court did not really explain why it chose the 50% figure. It said that the power of reservations should be “exercised in a fair manner and within reasonable limits” and hence “reservation under Clause (4) shall not exceed 50% of the appointments or posts, barring certain extraordinary situations as explained hereinafter”.</p><p>But why was 50% a “reasonable limit” given that Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs constitute around 80% of the Indian population?</p><p>Even more confusingly, in 2022 the court allowed this 50% limit to be breached for the Economically Weaker Section quota for poor members of the upper castes. The Indra Sawhney cap was only applicable to caste quotas, it held.</p><p>That such a major policy decision was taken by the court and not backed up in the political sphere meant the 50% cap was always on weak ground. The court in fact struck a blow of its own by upholding the Economically Weaker Section quota.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Caste society</h3><p>India is the only country in the world where affirmative action quotas extend to the majority of the population. With the Economically Weaker Section quota in place, it now stands at almost 60%.</p><p>Part of this flows from just how unique Indian society is. For example, the endogamy that underpins it, with the idea that marriages must only take place within a caste or even a subcaste, has shocked geneticists. Famously, David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard University, quipped that while the Chinese are a truly large population, Indians are actually a “large number of small populations”. </p><p>Given this hermetically sealed social structure, the vast majority of Indian castes do not feel they can ever compete with the savarna castes that have dominated the social system for the past two millennia.</p><p>Add to this is the fact that the Indian economy has been terrible at creating employment. In fact, <a class="link-external" href="https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/publications/2023/report/state-of-working-india-2023-social-identities-and-labour-market-outcomes" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">studies</a> show that there is little relationship at all between economic growth and employment growth in India. </p><p>“What this means is that far from employment growing faster when GDP grows faster, years of fast GDP growth have, on the contrary, tended to be years of slow employment growth,” the <em>State of Working India </em>report 2023 said.</p><p>Both these factors mean that almost everyone in India thinks they need state-backed quotas to access wealth and education. Hence, the massive support for removing the quota cap.</p><p>Modi has bent to Rahul Gandhi on the caste census. Will he now also buckle on the 50% limit?</p>
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<pubDate>Sun, 04 May 2025 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Interview: ‘Pahalgam shows Balakot did not create deterrence’</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal, a newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up here (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>follow</em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>A horrific attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed, has left South Asia on edge as India has blamed Pakistan and its support for cross-border terrorism. Delhi has said that it would hold the Indus Waters Treaty “in abeyance” and Modi promised that India would soon “raze whatever is left of the terror haven”, a thinly-veiled reference to Pakistan.</p><p>To understand Delhi’s military options at this time, how the Modi government overstated its claims that “normalcy” has returned to Kashmir and the risky business of de-escalating conflict between two nuclear powers, I spoke to former military officer Sushant Singh, a lecturer at Yale University and one of India’s foremost security experts.</p><p><strong>Do you think India can do another Balakot [striking across the border as it did in the wake of the Pulwama attack of 2019]?</strong><br>It depends on what you mean by Balakot. The question is what did Balakot achieve? As this particular incident has shown, Balakot did not create deterrence which stopped militants or Pakistan from undertaking another terror attack in Kashmir. That’s one thing.</p><p>Secondly, Balakot, as I wrote in <em>The Caravan</em>, was not a military success. It was a political success because it happened just before elections, and it worked for them [the Bharatiya Janata Party]. </p><p>Thirdly, Balakot did escalate up to a point. As you know, [Mike] Pompeo, who was [United States] Secretary of State at that time, in his memo mentioned the nuclear escalation between India and Pakistan.</p><p>So, I really don’t know what we mean by another Balakot. If the idea is that India would do a kinetic operation against Pakistan, yes, that possibility definitely exists, particularly going by the rhetoric we’re seeing from the government.</p><p><strong>I want to go to your reporting on Balakot, especially your piece in <em>The Caravan</em>. You’ve taken a view which is at variance with much of the Indian mainstream media. You say Balakot was actually not a military success. Do you think that will inform what is happening now? Will it reduce India’s options?</strong><br>Let me put it this way. The political leadership in India would want to do something that would assuage the heightened emotions of their supporters at least, if not the Indian people. They have already set a bar because of what they claim to have done in 2016 with the surgical strikes across the LoC [Line of Control] and then in 2019 with Balakot. Once you’ve done that, you can’t do anything lesser than that. If you claim that you achieved so much, then you need to do something bigger. That’s one big constraint.</p><p>The second constraint, of course, is the military failure of doing Balakot and the escalation that happened. Balakot is not just about what the Indian Air Force tried to do in Balakot; it’s also what happened thereafter – when [Indian Air Force pilot] Abhinandan [Varthaman] was captured, when the Indian MiG-21 was brought down, the threat of missile launches from both sides. That, too, is part of the Balakot episode.</p><p>The question isn’t what India can do, it’s how do you de-escalate from there. Anyone can order a ground-based missile, an airborne strike or a drone swarm attack. The point is, will Pakistan retaliate? Yes. After Pakistan retaliates, what do you do? Do you take it lying down? Do you say, “thank you, 1-1” and go back home? Or do you escalate further? How do you de-escalate?</p><p>The political leadership has to answer how it intends to prevent serious escalation between two nuclear weapon states and how to de-escalate after you have taken the first step. The military leadership must answer what their constraints are, whether they can honestly tell the political leadership that they are operating within limitations: shortage of soldiers, deployment at the China border, modern equipment shortages and so on. These two considerations – political and military – will come into play.</p><p><strong>I want to go back to the horrific terrorist attack in Pahalgam. Do you think there was a security lapse there?</strong><br>Definitely. There were two CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force] battalions until a year or two ago. One of them was moved out. Armed men fired for more than 20-30 minutes, and no security forces came. The family of one of the dead naval officers <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/LogicalIndians/status/1915711028966678652" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">said</a> no help came for 90 minutes and her husband died. Clearly, there was a security lapse.</p><p>There was also an intelligence failure. You have militants in the area, roaming around with weapons, clearly embedded in the area with local support. It’s not like the militant came that morning itself and suddenly did this. The intelligence failure is that you didn’t have any idea of all this happening.</p><p>Security failed on two levels. First, you left the place completely unguarded – probably believing that tourists wouldn’t like to see soldiers and that would belie claims of normalcy. There was also the belief that militants wouldn’t do anything to attack tourism, which is the lifeline of the Kashmiri economy – so therefore we can leave it unguarded. Second, the response during the attack was very poor. Unless you are buying your own Kool Aid of normalcy having returned, there was no reason to have no forces present in that spot.</p><p>There were three failures: intelligence, and two levels of security – before and during the incident.</p><p><strong>Let’s dig a bit deeper on your Kool Aid point. What does this incident say about the Modi government’s claim that Kashmir is now normal and militancy has ended after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019?</strong><br>This incident shows that these claims are untrue. In fact, even earlier, incidents in <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1071111/jammu-and-kashmir-soldier-killed-in-gunfight-with-suspected-militants-in-poonch">Poonch</a> and <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/941402/j-k-indian-army-officer-killed-in-pakistani-firing-in-rajouri-district-say-reports">Rajouri </a>already disproved that claim.</p><p>Let’s be clear: the violence isn’t at the level of the early ’90s or just after Kargil. But violence had already come down when Omar Abdullah was chief minister [2009-2015]. In 2011-2012, there were a lot of street protests, a lot of stone pelting, but militancy was already down.</p><p>Then PDP [People’s Democratic Party] formed the government with BJP [in 2016], and young Kashmiri men began joining the militancy. Violence was artificially suppressed, but the anger against the Indian state and the lack of political redress remains, creating fertile ground for militancy – even if you take Pakistan away from the equation.</p><p><strong>One of the claims for abrogating Article 370 was better security, which you’re saying has not come through. Do you think India’s security apparatus is actually now weaker because local Kashmiri parties have been destroyed and Kashmir is now ruled directly from Delhi?</strong><br>Absolutely. Remember, during demonetisation [in 2016], it was claimed that the terrorism’s back has been broken in Kashmir. The same was said after surgical strikes and after abrogating Article 370. In all cases, security has not improved.</p><p>We’ve lost even the limited support we had among Kashmiris. You could generate local intelligence, you had sympathisers. All that has been broken down by the kind of politics pursued in the rest of India and by Delhi in Kashmir: hardcore Hindutva politics, demonising Muslims and Kashmiris, TV debates running horribly anti-Kashmir content nightly. You can’t expect sympathy when you’ve done what was done after August 2019: shutting everything down, taking away the internet. It is a very oppressive environment in Kashmir.</p><p>Even tourism, though economically vital, has become a tool of humiliation and oppression.</p><p><strong>Could you expand on that? What do you mean by tourism being a tool of humiliation?</strong><br>Many tourists from the mainland, influenced by the current Islamophobic political climate, behave in obnoxious ways – sometimes unknowingly, sometimes knowingly – acting as if they sustain Kashmir. Even non-Kashmiri friends have observed this when they travel to Kashmir and have felt embarrassed.</p><p>The way tourism is conducted doesn’t foster healthy ties between Kashmir and the rest of India. It’s often perceived as an extension of the politics India has seen since 2014.</p><p><strong>Let’s zoom out to geopolitical security. If India launches any kinetic operation now, what are Pakistan’s options?</strong><br>It depends on whether India launches a covert or overt operation. A covert operation can be denied by Pakistan, and meanwhile India, using its godi media channels, can run a propaganda campaign. That’s easier – since there is no escalation.</p><p>If India does something visible that Pakistan cannot deny, Pakistan will have to retaliate. General Khalid Kidwai, a key figure in Pakistan’s nuclear policy, lays out a very clear line: QPQ+. If India does something, Pakistan will have to do quid pro quo plus. Something additional will have to be done when Pakistan retaliates. Because the Pakistan military can’t afford to lose face. If they acknowledge India’s action, they must retaliate.</p><p>Then the question becomes, what does India do? Retaliate again? Escalate? Step back? Does a third party – Americans, Saudis, UAE, China – intervene and say, “guys, this is enough”? Or do intelligence agencies start talking like after Balakot and find a way to de-escalate? The political leadership in India must think through this before taking any step.</p><p><strong>You said the Pakistani army <em>must</em> retaliate. Last week, Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir gave a provocative speech saying Kashmir is Pakistan’s jugular vein. Do you think there’s any connection between that and what happened in Pahalgam?</strong><br>It’s hard to say. Asim Munir is not the first to use such rhetoric. Ayub, Zia, Kayani – many have said similar things.This is a long-standing belief in a large section of the Pakistani military. There is nothing new in this.</p><p>Whether there’s a direct link between Munir’s speech and Pahalgam is hard to say. My sense, not based on any input, is that it was a soft target which was left unprotected. The attackers saw it as easy to hit and escape. Militants, unless they’re fidayeen, want to hit and get out. They don’t want to be caught up in a pitched battle. My gut feeling is that it doesn’t seem directly connected to Munir’s speech, but it’s hard to say for sure.</p><p><strong>Your own writing has shown that Modi actually managed domestic perception really well after Balakot, no matter the military assessment. Do you think something similar will happen or do you think that there will be some hard questions asked of the security lapses in Pahalgam?</strong><br>I don’t think that India’s corporate-owned media, the television channels, and newspapers, where a lot of our friends work, are going to ask any tough questions whatsoever of Mr Modi or Mr Shah. They didn’t ask those questions after Manipur.</p><p>They didn’t even ask those questions even when the then governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Satyapal Malik, went public about everything that happened in Pulwama during the suicide bombing of the CRPF convoy. Those questions were not asked then. I doubt that the people who call themselves journalists and editors have the courage or even the capability to ask those questions.</p><p>It will be incumbent upon some analysts, some commentators, and independent platforms like <em>Scroll, Caravan, Wire, News Minute, Newslaundry</em> to ask those questions.</p><p><strong>Yes, and I think that really leaves the country weaker as these incidents show. If you do not ask questions of the government, then the government performs worse.</strong><br>Absolutely. I’ll say only one more thing before I end. Demanding accountability is extremely important if you want to fix things for the future. If you don’t demand accountability in a democratic setup, then you are sowing seeds for future disasters.</p>
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<pubDate>Sat, 26 Apr 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Modi-Trump bhai bhai: Can there be a global right-wing coalition?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics (though this week, it intersects quite a bit with global politics).</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “follow”).</em></p><p>On February 21, the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni speaking via video link at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC on February 21, launched a broad attack at the left, arguing that the rise of the global right has frustrated them.</p><p>As she did so, she mentioned Narendra Modi as part of the global right:</p><blockquote class="cms-block cms-block-quote"><p>“When Bill Clinton and Tony Blair created the global leftist liberal network in the 90s, they were called statesmen. Today, when [Donald] Trump, Meloni, [Javier] Milei, or maybe [Narendra] Modi talk, they are called a threat to democracy. This is the left’s double standard, but we are used to it. And the good news is people no longer believe in their lies. Despite all the mud they throw at us, citizens keep voting for us.”</p></blockquote><p>The fact that a Western politician praised Modi and included him in the pantheon of the global right would please many supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its Hindutva ideology. For some time now, Hindutva ideologues in India have clamoured for exactly this sort of recognition, as they looked to the right in the West for inspiration, tactics and vocabulary.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Taking notes</h3><p>Take George Soros, for example. Last year in December, BJP MPs <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/lok-sabha-plunges-into-chaos-again-as-bjp-mp-reiterates-soros-congress-link/article68955799.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">plunged</a> the Lok Sabha into chaos with allegations that the Congress party was in cahoots with the Hungarian-American billionaire-philanthropist. “Congress ka haath Soros ke saath,” as BJP MP Nishikant Dubey put it in Hindi rhyme. The Congress is hand-in-hand with Soros</p><p>For some time now, the BJP has invoked Soros as a way to attack the Congress. This is remarkable given the fact that Soros is relatively unknown in India. But he is a major figure in the United States, where the right attacks him for funding liberal causes. <em>Al Jazeera</em> <a class="link-external" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/5/boogeyman-why-republicans-invoke-soros-to-defend-trump" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">describes</a> Soros as the “ultimate villain in [American] conservative circles”. Even Donald Trump has attacked the billionire.</p><p>The BJP is so tuned into US right-wing politics that it simply imported Soros conspiracy theories from the West ock, stock and barrel.</p><p>More evidence of this inspiration can be found in the very vocabulary of Hindutva in India. In 2023, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat launched an attack on “woke” people: a term so unfamiliar to his listeners that he had to go on to comically <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozse58e4xW8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">describe</a> “woke” as “jage huye” [people who are awake] in Hindi.</p><p><a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hBOovhAJE4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Several</a> <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hBOovhAJE4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">BJP</a> politicians have launched attacks on purported attempts to “bring in Sharia law into India”. The phrasing is aalso <a class="link-external" href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4651114-chip-roy-sharia-law-will-soon-be-forced-upon-the-american-people/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">direct import</a> from the American right, surreally ignoring the fact that sharia or Islamic law is <em>actually</em> law in India as part of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937. </p><p>The BJP has enthusiastically capitalised on the rise of Islamophobia in the West in the wake of the War on Terror to advance its anti-minority politics at home.</p><p>This fascination with the Western right peaked with the rise of Donald Trump and his unabashed Islamophobia. In a zany turn of events, Hindutva supporters in India even conducted public prayers for Trump. Modi, in an unusual move for an Indian prime minister, <a href="https://scroll.in/article/938218/ab-ki-baar-trump-sarkar-did-narendra-modi-really-endorse-the-us-president-for-re-election">endorsed</a> Trump for president in 2019.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="990" data-height="644" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/uqkcuxfbty-1740740994.jpg" alt="" title="A Hindutva organisation praying for Donald Trump in 2017. Prakash Singh / AFP" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A Hindutva organisation praying for Donald Trump in 2017. Prakash Singh / AFP</figcaption></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">A global alliance</h3><p>What is driving this sudden urge to create a global rightist coalition? Part of the reason is, as Meloni herself put in, the fact that leftists and liberals have been doing something similar for some time now. Communists have explicit international organisational links and liberals often create networks via institutions such as think tanks.</p><p>The right has lagged behind, until now.</p><p>This urge to catch up has driven close cooperation between elements of the Western right. Trump, for example, both <a class="link-external" href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-backed-brexit-then-he-used-it-as-leverage/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">backed and benefited</a> from the UK’s Brexit decision. Right-wing American billionaire Elon Musk has explicitly supported far-right politics in the United Kingdom and Germany. On a much smaller scale, there is also some coordination between White nationalists in the West and Hindutva supporters in India. In a <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1070161/how-hindutva-is-playing-a-silent-role-in-british-politics">ground report</a> I did from the United Kingdom, I found the far right in the UK often <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx_8swDlJaE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">feeding off Hindutva platforms such as <em>OpIndia</em></a><em>.</em></p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Speed bumps</h3><p>Unfortunately, for the right, there is a fundamental contradiction in creating international linkages given that almost all right-wing ideologies have parochialism as a core feature. This, in fact, has sharply come to fore with respect to Hindutva in India after Trump assumed office as American president in January. As part of his “America First” ideology, Trump has humiliated Indian undocumented migrants, sending them back in chains. He has also threatened India with high tariffs, singling it out for <a class="link-external" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48961235" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">criticism</a> as the “king of tariffs”.</p><p>A passive Modi has swallowed these insults, being wary of American power but also faced by the fact that the BJP lacks a language to attack a person that it has for so long admired.</p><p>A 2024 <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/NatConTalk/status/1810764034008125773" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">tweet</a> by the Washington DC-based National Conservatism Conference put this faultline in focus. The post featured a photo of the BJP’s Ram Madhav joining his hands in a namaste gesture with the text asking if the next convention should be held in India. This simple exchange saw an ugly racist backlash from the organisation’s supporters.</p><p>“The millions of Indians flooding western countries do not care about our culture, they are an invasive species,” said a reply from a White nationalist.</p><p>Many Hindutva supporters might look to the Western right for inspiration, but given that White nationalism often drives the latter, these warm feelings are often not reciprocated. The intrinsic insular nature of the right means international cooperation is difficult if not impossible.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1811035472002461818" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">As someone who has to interact with Indians every day for work - let's not do this <a href="https://t.co/jDQ9KuuqxI">https://t.co/jDQ9KuuqxI</a></p>— Modern Brzrkr (@ModernBrzrkr) <a href="https://twitter.com/ModernBrzrkr/status/1811035472002461818?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>That said, while Hindutva supporters may be enamoured by Western rightists, it is unclear whether it really <em>needs</em> them. Hindutva is a movement with deep roots in India. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s parent organisation, was founded a century ago. The Jana Sangh, the first iteration of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was born in 1951. Modi’s politics has decades of ideological and organisational work behind it. The Western right has little to do with Hindutva’s success – and even if it were to embrace India’s largest party, it would hardly benefit from this in any concrete way.</p><p>In the end, there is little to link right-wing politics in the West and in India. The only place they do intersect, it seems, is on Islamophobia. It is from this area that Hindutva has borrowed narratives from the right in the West which, due to the War on Terror, has demonised Muslims for more than two decades now.</p>
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<pubDate>Sun, 02 Mar 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>What AAP’s defeat says about corruption as an issue for Indian voters</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. This time I unpack the Aam Aadmi Party defeat in Delhi and try and draw an insight from it that applies across Indian politics: the relevance (or not) of corruption as an issue.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “follow”).</em></p><p>By Indian standards, the anti-corruption movement of 2011 was not particularly large. The Ramlila Maidan in Delhi where it began has a capacity of around 25,000 – a modest number for even routine political rallies in India.</p><p>However, what made it different was the incredible media attention it received. For months, it dominated headlines. Eventually, one section of this movement used this publicity to launch a new political outfit: the Aam Aadmi Party.</p><p>Boosted by media momentum, the Aam Aadmi Party shot off the blocks. In its very first election, for the 2013 Delhi Assembly, it managed to form the government. Curiously, it did so with support from the Congress – the very party that the AAP’s founders had attacked as irredeemably corrupt just a couple of years before.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Welfare &gt; Corruption</strong></h3><p>Subsequently, in the 2015 and 2020 Delhi elections, AAP won massive mandates. It did this not by appealing to its origin as a party battling corruption but by reinventing itself as an economically populist force, highlighting its development work and welfare schemes targeted at the city’s working class.</p><p>This dynamic was maintained in the 2025 Assembly polls, the result of which were declared on Saturday. AAP contested the election on its welfare record – not on fighting corruption. In fact, the elections were conducted against the backdrop of serious allegations of corruption against AAP. Senior party leaders, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had even spent time in prison.</p><p>However, this did not seem to have played a significant role in AAP’s loss. Eventually, it was <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1078652/anger-against-aap-is-palpable-in-delhis-slums-is-it-enough-to-cost-the-party-the-election">dissatisfaction with the AAP’s welfare delivery</a> that resulted in a portion of its working-class support moving to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The number was not large, though: AAP got nearly 44% of the popular vote, less than two percentage points behind the winner, the BJP.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Correlation and causation</strong></h3><p>The Aam Aadmi Party’s journey in Delhi therefore has an interesting insight for Indian politics as a whole: big-ticket corruption is a hot button topic for India’s middle classes and hence the media. However, in elections, most voters do not vote directly on the issue of corruption. This is why AAP had to concentrate its efforts in Delhi on delivering welfare – not fighting corruption.</p><p>This is not a new insight. Research from 2013 shows that even as the Congress was relentlessly pilloried by the media on the issue of big ticket corruption, most voters had not even heard of the names of the alleged scams. Even more remarkably, knowledge of a scam <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/does-corruption-influence-voter-choice/article6050324.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">did little to influence voter choice</a>. Attributing the Congress’s 2014 loss to claims of corruption might be a case of confusing correlation with causation.</p><p>Another way to observe this same insight is to look at the Teflon immunity enjoyed by the Modi government even in the face of widespread allegations of corruption such as the controversy about the purchase of Rafale fighter jets or claims that it favours the Adani group. India’s middle class – the principal cohort that raises its voice against corruption allegations – is a strong supporter of Modi and the BJP. Hence, since 2014, the issue of corruption has taken a back seat nationally, as India’s middle class voters are hesitant to point fingers at their own political choice.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Free pass</h3><p>As the<a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1078634/budget-2025-no-income-tax-payable-on-income-up-to-rs-12-lakh-under-new-regime"> recent tax cuts</a> show, the only real pressure that the Modi government has faced from the middle class has been on hard economic matters. Wage stagnation and inflation are problems that have actually channeled middle-class anger against Modi in a way that, say, being seen as close to Adani has never done.</p><p>Why does the Indian voter ignore corruption when it comes to the hustings? For one, the link between big-ticket corruption and quality of life is difficult to see in real time. A voter happy with, say, cash transfers would hardly abandon Modi over his alleged connections with Adani. Moreover, corruption, both big and small, is a systemic problem that no party seems to be able to solve.</p><p>AAP, which was literally created on an anti-corruption platform, now faces allegations that it used kickbacks from Delhi’s excise scam to fund its campaign in Goa. While these allegations remain to be proved, it is clear that the massive funds required to fight an election will create factors extremely conducive to corruption.</p><p>Moreover, small-ticket corruption – think small bribes to junior officials – is so pervasive that a voter pivoting her vote on it makes little sense. It is thus little wonder that other factors easily outweigh corruption in an Indian election.</p>
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<title>A new book studies the ideologies and functioning of the RSS’s tribal wing, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram</title>
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<p>The formation of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram happened over concerns regarding the increasing activities of Christian missionaries in tribal areas. There was a fear that as the Muslim League started to demand a separate nation for Muslims, the Christian missionaries could instigate converted tribals to demand a separate nation-state for Christians. Indeed, the issue of conversion was prominent in many tribal areas, including Madhya Pradesh (then Central Provinces), even before Independence, with some princely states initiating enactments to ban conversion. These included the Raigarh state Conversion Act, 1936, the Surguja state Hindu Apostasy Act, 1945, and the Udaipur state Conversion Act, 1946. What is interesting is that all these bills were introduced or passed primarily to ban the conversion of tribes to Christianity.</p><p>During the national movement, proselytisation by Christian missionaries emerged as one of the key contested issues and a matter of concern. Even Mahatma Gandhi expressed his concern regarding conversion by Christian missionaries. In Bihar Notes (10 August 1925), he underlined that,</p><blockquote class="cms-block cms-block-quote"><p>Christian missionaries have been doing valuable service for generations, but in my humble opinion, their work suffers because at the end of it they expect the conversion of these simple people to Christianity&nbsp;… How very nice it would be if the missionaries rendered humanitarian service without the ulterior aim of conversion.</p></blockquote><p>After its formation, the RSS focused largely on the aspect of mobilising Hindus against Muslims, its leaders expressed their concerns regarding the roles of Christian missionaries in tribal areas. However, they could not start systematic work in tribal areas before the early 1950s, but its leaders, particularly Golwalkar, always raised the issue of the conversion of tribal people.</p><p>During the late 1930s and 1940s, one can find two facets of the concerns among the Congress leaders related to the role of Christian missionaries: For some leaders like Rajendra Prasad, the key issue was to maintain the political popularity and acceptance of the Congress among tribals, but for some (like Ravishankar Shukla) the chief concern was the supposed separatist tendencies enhanced by Christian missionaries. </p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">It is noteworthy that in the tribal belt of the Chota Nagpur region of Bihar, the Jharkhand movement started to take shape by the late 1930s. The Adivasi Mahasabha continuously raised the issue of a separate tribal province and became more prominent when Jaipal Singh Munda joined it and became its president in 1939. Jaipal Singh Munda was a famous hockey player who was the captain of the Indian hockey team in the Amsterdam Olympics of 1927, where they won the gold medal. Thereafter, he was selected for the Indian Civil Services under the British India Government, but rather than joining it, he focused on different administrative works and teaching, before joining politics. Incidentally, when he returned to India, Rajendra Prasad asked him to work with the Congress. But after discussions with the then Bihar governor, Munda decided to work separately for the adivasis.</h3><p>The Bihar Congress leadership was not happy with the growing influence of the Adivasi Mahasabha. Jaipal Singh Munda wrote to Rajendra Prasad on 16 January 1939, “I have now been recognised the natural leader of the Adivasis and I feel I must use all my weight to make the Adivasis work for their advancement within the national movement.” In the same letter, he emphatically argued that “I have always felt that nothing should be done to weaken the nationalistic force and I am most concerned that the Adivasi movement should be within the major national struggle for an all-India struggle.” In another letter written to Rajendra Prasad on 1 February 1939, Munda underlined that “I have always been and shall remain an ardent lover of the Congress principles.” He criticised the Bihar government for overlooking the interests of adivasis. Again, in his letter to Rajendra Prasad on 14 June 1939, Munda underlined that “ … the aims and objects of the Adivasi Sabha … were in full harmony with the Indian National Congress.” However, Rajendra Prasad was not convinced. He wrote to Munda on 3 July 1939 and mentioned, “I do not know how the Adivasi Sabha can be said to be in harmony with the Indian National Congress when it thought fit to set up candidates against the Congress candidates.”</p><p>Rajendra Prasad and other Congress leaders felt that the church was also helping the political activities of Jaipal Singh Munda and the Adivasi Mahasabha. Munda’s biographer Ashwini Kumar Pankaj claims that due to instigation by Congress leaders, the issue of Christian and non-Christian also emerged in the Adivasi Mahasabha, which led to a split in the organisation and a senior leader, Theble Uraon, formed a separate organisation named “Sanatan Adivasi Mahasabha”. Uraon had a close relationship with many Congress leaders. In 1940, when the Congress organised its annual session at Ramgarh, Jaipal Singh Munda claimed that it was a ploy by the Bihar Congress leaders to suppress his organisation. A day before the Congress session, Uraon organised a meeting in Ramgarh and severely criticised Munda, asserting that he was not a representative of non-Christian tribals and should not mislead them with his separatist ideas. It is noteworthy that Congress leaders were against the Jharkhand movement. One argument was that the Bihar Congress leaders wanted non-tribal Bihar people to be dominant in tribal areas. This argument could be partially true, but it seems that the more credible reason for opposition to the Jharkhand movement was fear of separatism, fuelled by the church and Christian missionaries.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Rajendra Prasad met a Catholic bishop in Ranchi in July 1939 and requested that the church keep a distance from politics and should not support any political party with separatist leanings. He wrote a letter to the bishop of Ranchi and requested him to keep away from the political activities of different organisations.</h3><p>There was concern that an organisation like the Adivasi Mahasabha could create a feeling of separatism in the minds of tribal youths. The Congress leadership was also against the demand of Jharkhand. Gandhian leader, AV Thakkar, popularly called Thakkar Bapa, wrote to Rajendra Prasad on 8 March 1939 regarding the resolutions of the Adivasi Mahasabha conference held on 20 and 21 January 1939. He wrote, “The chief and the first resolution is about the separation of Chota Nagpur from Bihar, to which we, of course, cannot agree.” Thakkar Bapa suggested that Rajendra Prasad form a distinct organisation to create confidence among the tribal people. On 27 March 1939, he wrote to Prasad, “The Adivasi Sabha is a talking body or an agitating body. The committee that I propose is a silent, constructive body of actual workers. Political work will not form part of it and it is expected to win the confidence of people, as you say, by its selfless work.” He also urged Prasad that the Bihar provincial government should provide economic help to such organisations. Following his suggestions, a separate organisation, “Admi Jaati Sevak Mandal” was formed. Thakkar Bapa had worked in tribal areas for many decades but did not directly advocate the spread of Hindu values in tribal society, but had deep suspicions about Christian missionaries who he thought could foster separatism in tribal areas. This feeling was prevalent among many Congress leaders as well, which played a crucial role in the formation of the VKA.</p><p>In 1948, when the then chief minister of Central Provinces, Ravishankar Shukla, was on a visit to the tribal areas of his state, he saw black flag protests and sloganeering by tribals for a separate Jharkhand state. Shukla thought it was a dangerous and divisive campaign propagated by Christian missionaries and was worried about the conversion of adivasis to Christianity and discussed his fears with Thakkar Bapa. Bapa told Shukla that it was necessary to bring tribal people into the “mainstream” to stop conversion and contain separatism. For this, he said, the help of nationalist organisations should be taken.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="938" data-height="1500" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hcbgwukanb-1750931665.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p><em>Excerpted with permission from </em>Adivasi or Vanvasi: Tribal India and the Politics of Hindutva, <em>Kamal Nayan Choubey, Penguin India.</em></p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 03:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Kamal Nayan Choubey</author>
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<title>‘Confused product of a confused brain’: When Guru Dutt cast a spell over everyone – except one man</title>
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<p>The film “leaves one confused because it is a confused product of a confused brain”, the reviewer complains. Also, “It is a picture which lacks coherence, a clear and cognizable theme and, consequently, any emotional appeal whatsoever.” Finally, the movie is “pretentious in tone and dull and confusing in effect”.</p><p>Many films have been misunderstood in their times, only to be given their due belatedly. And yet, the <em>Filmindia</em> magazine’s overwhelmingly negative review of <a href="https://scroll.in/reel/762633/pyaasa-is-the-guru-dutt-gift-that-keeps-giving">Guru Dutt’s <em>Pyaasa</em></a> is confounding, especially since <em>Pyaasa</em>, despite – or more likely because of – its melancholic poet-hero and themes of rejection and disillusionment resonated strongly with audiences when it was released in 1957.</p><p><em>Pyaasa</em> is now regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made. The celebration of Guru Dutt’s centenary – he was born on July 9, 1925 – will refocus attention on the eight features he directed. <em>Pyaasa</em>, starring Guru Dutt as the poet Vijay, who is cheated out of fame and accepted only by the sex worker played by Waheeda Rehman, will likely be recognised once again for the masterpiece that it is.</p><p>Guru Dutt’s penultimate movie is a staggering feat on all levels – the performances, SD Burman’s music, Sahir Ludhianvi’s lyrics, cinematographer VK Murthy’s beautiful compositions. Guru Dutt’s command over his craft, his sensitivity for the aesthetics of cinema, have never been better.</p><p>However, none of this was evident to the <em>Filmindia</em> reviewer, the magazine’s editor Baburao Patel. A critic who revelled in eviscerating films and their makers, Patel had a special distaste for Guru Dutt.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="400" data-height="600" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/wyncanmldl-1751987585.jpg" alt="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75764717" title="Baburao Patel in 1938. " itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Baburao Patel in 1938. </figcaption></figure><p>Patel attacked the films that Guru Dutt directed as well as produced, such as Raj Khosla’s <em>C.I.D.</em> (1956). <em>C.I.D. </em>was “thin as air and unconvincing as a Russian prisoner’s confession”. Patel, who liked to twist the knife in deep, added that the stylish Indian noir film<em> </em>was “a cheaply and stupidly conceived, unpalatable crime picture”.</p><p>Patel similarly dismissed Guru Dutt’s <em>Mr. and Mrs. 55 </em>(1955) as<em> </em>an example of the filmmaker’s “usual glamorized jugglery”.</p><p><em>Mr. and Mrs. 55, </em>starring Guru Dutt and Madhubala, is a breezily charming, if dated, film about an impecunious cartoonist who marries a clueless heiress. The movie is in the<em> </em>vein of Hollywood’s screwball comedies, with zingy repartee and beautifully filmed tunes that underscore Guru Dutt’s talent for making song interludes part of the larger story.</p><p>For Patel, the film was “an odd mixture of some silly satire, mild comedy, ludicrous characterizations, popularly tuned songs, and the usual laboriously dandified song takings which seem to have become Guru Dutt’s stock-in-trade”. Not for the first time in his reviewing career, Patel confused artistry for phoniness and cinematic bravura for flashiness.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="780" data-height="350" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/skpvcpxtbl-1751988272.jpg" alt="" title="Mr and Mrs 55 (1955). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Mr and Mrs 55 (1955). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>Baburao Patel founded <em>Filmindia</em> in 1935 and quickly established himself as an <em>enfant terrible. </em>Patel<em> </em>used his authority to not only provide contrarian views of the Hindi and other language industries but also fulminate on politics, the economy and perceived social ills.</p><p>For several decades of its existence until it shut down in 1985, <em>Filmindia</em> was one of the most powerful purveyors of the Hindi and other language industries, Sidharth Bhatia writes in <em>The Patels of Filmindia – Pioneers of Film Journalism</em> (Indus Source Books). Patel ran the magazine with his third wife, the actor and singer Sushila Rani Patel.</p><p>“Baburao was an extraordinary editor – he practically wrote the entire magazine himself until Sushila Rani came and shared some of the burden with him,” Bhatia writes. Patel’s stentorian and carping voice was on every page, whether in the industry news tidbits, the gossip columns, the opinion section written under the pseudonym Judas, or the reviews.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="369" data-height="495" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jheyxlrfgx-1752004210.jpg" alt="" title="Filmindia, January 1940." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Filmindia, January 1940.</figcaption></figure><p>‘Kaagaz Ke Phool Inflicts Severe Boredom’ was a considerably less nasty headline than the one for another film released in 1959, <em>Dil Deke Dekho</em> (“Rape of Indian Culture”) or the description of <em>Marine Drive</em> from 1955 as “a disgrace to our country”.</p><p>Ironically, one of Guru Dutt’s oft-repeated remarks was “don’t bore me.”</p><p>Patel trashed <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em>, about the vagaries of show business, as “an ineffective glycerine tear shed over the transience of a showman’s glory”. Guru Dutt too acknowledged the movie’s drawbacks, telling <em>Filmfare</em> that it was “too slow and went over the heads of audiences”.</p><p>After the <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool </em>debacle,<em> </em>Guru Dutt did not direct a film again, instead getting heavily involved with his productions. Baburao Patel seemed to approve of this decision, lavishing praise on M Sadiq’s <em>Chaudhvin Ka Chand</em> (1960) and Abrar Alvi’s <em>Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam</em> (1962).</p><p>Patel described <em>Chaudhvin Ka Chand</em> as “feelingly written and lovingly mounted”, as well as “the scintillating result of a good story and skilful presentation” that was “likely to be long remembered by picturegoers”.</p><p>These words apply more accurately to <em>Pyaasa</em>.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="800" data-height="610" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/myzcjcxwao-1751987081.png" alt="" title="Waheeda Rehman in Pyaasa (1957). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Waheeda Rehman in Pyaasa (1957). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>The source of Baburao Patel’s grudge against Guru Dutt is unclear. Sushila Rani Patel shed some light on the matter when she spoke to filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur for a biopic he was planning on Guru Dutt in 2008. Dungarpur conducted scores of interviews with Guru Dutt’s collaborators, including Abrar Alvi and VK Murthy, and people who knew the director and his wife, Geeta Dutt.</p><p>Sushila Rani Patel told Dungarpur and his research team that Guru Dutt knew her sister Sumati in the 1940s, when they were both at the dancer Uday Shankar’s cultural school in Almora. Patel also revealed that she was related to Guru Dutt’s sister, the painter Lalita Lajmi – Lajmi’s husband Gopi Lajmi was Patel’s nephew.</p><p>“My husband was very fond of pictures with a classic touch,” Patel told Dungarpur. “He didn’t like the masala films.” She did not share her husband’s view of <em>Pyaasa, </em>saying that the film “had something” and deserved its reputation as a classic.</p><p>Baburao Patel was not swayed by the reputation of a star director or actor, Sushila Rani Patel said in the interview. Her spouse “wrote fearlessly”, she said, adding. “Whatever he felt, he wrote.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="282" data-height="352" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jmahbewxwi-1751988413.gif" alt="" title="Sushila Rani Patel." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Sushila Rani Patel.</figcaption></figure><p>Dungarpur has a theory that the character played by Mala Sinha in <em>Pyaasa</em> is inspired by Sushila Rani Patel. In the film, Guru Dutt’s struggling poet Vijay and Sinha’s Meena are lovers. Meena later marries the odious publisher Ghosh (Rehman), who sets out to destroy Vijay.</p><p>Guru Dutt directed his first feature, the crime drama <em>Baazi</em>, in 1951, when he was 26 years old. In his lifetime, he was a successful filmmaker by the Hindi film industry’s standards – his movies had popular actors, most of them made good money, the songs were hits.</p><p>Yet, the reverence that is now accorded to Guru Dutt, the awe with which his innate understanding of cinema is studied, the regard for how he filmed songs – all these only followed his death most likely by suicide on October 10, 1964.</p><p>He had previously attempted suicide at least twice. His passing at the age of 39 was blamed on a lethal combination of professional setbacks, personal turmoil and possibly undiagnosed depression.</p><p>In her definitive study <em>Guru Dutt – A Life in Cinema</em> (Oxford University Press), Nasreen Munni Kabir writes: “The cruel irony of belated recognition has visited itself upon many artists, and if we think of the posthumous recognition of the poet Vijay of <em>Pyaasa</em>, it could be said that Guru Dutt had a premonition of being among such artists; indeed, his contribution to Indian cinema has only been fully recognized some years after his death in 1964.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1920" data-height="810" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/mmphdhyozx-1751987537.jpg" alt="" title="Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman in Kaagez Ke Phool (1959). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman in Kaagez Ke Phool (1959). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>A deeply complex man by all accounts, of an intense and brooding personality but also generous and affectionate, Guru Dutt was an enigma while alive. After his death, he entered the annals of geniuses who leave too early.</p><p>Kabir, who also directed the documentary <em>In Search of Guru Dutt</em> (1989), writes in her book on the filmmaker,<em> </em>“Guru Dutt could not have predicted the impact that he would have in time; not only in India but in many parts of Europe. Death has indeed brought the kind of erasure that echoes his own feelings suggested in <em>Pyaasa</em> – that a dead artist is more greatly valued.”</p><p>The cover of the <em>Filmfare</em> issue dedicated to Guru Dutt after his passing doesn’t even mention his name. The cover has a black-and-white photo of Guru Dutt’s half-shaded, pensive face looking into the camera. The text, inspired by <em>Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, </em>reads “Khuda, Maut Aur Ghulam.” God, death and the slave.</p><p>“The interviews [for the proposed biopic] revealed that people thought of Guru Dutt very highly when he was alive, but they also recognised his self-destructive streak,” Shivendra Singh Dungarpur told <em>Scroll</em>. “His peers – Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan, K Asif – had great regard for his work. Guru Dutt was the only outside director who was permitted to shoot <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em> at Mehboob’s studio.”</p><p>Although Guru Dutt was frequently described as aloof and focused on his work, he appears to have taken his revenge on Baburao Patel in <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em>.</p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/972946/as-guru-dutt-biopic-gets-underway-a-reminder-of-how-the-director-laid-himself-bare-in-his-own-films">Guru Dutt’s most autobiographical film</a> is about the tragedy of Suresh Sinha, a successful director undone by self-doubt, a bad marriage, and an extra-marital affair with his new discovery, Shanti (Waheeda Rehman). Suresh’s wealthy in-laws look down on his profession and scheme to keep their daughter Veena away from him.</p><p>Suresh’s marital family comprises a bunch of grotesque characters. In one scene, Veena’s parents, played by Mahesh Kaul and Pratima Devi, are in their living room surrounded by dogs – a staging that is almost identical to a photograph of the Patel couple that hung in their house in Mumbai, Dungarpur pointed out.</p><p>“Guru Dutt was obsessed with the artist Vincent Van Gogh, but he was pre-occupied with himself too,” Dungarpur said. “I don’t think the scene in <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool </em>was an act of revenge as such. Guru Dutt was always taking ideas from real life and giving them an autobiographical touch.”</p><p>In an essay <em>Classics and Cash</em>, which is reproduced in Kabir’s book, Guru Dutt writes about the eternal battle between creativity and commerce.</p><p>“Since centuries, the creators of classics have had to pay the price for rising above the rut of prevailing mediocrity and for their daring isolation from the hoi polloi,” Guru Dutt observes. A filmmaker who dares to experiment has to be prepared for an unpredictable outcome, which “gives edge to the thrill of movie-making”, he adds.</p><p>Although Guru Dutt lost the battle in 1964, he won the war, evident in the continuing interest in and interpretations of his exquisite and haunting films.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1200" data-height="816" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/mtzrkmffqy-1751987738.jpg" alt="" title="Guru Dutt in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, which was reshot with Dharmendra after his death. Courtesy Arun Dutt." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Guru Dutt in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, which was reshot with Dharmendra after his death. Courtesy Arun Dutt.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Also read:</strong></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/720318/photos-rare-glimpses-of-guru-dutts-last-unfinished-movie-baharen-phir-bhi-aayengi"><strong>[Photos] Rare glimpses of Guru Dutt’s last unfinished movie ‘Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi’</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/972946/as-guru-dutt-biopic-gets-underway-a-reminder-of-how-the-director-laid-himself-bare-in-his-own-films"><strong>How Guru Dutt laid himself bare in his films</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/739403/even-before-pyaasa-the-shadows-had-started-gathering-in-guru-dutts-mr-mrs-55"><strong>Even before ‘Pyaasa’, the shadows had started gathering in Guru Dutt’s ‘Mr &amp; Mrs 55’</strong></a></p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 02:15:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Nandini Ramnath</author>
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<title>Assam: Homes of 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families bulldozed in Dhubri eviction drive</title>
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<h1>Assam: Homes of 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families bulldozed in Dhubri eviction drive</h1>
<h2>‘These are erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra,’ said an affected resident.</h2>
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<address><a href="https://scroll.in/author/21934" rel="author">Rokibuz Zaman</a></address>
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<time datetime="2025-07-08T20:50:00+05:30" class="article-published-time">
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Around 1,400 Muslim families were displaced during an eviction driver in Assam's Dhubri district.
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<p>The Assam government has demolished the homes of 1,400 Muslim families of Bengali origin from nearly 1,157 acres of government land in Dhubri district to make way for a solar power project, District Magistrate Dibakar Nath told <em>Scroll</em> on Tuesday.</p><p>The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited, which is heading the project, has already been allotted the land, Nath added.</p><p>Residents affected by the demolitions told <em>Scroll</em> that nearly 10,000 Bengali-origin Muslims, who had been living in the area for at least three to four decades, were displaced from Chirakuta 1 and 2, Charuakhara Jungle Block and Santeshpur villages under the Chapar revenue circle in Dhubri.</p><p>“These are erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra,” Towfique Hussian, a resident, told <em>Scroll</em>.</p><p>On March 30, the district administration submitted a proposal to convert the Village Grazing Land, a category of government land designated for cattle grazing, for the solar power project, according to minutes of a district-level land advisory meeting held on April 2.</p><p>The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited had acquired around 1,289 acres of government land for the plant.</p><p>According to the district administration, it had issued eviction notices in advance and made daily public announcements asking residents to vacate and dismantle their homes before Sunday.</p><p>Police personnel and bulldozers began arriving at the eviction sites on Monday.</p><p>The district authorities have allocated 300 bighas of land in Baizar Alga village for the rehabilitation of the affected people, according to the eviction notice issued by the Chapar revenue circle officer. It had earmarked Rs 50,000 for one-time relief for residents to transport their belongings.</p><p>Some of the residents have received the Rs 50,000 though others claimed they have not.</p><p>However, affected residents told <em>Scroll</em> that the rehabilitation site, Baizar Alga village, is in a low-lyring riverine area. "It gets flooded most of the time in monsoon," Nazrul Islam, a displaced resident, said. "People are reluctant to go there with no roads or any other communication."</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="960" data-height="720" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/irtyihkius-1751985763.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>“Many of the residents have already moved their belongings out of fear…Everyday people were moving,” Hussian said. “Those who did not move earlier, their homes were demolished on Tuesday.”</p><p>Some residents protested against the eviction drive and threw stones at the bulldozers, damaging three of them. The police lathi-charged the protesters. </p><p>Akhil Gogoi, independent MLA and chief of Raijor Dal, arrived at the eviction site on Tuesday. He told those displaced that he would request Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to allot 165 acres for their rehabilitation.</p><p>Gogoi was subsequently detained by police for a brief period.</p><p>“This eviction is illegal and unconstitutional,” he later said. “The matter is pending before the Gauhati High Court. The Himanta Biswa Sarma government is demolishing homes unlawfully.”</p><p>Gogoi claimed that such evictions were being conducted against Muslims to capture Hindu votes. “The BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government is targeting the minorities just because they are Muslims,” he added.</p><p>Later in the day, <a class="link-external" href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1268665581642018&amp;rdid=SZ2S2DOWz6wh94ke" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Sarma said the state government</a> will carry out another eviction drive on July 10 in the Paikar area, a reserved forest area in Goalpara district.</p><p>“Our aim is clear the encroached land and use them for the public,” the chief minister told reporters. “We are with the indigenous people of Assam while Akhil Gogoi stands for a particular community. That's our poltical ideology. We will keep doing our work.”</p><p>About 400 residents from the Charuabakhra Jangal Block village, who were living on the government land after losing their homes due to erosion caused by the Brahmaputra river, had moved the Gauhati High Court against the eviction notices in April.</p><p>The residents said that the action of the district authorities violated the judgement laid down by the <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1075610/how-supreme-court-finally-checked-bulldozer-justice-and-why-it-may-not-be-enough">Supreme Court</a> in November.</p><p>The case is still pending in the High Court.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1280" data-height="960" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lkmnnfrtyh-1751985786.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>In November, the Supreme Court had held as illegal the practice of <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1072759/homes-cant-be-demolished-sc-proposes-to-issue-pan-indian-guidelines-on-bulldozer-justice"><u>demolishing properties</u></a> of persons accused of crimes as a punitive measure. It added that <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1075458/bulldozer-justice-is-unacceptable-under-rule-of-law-says-supreme-court"><u>processes must be followed</u></a> before removing allegedly illegal encroachments.</p><p>This is the fourth major eviction carried out in the last 30 days.</p><p>On June 16, Goalpara authorities <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1083555/assam-begins-drive-to-bulldoze-over-600-homes-in-goalpara-district">demolished the homes of 690 families</a>, all of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims, who were living on an allegedly encroached land in the Hasila Beel, a wetland.</p><p>The families told <em>Scroll</em> that many of them were living in the area before it was declared a wetland.</p><p>Ninety-three families of Bengali-origin Muslims were evicted on June 30 in Assam’s <a class="link-external" href="https://www.pratidintime.com/latest-assam-news-breaking-news-assam/nalbari/93-homes-demolished-in-major-eviction-drive-in-assams-nalbari-9448948" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Nalbari district</a> during an anti-encroachment drive on nearly 150 acres of village grazing reserve land in the Barkhetri revenue circle.</p><p>On Thursday, around 220 families were evicted during an <a class="link-external" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/228-bighas-of-encroached-land-cleared-in-lakhimpur/articleshow/122233640.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">anti-encroachment drive</a> in upper Assam’s Lakhimpur district. The district authorities said the families were living on 77 acres of land at four locations, including three Village Grazing Reserves.</p><p>Since the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslim – have been ousted from government land, between 2016 and August 2024, according to data provided by the state revenue and disaster management department.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:20:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Rokibuz Zaman</author>
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<title>Translated fiction: An anthology of short stories by Bengali Muslim writers</title>
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<p>“The five pir saints of the river, Badar, Badar!”</p><p>The boatmen put up the sails of seven boats from the mahajan’s godown of garan wood at Shyamganj as soon as the tide ebbed in the river Hooghly. The mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters of thirty men stood wiping their eyes and kept gazing till the boats disappeared at the river bend of Naldanri.</p><p>Arjun Kayal was from the Sundarbans; solidly built, as if hewn from a rock. His eyes were round like marbles and bloodshot. He arrived three days ago to fetch the boats. He was the sedo, the guide to Sagar Island and the forests. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather – that is, all his forefathers – had spent their lives battling tigers, cultivating forests, acting as guides to the mangrove dealers, or guiding the boatmen of the main river. His great-grandfather was no mean robber. A convicted murderer, he had been sentenced to life at the beginning of British rule. The government had packed him off to the Sundarbans with a bunch of labourers sent to clear the forested islands by luring him with release. They did this with many others. Who would otherwise come here to give up their lives to the tigers! The released prisoners quenched the fire in their blood making friends with the beasts. Did you think settlements formed in the Sundarbans out of the blue? Did the wild ferocity in the blood of the settlers of the Sundarbans come from nothing?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“We belong to a line of robbers, murderers and criminals”, said Arjun Kayal, “This jungle is our mother. We tame her by worshipping her. When my father, sedo Ahir Kayal, entered the forest after invoking the goddess, tigers would fall at his feet like tame little cats!”</h3><p>Everyone listened to Arjun Kayal. Torab Rafadan, the mahajan, smirked as he leaned against some pillows on a mattress inside the covering of the boat, a cigarette in his hand. Next to him was his cash box. An all-wave radioset. A double rifle. A box of cartridges. A five-celled flashlight. A few dry batteries. Lalu Khansama’s cooking area was on the other side – utensils, rice, lentils, flour, spices, coal, pot of tamarind, two earthen barrels of fresh water kept in the hold. Buckets, saws, choppers, and what not!</p><p>The sedo offered his prayers to the mighty Dakshin Rai, the protector of the Sundarbans. Then he worshipped Badar Ghazi and Maslandari Pir of Ghoramara Island with his votive offerings. Meanwhile, Torab Rafadan met with the coast guards at their office. He had to show them the forest permit. And his gun license. Everyone knew and respected Torab. The mahajan spent a few packs of cigarettes too on them.</p><p>The coast guards said, “Don’t chop the trees in the conserved area, and don’t kill the animals there. Share with us some honey, deer meat, and turtle eggs as you leave. How many of your men are going this time? Give us their names and addresses. Thirty men? On six large boats? And another small boat too? These boats can hold goods weighing a few thousand tonnes! Be careful now, Torab saheb, don’t lose another couple of your men like the last time. The tigers are a nuisance this year as well. In which part of the forest are you going to cut down the garan trees this time? Is it on the island between the rivers Gosaba and Harinbhanga? Alright, we’ll row over and pay a visit one night. Will you cook some deer for us?”</p><p>Torab Rafadan caressed his beard and smiled. He was a man of money. He owned a two-storeyed brick house. He had nearly seventy acres of land in his own name, and in the names of his wife and children. He had two guns, and owned a perfume shop at Hogg Market in Calcutta. The perfumery was managed by his elder son, a college dropout. His second son was at university, and his two daughters went to college. He had a godown of rice and timber, with two husking machines. He was worth a few lakhs. High-ranking government officials, police inspectors, even ministers knew him. Even with all this prosperity, he had not quit the rather difficult business of dealing in mangrove timber, which had first brought him fortune. After all, all that he had inherited from his father was a tin hut and a boat. He’d been going into the forests twice a year for two decades now. In all these years, tigers, snakes, crocodiles or cholera caused by drinking saline water had killed about twenty-five men of his fleet. Torab was unaffected by these events. These voyages and such indulgence of the forest had become his addiction. He’d killed many tigers with his gun. The fiercest of the sedos and the baulis, who collected honey from the deep forest, feared and respected him. Torab spoke very little. Solemn, as moneyed men should be.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">This time they had to sail the fleet from Frazerganj without considering the tides. The boats sailed along the bank, tossed about like the fragile skins of plantain flowers by the vicious roar of the sea. Towering columns of black clouds appeared in the sky, signs of the approaching monsoon. To these men, life was but a speck of dust in the background of the infinite sea. How helpless were they before sublime nature!</h3><p>The mahajan showed everyone their location by pointing at a map of the 24 Parganas district. They also kept an eye on the compass.</p><p>At dusk, the fleet anchored at the river bend, deep inside the forest. The river was narrow, yet the current of the tide was immense, with a continuous splashing sound of the waves crashing against the boats.</p><p>Pan-paira, bats, shamuk khol, manik-jor, jol dahuk flew through the forests as dusk approached. The jungle resonated with bird calls. The kalbaishakhi storm was followed by heavy rain. The green forest grew shadowy and was gradually engulfed in darkness. Innumerable crocodiles of different sizes lay on the riverbank. Snakes cut through the water like blades.</p><p>The rain stopped after a while. The darkness was deep. The new recruits hugged each other, shivering and groaning in fear. What if a snake or a crocodile climbed up the stern?</p><p>Lights shone dimly in the boats. The waves roared incessantly. They had to wrap up in blankets even on a Baishakh night. Torab Rafadan had loaded his double rifle with cartridges and was now writing in his account book. Baghdad radio station was airing a poignant reading of the holy Qur’an in a melodious voice. All the sleeping men had sharp swords, spears, lances and scythes lying beside them. Thirty men in six boats were sleeping, entrusting their lives to the mahajan’s gun and his bravery. Everyone was exhausted by the week’s labour. If ever the wise and seasoned mahajan nodded off, then the morning attendance would show one man less on the team.</p><p>Arjun Kayal said, “You know, Torab, all these bastards lying on the boat are asleep. Sher Ali is slumbering with his mouth wide open! Wasn’t his mother crying her heart out? The scrawny boy of sixteen that he is! The tiger took his father last year. And yet the boy is fast asleep! This is what hunger does to you.”</p><p>Arjun Kayal addressed everyone with the familiar “tui”. This was common to the people of the Sundarbans. Arjun was Muslim.</p><p>Rafadan flashed his five-celled torch. Trees stood deeply enmeshed in the jungle. The vines were thick; prickly bushes and shrubs of fanimansha, hental, harkoch, tekantal, banjhama, lankashirey, mansha, bajbaran, pan-shiuli, jaldumur, myaramara, seyankul and baichi everywhere. Rabbits, white and soft like cows’ ears, ran away hopping, scared by the light. A few ran into the water in bewilderment. Crocodiles slapped their tails on the damp sand bank, as if in agony from the sharp fins of aar-tyangra piercing their jaws.</p><p>The sounds of the Sundarbans at midnight were terrible. The sound of the crashing waves, the deep bass tune of the crickets all over the forest, occasional screeches of jungle fowl, the call of jackals and civet cats, the twittering of birds, the shrieks of monkeys, the roar of tigers, the clacking of monitor lizards, the distant howl of an attacked animal – it was terrifying, bloodcurdling altogether! It was impossible to perfectly describe everything in the forests here; the grass, vines, trees, beasts, insects, snakes, crocodiles, mud, roots, thorns, water, fishes, sky, clouds, tides, diseases, climate – it needed a few years’ labour, and would fill up more pages than the <em>Mahabharata</em>. The creator of this unwritten epic was the supreme Lord Himself, who had endowed the Sundarbans – the “beautiful forests” – with beauty and terror! How could a person cherish this horrific beauty with his limited senses! How much did the mahajan know even with his twenty years of experience! Even to him this endless forest was ever new! Ever fierce and turbulent!</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="966" data-height="1500" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/opaleqhrgo-1750752385.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p><em>Excerpted with permission from </em>‘The Merchant of Sagar Island’<em>, Abdul Jabbar, translated by Sarmistha Dutta Gupta and Shambhobi Ghosh in </em>Stayed Back, Stayed On: Short Stories by Bengali Muslim Writers<em>, edited by Epsita Halder, Orient Black Swan.</em></p>
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<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 2025 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Abdul JabbarSarmistha Dutta GuptaShambhobi Ghosh</author>
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<title>Demolishing homes of India’s urban poor fails to address the root causes for informal settlements</title>
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<p>Over the past few weeks, Delhi has witnessed renewed demolition drives in informal settlements, prompted in part by a Delhi High Court order to clear encroachments along major drains. While authorities describe this as essential for monsoon preparedness, it raises pressing concerns about the urban systems shaping our cities.</p><p>Over 350 homes were cleared in Jangpura’s Madrasi Camp to restore the Barapullah drain, of which 155 families remain without resettlement. In Batla House, over 100 homes faced eviction. Even though residents claimed that they had not received adequate notice and that rehabilitation plans were unclear, the<a class="link-external" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/sc-refuses-to-stay-demolition-drive-in-okhla-encroachments/articleshow/121584770.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> Supreme Court upheld the action</a>.</p><p>Though framed as steps toward a flood-resilient, green city, these actions prompt deeper questions: whose vision of the city is being realised, and what governance gaps fuel the spread of informal settlements?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Systemic gaps</h3><p>India’s urbanisation is rapid and complex, often outpacing the housing and infrastructure capacities of cities. Informal settlements, home to nearly <a class="link-external" href="https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">17% of the urban population</a>, reflect deeper structural challenges such as housing shortages, rural distress, and lack of affordable formal housing.</p><p>The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs estimated a shortfall of over <a class="link-external" href="https://mohua.gov.in/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">18 million housing units</a> for the urban poor.</p><p>While unauthorised construction is a concern, responses must be anchored in fairness, predictability, due process, and legal safeguards. Judgments such as<a class="link-external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Tellis_v._Bombay_Municipal_Corporation" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985)</a> and<a class="link-external" href="https://kanoonpedia.com/sudama-singh-vs-government-of-delhi-rehabilitation/#:~:text=In%20Sudama%20Singh%20vs%20Government%20of%20Delhi%2C%20the%20High%20Court,protection%20of%20life%20and%20limb." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> Sudama Singh v. GNCTD (2010)</a> affirm constitutional protections that mandate surveys, public consultations and rehabilitation plans.</p><p>Yet, implementation remains inconsistent. The urban poor often face eviction without alternatives, causing income loss, health insecurity and disrupted education.</p><p>Democratic local governance is central to inclusive urban development. Despite the 74th Constitutional Amendment mandating participatory institutions such as ward committees, these remain <a class="link-external" href="https://www.janaagraha.org/resources/asics-2023/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">largely dormant across states</a>, denying communities a voice in decisions that shape their lives.</p><p>Without having any influence in planning and design, local bodies cannot address the roots of informality. These institutions must evolve into active forums for participatory planning, embedding equity and the voice of citizens into how our cities grow.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Systemic approaches</h3><p>India’s cities need more than quick fixes. Bulldozers do not address the systemic roots of informality. Lasting change requires empathetic governance, foresight and institutional coherence. For instance, we at Janaagraha have developed a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.janaagraha.org/ncsr/pdf/NCSR-Concept-and-Framework.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">city-systems framework</a> that calls for planning, finance, governance, and citizen participation to work in tandem towards tackling root causes – not just visible symptoms.</p><p>Odisha’s <a class="link-external" href="https://world-habitat.org/news/press-releases/working-to-end-slums-in-indian-state-world-habitat-awards-bronze-winner-2023/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Jaga Mission</a> exemplifies this shift. Since 2017, it has combined tenure security, community engagement, and infrastructure investment to transform informal settlements, granting land titles to over 100,000 households and earning global acclaim.</p><p>Similar in-situ efforts in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Kerala show the power of tenure security and inclusive planning in developing resilient, functional neighbourhoods. As India urbanises, it must prioritise systemic reforms that embed justice and dignity at the heart of urban transformation.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Inclusive urban policy</h3><p>As our cities grow, we need policies that are inclusive and sustainable. First, evictions must follow due process, ensuring formal surveys, tenure verification, advance notice in accessible formats, legal recourse, and clear articulation of rehabilitation plans. These are not just legal mandates – they are essential for public trust.</p><p>Second, states must consider in-situ upgradation that links tenure security with improved services. Odisha’s Jaga Mission shows what is possible. Starting with settlements on non-objectionable public land can minimise displacement while leveraging existing infrastructure and fostering coordinated, community-led development.</p><p>Third, structural reforms in housing are overdue. Planning authorities must mandate inclusionary zoning, reserve land for housing for people from economically weaker sections and lower income groups, and utilise public land near transit corridors for cooperative or rental housing.</p><p>The<a class="link-external" href="https://prsindia.org/billtrack/the-model-tenancy-act-2021#:~:text=The%20Model%20Tenancy%20Act%2C%202021%20was%20approved%20by%20the%20Union,by%20states%20and%20union%20territories." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> Model Tenancy Act</a> offers a balanced framework to streamline the rental market. If implemented well with necessary safeguards, it can reduce spread of informal settlements.</p><p>Fourth, cities must work to revive ward-level participatory governance institutions. Making ward committees functional, with representation from informal settlement residents and women’s groups, will ensure planning is... |
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<title>Eco India: What do we stand to lose as critical coastal ecosystems go unmapped?</title>
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<h1>Eco India: What do we stand to lose as critical coastal ecosystems go unmapped?</h1>
<h2>Coastal Regulation Zone maps fail to include critical ecosystems, putting 245 km of India's southeast coastline at risk of encroachment and climate crises.</h2>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 291: How learning about our planet is a step towards healing it</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 291: How learning about our planet is a step towards healing it</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<h1>Eco India: How can Kannauj's famous perfume industry survive the effects of climate change?</h1>
<h2>Weather fluctuations over three years have disrupted rose and jasmine harvests in Kannauj, India's perfume capital.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 08 Jun 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 290: How can farm based industries adapt to climate change in a scientific way?</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 290: How can farm based industries adapt to climate change in a scientific way?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Jun 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h1>Eco India: Could happy and healthy hens make eggs taste better?</h1>
<h2>In India, about 80% of eggs come from battery-caged farms, but there's a global shift toward cage-free farming that allows natural hen behavior.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 289: Why animal welfare is the missing key to environmental health</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 289: Why animal welfare is the missing key to environmental health</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h2>In Delhi, about 93% residents are connected to piped water supply lines, while the rest depend on water tankers and vendor services for their water needs.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 20 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 288: How can our cities navigate water scarcity and rising demands better?</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 288: How can our cities navigate water scarcity and rising demands better?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2025 10:23:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h1>Eco India: Is unchecked urban expansion impacting our food security?</h1>
<h2>Reports suggest that the area of land that actually grows our food has shrunk by more than 3 million hectares. What could this mean for India's food security?</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 287: How can we strike a balance between development, nature and quality of life?</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 287: How can we strike a balance between development, nature and quality of life?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<title>Vadodara: 9 dead as bridge collapses, several vehicles fall into river</title>
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<h1>Vadodara: 9 dead as bridge collapses, several vehicles fall into river</h1>
<h2>While six persons were rescued, the search continued for those missing.</h2>
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<p>At least <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/ANI/status/1942831727929393491" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>nine persons died</u></a> and six were injured after several vehicles fell into the Mahisagar river following the collapse of a bridge in Gujarat’s Vadodara district on Wednesday morning, ANI reported.</p><p>The incident took place at about <a class="link-external" href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bridge-collapses-in-gujarat-s-anand-vehicles-plunge-into-mahisagar-river-disrupting-connectivity-101752037505998.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>7.30 am</u></a>.</p><p>The incident took place when a slab <a class="link-external" href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bridge-collapses-in-gujarat-s-anand-vehicles-plunge-into-mahisagar-river-disrupting-connectivity-101752037505998.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>between two piers</u></a> of the 900-metre <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/gujarat/vadodara-gambhira-bridge-collapse-vehicles-casualties-july-9-2025/article69790348.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>Gambhira bridge</u></a>, connecting Vadodara and Anand districts, collapsed, <em>The Hindu</em> reported. The bridge was inaugurated in 1985.</p><p>“We are yet to ascertain the identities of the people as we are focusing on the rescue work,” Dhameliya <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/vadodara-bridge-collapse-deaths-injuries-vehicles-into-river-10115157/?ref=hometop_hp" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>was quoted as saying</u></a> by <em>The Indian Express.</em></p><p>Local swimmers, boats and a team of the municipal corporation, the National Disaster Response Force and the police were trying to rescue the persons, the news agency quoted Vadodara Collector Anil Dhameliya as saying.</p><p>The persons injured in the incident were being treated at a Vadodara hospital. Dhameliya said that among the persons rescued, four had suffered minor injuries.</p><p>Two trucks, a van, a pickup truck and an auto-rickshaw had fallen into the river, he added.</p><p>The collector said that the portion of the bridge that collapsed was not over the deepest part of the river, <em>The Indian Express </em>reported.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1942817738562626016" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">STORY | 4 vehicles fall into river as bridge collapses in Vadodara; 4 persons rescued<br><br>READ: <a href="https://t.co/uGwfaZEUuL">https://t.co/uGwfaZEUuL</a><br><br>VIDEO: <a href="https://t.co/lSl1i8hDr0">pic.twitter.com/lSl1i8hDr0</a></p>— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) <a href="https://twitter.com/PTI_News/status/1942817738562626016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said that the road construction department had been <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/Bhupendrapbjp/status/1942835541692883050" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">ordered to immediately investigate</a> the accident.</p><p>“For this, the chief engineer – design and chief engineer – South Gujarat and a team of two other private engineers specialising in pool construction have been instructed to immediately reach the scene and conduct a preliminary investigation into the causes of the bridge collapse and other technical matters and submit a report,” Patel said on social media.</p><p>The chief minister also announced that the state government will offer <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/Bhupendrapbjp/status/1942846225428144199" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>Rs 4 lakh</u></a> each in compensation to the families of the deceased persons and Rs 50,000 to injured individuals, besides covering their medical treatment expenses.</p><p><strong><em>This is a developing story. It will be updated as new details are available.</em></strong></p><hr class="block-break">
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<title>UAE says reports of golden visa for Rs 23 lakh are false</title>
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<h1>UAE says reports of golden visa for Rs 23 lakh are false</h1>
<h2>The claims have no legal basis and ‘were made without referring to the competent authorities’, said the country’s immigration department.</h2>
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<p>The United Arab Emirates <a class="link-external" href="https://www.wam.ae/en/article/bkkw61s-uae-denies-rumours-about-lifetime-golden-visa-for" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>has denied</u></a> reports that its golden visas can be purchased by citizens of select nationalities, including Indians, for a one-time fee, the Emirates News Agency reported on Tuesday.</p><p>The clarification came following claims in Indian media about the Gulf nation’s visa scheme purportedly aimed at attracting Indian citizens. Indian reports had claimed that the golden visa, which allows long-term residency, could be purchased for Rs 23.3 lakh through a nomination process.</p><p>Currently, a foreign citizen <a class="link-external" href="https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/visa-and-emirates-id/residence-visas/golden-visa" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>needs to invest</u></a> at least Rs 4.6 crore, usually in real estate, or set up a company in the United Arab Emirates to qualify for a 10-year visa. Skilled professionals such as doctors and scientists can qualify for the golden visa without making financial investments if they are employed in select industries.</p><p>The Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security said that reports in local and international media were “<a class="link-external" href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/uae/2025/07/09/uae-golden-visa-india/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>false rumours</u></a>”, Abu Dhabi-based <em>The National</em> reported.</p><p>The claims have no legal basis and “were made without referring to the competent authorities” in the UAE, said the immigration department.</p><p>The department was quoted as saying that it will take legal action “against the parties, websites and entities that published these rumours to unlawfully obtain funds” from persons wanting to reside in the UAE “by exploiting their dreams and aspirations for a better life in a safe and secure country”.</p><p>The authority urged persons wanting to visit and reside in the UAE “not to respond to rumours, false news and never to pay money or provide personal documents to any party, office or agency that claims to provide the golden visa service”.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<h1>US student visas for Indians from March to May lowest since 2022</h1>
<h2>F-1 visas issued to Indians during the three-month period decreased by about 27% as compared to the same period in 2024.</h2>
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<p>The number of United States student visas issued to Indians between March and May was at its<a class="link-external" href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/nonimmigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-nonimmigrant-visa-issuances.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> <u>lowest level since</u></a> the Covid-19 pandemic year 2022, showed data from the US State Department.</p><p>The number of F-1 visas issued to Indians between March and May decreased by about 27% as compared to the same period in 2024.</p><p>An F-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows students from other countries to study in the US.</p><p>The period between March and May is considered to be a busy period for student visa applications as the fall intake – which is the preferred entry point for most international students – begins in August and September at most US universities.</p><p>Between March and May this year, 9,906 Indians were granted F-1 academic visas. The number was 13,478 in 2024, just short of 15,000 in 2023 and 10,894 in 2022.</p><p>The decrease in Indians being issued F-1 visas came amid the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on international students. Trump began his second term as the US president in January.</p><p>Washington has taken aggressive actions to try to enforce its demands on universities, including freezing hundreds of millions of dollars in university funding, revoking visas and attempting to deport international students. However, many of these measures have been blocked by the courts.</p><p>The Trump administration had on May 27 instructed embassies globally to<a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1082876/trump-administration-halts-new-student-visa-interviews"> <u>halt student visa interviews</u></a> until further notice. Since the interviews resumed in June, all student and exchange visitor visa applicants globally have been required to make their<a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1083791/us-embassy-tells-student-visa-applicants-to-make-social-media-profiles-public"> <u>social media profiles public</u></a>.</p><p>The change was aimed at enabling background checks during the visa screening process to establish applicants’ “identity and admissibility”, said the US embassy in New Delhi.</p><p>Since 2019, the US has required visa applicants to submit social media identifiers, the diplomatic mission said in a statement.</p><p>More than<a class="link-external" href="https://www.iie.org/news/us-hosts-more-than-1-1-million-intl-students-at-higher-education-institutions-all-time-high/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> <u>1.1 million international students</u></a> were enrolled in US universities during the academic year 2023-’24, accounting for 6% of those pursuing higher education in the country, according to US-based non-governmental organisation Institute of International Education.</p><p>India sent the highest number of students, followed by China, it added.</p><p>However, the trend of a decrease in F-1 visas issued to Indians had started in 2024, before Trump returned to the White House. The number of US student visas issued to Indians<a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1076572/38-drop-in-number-of-us-f-1-visas-issued-to-indian-students-in-first-nine-months-of-2024"> <u>had fallen by 38%</u></a> in the first nine months of 2024, as compared to the corresponding period in 2023.</p><p>It was unclear if more visa applications were being rejected or if there had been a drop in the applications.</p><p>A US embassy spokesperson told <em>The Indian Express</em> that “adjudication of visa applications is<a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/education/us-student-visas-for-indians-lowest-since-covid-in-march-may-10114737/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> <u>critically important</u></a> to the national security and public safety of the US”.</p><p>“We encourage applicants to apply as early as they can and to anticipate additional processing time for these visa categories,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying. “Our overseas posts have resumed scheduling F non-immigrant visa applications. Applicants should check the relevant embassy or consulate website for appointment availability.”</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>Also read: </em></strong><a href="https://scroll.in/article/1083724/its-taking-a-gamble-as-us-vets-social-media-posts-for-student-visas-anxiety-grips-applicants"><strong><em><u>‘It’s taking a gamble’: As US vets social media posts for student visas, anxiety grips applicants</u></em></strong></a></p><hr class="block-break">
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<h1>Sivaganga custodial death: Madras HC tells CBI to complete investigation by August 20</h1>
<h2>The bench directed that an investigating officer should be appointed within a week.</h2>
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<p>The <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/sivaganga-custodial-death-case-madras-high-court-directs-cbi-to-complete-probe-by-august-20/article69786809.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Madras High Court</a> on Tuesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to appoint an investigating officer within a week to look into the custodial death of a temple security guard in Sivaganga, <em>The Hindu</em> reported.</p><p>It further ordered that the investigating officer should complete the inquiry into the death of B Ajith Kumar and submit a report to the court that has jurisdiction over the case by August 20.</p><p>A division bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and AD Maria Clete directed the investigating officer to collect <a class="link-external" href="https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/madras-high-court/madras-high-court-sivaganga-custodial-death-cbi-chargesheet-expeditiously-296884" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">relevant documents</a>, including an inquiry report prepared by a district judge as well as evidence, from the registrar (judicial) of the Madurai Bench of the High Court, <em>Live Law</em> reported.</p><p>The court passed the order while hearing a set of public interest litigation petitions related to the case.</p><p>The court also instructed the director general of prosecution to ensure that the post-mortem report is submitted before an appropriate court within a week, <em>Live Law</em> reported.</p><p>The court directed the inspector general of police (south zone, Madurai) and the superintendents of police of Madurai and Sivaganga districts to fully cooperate with the central probe agency during the investigation.</p><p>Besides, the state government was ordered to provide witness protection as per the Witness Protection Scheme.</p><p>The state government informed the court that in the interests of transparency, the inquiry into Ajith Kumar’s custodial death had been officially handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation through a government order, <em>The Hindu </em>reported.</p><p>It also said that it would transfer the investigation into an alleged theft in connection with the case to the central agency, adding that a separate government order would be issued for it.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>The case</strong></h3><p>The <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084257/tamil-nadu-police-commission-urges-strict-action-against-misuse-of-power-custodial-brutality"><u>29-year-old temple security guard</u></a> was picked up by a six‑member special police team on June 27 over a theft at the Madapuram Badrakaliamman Temple. He was allegedly subjected to torture at remote locations, which eventually led to his death on June 29.</p><p>However, it was unclear whether a first information report had been filed before Kumar was interrogated.</p><p>The post-mortem report revealed that Kumar had at least 44 external injuries in addition to signs of severe internal bleeding.</p><p>Following public outrage and criticism by the Madras High Court, <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/sivaganga-custodial-death-case-madras-high-court-directs-cbi-to-complete-probe-by-august-20/article69786809.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">six police personnel</a> were suspended, five members of a special police team were arrested and placed in judicial custody, <em>The Hindu </em>reported.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 07:15:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>BRICS set up to ‘degenerate our dollar’, says Trump</title>
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<h1>BRICS set up to ‘degenerate our dollar’, says Trump</h1>
<h2>‘What they’re trying to do is destroy the dollar so that another country can take over and be the standard,’ alleged the United States president.</h2>
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<p>United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/live/vL6PaBTA4I8?feature=shared&amp;t=2454" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>10% tariff</u></a> on imports from countries part of the BRICS grouping will be introduced “pretty soon”, citing concerns about the multilateral forum’s growing influence and its impact on the US dollar.</p><p>“If they’re a member of BRICS, they’re going to have to pay a 10% tariff... and they won’t be a member [for] long,” Trump said.</p><p>The comment during a Cabinet meeting followed Trump’s <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084256/aligning-with-anti-american-policies-of-brics-to-invite-additional-10-tariffs-says-trump"><u>warning</u></a> to countries on Sunday against aligning with the “anti-American policies” of the BRICS.</p><p>The BRICS grouping comprises India, Brazil, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Washington views the group as attempting to become an economic counterweight to the US.</p><p>Without offering evidence, Trump on Tuesday, accused BRICS of trying to weaken the US and undermine the dollar’s position as the global reserve currency.</p><p>“BRICS was set up to degenerate our dollar and take our dollar...take it off as the standard,” he said. “And that’s okay if they want to play that game, but I can play that game too.”</p><p>BRICS is “not, in my opinion, a serious threat,” he added. “But what they’re trying to do is destroy the dollar so that another country can take over and be the standard, and we’re not going to lose the standard at any time.”</p><p>Trump warned that the dollar losing its reserve status would be akin to “losing a major world war”, saying that it would fundamentally change the US.</p><p>At the recent summit in Rio de Janeiro, BRICS leaders had expressed <a class="link-external" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/trump-says-brics-nations-get-10-tariff-pretty-soon-2025-07-08/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>veiled criticism</u></a> of US trade and defence policies, Reuters reported.</p><p>Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pushed back strongly against Trump’s threat. On Monday, Lula said that the world does not want an emperor.</p><p>On Tuesday he added: “We will not accept any complaints about the BRICS summit. We do not agree with the US president insinuating he’s going to put tariffs on BRICS countries.”</p><p>Trump has not announced a timeline for additional tariffs on BRICS nations to take effect.</p><p>In January, Trump had <a class="link-external" href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/trump-repeats-tariffs-threat-dissuade-brics-nations-replacing-us-dollar-2025-01-31/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">warned members</a> of the BRICS against attempts to replace the US dollar as a reserve currency by repeating a 100%-tariff threat that he had made after winning the presidential election in November.</p><p>Trump’s recent warnings came as Washington said that the broader “reciprocal tariffs” it was imposing on dozens of nations <a class="link-external" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/06/business/bessent-tariff-deadline-trump" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">could be reinstated</a> to the levels introduced in April if countries failed to reach a trade deal with the US.</p><p>Trump’s tariffs, including a 26% “discounted” levy on India, had <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081140/donald-trumps-global-tariffs-take-effect">taken effect</a> on April 9. Hours later, however, Trump had <a class="link-external" href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/114309144289505174" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">reduced the rates</a> on imports from most countries to 10% for 90 days to provide time for trade negotiations.</p><p>The US president had repeatedly said he intended to impose a <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1076971/india-charges-a-lot-donald-trump-reiterates-threat-of-imposing-reciprocal-tax">reciprocal tax</a> on India, among others, citing high tariffs the countries impose on foreign goods.</p><p>The tariffs had led to concerns of a broader trade war that could disrupt the global economy and trigger a recession.</p><p>India and the US are <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084038/us-india-trade-deal-being-finalised-will-be-announced-soon-says-white-house">negotiating a trade deal</a>, which is close to being finalised and will be announced soon, the White House had said on June 30.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 05:26:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h1>Supreme Court refuses to halt release of film ‘Udaipur Files’</h1>
<h2>A man accused in the 2022 Kanhaiya Lal murder case had moved the court, arguing that the release of the movie amid the trial could prejudice the proceedings.</h2>
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<p>The Supreme Court on Wednesday <a class="link-external" href="https://www.barandbench.com/news/supreme-court-refuses-to-halt-release-of-udaipurfilesmovie-declines-urgent-relief-to-kanhaiya-lal-murder-accused" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>refused to urgently hear a plea</u></a> seeking to stop the release of the Hindi film <em>Udaipur Files</em>, which is reportedly based on the 2022 killing of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal, <em>Bar and Bench</em> reported.</p><p>The writ petition was filed by Mohammed Javed, one of the eight persons accused in the murder case. He argued that the release of the film would <a class="link-external" href="https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/kanhaiya-lal-murder-case-accused-moves-supreme-court-against-udaipur-files-film-release-296890" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>violate his right to a fair trial</u></a>, <em>Live Law</em> reported.</p><p>He had sought that the release of the film be postponed until the trial in the matter concluded. The film is scheduled to release in theatres on Friday.</p><p>A vacation bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymala Bagchi said that the plea could be mentioned before the appropriate bench when the court reopens on July 14 after the summer break. It added that the movie could be released in the meantime.</p><p>In June 2022, Lal, a tailor, <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1027157/tailor-beheaded-in-udaipur-killing-filmed-by-assailants"><u>was killed in Rajasthan’s Udaipur</u></a> for purportedly sharing a social media post in support of suspended Bharatiya Janata Party Spokesperson Nupur Sharma. She had made disparaging <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1025521/bjp-says-it-respects-all-religions-amid-row-over-spokespersons-comments-about-prophet-mohammad">remarks about Prophet Muhammad</a> during a television debate in May 2022.</p><p>The assailants and several other persons accused in the matter were arrested by the Rajasthan Police. A video showed two men claiming responsibility for the killing of Lal as they brandished the cleavers used in the murder.</p><p>The <a href="https://scroll.in/tag/Kanhaiya-Lal"><u>murder case</u></a> was investigated by the National Investigation Agency and the persons accused in the matter were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The trial is underway in a Special NIA Court in Jaipur.</p><p>The petitioner has argued that the film, based on its trailer, appeared to be communally provocative.</p><p>Releasing the film at this stage of the trial in the murder case, portraying the persons accused in the matter as guilty and the story as being conclusively true, could prejudice the proceedings, <em>Live Law</em> quoted the petitioner as having argued.</p><p>Maulana Arshad Madani, the chief of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, has moved the Delhi High Court to stop the release of the film.</p><p>Madani argued that the film’s trailer portrays that the murder of the tailor was committed with the complicity of the leaders of the Muslim community and that such a narrative <a class="link-external" href="https://www.barandbench.com/news/jamiat-ulema-i-hind-moves-delhi-high-court-against-udaipur-files-movie-about-kanhaiya-lal-murder" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>could create a wedge between</u></a> Hindus and Muslims, <em>Bar and Bench</em> reported.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<title>Delhi: Ban on fuel for ‘end-of-life’ vehicles deferred till November 1</title>
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<h1>Delhi: Ban on fuel for ‘end-of-life’ vehicles deferred till November 1</h1>
<h2>Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the government will use the time to work collaboratively toward a long-term and practical solution.</h2>
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<title>Why Indian cities flood within hours of rain</title>
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<p><strong>W</strong>hen the monsoon arrived in Delhi last year, it brought welcome respite from the relentless heat. But for Rahish, this comfort was short-lived.</p><p>With just a short spell of rain, the street in front of his tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri was waterlogged with about a foot of rainwater. It took around four hours for it to subside.</p><p>But Rahish was expecting it. After all, he had seen the pattern repeat year after year for the last 30 years. This year, the water even entered his shop and damaged some of his cloth material. “I am still paying for the losses,” he said, as he finished the final stitches on a pair of trousers for a customer.</p><p>“The biggest problem is that there is no exit for the water that collects,” said Rahish.</p><p>Tigri is adjacent to Sangam Vihar, one of Delhi’s largest unplanned colonies, where waterlogging occurs frequently.</p><p>Excess rainwater is meant to flow into the Barapullah stormwater drain here, but most of the smaller drains that connect to it are blocked with solid waste. As a result, water seeps through manholes and flows into the sewerage system under the roads.</p><p>“But since the pipes are small, very soon it starts giving out backflow,” Rahish said. When this happens, rainwater, mixed with sewerage, flows out and contributes to the waterlogging.</p><p>This is what happened last year when water entered his home in Tigri. “We could not even use the toilet because we have an Indian-styled one, and it was covered with sewage water,” he said.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1428" data-height="1071" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/ygouopifkq-1750440721.jpg" alt="" title="Rahish (seated) has a tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri. He has seen the street in front of his shop become waterlogged during the monsoons for 30 years. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Rahish (seated) has a tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri. He has seen the street in front of his shop become waterlogged during the monsoons for 30 years. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>It isn’t just low-income neighbourhoods like Tigri that are affected by waterlogging. During the monsoon last year, rainwater also stagnated in Defence Colony, an upscale residential colony around eight kilometres north.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Numerous basements flooded here, and people lost about Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh worth of furniture and other things they had stored,” said Bhavreen Kandhari, a resident of the colony.</h3><p>The story is a familiar one across Indian cities and towns, most of whose stormwater drains are proving inadequate for increasing bouts of heavy rainfall. Last month was Mumbai’s wettest May in more than a hundred years – rains left roads waterlogged and commuters stranded, and even gushed into a newly inaugurated metro station. Media reported that the rains revealed <a class="link-external" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-rain-bmc-plans-to-revamp-drainage-capacity-targets-120mm-rainfall-per-hour/articleshow/121794660.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>80 new places</u></a> that were prone to flooding, and municipal corporation officials stated that they were planning to increase drainage capacities of vulnerable areas.</p><p>Similar scenes of flooding played out in Bengaluru, where three people were also killed in rain-related accidents.</p><p>While part of the reason for frequent flooding in Indian cities is the changing rainfall patterns – more rain tends to fall in shorter periods – another <a class="link-external" href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/gaps-in-dealing-with-bengaluru-floods-3555392" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>key factor</u></a> is poor drainage. The pattern across cities is common: poorly planned expansion means that existing drains typically lack adequate capacity; and even these are poorly maintained, almost guaranteeing their failure during days of high rainfall.</p><p>In Delhi, both Defence Colony and Tigri are adjacent to the Barapullah drain. This is a naturally occurring seasonal stream that is a tributary of the Yamuna, and earlier came alive only with the monsoon, thereby acting as a natural stormwater drain. It originates from Mehrauli in south Delhi, and flows past congested homes in Chirag Dilli, the localities of Defence Colony and Jangpura, and the busy Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station, shortly after which it meets the Yamuna.</p><p>Numerous smaller, local drains constructed by the Public Works Department are connected to this natural drain – they are supposed to collect rainwater and feed it to Barapullah, which should then carry it to the Yamuna. With these smaller drains included, Barapullah has a vast catchment area – it covers <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>91%</u></a> of South Delhi and 95% of Central Delhi.</p><p>Other stormwater drains carry out similar functions in other parts of the city – Najafgarh drains out West Delhi, while across the Yamuna, the Shahdara and Ghazipur drains carry out the same function. In all, 201 natural drains flow through Delhi.</p><p>However, <em>Scroll</em>’s ground reporting found that in numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1428" data-height="1071" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/iouximrmmf-1750441005.jpg" alt="" title="In numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">In numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>“The drains are all connected to each other, but because of such blocks the water does not reach the main drain,” said another Tigri resident Prem, pointing to a blocked drain next to the road on which a gift shop she runs is situated. She explained that the road gets waterlogged every year.</p><p>The Delhi Traffic Police has identified over <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>260 hotspots</u></a> that face frequent waterlogging in the city. This urban flooding occurs even during short spells of rain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">In Sangam Vihar, for instance, a Centre for Science and Environment <a class="link-external" href="https://www.cseindia.org/water-and-wastewater-visioning-for-large-dense-unplanned-urban-settlements-in-an-era-of-climate-risk-12177" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>report </u></a>found that with sewage lines also working as stormwater drains, flooding and sewage spillover occurs “even in a short 15-minute rainfall episode”.</h3><p>In response, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has focused on desilting the network of stormwater drains to ensure that they function at optimum capacity. As of early July, the corporation still had to <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/nearly-1-4th-of-mcd-drains-in-delhi-are-yet-to-be-desilted-report-10096657/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">complete 25%</a> of this work.</p><p>But experts told <em>Scroll </em>that while desilting is important, long-term answers to Delhi’s waterlogging would involve taking into account the natural topography of the city, delinking sewage with waste water, reviving old ponds and finding alternate exit routes for rainwater that exceeds the carrying capacity of drains.</p><p>“The administration is not looking at the issue as a system,” said AK Gosain, former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, who has worked extensively on problems of water resources engineering. Without such a holistic approach, he added, tackling individual issues through strategies such as desilting was unlikely to produce the desired results.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>This story is part of </em></strong><a href="https://scroll.in/topic/56439/common-ground"><strong><em><u>Common Ground</u></em></strong></a><strong><em>, our in-depth and investigative reporting project. Sign up </em></strong><a class="link-external" href="https://scrollstack.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f11eeab993ed2fbea0bfb512e&amp;id=e2fc1bf83f" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong><em><u>here</u></em></strong></a><strong><em> to get the stories in your inbox soon after they are released.</em></strong></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>D</strong>elhi sees broadly two kinds of flooding.</p><p>The first results when there is a rise in the level of the Yamuna, on whose banks Delhi is situated. When this occurs, usually in the monsoons, water from the river flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city.</p><p>“In such cases, the irrigation and flood department shuts the gates that connect the drains to the Yamuna, so that the river’s water does not go into the city,” said Rajender Ravi, founding member of the People’s Resource Centre, which researches infrastructure, rivers and urban agriculture. But, he added, this also prevents water in the city from draining into the Yamuna, leading to waterlogging anyway.</p><p>Low-intensity floods of this kind, where the river does not rise above its warning level of 204 metres, occur almost every monsoon. </p><p>Occasionally, these floods can also occur at a much greater intensity. This is what happened in the 2023 monsoon, when the Yamuna flowed at a level of 208.66 metres above sea level, breaking the earlier record of 207.49 metres in 1978. The irrigation and flood control department’s <a class="link-external" href="https://ifc.delhi.gov.in/ifc/flood-problem-due-river-yamuna" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>website</u></a> notes that the city saw eight such floods between the 1960s and the 1990s.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1641" data-height="1002" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hohszakyzs-1750849450.jpg" alt="" title="One kind of flooding that Delhi sees is when the Yamuna’s level rises, and water flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city. Photo: Reuters/Parth Sanyal (India Environment Society)" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">One kind of flooding that Delhi sees is when the Yamuna’s level rises, and water flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city. Photo: Reuters/Parth Sanyal (India Environment Society)</figcaption></figure><p>Such floods have also occurred when water levels rise in manmade tributaries of the Yamuna. One such tributary begins in the Najafgarh lake, which is fed by the Sahibi river, a natural tributary of the Yamuna. In 1865, the British <a class="link-external" href="https://cwp-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/White-paper-of-Najafgarh-basin-1.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>drained</u></a> this large lake out to create more arable land – to do this, they created a new channel to the Yamuna, which came to be known as the Najafgarh drain. In 1967, this channel as well as the lake itself flooded.</p><p>But a far more frequent kind of flooding is the waterlogging that occurs within localities even when the Yamuna is not in spate.</p><p>These floods are primarily caused by unplanned construction as the city has expanded. “Because of so much concretisation, there is a lot of surface flow of rainwater which is not percolating into the ground naturally, because there is no soft space for the water to enter,” said Manu Bhatnagar, who heads INTACH’s natural heritage division, and has led work on rejuvenation of drains in Delhi.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">He added that there was also a lot of “poor engineering” of drainage systems – for example, the openings of several engineered drains are higher than the grounds they are supposed to drain.</h3><p>A major impediment to tackling this problem is the fact that administrative authority over stormwater drains is currently spread out between ten institutions, including the flood and irrigation department, the Delhi Jal Board, municipal corporations and public works department.</p><p>The Delhi government has attempted to tackle the problem. To start with, it asked Gosain and his team at IIT Delhi to consolidate data from various government departments on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains, and then indicate points at which there were problems. The government also asked the team to suggest possible solutions. They were to compile the information and recommendations in a drainage masterplan – the first such to be drawn up since 1978.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/kqlgjpwwok-1750441474.jpg" alt="" title="The Delhi government asked a team at IIT Delhi to consolidate from various government departments data on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Delhi government asked a team at IIT Delhi to consolidate from various government departments data on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>When the team began gathering available data, they came up against stark limitations.</p><p>In some instances, “We found only a line was made on a GIS map,” said Gosain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“There were no dimensions, no invert levels,” he added, referring to measurements that are essential to ascertain the capacity of the stormwater drains. “These are the basic data that have to be used to understand why water is not being evacuated.”</h3><p>The team also struggled because several departments delayed providing information to them. Gosain suggested that in some instances, team members could themselves collect data from the ground, and submit it to departments for vetting.</p><p>For the next 18 months, his team collected this data, both from the ground and from different departments, analysing the functioning of stormwater drains and identifying areas that faced the most waterlogging. They also made recommendations, such as correcting the slopes of artificial drains to prevent stagnation. In 2018, they put together a <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>new masterplan</u></a>.</p><p>But the report noted that though government departments had agreed beforehand to vet the data that the team compiled, not all departments had done so. It stated that “It was unfortunate that various departments passed on the survey data without vetting the data properly.” Some departments, like the Delhi Development Authority, did not even send the data the team had sought.</p><p>Though the government itself was responsible for some of these shortcomings of the report, a government committee that reviewed the master plan put the master plan on <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-govts-technical-panel-rejects-drainage-master-plan/article37182454.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>hold</u></a><u> in 2021, </u>citing “discrepancies in data”.</p><p>It was only this April that the Public Works Department announced that by June this year, it would <a class="link-external" href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/pwd-likely-to-finalise-project-report-for-delhi-drainage-master-plan-by-jun-101743608155790.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>finalise</u></a> a detailed project report for the drainage masterplan.</p><p>Gosain hinted that he was disappointed with the delay in implementing his team’s solutions, “We prepared this huge scientific database,” he said. “It is possible to reduce the extent of flooding by implementing the recommendations made by our study and accepted by the government, as long as they do it with proper intent and effort.”</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>A</strong>mong the major measures that the government undertakes each year to try and tackle flooding is the desilting of stormwater drains.</p><p>In May, across Delhi, workers with large spades were seen entering manholes and clearing wet mud from the manmade drains. Along the larger natural drains, like Barapullah, large bulldozers did the same work. This work, typically done before the monsoon, is aimed at increasing the capacity of the drains.</p><p>But experts pointed out that poor planning has made it impossible for desilting to be carried out to the extent needed. Specifically, in many areas of the city, long stretches of these drains have been covered over in ways that leave them inaccessible. “When we were analysing the data and preparing the master plan, we found many stretches of drains around 1 km to 2 km, where there is no access to the drain and desilting is not possible,” said Gosain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Stormwater drains are only supposed to be covered temporarily so as to gain access whenever required,” he added. “But now, most are permanent. Unless you break them you won’t know if the drain is silted or not.”</h3><p>In Defence Colony, the Delhi Development Authority covered large portions of Kushak drain – a part of the Barapullah drain – to create a park. Kandhari said that residents had raised their voices “for years to not cover the drain since it prevented routine inspection, desilting and maintenance which caused silt to build up, stagnate, and lead to foul odour”.</p><p>This year, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is attempting to rectify this mistake. An official told <em>Scroll </em>that they had broken large rectangular tracts of the covered portions of this drain so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1660" data-height="1200" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/indvczeeoh-1750441739.jpg" alt="" title="After building over the Kushak drain in Defence Colony to create a park, this year the Municipal Corporation of Delhi broke rectangular tracts of the covered portions so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.&nbsp;Photo: Special arrangement" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">After building over the Kushak drain in Defence Colony to create a park, this year the Municipal Corporation of Delhi broke rectangular tracts of the covered portions so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.&nbsp;Photo: Special arrangement</figcaption></figure><p>“It is such a waste of resources,” said Kandhari, who recorded a drone video along the Kushak drain where these bulldozers can be seen at work.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1929738271732781204" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kushak Drain Saga ⬇️ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DefenceColony?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DefenceColony</a> <br><br>*Started covering: 2009<br>*Stalled: 2013<br>*Abandoned: 2014<br>* <a href="https://twitter.com/rsuri54?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rsuri54</a> moved NGT: 2015 → SC twice over→ Yamuna Committee (till 2021)<br>*2025: Back to NGT<br><br>Citizens suffer for decades while absurd decisions go unchecked.<br><br>Video as on 2/6/25 ⬇️ <a href="https://t.co/abzwQvHmZh">pic.twitter.com/abzwQvHmZh</a></p>— Bhavreen Kandhari (@BhavreenMK) <a href="https://twitter.com/BhavreenMK/status/1929738271732781204?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>It was not only residents who opposed this work. In 2015, the National Green Tribunal <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Reply%20by%20DPCC%20in%20OA%20No.%20274%20of%202022%20(Prem%20Aggarwal%20&amp;%20Ors%20Vs.%20Govt.%20of%20NCT%20of%20Delhi.).pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>noted</u></a> that work of covering drains had begun in Defence Colony and other parts of south Delhi, but that this would have “very adverse impacts upon the environment and ecology of Delhi”. It added, “This would result in more flooding, explosion of diseases and clogging of drains.”</p><p>Many smaller drains within colonies have also been covered, such as with footpaths, or with extensions of shops.</p><p>“In most of the colonies, rooftop water is connected to the sewer line, which is not designed to get the stormwater,” said Gosain. </p><p>Elsewhere, drains have temporary coverings. In Tigri for example, Prem pointed to a few shops that had covered the naalas running outside their shops with cemented slabs, but ensured that they had iron handles that would allow them to be lifted. But allowing this access has not helped residents.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“These can be opened,” she said. “If the MCD comes tomorrow to clean these drains, no one will say no. But they should at least come.”</h3><p>It was not just silt that hindered the flow of water in the drains. Prem also pointed towards a cave-like cemented structure on one side of Tigri’s market – this was an opening to a stormwater drain, towards which the ground around was intended to slope, so that water would flow into it.</p><p>The opening to this drain had not been cleaned for years, she said. It was choked with plastic packets and other waste, and had no water in it. During rains, too, residents said, this drain did not carry any water at all.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>W</strong>hile in many places, rainwater enters the sewer system and causes floods, elsewhere, sewerage is directly released into stormwater drains, polluting them and choking their capacity.</p><p>On an early June morning, a portion of the Barapullah flowing in Chirag Dilli was a muddy green channel with plastic waste and cloth material on its banks. But experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/dsnkyeklue-1750441872.jpg" alt="" title="The Barapullah drain near Chirag Dilli. Experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Barapullah drain near Chirag Dilli. Experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>“Over a period of time as urbanisation surrounded them, stormwater drains have been used as a substitute to sewer systems,” INTACH’s Bhatnagar said. “Earlier in the non-monsoon period there was never any flow. Now around the year the flow is there and that is basically sewerage.”</p><p>During the rains, since stormwater drains are already carrying sewage, they have limited capacity to take on excess rainwater.</p><p>A court-appointed Yamuna Monitoring Committee flagged this problem in 2020 – it found that sewage was mixing with stormwater in <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>144 places</u></a> in the city. The IIT Delhi Master plan found that at least 50% of the capital territory does not have access to the engineered sewer system, and that “sewage generated from these areas is inevitably discharged into the storm water system”, which leads to “overflows and sluggish movement of the storm water within the drainage network”.</p><p>Not just sewage, even industrial waste flows in these drains. When the Yamuna Monitoring Committee did a random survey of industries in Bawana and Narela between 2019 and 2020, they found that <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>29 industries </u></a>were discharging their wastewater into stormwater drains.</p><p>The National Green Tribunal also issued directions to the Delhi Jal Board in 2015, 2017 and 2019 to ensure that stormwater drains do not carry sewage. In 2017, the board claimed that it had indeed stopped the entry of sewage into 11 out of 17 drains where it had been mixing with stormwater. But upon ground verification, the committee <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>found</u></a> that a number of these drains were still carrying sewage.</p><p>The Municipal Corporation of Delhi official agreed that sewage and industrial waste continues to flow into nalas. “But that is anyway the responsibility of Delhi Jal Board,” he said.</p><p><em>Scroll</em> emailed Delhi government authorities, seeking their responses to criticisms of poor planning and management of the the city’s stormwater drain system. This story will be updated if they respond.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>I</strong>n some parts of Delhi, the Public Works Department has <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-pwd-begins-preliminary-work-redeveloping-18-km-stormwater-drain-9665443/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>proposed</u></a> that it will lay drains of a larger width to prevent waterlogging. But experts argue that this would not be practical because it would entail digging up large parts of the city.</p><p>“The other option we have is to use and rejuvenate all the existing waterbodies, induce infiltration through rainwater harvesting, create retention storages in the city to reduce the stormwater and flooding to some extent,” said Gosain.</p><p>Indeed, in the master plan, Gosain and his team created simulations based on the data of slopes and drains they collected, to see if waterbodies in Delhi could naturally absorb the rainwater run-off. After mapping existing lakes and ponds in the three major drainage basins – Najafgarh, Barapullah, and Trans Yamuna – they found that waterbodies “could store a considerable volume” of water.</p><p>In Budhela, an urban village in south-west Delhi, residents explained that up till about two decades ago, an old pond or johad, played exactly this role. “This is where we used to take cows and goats for a swim, and we would swim ourselves,” said Ramniwas, a resident of the village. He explained that the natural incline of the area was such that during rains, runoff from the interiors of the densely laid streets of Budhela would flow into this rainfed lake. The village is part of the Najafgarh drainage basin, and the main Najafgarh drain flows less than a kilometre from Budhela.</p><p>But in 2002, Delhi Development Authority acquired the pond from the gram sabha and handed it over to Delhi government’s cultural wing to develop a building to host cultural events. To make the ground stable, the Delhi government filled the pond completely in the years following it.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Since that time, we have started seeing waterlogging issues in a few of our streets like this one,” said another resident Harmohan, as we walked on a street adjacent to the boundary of the pond.</h3><p>Budhela’s waterlogged street in the rains has also presented a health hazard – Harmohan explained that numerous mosquitoes breed on the still water, raising the risk of diseases spreading among residents.</p><p>It was only in late 2023 that the construction of the building began on the land where the pond had been. In 2024, a resident challenged the project in the Delhi High Court, arguing that the court had set precedent in 2013, when it directed the Delhi Development Authority to cancel all allotments of land on waterbodies wherever the land was still vacant – the court had also ordered the authority to revive these water bodies.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/gddlemzcyx-1750441983.jpg" alt="" title="In 2002, the Delhi government acquired a pond in Budhela village in south-west Delhi to construct a building to host cultural events. Since then, the village has seen significant waterlogging. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">In 2002, the Delhi government acquired a pond in Budhela village in south-west Delhi to construct a building to host cultural events. Since then, the village has seen significant waterlogging. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>This March, the Delhi High Court stayed the construction of the building.</p><p>When <em>Scroll</em> visited the johad on a hot June morning, a half constructed two-storey building stood in the depression of the dry pond. “We want the pond to be used as a pond, so that it can be used for the village residents,” said Ramniwas.</p><p>Experts also suggest other methods to tackle excess water that do not rely on stormwater drains – though they cautioned that the authorities had delayed acting on the problem. “Public parks also might have certain depressed areas where the stormwater can collect and recharge acquifers,” said Bhatnagar. He explained that rainwater being collected from roofs in homes around those localities could be directed into these depressions, rather than into into stormwater drains.</p><p>For now, residents are unsure of how much the desilting work in the city will help during the monsoon. Tigri’s Rahish said that he had been writing to different authorities for years to pay attention to the waterlogging in their locality, but that nothing had changed. “When it rains, the water stops, our lives stop for a few hours,” he said.</p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Vaishnavi Rathore</author>
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<title>Marang Buru vs Parasnath: The conflict over Jharkhand’s highest peak</title>
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<p><strong class="drop-cap">I</strong>t was 8.30 pm in the town of Madhuban in Jharkhand, and Itwari Soren and Ramesh Murmu sat listless outside a lavish Jain mansion.</p><p>The two, who are palanquin bearers and belong to the Santal Adivasi community, were waiting for shops on the town’s main road to close so that they could sleep.</p><p>“We sleep on the roads with just our gamchas to lie down on,” said Itwari, referring to the towel also often used as a headscarf. “The mosquitoes keep biting us and if it rains, we get drenched. There are several guesthouses around here for pilgrims, but no facilities for us doliwale to stay.”</p><p>The two had not had any work that day in mid-May, or in fact that week. “This is the off season. The peak season is between March and October when Jain pilgrims visit in flocks,” Itwari said. “Then, we compete to book passengers and carry them up the hill.”</p><p>The hill he was referring to is the highest point in Jharkhand, and goes by two names. To Jains, it is Parasnath Hill, named after Parsvanatha, the twenty-third of 24 Jain tirthankaras, the central spiritual figures of the religion. Jains know the sacred site atop the hill as Sammed Shikarji and believe that 20 tirthankaras attained salvation there.</p><p>But the hill is also a sacred site to Itwari and Ramesh’s community. The Santals call the hill Marang Buru, after the foremost hill deity in their pantheon. They have three key sacred sites – the dishom manjhi thaan, where the headman worships ancestors and deities, the jug jaher thaan, a sacred grove, and the lo bir vaisi bodra darha, where the traditional court of Adivasis of the region is held.</p><p>At the same time, the hill is also a crucial source of employment to thousands of doliwalas like Itwari and Ramesh, who depend on Jain pilgrims and other visitors for a livelihood for at least six months in a year.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1800" data-height="806" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lstaeqzytd-1750157310.jpg" alt="" title="Ramesh Murmu (centre) and Itwari Soren (right) work as palanquin bearers in Madhuban, Jharkhand. They earn a living by carrying Jain pilgrims to the top of the Parasnath hill, where a Jain shrine is located. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Ramesh Murmu (centre) and Itwari Soren (right) work as palanquin bearers in Madhuban, Jharkhand. They earn a living by carrying Jain pilgrims to the top of the Parasnath hill, where a Jain shrine is located. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>“Pilgrims, especially older ones, are not able to climb to the top,” said Sikandar Hembrom of the Marang Buru Sanvta Susaar Baisi, an organisation which is fighting for the rights of Adivasis over the hill – Hembrom is also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.</p><p>He explained that it was typically Adivasis, as well as members of a few other marginalised groups, such as the Ghatwar and Turi communities, who carried pilgrims to the peak.</p><p>The palanquin bearers usually set out at 2 am, and take at least eight hours to complete the trek of 27 km. Two bearers charge Rs 2,300 to carry a person who weighs less than 49 kg, and Rs 2,760 for a person who weighs between 50 kg and 69 kg. For those who weigh more, bearers usually use chairs carried by four people, for which rates start at Rs 4,600.</p><p>These rates haven’t changed since 2019, Itwari said, showing me a rate card. During peak season, the bearers get regular work and earn between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 a month. For the remainder of the time, they work on their fields in neighbouring villages and do small odd jobs. “It is not an easy job, carrying so much weight while climbing a hill,” said Ramesh. “But we don’t have a choice and are compelled to do it. There are no better opportunities around here to earn a living.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hvonnjwwie-1750157379.jpg" alt="" title="Two palanquin bearers await customers in Madhuban. The rates for the work have not changed since 2019. Photos: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Two palanquin bearers await customers in Madhuban. The rates for the work have not changed since 2019. Photos: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1587" data-height="1200" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/ubokijgtpb-1750157787.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>Some locals claim that the two communities have co-existed in this fashion since time immemorial.</p><p>“Jains and Adivasis live harmoniously here,” said Amit Jain, the mahamantri, or general secretary, of Madhuban’s Jain community. “This practice of Adivasi doliwalas carrying pilgrims up to the peak has been going on for thousands of years.”</p><p>But this description also elides a tension that has long simmered between the two groups over their rights to the hill. It is centred around the very different relationships the two communities have with the site, and with their faith.</p><p>The most prominent point of contention is Sendra, an annual religious festival of the Adivasis, at which the community hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. A 2024 <a class="link-external" href="https://wap.hapres.com/htmls/JSR_1572_Detail.html#09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>paper</u></a> on Sendra in West Bengal and “ethnotourism” notes that the hunting in the festival is largely a “symbolic expression of ancient culture” through which tribes seek to “retain their ancestral legacy”.</p><p>Jains, meanwhile, see nonviolence as a core principle of their religion – over the years, some members of the community have challenged the hunt as a practice that hurts their religious sentiments.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1638" data-height="734" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jvsadqhzzs-1750245416.jpg" alt="" title="The most prominent point of contention between the Adivasi and Jain communities is an annual religious festival in which the former hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The most prominent point of contention between the Adivasi and Jain communities is an annual religious festival in which the former hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>In January, a Jain trust filed a petition in the Jharkhand High Court – among its demands was that the government “take preventive measures against activities that defile the sanctity of the Hill”. The petition also sought the implementation of a 2023 environment ministry memorandum, which effectively prohibited hunting, and the consumption of meat and alcohol, on the hill.</p><p>“This ruling fails to recognise Adivasi traditions, so we will challenge it and fight for our rights in court,” said Hembrom.</p><p>Some Adivasis argue that these demands contravene core tenets of Jainism itself. “The Jain religion is a beautiful one, they have a principle which says – live and let live,” said Bhagwan Kisku, an activist. “But in Madhuban, they are not practicing that. Instead, they are erasing Adivasis.”</p><p><em>Scroll </em>sent queries about the conflict over the hill to Jain trusts involved in litigation, as well as the environment ministry, local police and the state government. This story will be updated if any responses are received.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong class="drop-cap">C</strong>ommunities’ legal claims over the hill, and efforts to gain control over it, have a long and chequered history.</p><p>In 1893, for instance, the Calcutta High Court heard a dispute over the running of a pig’s lard factory on the hill, which offended the sentiments of Jains.</p><p>In its judgement in favour of the Jains, the court cited a previous order of a district judge, stating “the plaintiff’s witnesses have told us that in their estimation every stone of Parash Nath Hill is holy and an object of adoration”. That order noted that it could not mark out particular places as sacred because the tirthankaras “may have died anywhere on the Hill”.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1400" data-height="627" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/einwrvfbsn-1750242508.jpg" alt="" title="Communities attempts to gain control over the hill date back to at least the nineteenth century, when the Jain community protested a pig’s lard factory on it. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Communities attempts to gain control over the hill date back to at least the nineteenth century, when the Jain community protested a pig’s lard factory on it. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>But over the years, courts and administrative bodies have also upheld the rights of Adivasis over the hill.</p><p>For instance, the community’s hunting tradition was noted in a 1911 “cadastral survey”, which set out land rights of communities over particular tracts of land.</p><p>That same year, Maharaj Bahadur Singh, acting on behalf of the Shwetambar Jain community, filed<a class="link-external" href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/239245/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u> a case</u></a> in the Patna High Court demanding, among other things, that the entry about the hunt in the cadastral survey be expunged. The judge ruled in favour of the natives, stating that they had a “prescriptive or customary right” to the hill. He further quoted the “assistant settlement officer”, who had stated that “the hunting does not seem to me to do any harm to the worshippers of the temples and the hills, as the hunters do nothing which could hurt their feelings”.</p><p>The petitioners appealed this decision in the highest court of appeal in the British empire at the time. “The case went up to the Privy Council and it was held that the Santals have the customary right of hunting on Parasnath Hill,” the 1957 Hazaribagh district gazetteer stated.</p><p>The Jain community continued to try and gain exclusive control over the hill. Court <a class="link-external" href="https://www.courtkutchehry.com/Judgement/Search/AdvancedV2?s_acts=Bihar%20Land%20Reforms%20(Amendment)%20Act,%201954&amp;section_art=section&amp;s_article_val=4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>documents</u></a> show that in 1918, the Seth Anandji Kalyanji Trust, representing the Shwetambar Jain community, paid to gain rights to the hill from local rulers.</p><p>But these efforts were negated after India acquired independence and became a democracy. Specifically, in 1953, the state of Bihar passed the Bihar Land Reforms Act, which vested rights over the hill with the state government.</p><p>In the decades that followed, both communities used the hill as part of their customs without any significant disputes arising between them. In 1984, the government granted the area significant protection by forming the Parasnath and Topchanchi wildlife sanctuaries, which included large portions of the hill.</p><p>The area under protection was widened in 2019, when the ministry of environment, forests and climate change issued a new notification declaring a strip of land 25 km wide around the sanctuaries, amounting to a total of 208.82 sq km, as an “eco-sensitive zone”.</p><p>Developments that followed this left both communities worried about their rights over the hill, albeit for strikingly different reasons.</p><p>In 2019, the environment ministry instructed the state government to promote eco-tourism in the area and develop a “tourism master plan”. Accordingly, in February 2022, the Jharkhand government launched a tourism <a class="link-external" href="https://www.nsws.gov.in/s3fs/2022-10/Jharkhand%20Tourism%20Policy%202021.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>policy</u></a>, under which it stated that Parasnath, along with other sites, would be developed as a religious pilgrimage site. This move led to widespread outrage in the Jain community, which came out in large numbers across the country to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jain-protests-notification-sammed-shikharji-parasnath-hill-giridih-shetrunjaya-bhavnagar/article66346041.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>protest</u></a> the proposed changes to the site. “We were afraid that the promotion of tourism would desecrate the sanctity of the site,” said Amit Jain.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/tkgzxtzqsg-1750242879.jpg" alt="" title="The Jain community protested a move by the government in 2022 to promote the hill as a tourist site. They argued that doing so would desecrate its sanctity. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Jain community protested a move by the government in 2022 to promote the hill as a tourist site. They argued that doing so would desecrate its sanctity. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>In January 2023, under pressure from the protests, the environment ministry issued an office <a class="link-external" href="https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2023/jan/doc202315150001.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>memorandum</u></a> that stayed all activities on the hill related to tourism.</p><p>But the memorandum contained another directive that Adivasis argued impinged on their rights over the hill: it instructed the state government to “strictly enforce” provisions of a clause of the “management plan” of the Parasnath sanctuary “which protects the whole Parasnath Hill”. This provision includes a categorical prohibition on the sale and consumption of “liquor, drugs, and other intoxicants” and “committing injurious acts to animals”.</p><p>These prohibitions are in keeping with the Jain tenets of vegetarianism, teetotalism and non-violence towards all living creatures.</p><p>However, they are in direct opposition to customary Adivasi rituals that require the use of hadiya, or rice beer, and often include the sacrifice of animals like chickens. Thus, the Adivasi community believes that these policies favour the Jain community over them.</p><p>But the state government did not press forward with the implementation of these directions.</p><p>It was in this context that the Ahmedabad-based Jain trust, named Jyot, filed the petition in the Jharkhand High Court asking that the directions be implemented. After hearing the petition, the High Court <a class="link-external" href="https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/jharkhand-high-court/jharkhand-high-court-orders-parasnath-hill-sacred-to-jain-ban-tourism-liquor-non-veg-food-291116" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>directed</u></a> the state government to implement the clauses listed in the memorandum.</p><p>Following this order, Giridih’s superintendent of police told <em>Scroll</em>,<em> </em>the number of home guards in the area had been increased to ensure that the court’s orders were enforced. As of May 13, they had not received any complaints of the order being violated.</p><p>But several Adivasis in and around Marang Buru are outraged. “It’s not like we’re forcibly entering their temples to perform our rituals,” said Arjun Marandi, a local Adivasi leader from Sohraia village. “We’re doing it on our land, which is far away from their temples.”</p><p>Referring to the Ahmedabad-based petitioners, Hembrom argued that urban, non-Jharkhandis from outside the state had no right to dictate terms on Marang Buru. “As Adivasis we were here first,” he said. “We have co-existed in harmony with the Jain population here so far. How can those sitting in metropolitan cities decide that the hill belongs solely to them?”</p><p>A group of activists from the area, including Hembrom, filed a counter-petition in the high court on May 5. The petition asserts Adivasis’ claims over Marang Buru and seeks the protection of their right to conduct their customary practices and rituals on the hill.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong class="drop-cap">E</strong>ven as the dispute between the communities plays out, Adivasis argue that their presence on the hill and their rights over it have to a large extent been erased.</p><p>This is despite the fact that there are far more Adivasis in the region than Jains. According to the 2011 census, Scheduled Tribes form 44% and Jains form 0.6% of the total population in Pirtand block, where Madhuban is located.</p><p>The eco-sensitive zone also has a large Adivasi population. Giridih’s district collector Naman Priyesh Lakra told <em>Scroll</em> that many of the 99 villages located within this region were inhabited by Adivasis. But he noted that the last land survey in the area was conducted in 1911 and that official current data was unavailable. The administration planned to start work on a social profile led by the District Legal Services Authority soon, he added.</p><p>Meanwhile, in recent years, “none of the government notifications regarding Parasnath hill have recognised that the place is also sacred to Santals”, Hembrom said.</p><p>Indeed, the recent notifications by the centre and the state government, pertaining to environmental protections and restrictions on tourism on the hill, make no reference to the site as Marang Buru, or mention Adivasis. “This is despite the fact that multiple Adivasi chief ministers from the state, and even President Droupadi Murmu, have travelled to Marang Buru to pay their respects,” Hembrom said.</p><p>This was apparent on the route from Parasnath railway station to Madhuban, along which one only sees signboards directing travellers to “Parasnath hill”. Upon entering Madhuban, one is greeted by a tall ornamental gateway typical of Jain architecture. Inside the town, there are several grand temples, mansions and guest houses, all for Jain pilgrims who visit from across the country.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/gxeekjwwqs-1750242958.jpg" alt="" title="The gateway in Madhuban. The town has numerous grand temples, mansions and guesthouses for the Jain pilgrims who visit it from across the country. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The gateway in Madhuban. The town has numerous grand temples, mansions and guesthouses for the Jain pilgrims who visit it from across the country. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>The main pathway that leads to the top of the hill has a tall signboard with a logo of the government of Jharkhand that welcomes visitors to Shikarji Sammed. It is only below this that a much smaller signboard welcomes visitors to Marang Buru. A few steps ahead, a few Sarna flags can be seen near the manjhi thaan.</p><p>Some activists noted that Adivasis had been edged out of Madhuban by wealthier communities. “A lot of the land that has been developed in Madhuban originally belonged to the Turi community,” said the activist Bhagwan Kisku. “But today when you walk through the town, you’ll find it difficult to spot a Turi person. There are so many grand mansions there of different sects of the Jain community but the number of locals is very less.”</p><p>The Jain community’s dominance over land in Madhuban is clear atop the hill too. Lakra, the district collector, told <em>Scroll</em> that the Jain community owned only eight decimals of land on the hill. But Jain sacred sites stretch across the 27-km-long parikrama path, or circular pilgrimage path. “For the longest time there were only two temples on top of Parasnath,” said Kisku. “But after the 2000s, these grew in number and today there are a total of 32 sacred Jain structures on top of the hill.”</p><p>He noted that it was not just that Adivasi customs conflicted with the Jain religion, but also the reverse. “Adivasis worship trees and rocks. Haven’t Jains torn down these trees and rocks to build their temples? But nobody thinks of that as an issue,” said Kisku, who is a member of an association called Marang Buru Sansthan, which is affiliated to the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party.</p><p>Some local leaders from the Jain community sought to downplay the conflict. “We don’t deny that this is an Adivasi area. Adivasis have been living in the forest for thousands of years,” said Amit Jain. “Of course they have the right to practice their own customs in their homes and sacred sites.”</p><p>He added, “The actual community based here is far away from this conflict. It is small leaders who are spreading political propaganda to agitate local people.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/agzzvqudka-1750243870.jpg" alt="" title="The dishom manjhi thaan of the Adivasi community on the hill, where the headman worships ancestors. They argued that Jains had torn down rocks and trees to build their numerous temples. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The dishom manjhi thaan of the Adivasi community on the hill, where the headman worships ancestors. They argued that Jains had torn down rocks and trees to build their numerous temples. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>But when it came to specific rules and restrictions, it was clear that there was a lack of clarity among the communities, which was breeding resentment.</p><p>The question of consumption of meat and alcohol on the hill is among the most contentious of these matters. Upon entering the pathway to the peak, one is greeted by large hoardings installed by the Madhuban panchayat, which state that the “consumption of non-vegetarian food and alcohol is a punishable offence, as per orders from the district administration”.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1433" data-height="642" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/itfowavofx-1750243949.jpg" alt="" title="A board near the entrance of the pathway to the peak, which states that consuming meat and alcohol is punishable. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A board near the entrance of the pathway to the peak, which states that consuming meat and alcohol is punishable. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>Savita Tudu, the panchayat pramukh of Madhuban, and the sole Adivasi person mentioned on the hoardings, said that the rule only applied to the Jain community’s sacred sites and not everywhere on the hill. “It’s possible that Adivasis might give up alcohol and meat but our deities cannot do without them,” she said. “They are an inherent part of our culture.”</p><p>Jain, meanwhile, said that tourists to Parasnath hill consumed ... |
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<title>What does Trump’s ceasefire announcement mean for Modi's strongman image?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>follow</u></em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>At 5.25 pm on Saturday, the President of the United States posted a message on social media that brought relief to nearly two billion people. “After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE,” he said (caps are Trump’s, not mine).</p><p>It was only half an hour later that the government of India actually announced a ceasefire. “Both sides would stop all firing and military action on land, air and sea at 5 pm,” said Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in a press briefing that lasted less than a minute.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1220" data-height="1107" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/eaqcjqtfhy-1746948336.jpeg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>Why did another country announce that India’s armed forces are going to stop hostilities with Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack? And what does that politically mean for Modi’s strongman image?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Made in America</h3><p>The answer to the first question is simple: the US is claiming credit for brokering peace between the subcontinental twins. In fact, the US state department has put out a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/05/announcing-a-u-s-brokered-ceasefire-between-india-and-pakistan/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>statement</u></a> calling this a “US-Brokered Ceasefire between India and Pakistan”. </p><p>CNN has <a class="link-external" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/10/politics/vance-modi-india-pakistan-intelligence" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>reported</u></a> that the US received “alarming intelligence” on Friday that could lead to a “dramatic escalation”. The US Vice President then called Modi urging him to talk to Pakistan and “to consider options for de-escalation”. This was the “critical moment” that got India and Pakistan moving towards a ceasefire, according to CNN.</p><p>India’s long-held position has always been that its conflict with Pakistan is a bilateral matter and it does not want any mediation. Unsurprisingly, the Modi government has rushed to firefight these US statements, putting a flurry of anonymous quotes in the media denying that the US had any role to play.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="638" data-height="290" style=""><a href="https://x.com/sidhant/status/1921198484897546663" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jdmahldmik-1746948383.png" alt="" title="A journalist tweets out a statement from an anonymous source denying US mediation." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A journalist tweets out a statement from an anonymous source denying US mediation.</figcaption></figure><p>Even worse, the US’ statements seem to suggest that it thinks Kashmir is back as an issue internationally. On Sunday, Trump put out another <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/MichaelKugelman/status/1921419633824788981" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">statement</a> offering to mediate so that a “solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir”. Before that Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that India and Pakistan had agreed to “start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site,” contradicting Delhi’s position that it will not talk till Islamabad abjures terror.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="633" data-height="845" style=""><a href="https://x.com/MichaelKugelman/status/1921419633824788981" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/chmikmrloq-1746948424.png" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Strong, man?</strong></h3><p>India’s ideal war aim, as it bombed Pakistan on May 7, was to make the country bend completely. “India seeks for Pakistan to have an embarrassing defeat,” <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/clary_co/status/1921092414128767438" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>said</u></a> Christopher Clary, a US academic and an expert on South Asia’s security politics.</p><p>However, rather than a Pakistani military surrender as India achieved in 1971 when Indira Gandhi was prime minister, what Modi has managed to pull off is a ceasefire. The absence of a surrender is risky for Modi's strongman image. That the US is now claiming that it brokered the ceasefire is doubly so.</p><p>Notably, Modi has long attacked the Congress as being weak for reaching out to the US. “Our minister went to America and started crying ‘Obama, Obama’,” Modi had said in a viral <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/nehafolksinger/status/1921442607592263691" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>interview</u></a> from when he was Gujarat chief minister, making mock actions of tears.</p><p>Will the Congress now be able to politicise this in the same way, attacking Modi’s as being weak for Trump’s claims of mediation?</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="631" data-height="372" style=""><a href="https://x.com/ShefVaidya/status/1921186640665415817" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lwraiplaku-1746948452.png" alt="" title="A prominent social media influencer and Modi supporter announces disappointment with the ceasefire" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A prominent social media influencer and Modi supporter announces disappointment with the ceasefire</figcaption></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">What happens now?</h3><p>The other risk for Modi is if Pakistan decides to continue its policy of supporting terror. Like the ceasefire after India’s and Pakistan’s tit-for-tat airstrikes in 2019, the current detente is premised on allowing both sides to go to their people and claim a Potemkin victory. However, 2019 is a poor template for Delhi: if India hoped that airstrikes would dissuade Pakistan from backing terror, that is clearly not the case, given the horror in Pahalgam.</p><p>Will the 2025 hostilities persuade Pakistan to end its support to terror if 2019 didn’t? There are already prominent voices of scepticism asking what India achieved by Operation Sindoor, given the ceasefire only three days later.</p><p>“We have left India’s future history to ask what politico-strategic advantages, if any, were gained after its kinetic and non-kinetic actions post Pakistani horrific terror strike in Pahalgam on 22 April,” former Indian Army chief Ved Malik <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/Vedmalik1/status/1921202136592879853" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>posted</u></a> on social media.</p><p>Even as journalists and analysts unpack the political losses and gains for individual players and states, one thing is certain: the people of South Asia simply cannot afford conflict. Both India and Pakistan are poor countries with large populations and nuclear weapons. War is simply not an option. A ceasefire is great news. Now we only need to hope that it sticks.</p>
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<pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 06:39:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>The importance of secular optics during ‘Operation Sindoor’</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>follow</u></em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>In the early hours of Wednesday, the Indian armed forces struck nine terrorist camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This was in response to the April 22 attack in Pahalgam that left 26 dead.</p><p>War is about weapons. But it is also about narrative. Even as India delivered a military response to Pakistan for its support to cross-border terror, its post-operation messaging was also strong.</p><p>For one, India’s name for the military attack, Operation Sindoor, highlighted the fact that the Pahalgam terrorists had shot dead men in front of their families. The Hindi word “sindoor” refers to the vermillion pigment many Indian women use on their heads as a sign of marriage. Even more vivid were the secular optics of the government briefing on Wednesday morning.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Communal terror</h3><p>Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri was emphatic that the aim of the terrorists in Pahalgam was to spread strife within Indian society. “The manner of the attack was also driven by the objective of provoking communal discord, both in Jammu and Kashmir and in the rest of the nation,” Misri said, referring to the fact that many male tourists in Kashmir had been shot dead after being asked about their faith; Hindus were targetted. “It is to the credit of the government and the people of India that these designs were foiled.”</p><p>The Foreign Secretary was flanked by Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, who provided details of Operation Sindoor.</p><p>By explicitly saying that the terrorists in Pahalgam intended to stoke communal conflict and including a Muslim army officer as part of the high-voltage briefing, the Indian government was using explicitly secular messaging even as India militarily stared down its nuclear twin, Pakistan.</p><p>Misri’s statement was not made in a vacuum. Pahalgam was followed by a wave of bitter communalism within India. Several Hindutva ideologues tried to attack Indian Muslims using the cover of the Pakistan-backed terror strike.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1920019600785158232" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Terrorists who attacked Hindus in Pehalgam wanted to provoke "communal discord" in India. <br>These accounts such as <a href="https://twitter.com/randomsena?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@randomsena</a> are helping them by targeting 25+ Crore Indian Muslims. Unfortunately the Indian government or the Police will never take any action against them. <a href="https://t.co/yxv2VMVTM1">pic.twitter.com/yxv2VMVTM1</a></p>— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) <a href="https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1920019600785158232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>The online hate was so bitter that even <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081984/womens-commission-condemns-online-trolling-of-pahalgam-attack-victims-wife-after-her-peace-appeal">Himanshi Narwal</a>, wife of Indian Navy officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, who was killed in Pahalgam, was not spared. Her statement asking Indians not to “spew hate” against “Muslims and Kashmiris” attracted a spate of abuse from Hindutva supporters. It was so intense, the National Commission for Women stepped in to condemn the online abuse.</p><p>But it was not just online hate. There were <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081835/after-pahalgam-terror-attack-anti-muslim-violence-reported-in-four-states">physical attacks</a> too. A day after Pahalgam, for example, Kashmiri shawl sellers were assaulted in Mussoorie, leading to at least 16 people fleeing from the city.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">An exception</h3><p>Even as the Modi government’s messaging post-Sindoor has been secular and attempted to counter the obvious aims of the Pahalgam terrorists, this level-headedness has been rare. Over the past decade, the Modi government has often stoked communal given its adherence to Hindutva as well as the electoral dividends that sectarian politics has paid for the BJP since the 1990s.</p><p>However, as Pahalgam and its aftermath shows, communal strife is not just a moral wrong – for India it is a major security faultline that its adversaries are more than happy to try to widen. India is a continent-sized country with most of its people desperately poor. To add constant communal strife to this mix is a surefire recipe for disaster.</p><p>The phrase “anti-national” is often thrown about loosely nowadays and I am always wary of using so blunt a phrase. But if there is one place it can be used, perhaps it applies to those who tried to exploit the Pahalgam terror attack to spread communal strife within Indian society.</p>
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<link>https://scroll.in/article/1082107/the-importance-of-secular-optics-during-operation-sindoor</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 13:10:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Caste census: Will the 50% reservation cap soon be history?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics (though this week, it intersects quite a bit with global politics).</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>follow</em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>After the Pahalgam terror attack, much of India was expecting a retaliatory attack against Pakistan. Instead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a surgical strike of a political kind. On Wednesday, the Union cabinet decided that caste would be counted as part of the upcoming census.</p><p>This is a major U-turn by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi. Just a year ago, Modi had denounced those lobbying for a caste census as “urban naxals”. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath, arguably the second-most popular BJP leader after Modi, set the line for opposition to the caste census with the slogan “batenge to katenge” – divided we will get slaughtered. </p><p>The graphic imagery refers to a long-held Hindutva belief that demands for caste equity will only end up fracturing Hindu society. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/supporting-the-spirit-of-yogis-batenge-to-katenge-slogan-rss-says-hindu-unity-is-in-national-interest/article68799885.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">backed Adityanath</a> on his call for purported Hindu unity.</p><p>Soon Modi <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4enF0Ssv7tA" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">echoed</a> Adityanath’s line with his own “ek hai to safe hai” – there is safety in unity. Clearly, the BJP was going hammer and tongs against the Congress party, which has pressed hard for a caste census as part of its social equity focus under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>An about turn</strong></h3><p>That the saffron party has turned on a dime and now sought to take credit for the caste census is a good indicator of just how popular the policy plank is. Clearly the BJP hopes to blunt some of the Dalit and Other Backward Class anger that led to it losing the support of these groups in the last Lok Sabha elections.</p><p>But even as the BJP is trying to run off with the Congress’ agenda, the main Opposition party has stepped up its game: it says it will now concentrate on getting the government to remove the 50% cap that has been set on reservations for seats in educational institutions and government jobs.</p><p>If it happens, it would cause a political earthquake that could be bigger than even the anti-Mandal agitation of the early 1990s. In 1990, the VP Singh government implemented the Mandal Commission’s recommendations, providing reservations to Other Backward Classes – a vast, varied collection of agricultural and artisanal castes that fall between upper castes and Dalits in the social ladder.</p><p>This doubled caste quotas to nearly 50%, drastically shrinking the general category dominated by upper castes. Angry at this, members of the upper castes launched an agitation with a young brahmin student, Rajiv Goswami, even setting himself on fire in Delhi.</p><p>This agitation was mirrored by a new politics of OBC assertion, especially in the Hindi belt. Parties such as the Samajwadi and the Rashtriya Janata Dal drew OBC votes away from the upper caste-led Congress with the claim that OBC interests would be better protected by OBC leadership.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Judicial award</h3><p>Eventually, a political compromise was hammered out – not by politicians but by the Supreme Court of India. In the landmark 1992 Indra Sawhney judgment, the court upheld OBC reservations but also put in place significant caps. Reservations could not extend beyond 50% and the “creamy layer” or well-off OBCs would be excluded from availing of the quota.</p><p>Notably, the court did not really explain why it chose the 50% figure. It said that the power of reservations should be “exercised in a fair manner and within reasonable limits” and hence “reservation under Clause (4) shall not exceed 50% of the appointments or posts, barring certain extraordinary situations as explained hereinafter”.</p><p>But why was 50% a “reasonable limit” given that Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs constitute around 80% of the Indian population?</p><p>Even more confusingly, in 2022 the court allowed this 50% limit to be breached for the Economically Weaker Section quota for poor members of the upper castes. The Indra Sawhney cap was only applicable to caste quotas, it held.</p><p>That such a major policy decision was taken by the court and not backed up in the political sphere meant the 50% cap was always on weak ground. The court in fact struck a blow of its own by upholding the Economically Weaker Section quota.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Caste society</h3><p>India is the only country in the world where affirmative action quotas extend to the majority of the population. With the Economically Weaker Section quota in place, it now stands at almost 60%.</p><p>Part of this flows from just how unique Indian society is. For example, the endogamy that underpins it, with the idea that marriages must only take place within a caste or even a subcaste, has shocked geneticists. Famously, David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard University, quipped that while the Chinese are a truly large population, Indians are actually a “large number of small populations”. </p><p>Given this hermetically sealed social structure, the vast majority of Indian castes do not feel they can ever compete with the savarna castes that have dominated the social system for the past two millennia.</p><p>Add to this is the fact that the Indian economy has been terrible at creating employment. In fact, <a class="link-external" href="https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/publications/2023/report/state-of-working-india-2023-social-identities-and-labour-market-outcomes" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">studies</a> show that there is little relationship at all between economic growth and employment growth in India. </p><p>“What this means is that far from employment growing faster when GDP grows faster, years of fast GDP growth have, on the contrary, tended to be years of slow employment growth,” the <em>State of Working India </em>report 2023 said.</p><p>Both these factors mean that almost everyone in India thinks they need state-backed quotas to access wealth and education. Hence, the massive support for removing the quota cap.</p><p>Modi has bent to Rahul Gandhi on the caste census. Will he now also buckle on the 50% limit?</p>
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<pubDate>Sun, 04 May 2025 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Interview: ‘Pahalgam shows Balakot did not create deterrence’</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal, a newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up here (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>follow</em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>A horrific attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed, has left South Asia on edge as India has blamed Pakistan and its support for cross-border terrorism. Delhi has said that it would hold the Indus Waters Treaty “in abeyance” and Modi promised that India would soon “raze whatever is left of the terror haven”, a thinly-veiled reference to Pakistan.</p><p>To understand Delhi’s military options at this time, how the Modi government overstated its claims that “normalcy” has returned to Kashmir and the risky business of de-escalating conflict between two nuclear powers, I spoke to former military officer Sushant Singh, a lecturer at Yale University and one of India’s foremost security experts.</p><p><strong>Do you think India can do another Balakot [striking across the border as it did in the wake of the Pulwama attack of 2019]?</strong><br>It depends on what you mean by Balakot. The question is what did Balakot achieve? As this particular incident has shown, Balakot did not create deterrence which stopped militants or Pakistan from undertaking another terror attack in Kashmir. That’s one thing.</p><p>Secondly, Balakot, as I wrote in <em>The Caravan</em>, was not a military success. It was a political success because it happened just before elections, and it worked for them [the Bharatiya Janata Party]. </p><p>Thirdly, Balakot did escalate up to a point. As you know, [Mike] Pompeo, who was [United States] Secretary of State at that time, in his memo mentioned the nuclear escalation between India and Pakistan.</p><p>So, I really don’t know what we mean by another Balakot. If the idea is that India would do a kinetic operation against Pakistan, yes, that possibility definitely exists, particularly going by the rhetoric we’re seeing from the government.</p><p><strong>I want to go to your reporting on Balakot, especially your piece in <em>The Caravan</em>. You’ve taken a view which is at variance with much of the Indian mainstream media. You say Balakot was actually not a military success. Do you think that will inform what is happening now? Will it reduce India’s options?</strong><br>Let me put it this way. The political leadership in India would want to do something that would assuage the heightened emotions of their supporters at least, if not the Indian people. They have already set a bar because of what they claim to have done in 2016 with the surgical strikes across the LoC [Line of Control] and then in 2019 with Balakot. Once you’ve done that, you can’t do anything lesser than that. If you claim that you achieved so much, then you need to do something bigger. That’s one big constraint.</p><p>The second constraint, of course, is the military failure of doing Balakot and the escalation that happened. Balakot is not just about what the Indian Air Force tried to do in Balakot; it’s also what happened thereafter – when [Indian Air Force pilot] Abhinandan [Varthaman] was captured, when the Indian MiG-21 was brought down, the threat of missile launches from both sides. That, too, is part of the Balakot episode.</p><p>The question isn’t what India can do, it’s how do you de-escalate from there. Anyone can order a ground-based missile, an airborne strike or a drone swarm attack. The point is, will Pakistan retaliate? Yes. After Pakistan retaliates, what do you do? Do you take it lying down? Do you say, “thank you, 1-1” and go back home? Or do you escalate further? How do you de-escalate?</p><p>The political leadership has to answer how it intends to prevent serious escalation between two nuclear weapon states and how to de-escalate after you have taken the first step. The military leadership must answer what their constraints are, whether they can honestly tell the political leadership that they are operating within limitations: shortage of soldiers, deployment at the China border, modern equipment shortages and so on. These two considerations – political and military – will come into play.</p><p><strong>I want to go back to the horrific terrorist attack in Pahalgam. Do you think there was a security lapse there?</strong><br>Definitely. There were two CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force] battalions until a year or two ago. One of them was moved out. Armed men fired for more than 20-30 minutes, and no security forces came. The family of one of the dead naval officers <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/LogicalIndians/status/1915711028966678652" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">said</a> no help came for 90 minutes and her husband died. Clearly, there was a security lapse.</p><p>There was also an intelligence failure. You have militants in the area, roaming around with weapons, clearly embedded in the area with local support. It’s not like the militant came that morning itself and suddenly did this. The intelligence failure is that you didn’t have any idea of all this happening.</p><p>Security failed on two levels. First, you left the place completely unguarded – probably believing that tourists wouldn’t like to see soldiers and that would belie claims of normalcy. There was also the belief that militants wouldn’t do anything to attack tourism, which is the lifeline of the Kashmiri economy – so therefore we can leave it unguarded. Second, the response during the attack was very poor. Unless you are buying your own Kool Aid of normalcy having returned, there was no reason to have no forces present in that spot.</p><p>There were three failures: intelligence, and two levels of security – before and during the incident.</p><p><strong>Let’s dig a bit deeper on your Kool Aid point. What does this incident say about the Modi government’s claim that Kashmir is now normal and militancy has ended after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019?</strong><br>This incident shows that these claims are untrue. In fact, even earlier, incidents in <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1071111/jammu-and-kashmir-soldier-killed-in-gunfight-with-suspected-militants-in-poonch">Poonch</a> and <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/941402/j-k-indian-army-officer-killed-in-pakistani-firing-in-rajouri-district-say-reports">Rajouri </a>already disproved that claim.</p><p>Let’s be clear: the violence isn’t at the level of the early ’90s or just after Kargil. But violence had already come down when Omar Abdullah was chief minister [2009-2015]. In 2011-2012, there were a lot of street protests, a lot of stone pelting, but militancy was already down.</p><p>Then PDP [People’s Democratic Party] formed the government with BJP [in 2016], and young Kashmiri men began joining the militancy. Violence was artificially suppressed, but the anger against the Indian state and the lack of political redress remains, creating fertile ground for militancy – even if you take Pakistan away from the equation.</p><p><strong>One of the claims for abrogating Article 370 was better security, which you’re saying has not come through. Do you think India’s security apparatus is actually now weaker because local Kashmiri parties have been destroyed and Kashmir is now ruled directly from Delhi?</strong><br>Absolutely. Remember, during demonetisation [in 2016], it was claimed that the terrorism’s back has been broken in Kashmir. The same was said after surgical strikes and after abrogating Article 370. In all cases, security has not improved.</p><p>We’ve lost even the limited support we had among Kashmiris. You could generate local intelligence, you had sympathisers. All that has been broken down by the kind of politics pursued in the rest of India and by Delhi in Kashmir: hardcore Hindutva politics, demonising Muslims and Kashmiris, TV debates running horribly anti-Kashmir content nightly. You can’t expect sympathy when you’ve done what was done after August 2019: shutting everything down, taking away the internet. It is a very oppressive environment in Kashmir.</p><p>Even tourism, though economically vital, has become a tool of humiliation and oppression.</p><p><strong>Could you expand on that? What do you mean by tourism being a tool of humiliation?</strong><br>Many tourists from the mainland, influenced by the current Islamophobic political climate, behave in obnoxious ways – sometimes unknowingly, sometimes knowingly – acting as if they sustain Kashmir. Even non-Kashmiri friends have observed this when they travel to Kashmir and have felt embarrassed.</p><p>The way tourism is conducted doesn’t foster healthy ties between Kashmir and the rest of India. It’s often perceived as an extension of the politics India has seen since 2014.</p><p><strong>Let’s zoom out to geopolitical security. If India launches any kinetic operation now, what are Pakistan’s options?</strong><br>It depends on whether India launches a covert or overt operation. A covert operation can be denied by Pakistan, and meanwhile India, using its godi media channels, can run a propaganda campaign. That’s easier – since there is no escalation.</p><p>If India does something visible that Pakistan cannot deny, Pakistan will have to retaliate. General Khalid Kidwai, a key figure in Pakistan’s nuclear policy, lays out a very clear line: QPQ+. If India does something, Pakistan will have to do quid pro quo plus. Something additional will have to be done when Pakistan retaliates. Because the Pakistan military can’t afford to lose face. If they acknowledge India’s action, they must retaliate.</p><p>Then the question becomes, what does India do? Retaliate again? Escalate? Step back? Does a third party – Americans, Saudis, UAE, China – intervene and say, “guys, this is enough”? Or do intelligence agencies start talking like after Balakot and find a way to de-escalate? The political leadership in India must think through this before taking any step.</p><p><strong>You said the Pakistani army <em>must</em> retaliate. Last week, Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir gave a provocative speech saying Kashmir is Pakistan’s jugular vein. Do you think there’s any connection between that and what happened in Pahalgam?</strong><br>It’s hard to say. Asim Munir is not the first to use such rhetoric. Ayub, Zia, Kayani – many have said similar things.This is a long-standing belief in a large section of the Pakistani military. There is nothing new in this.</p><p>Whether there’s a direct link between Munir’s speech and Pahalgam is hard to say. My sense, not based on any input, is that it was a soft target which was left unprotected. The attackers saw it as easy to hit and escape. Militants, unless they’re fidayeen, want to hit and get out. They don’t want to be caught up in a pitched battle. My gut feeling is that it doesn’t seem directly connected to Munir’s speech, but it’s hard to say for sure.</p><p><strong>Your own writing has shown that Modi actually managed domestic perception really well after Balakot, no matter the military assessment. Do you think something similar will happen or do you think that there will be some hard questions asked of the security lapses in Pahalgam?</strong><br>I don’t think that India’s corporate-owned media, the television channels, and newspapers, where a lot of our friends work, are going to ask any tough questions whatsoever of Mr Modi or Mr Shah. They didn’t ask those questions after Manipur.</p><p>They didn’t even ask those questions even when the then governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Satyapal Malik, went public about everything that happened in Pulwama during the suicide bombing of the CRPF convoy. Those questions were not asked then. I doubt that the people who call themselves journalists and editors have the courage or even the capability to ask those questions.</p><p>It will be incumbent upon some analysts, some commentators, and independent platforms like <em>Scroll, Caravan, Wire, News Minute, Newslaundry</em> to ask those questions.</p><p><strong>Yes, and I think that really leaves the country weaker as these incidents show. If you do not ask questions of the government, then the government performs worse.</strong><br>Absolutely. I’ll say only one more thing before I end. Demanding accountability is extremely important if you want to fix things for the future. If you don’t demand accountability in a democratic setup, then you are sowing seeds for future disasters.</p>
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<pubDate>Sat, 26 Apr 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Modi-Trump bhai bhai: Can there be a global right-wing coalition?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics (though this week, it intersects quite a bit with global politics).</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “follow”).</em></p><p>On February 21, the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni speaking via video link at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC on February 21, launched a broad attack at the left, arguing that the rise of the global right has frustrated them.</p><p>As she did so, she mentioned Narendra Modi as part of the global right:</p><blockquote class="cms-block cms-block-quote"><p>“When Bill Clinton and Tony Blair created the global leftist liberal network in the 90s, they were called statesmen. Today, when [Donald] Trump, Meloni, [Javier] Milei, or maybe [Narendra] Modi talk, they are called a threat to democracy. This is the left’s double standard, but we are used to it. And the good news is people no longer believe in their lies. Despite all the mud they throw at us, citizens keep voting for us.”</p></blockquote><p>The fact that a Western politician praised Modi and included him in the pantheon of the global right would please many supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its Hindutva ideology. For some time now, Hindutva ideologues in India have clamoured for exactly this sort of recognition, as they looked to the right in the West for inspiration, tactics and vocabulary.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Taking notes</h3><p>Take George Soros, for example. Last year in December, BJP MPs <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/lok-sabha-plunges-into-chaos-again-as-bjp-mp-reiterates-soros-congress-link/article68955799.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">plunged</a> the Lok Sabha into chaos with allegations that the Congress party was in cahoots with the Hungarian-American billionaire-philanthropist. “Congress ka haath Soros ke saath,” as BJP MP Nishikant Dubey put it in Hindi rhyme. The Congress is hand-in-hand with Soros</p><p>For some time now, the BJP has invoked Soros as a way to attack the Congress. This is remarkable given the fact that Soros is relatively unknown in India. But he is a major figure in the United States, where the right attacks him for funding liberal causes. <em>Al Jazeera</em> <a class="link-external" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/5/boogeyman-why-republicans-invoke-soros-to-defend-trump" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">describes</a> Soros as the “ultimate villain in [American] conservative circles”. Even Donald Trump has attacked the billionire.</p><p>The BJP is so tuned into US right-wing politics that it simply imported Soros conspiracy theories from the West ock, stock and barrel.</p><p>More evidence of this inspiration can be found in the very vocabulary of Hindutva in India. In 2023, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat launched an attack on “woke” people: a term so unfamiliar to his listeners that he had to go on to comically <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozse58e4xW8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">describe</a> “woke” as “jage huye” [people who are awake] in Hindi.</p><p><a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hBOovhAJE4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Several</a> <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hBOovhAJE4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">BJP</a> politicians have launched attacks on purported attempts to “bring in Sharia law into India”. The phrasing is aalso <a class="link-external" href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4651114-chip-roy-sharia-law-will-soon-be-forced-upon-the-american-people/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">direct import</a> from the American right, surreally ignoring the fact that sharia or Islamic law is <em>actually</em> law in India as part of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937. </p><p>The BJP has enthusiastically capitalised on the rise of Islamophobia in the West in the wake of the War on Terror to advance its anti-minority politics at home.</p><p>This fascination with the Western right peaked with the rise of Donald Trump and his unabashed Islamophobia. In a zany turn of events, Hindutva supporters in India even conducted public prayers for Trump. Modi, in an unusual move for an Indian prime minister, <a href="https://scroll.in/article/938218/ab-ki-baar-trump-sarkar-did-narendra-modi-really-endorse-the-us-president-for-re-election">endorsed</a> Trump for president in 2019.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="990" data-height="644" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/uqkcuxfbty-1740740994.jpg" alt="" title="A Hindutva organisation praying for Donald Trump in 2017. Prakash Singh / AFP" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A Hindutva organisation praying for Donald Trump in 2017. Prakash Singh / AFP</figcaption></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">A global alliance</h3><p>What is driving this sudden urge to create a global rightist coalition? Part of the reason is, as Meloni herself put in, the fact that leftists and liberals have been doing something similar for some time now. Communists have explicit international organisational links and liberals often create networks via institutions such as think tanks.</p><p>The right has lagged behind, until now.</p><p>This urge to catch up has driven close cooperation between elements of the Western right. Trump, for example, both <a class="link-external" href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-backed-brexit-then-he-used-it-as-leverage/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">backed and benefited</a> from the UK’s Brexit decision. Right-wing American billionaire Elon Musk has explicitly supported far-right politics in the United Kingdom and Germany. On a much smaller scale, there is also some coordination between White nationalists in the West and Hindutva supporters in India. In a <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1070161/how-hindutva-is-playing-a-silent-role-in-british-politics">ground report</a> I did from the United Kingdom, I found the far right in the UK often <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx_8swDlJaE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">feeding off Hindutva platforms such as <em>OpIndia</em></a><em>.</em></p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Speed bumps</h3><p>Unfortunately, for the right, there is a fundamental contradiction in creating international linkages given that almost all right-wing ideologies have parochialism as a core feature. This, in fact, has sharply come to fore with respect to Hindutva in India after Trump assumed office as American president in January. As part of his “America First” ideology, Trump has humiliated Indian undocumented migrants, sending them back in chains. He has also threatened India with high tariffs, singling it out for <a class="link-external" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48961235" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">criticism</a> as the “king of tariffs”.</p><p>A passive Modi has swallowed these insults, being wary of American power but also faced by the fact that the BJP lacks a language to attack a person that it has for so long admired.</p><p>A 2024 <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/NatConTalk/status/1810764034008125773" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">tweet</a> by the Washington DC-based National Conservatism Conference put this faultline in focus. The post featured a photo of the BJP’s Ram Madhav joining his hands in a namaste gesture with the text asking if the next convention should be held in India. This simple exchange saw an ugly racist backlash from the organisation’s supporters.</p><p>“The millions of Indians flooding western countries do not care about our culture, they are an invasive species,” said a reply from a White nationalist.</p><p>Many Hindutva supporters might look to the Western right for inspiration, but given that White nationalism often drives the latter, these warm feelings are often not reciprocated. The intrinsic insular nature of the right means international cooperation is difficult if not impossible.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1811035472002461818" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">As someone who has to interact with Indians every day for work - let's not do this <a href="https://t.co/jDQ9KuuqxI">https://t.co/jDQ9KuuqxI</a></p>— Modern Brzrkr (@ModernBrzrkr) <a href="https://twitter.com/ModernBrzrkr/status/1811035472002461818?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>That said, while Hindutva supporters may be enamoured by Western rightists, it is unclear whether it really <em>needs</em> them. Hindutva is a movement with deep roots in India. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s parent organisation, was founded a century ago. The Jana Sangh, the first iteration of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was born in 1951. Modi’s politics has decades of ideological and organisational work behind it. The Western right has little to do with Hindutva’s success – and even if it were to embrace India’s largest party, it would hardly benefit from this in any concrete way.</p><p>In the end, there is little to link right-wing politics in the West and in India. The only place they do intersect, it seems, is on Islamophobia. It is from this area that Hindutva has borrowed narratives from the right in the West which, due to the War on Terror, has demonised Muslims for more than two decades now.</p>
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<pubDate>Sun, 02 Mar 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>What AAP’s defeat says about corruption as an issue for Indian voters</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. This time I unpack the Aam Aadmi Party defeat in Delhi and try and draw an insight from it that applies across Indian politics: the relevance (or not) of corruption as an issue.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “follow”).</em></p><p>By Indian standards, the anti-corruption movement of 2011 was not particularly large. The Ramlila Maidan in Delhi where it began has a capacity of around 25,000 – a modest number for even routine political rallies in India.</p><p>However, what made it different was the incredible media attention it received. For months, it dominated headlines. Eventually, one section of this movement used this publicity to launch a new political outfit: the Aam Aadmi Party.</p><p>Boosted by media momentum, the Aam Aadmi Party shot off the blocks. In its very first election, for the 2013 Delhi Assembly, it managed to form the government. Curiously, it did so with support from the Congress – the very party that the AAP’s founders had attacked as irredeemably corrupt just a couple of years before.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Welfare &gt; Corruption</strong></h3><p>Subsequently, in the 2015 and 2020 Delhi elections, AAP won massive mandates. It did this not by appealing to its origin as a party battling corruption but by reinventing itself as an economically populist force, highlighting its development work and welfare schemes targeted at the city’s working class.</p><p>This dynamic was maintained in the 2025 Assembly polls, the result of which were declared on Saturday. AAP contested the election on its welfare record – not on fighting corruption. In fact, the elections were conducted against the backdrop of serious allegations of corruption against AAP. Senior party leaders, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had even spent time in prison.</p><p>However, this did not seem to have played a significant role in AAP’s loss. Eventually, it was <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1078652/anger-against-aap-is-palpable-in-delhis-slums-is-it-enough-to-cost-the-party-the-election">dissatisfaction with the AAP’s welfare delivery</a> that resulted in a portion of its working-class support moving to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The number was not large, though: AAP got nearly 44% of the popular vote, less than two percentage points behind the winner, the BJP.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Correlation and causation</strong></h3><p>The Aam Aadmi Party’s journey in Delhi therefore has an interesting insight for Indian politics as a whole: big-ticket corruption is a hot button topic for India’s middle classes and hence the media. However, in elections, most voters do not vote directly on the issue of corruption. This is why AAP had to concentrate its efforts in Delhi on delivering welfare – not fighting corruption.</p><p>This is not a new insight. Research from 2013 shows that even as the Congress was relentlessly pilloried by the media on the issue of big ticket corruption, most voters had not even heard of the names of the alleged scams. Even more remarkably, knowledge of a scam <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/does-corruption-influence-voter-choice/article6050324.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">did little to influence voter choice</a>. Attributing the Congress’s 2014 loss to claims of corruption might be a case of confusing correlation with causation.</p><p>Another way to observe this same insight is to look at the Teflon immunity enjoyed by the Modi government even in the face of widespread allegations of corruption such as the controversy about the purchase of Rafale fighter jets or claims that it favours the Adani group. India’s middle class – the principal cohort that raises its voice against corruption allegations – is a strong supporter of Modi and the BJP. Hence, since 2014, the issue of corruption has taken a back seat nationally, as India’s middle class voters are hesitant to point fingers at their own political choice.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Free pass</h3><p>As the<a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1078634/budget-2025-no-income-tax-payable-on-income-up-to-rs-12-lakh-under-new-regime"> recent tax cuts</a> show, the only real pressure that the Modi government has faced from the middle class has been on hard economic matters. Wage stagnation and inflation are problems that have actually channeled middle-class anger against Modi in a way that, say, being seen as close to Adani has never done.</p><p>Why does the Indian voter ignore corruption when it comes to the hustings? For one, the link between big-ticket corruption and quality of life is difficult to see in real time. A voter happy with, say, cash transfers would hardly abandon Modi over his alleged connections with Adani. Moreover, corruption, both big and small, is a systemic problem that no party seems to be able to solve.</p><p>AAP, which was literally created on an anti-corruption platform, now faces allegations that it used kickbacks from Delhi’s excise scam to fund its campaign in Goa. While these allegations remain to be proved, it is clear that the massive funds required to fight an election will create factors extremely conducive to corruption.</p><p>Moreover, small-ticket corruption – think small bribes to junior officials – is so pervasive that a voter pivoting her vote on it makes little sense. It is thus little wonder that other factors easily outweigh corruption in an Indian election.</p>
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<title>A new book studies the ideologies and functioning of the RSS’s tribal wing, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram</title>
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<p>The formation of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram happened over concerns regarding the increasing activities of Christian missionaries in tribal areas. There was a fear that as the Muslim League started to demand a separate nation for Muslims, the Christian missionaries could instigate converted tribals to demand a separate nation-state for Christians. Indeed, the issue of conversion was prominent in many tribal areas, including Madhya Pradesh (then Central Provinces), even before Independence, with some princely states initiating enactments to ban conversion. These included the Raigarh state Conversion Act, 1936, the Surguja state Hindu Apostasy Act, 1945, and the Udaipur state Conversion Act, 1946. What is interesting is that all these bills were introduced or passed primarily to ban the conversion of tribes to Christianity.</p><p>During the national movement, proselytisation by Christian missionaries emerged as one of the key contested issues and a matter of concern. Even Mahatma Gandhi expressed his concern regarding conversion by Christian missionaries. In Bihar Notes (10 August 1925), he underlined that,</p><blockquote class="cms-block cms-block-quote"><p>Christian missionaries have been doing valuable service for generations, but in my humble opinion, their work suffers because at the end of it they expect the conversion of these simple people to Christianity&nbsp;… How very nice it would be if the missionaries rendered humanitarian service without the ulterior aim of conversion.</p></blockquote><p>After its formation, the RSS focused largely on the aspect of mobilising Hindus against Muslims, its leaders expressed their concerns regarding the roles of Christian missionaries in tribal areas. However, they could not start systematic work in tribal areas before the early 1950s, but its leaders, particularly Golwalkar, always raised the issue of the conversion of tribal people.</p><p>During the late 1930s and 1940s, one can find two facets of the concerns among the Congress leaders related to the role of Christian missionaries: For some leaders like Rajendra Prasad, the key issue was to maintain the political popularity and acceptance of the Congress among tribals, but for some (like Ravishankar Shukla) the chief concern was the supposed separatist tendencies enhanced by Christian missionaries. </p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">It is noteworthy that in the tribal belt of the Chota Nagpur region of Bihar, the Jharkhand movement started to take shape by the late 1930s. The Adivasi Mahasabha continuously raised the issue of a separate tribal province and became more prominent when Jaipal Singh Munda joined it and became its president in 1939. Jaipal Singh Munda was a famous hockey player who was the captain of the Indian hockey team in the Amsterdam Olympics of 1927, where they won the gold medal. Thereafter, he was selected for the Indian Civil Services under the British India Government, but rather than joining it, he focused on different administrative works and teaching, before joining politics. Incidentally, when he returned to India, Rajendra Prasad asked him to work with the Congress. But after discussions with the then Bihar governor, Munda decided to work separately for the adivasis.</h3><p>The Bihar Congress leadership was not happy with the growing influence of the Adivasi Mahasabha. Jaipal Singh Munda wrote to Rajendra Prasad on 16 January 1939, “I have now been recognised the natural leader of the Adivasis and I feel I must use all my weight to make the Adivasis work for their advancement within the national movement.” In the same letter, he emphatically argued that “I have always felt that nothing should be done to weaken the nationalistic force and I am most concerned that the Adivasi movement should be within the major national struggle for an all-India struggle.” In another letter written to Rajendra Prasad on 1 February 1939, Munda underlined that “I have always been and shall remain an ardent lover of the Congress principles.” He criticised the Bihar government for overlooking the interests of adivasis. Again, in his letter to Rajendra Prasad on 14 June 1939, Munda underlined that “ … the aims and objects of the Adivasi Sabha … were in full harmony with the Indian National Congress.” However, Rajendra Prasad was not convinced. He wrote to Munda on 3 July 1939 and mentioned, “I do not know how the Adivasi Sabha can be said to be in harmony with the Indian National Congress when it thought fit to set up candidates against the Congress candidates.”</p><p>Rajendra Prasad and other Congress leaders felt that the church was also helping the political activities of Jaipal Singh Munda and the Adivasi Mahasabha. Munda’s biographer Ashwini Kumar Pankaj claims that due to instigation by Congress leaders, the issue of Christian and non-Christian also emerged in the Adivasi Mahasabha, which led to a split in the organisation and a senior leader, Theble Uraon, formed a separate organisation named “Sanatan Adivasi Mahasabha”. Uraon had a close relationship with many Congress leaders. In 1940, when the Congress organised its annual session at Ramgarh, Jaipal Singh Munda claimed that it was a ploy by the Bihar Congress leaders to suppress his organisation. A day before the Congress session, Uraon organised a meeting in Ramgarh and severely criticised Munda, asserting that he was not a representative of non-Christian tribals and should not mislead them with his separatist ideas. It is noteworthy that Congress leaders were against the Jharkhand movement. One argument was that the Bihar Congress leaders wanted non-tribal Bihar people to be dominant in tribal areas. This argument could be partially true, but it seems that the more credible reason for opposition to the Jharkhand movement was fear of separatism, fuelled by the church and Christian missionaries.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Rajendra Prasad met a Catholic bishop in Ranchi in July 1939 and requested that the church keep a distance from politics and should not support any political party with separatist leanings. He wrote a letter to the bishop of Ranchi and requested him to keep away from the political activities of different organisations.</h3><p>There was concern that an organisation like the Adivasi Mahasabha could create a feeling of separatism in the minds of tribal youths. The Congress leadership was also against the demand of Jharkhand. Gandhian leader, AV Thakkar, popularly called Thakkar Bapa, wrote to Rajendra Prasad on 8 March 1939 regarding the resolutions of the Adivasi Mahasabha conference held on 20 and 21 January 1939. He wrote, “The chief and the first resolution is about the separation of Chota Nagpur from Bihar, to which we, of course, cannot agree.” Thakkar Bapa suggested that Rajendra Prasad form a distinct organisation to create confidence among the tribal people. On 27 March 1939, he wrote to Prasad, “The Adivasi Sabha is a talking body or an agitating body. The committee that I propose is a silent, constructive body of actual workers. Political work will not form part of it and it is expected to win the confidence of people, as you say, by its selfless work.” He also urged Prasad that the Bihar provincial government should provide economic help to such organisations. Following his suggestions, a separate organisation, “Admi Jaati Sevak Mandal” was formed. Thakkar Bapa had worked in tribal areas for many decades but did not directly advocate the spread of Hindu values in tribal society, but had deep suspicions about Christian missionaries who he thought could foster separatism in tribal areas. This feeling was prevalent among many Congress leaders as well, which played a crucial role in the formation of the VKA.</p><p>In 1948, when the then chief minister of Central Provinces, Ravishankar Shukla, was on a visit to the tribal areas of his state, he saw black flag protests and sloganeering by tribals for a separate Jharkhand state. Shukla thought it was a dangerous and divisive campaign propagated by Christian missionaries and was worried about the conversion of adivasis to Christianity and discussed his fears with Thakkar Bapa. Bapa told Shukla that it was necessary to bring tribal people into the “mainstream” to stop conversion and contain separatism. For this, he said, the help of nationalist organisations should be taken.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="938" data-height="1500" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hcbgwukanb-1750931665.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p><em>Excerpted with permission from </em>Adivasi or Vanvasi: Tribal India and the Politics of Hindutva, <em>Kamal Nayan Choubey, Penguin India.</em></p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 03:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Kamal Nayan Choubey</author>
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<title>‘Confused product of a confused brain’: When Guru Dutt cast a spell over everyone – except one man</title>
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<p>The film “leaves one confused because it is a confused product of a confused brain”, the reviewer complains. Also, “It is a picture which lacks coherence, a clear and cognizable theme and, consequently, any emotional appeal whatsoever.” Finally, the movie is “pretentious in tone and dull and confusing in effect”.</p><p>Many films have been misunderstood in their times, only to be given their due belatedly. And yet, the <em>Filmindia</em> magazine’s overwhelmingly negative review of <a href="https://scroll.in/reel/762633/pyaasa-is-the-guru-dutt-gift-that-keeps-giving">Guru Dutt’s <em>Pyaasa</em></a> is confounding, especially since <em>Pyaasa</em>, despite – or more likely because of – its melancholic poet-hero and themes of rejection and disillusionment resonated strongly with audiences when it was released in 1957.</p><p><em>Pyaasa</em> is now regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made. The celebration of Guru Dutt’s centenary – he was born on July 9, 1925 – will refocus attention on the eight features he directed. <em>Pyaasa</em>, starring Guru Dutt as the poet Vijay, who is cheated out of fame and accepted only by the sex worker played by Waheeda Rehman, will likely be recognised once again for the masterpiece that it is.</p><p>Guru Dutt’s penultimate movie is a staggering feat on all levels – the performances, SD Burman’s music, Sahir Ludhianvi’s lyrics, cinematographer VK Murthy’s beautiful compositions. Guru Dutt’s command over his craft, his sensitivity for the aesthetics of cinema, have never been better.</p><p>However, none of this was evident to the <em>Filmindia</em> reviewer, the magazine’s editor Baburao Patel. A critic who revelled in eviscerating films and their makers, Patel had a special distaste for Guru Dutt.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="400" data-height="600" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/wyncanmldl-1751987585.jpg" alt="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75764717" title="Baburao Patel in 1938. " itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Baburao Patel in 1938. </figcaption></figure><p>Patel attacked the films that Guru Dutt directed as well as produced, such as Raj Khosla’s <em>C.I.D.</em> (1956). <em>C.I.D. </em>was “thin as air and unconvincing as a Russian prisoner’s confession”. Patel, who liked to twist the knife in deep, added that the stylish Indian noir film<em> </em>was “a cheaply and stupidly conceived, unpalatable crime picture”.</p><p>Patel similarly dismissed Guru Dutt’s <em>Mr. and Mrs. 55 </em>(1955) as<em> </em>an example of the filmmaker’s “usual glamorized jugglery”.</p><p><em>Mr. and Mrs. 55, </em>starring Guru Dutt and Madhubala, is a breezily charming, if dated, film about an impecunious cartoonist who marries a clueless heiress. The movie is in the<em> </em>vein of Hollywood’s screwball comedies, with zingy repartee and beautifully filmed tunes that underscore Guru Dutt’s talent for making song interludes part of the larger story.</p><p>For Patel, the film was “an odd mixture of some silly satire, mild comedy, ludicrous characterizations, popularly tuned songs, and the usual laboriously dandified song takings which seem to have become Guru Dutt’s stock-in-trade”. Not for the first time in his reviewing career, Patel confused artistry for phoniness and cinematic bravura for flashiness.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="780" data-height="350" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/skpvcpxtbl-1751988272.jpg" alt="" title="Mr and Mrs 55 (1955). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Mr and Mrs 55 (1955). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>Baburao Patel founded <em>Filmindia</em> in 1935 and quickly established himself as an <em>enfant terrible. </em>Patel<em> </em>used his authority to not only provide contrarian views of the Hindi and other language industries but also fulminate on politics, the economy and perceived social ills.</p><p>For several decades of its existence until it shut down in 1985, <em>Filmindia</em> was one of the most powerful purveyors of the Hindi and other language industries, Sidharth Bhatia writes in <em>The Patels of Filmindia – Pioneers of Film Journalism</em> (Indus Source Books). Patel ran the magazine with his third wife, the actor and singer Sushila Rani Patel.</p><p>“Baburao was an extraordinary editor – he practically wrote the entire magazine himself until Sushila Rani came and shared some of the burden with him,” Bhatia writes. Patel’s stentorian and carping voice was on every page, whether in the industry news tidbits, the gossip columns, the opinion section written under the pseudonym Judas, or the reviews.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="369" data-height="495" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jheyxlrfgx-1752004210.jpg" alt="" title="Filmindia, January 1940." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Filmindia, January 1940.</figcaption></figure><p>‘Kaagaz Ke Phool Inflicts Severe Boredom’ was a considerably less nasty headline than the one for another film released in 1959, <em>Dil Deke Dekho</em> (“Rape of Indian Culture”) or the description of <em>Marine Drive</em> from 1955 as “a disgrace to our country”.</p><p>Ironically, one of Guru Dutt’s oft-repeated remarks was “don’t bore me.”</p><p>Patel trashed <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em>, about the vagaries of show business, as “an ineffective glycerine tear shed over the transience of a showman’s glory”. Guru Dutt too acknowledged the movie’s drawbacks, telling <em>Filmfare</em> that it was “too slow and went over the heads of audiences”.</p><p>After the <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool </em>debacle,<em> </em>Guru Dutt did not direct a film again, instead getting heavily involved with his productions. Baburao Patel seemed to approve of this decision, lavishing praise on M Sadiq’s <em>Chaudhvin Ka Chand</em> (1960) and Abrar Alvi’s <em>Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam</em> (1962).</p><p>Patel described <em>Chaudhvin Ka Chand</em> as “feelingly written and lovingly mounted”, as well as “the scintillating result of a good story and skilful presentation” that was “likely to be long remembered by picturegoers”.</p><p>These words apply more accurately to <em>Pyaasa</em>.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="800" data-height="610" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/myzcjcxwao-1751987081.png" alt="" title="Waheeda Rehman in Pyaasa (1957). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Waheeda Rehman in Pyaasa (1957). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>The source of Baburao Patel’s grudge against Guru Dutt is unclear. Sushila Rani Patel shed some light on the matter when she spoke to filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur for a biopic he was planning on Guru Dutt in 2008. Dungarpur conducted scores of interviews with Guru Dutt’s collaborators, including Abrar Alvi and VK Murthy, and people who knew the director and his wife, Geeta Dutt.</p><p>Sushila Rani Patel told Dungarpur and his research team that Guru Dutt knew her sister Sumati in the 1940s, when they were both at the dancer Uday Shankar’s cultural school in Almora. Patel also revealed that she was related to Guru Dutt’s sister, the painter Lalita Lajmi – Lajmi’s husband Gopi Lajmi was Patel’s nephew.</p><p>“My husband was very fond of pictures with a classic touch,” Patel told Dungarpur. “He didn’t like the masala films.” She did not share her husband’s view of <em>Pyaasa, </em>saying that the film “had something” and deserved its reputation as a classic.</p><p>Baburao Patel was not swayed by the reputation of a star director or actor, Sushila Rani Patel said in the interview. Her spouse “wrote fearlessly”, she said, adding. “Whatever he felt, he wrote.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="282" data-height="352" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jmahbewxwi-1751988413.gif" alt="" title="Sushila Rani Patel." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Sushila Rani Patel.</figcaption></figure><p>Dungarpur has a theory that the character played by Mala Sinha in <em>Pyaasa</em> is inspired by Sushila Rani Patel. In the film, Guru Dutt’s struggling poet Vijay and Sinha’s Meena are lovers. Meena later marries the odious publisher Ghosh (Rehman), who sets out to destroy Vijay.</p><p>Guru Dutt directed his first feature, the crime drama <em>Baazi</em>, in 1951, when he was 26 years old. In his lifetime, he was a successful filmmaker by the Hindi film industry’s standards – his movies had popular actors, most of them made good money, the songs were hits.</p><p>Yet, the reverence that is now accorded to Guru Dutt, the awe with which his innate understanding of cinema is studied, the regard for how he filmed songs – all these only followed his death most likely by suicide on October 10, 1964.</p><p>He had previously attempted suicide at least twice. His passing at the age of 39 was blamed on a lethal combination of professional setbacks, personal turmoil and possibly undiagnosed depression.</p><p>In her definitive study <em>Guru Dutt – A Life in Cinema</em> (Oxford University Press), Nasreen Munni Kabir writes: “The cruel irony of belated recognition has visited itself upon many artists, and if we think of the posthumous recognition of the poet Vijay of <em>Pyaasa</em>, it could be said that Guru Dutt had a premonition of being among such artists; indeed, his contribution to Indian cinema has only been fully recognized some years after his death in 1964.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1920" data-height="810" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/mmphdhyozx-1751987537.jpg" alt="" title="Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman in Kaagez Ke Phool (1959). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman in Kaagez Ke Phool (1959). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>A deeply complex man by all accounts, of an intense and brooding personality but also generous and affectionate, Guru Dutt was an enigma while alive. After his death, he entered the annals of geniuses who leave too early.</p><p>Kabir, who also directed the documentary <em>In Search of Guru Dutt</em> (1989), writes in her book on the filmmaker,<em> </em>“Guru Dutt could not have predicted the impact that he would have in time; not only in India but in many parts of Europe. Death has indeed brought the kind of erasure that echoes his own feelings suggested in <em>Pyaasa</em> – that a dead artist is more greatly valued.”</p><p>The cover of the <em>Filmfare</em> issue dedicated to Guru Dutt after his passing doesn’t even mention his name. The cover has a black-and-white photo of Guru Dutt’s half-shaded, pensive face looking into the camera. The text, inspired by <em>Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, </em>reads “Khuda, Maut Aur Ghulam.” God, death and the slave.</p><p>“The interviews [for the proposed biopic] revealed that people thought of Guru Dutt very highly when he was alive, but they also recognised his self-destructive streak,” Shivendra Singh Dungarpur told <em>Scroll</em>. “His peers – Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan, K Asif – had great regard for his work. Guru Dutt was the only outside director who was permitted to shoot <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em> at Mehboob’s studio.”</p><p>Although Guru Dutt was frequently described as aloof and focused on his work, he appears to have taken his revenge on Baburao Patel in <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em>.</p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/972946/as-guru-dutt-biopic-gets-underway-a-reminder-of-how-the-director-laid-himself-bare-in-his-own-films">Guru Dutt’s most autobiographical film</a> is about the tragedy of Suresh Sinha, a successful director undone by self-doubt, a bad marriage, and an extra-marital affair with his new discovery, Shanti (Waheeda Rehman). Suresh’s wealthy in-laws look down on his profession and scheme to keep their daughter Veena away from him.</p><p>Suresh’s marital family comprises a bunch of grotesque characters. In one scene, Veena’s parents, played by Mahesh Kaul and Pratima Devi, are in their living room surrounded by dogs – a staging that is almost identical to a photograph of the Patel couple that hung in their house in Mumbai, Dungarpur pointed out.</p><p>“Guru Dutt was obsessed with the artist Vincent Van Gogh, but he was pre-occupied with himself too,” Dungarpur said. “I don’t think the scene in <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool </em>was an act of revenge as such. Guru Dutt was always taking ideas from real life and giving them an autobiographical touch.”</p><p>In an essay <em>Classics and Cash</em>, which is reproduced in Kabir’s book, Guru Dutt writes about the eternal battle between creativity and commerce.</p><p>“Since centuries, the creators of classics have had to pay the price for rising above the rut of prevailing mediocrity and for their daring isolation from the hoi polloi,” Guru Dutt observes. A filmmaker who dares to experiment has to be prepared for an unpredictable outcome, which “gives edge to the thrill of movie-making”, he adds.</p><p>Although Guru Dutt lost the battle in 1964, he won the war, evident in the continuing interest in and interpretations of his exquisite and haunting films.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1200" data-height="816" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/mtzrkmffqy-1751987738.jpg" alt="" title="Guru Dutt in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, which was reshot with Dharmendra after his death. Courtesy Arun Dutt." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Guru Dutt in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, which was reshot with Dharmendra after his death. Courtesy Arun Dutt.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Also read:</strong></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/720318/photos-rare-glimpses-of-guru-dutts-last-unfinished-movie-baharen-phir-bhi-aayengi"><strong>[Photos] Rare glimpses of Guru Dutt’s last unfinished movie ‘Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi’</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/972946/as-guru-dutt-biopic-gets-underway-a-reminder-of-how-the-director-laid-himself-bare-in-his-own-films"><strong>How Guru Dutt laid himself bare in his films</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/739403/even-before-pyaasa-the-shadows-had-started-gathering-in-guru-dutts-mr-mrs-55"><strong>Even before ‘Pyaasa’, the shadows had started gathering in Guru Dutt’s ‘Mr &amp; Mrs 55’</strong></a></p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 02:15:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Nandini Ramnath</author>
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<title>Assam: Homes of 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families bulldozed in Dhubri eviction drive</title>
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<h1>Assam: Homes of 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families bulldozed in Dhubri eviction drive</h1>
<h2>‘These are erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra,’ said an affected resident.</h2>
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<address><a href="https://scroll.in/author/21934" rel="author">Rokibuz Zaman</a></address>
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<time datetime="2025-07-08T20:50:00+05:30" class="article-published-time">
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Around 1,400 Muslim families were displaced during an eviction driver in Assam's Dhubri district.
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<p>The Assam government has demolished the homes of 1,400 Muslim families of Bengali origin from nearly 1,157 acres of government land in Dhubri district to make way for a solar power project, District Magistrate Dibakar Nath told <em>Scroll</em> on Tuesday.</p><p>The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited, which is heading the project, has already been allotted the land, Nath added.</p><p>Residents affected by the demolitions told <em>Scroll</em> that nearly 10,000 Bengali-origin Muslims, who had been living in the area for at least three to four decades, were displaced from Chirakuta 1 and 2, Charuakhara Jungle Block and Santeshpur villages under the Chapar revenue circle in Dhubri.</p><p>“These are erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra,” Towfique Hussian, a resident, told <em>Scroll</em>.</p><p>On March 30, the district administration submitted a proposal to convert the Village Grazing Land, a category of government land designated for cattle grazing, for the solar power project, according to minutes of a district-level land advisory meeting held on April 2.</p><p>The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited had acquired around 1,289 acres of government land for the plant.</p><p>According to the district administration, it had issued eviction notices in advance and made daily public announcements asking residents to vacate and dismantle their homes before Sunday.</p><p>Police personnel and bulldozers began arriving at the eviction sites on Monday.</p><p>The district authorities have allocated 300 bighas of land in Baizar Alga village for the rehabilitation of the affected people, according to the eviction notice issued by the Chapar revenue circle officer. It had earmarked Rs 50,000 for one-time relief for residents to transport their belongings.</p><p>Some of the residents have received the Rs 50,000 though others claimed they have not.</p><p>However, affected residents told <em>Scroll</em> that the rehabilitation site, Baizar Alga village, is in a low-lyring riverine area. "It gets flooded most of the time in monsoon," Nazrul Islam, a displaced resident, said. "People are reluctant to go there with no roads or any other communication."</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="960" data-height="720" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/irtyihkius-1751985763.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>“Many of the residents have already moved their belongings out of fear…Everyday people were moving,” Hussian said. “Those who did not move earlier, their homes were demolished on Tuesday.”</p><p>Some residents protested against the eviction drive and threw stones at the bulldozers, damaging three of them. The police lathi-charged the protesters. </p><p>Akhil Gogoi, independent MLA and chief of Raijor Dal, arrived at the eviction site on Tuesday. He told those displaced that he would request Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to allot 165 acres for their rehabilitation.</p><p>Gogoi was subsequently detained by police for a brief period.</p><p>“This eviction is illegal and unconstitutional,” he later said. “The matter is pending before the Gauhati High Court. The Himanta Biswa Sarma government is demolishing homes unlawfully.”</p><p>Gogoi claimed that such evictions were being conducted against Muslims to capture Hindu votes. “The BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government is targeting the minorities just because they are Muslims,” he added.</p><p>Later in the day, <a class="link-external" href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1268665581642018&amp;rdid=SZ2S2DOWz6wh94ke" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Sarma said the state government</a> will carry out another eviction drive on July 10 in the Paikar area, a reserved forest area in Goalpara district.</p><p>“Our aim is clear the encroached land and use them for the public,” the chief minister told reporters. “We are with the indigenous people of Assam while Akhil Gogoi stands for a particular community. That's our poltical ideology. We will keep doing our work.”</p><p>About 400 residents from the Charuabakhra Jangal Block village, who were living on the government land after losing their homes due to erosion caused by the Brahmaputra river, had moved the Gauhati High Court against the eviction notices in April.</p><p>The residents said that the action of the district authorities violated the judgement laid down by the <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1075610/how-supreme-court-finally-checked-bulldozer-justice-and-why-it-may-not-be-enough">Supreme Court</a> in November.</p><p>The case is still pending in the High Court.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1280" data-height="960" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lkmnnfrtyh-1751985786.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>In November, the Supreme Court had held as illegal the practice of <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1072759/homes-cant-be-demolished-sc-proposes-to-issue-pan-indian-guidelines-on-bulldozer-justice"><u>demolishing properties</u></a> of persons accused of crimes as a punitive measure. It added that <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1075458/bulldozer-justice-is-unacceptable-under-rule-of-law-says-supreme-court"><u>processes must be followed</u></a> before removing allegedly illegal encroachments.</p><p>This is the fourth major eviction carried out in the last 30 days.</p><p>On June 16, Goalpara authorities <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1083555/assam-begins-drive-to-bulldoze-over-600-homes-in-goalpara-district">demolished the homes of 690 families</a>, all of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims, who were living on an allegedly encroached land in the Hasila Beel, a wetland.</p><p>The families told <em>Scroll</em> that many of them were living in the area before it was declared a wetland.</p><p>Ninety-three families of Bengali-origin Muslims were evicted on June 30 in Assam’s <a class="link-external" href="https://www.pratidintime.com/latest-assam-news-breaking-news-assam/nalbari/93-homes-demolished-in-major-eviction-drive-in-assams-nalbari-9448948" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Nalbari district</a> during an anti-encroachment drive on nearly 150 acres of village grazing reserve land in the Barkhetri revenue circle.</p><p>On Thursday, around 220 families were evicted during an <a class="link-external" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/228-bighas-of-encroached-land-cleared-in-lakhimpur/articleshow/122233640.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">anti-encroachment drive</a> in upper Assam’s Lakhimpur district. The district authorities said the families were living on 77 acres of land at four locations, including three Village Grazing Reserves.</p><p>Since the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslim – have been ousted from government land, between 2016 and August 2024, according to data provided by the state revenue and disaster management department.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:20:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Rokibuz Zaman</author>
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<title>Translated fiction: An anthology of short stories by Bengali Muslim writers</title>
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<p>“The five pir saints of the river, Badar, Badar!”</p><p>The boatmen put up the sails of seven boats from the mahajan’s godown of garan wood at Shyamganj as soon as the tide ebbed in the river Hooghly. The mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters of thirty men stood wiping their eyes and kept gazing till the boats disappeared at the river bend of Naldanri.</p><p>Arjun Kayal was from the Sundarbans; solidly built, as if hewn from a rock. His eyes were round like marbles and bloodshot. He arrived three days ago to fetch the boats. He was the sedo, the guide to Sagar Island and the forests. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather – that is, all his forefathers – had spent their lives battling tigers, cultivating forests, acting as guides to the mangrove dealers, or guiding the boatmen of the main river. His great-grandfather was no mean robber. A convicted murderer, he had been sentenced to life at the beginning of British rule. The government had packed him off to the Sundarbans with a bunch of labourers sent to clear the forested islands by luring him with release. They did this with many others. Who would otherwise come here to give up their lives to the tigers! The released prisoners quenched the fire in their blood making friends with the beasts. Did you think settlements formed in the Sundarbans out of the blue? Did the wild ferocity in the blood of the settlers of the Sundarbans come from nothing?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“We belong to a line of robbers, murderers and criminals”, said Arjun Kayal, “This jungle is our mother. We tame her by worshipping her. When my father, sedo Ahir Kayal, entered the forest after invoking the goddess, tigers would fall at his feet like tame little cats!”</h3><p>Everyone listened to Arjun Kayal. Torab Rafadan, the mahajan, smirked as he leaned against some pillows on a mattress inside the covering of the boat, a cigarette in his hand. Next to him was his cash box. An all-wave radioset. A double rifle. A box of cartridges. A five-celled flashlight. A few dry batteries. Lalu Khansama’s cooking area was on the other side – utensils, rice, lentils, flour, spices, coal, pot of tamarind, two earthen barrels of fresh water kept in the hold. Buckets, saws, choppers, and what not!</p><p>The sedo offered his prayers to the mighty Dakshin Rai, the protector of the Sundarbans. Then he worshipped Badar Ghazi and Maslandari Pir of Ghoramara Island with his votive offerings. Meanwhile, Torab Rafadan met with the coast guards at their office. He had to show them the forest permit. And his gun license. Everyone knew and respected Torab. The mahajan spent a few packs of cigarettes too on them.</p><p>The coast guards said, “Don’t chop the trees in the conserved area, and don’t kill the animals there. Share with us some honey, deer meat, and turtle eggs as you leave. How many of your men are going this time? Give us their names and addresses. Thirty men? On six large boats? And another small boat too? These boats can hold goods weighing a few thousand tonnes! Be careful now, Torab saheb, don’t lose another couple of your men like the last time. The tigers are a nuisance this year as well. In which part of the forest are you going to cut down the garan trees this time? Is it on the island between the rivers Gosaba and Harinbhanga? Alright, we’ll row over and pay a visit one night. Will you cook some deer for us?”</p><p>Torab Rafadan caressed his beard and smiled. He was a man of money. He owned a two-storeyed brick house. He had nearly seventy acres of land in his own name, and in the names of his wife and children. He had two guns, and owned a perfume shop at Hogg Market in Calcutta. The perfumery was managed by his elder son, a college dropout. His second son was at university, and his two daughters went to college. He had a godown of rice and timber, with two husking machines. He was worth a few lakhs. High-ranking government officials, police inspectors, even ministers knew him. Even with all this prosperity, he had not quit the rather difficult business of dealing in mangrove timber, which had first brought him fortune. After all, all that he had inherited from his father was a tin hut and a boat. He’d been going into the forests twice a year for two decades now. In all these years, tigers, snakes, crocodiles or cholera caused by drinking saline water had killed about twenty-five men of his fleet. Torab was unaffected by these events. These voyages and such indulgence of the forest had become his addiction. He’d killed many tigers with his gun. The fiercest of the sedos and the baulis, who collected honey from the deep forest, feared and respected him. Torab spoke very little. Solemn, as moneyed men should be.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">This time they had to sail the fleet from Frazerganj without considering the tides. The boats sailed along the bank, tossed about like the fragile skins of plantain flowers by the vicious roar of the sea. Towering columns of black clouds appeared in the sky, signs of the approaching monsoon. To these men, life was but a speck of dust in the background of the infinite sea. How helpless were they before sublime nature!</h3><p>The mahajan showed everyone their location by pointing at a map of the 24 Parganas district. They also kept an eye on the compass.</p><p>At dusk, the fleet anchored at the river bend, deep inside the forest. The river was narrow, yet the current of the tide was immense, with a continuous splashing sound of the waves crashing against the boats.</p><p>Pan-paira, bats, shamuk khol, manik-jor, jol dahuk flew through the forests as dusk approached. The jungle resonated with bird calls. The kalbaishakhi storm was followed by heavy rain. The green forest grew shadowy and was gradually engulfed in darkness. Innumerable crocodiles of different sizes lay on the riverbank. Snakes cut through the water like blades.</p><p>The rain stopped after a while. The darkness was deep. The new recruits hugged each other, shivering and groaning in fear. What if a snake or a crocodile climbed up the stern?</p><p>Lights shone dimly in the boats. The waves roared incessantly. They had to wrap up in blankets even on a Baishakh night. Torab Rafadan had loaded his double rifle with cartridges and was now writing in his account book. Baghdad radio station was airing a poignant reading of the holy Qur’an in a melodious voice. All the sleeping men had sharp swords, spears, lances and scythes lying beside them. Thirty men in six boats were sleeping, entrusting their lives to the mahajan’s gun and his bravery. Everyone was exhausted by the week’s labour. If ever the wise and seasoned mahajan nodded off, then the morning attendance would show one man less on the team.</p><p>Arjun Kayal said, “You know, Torab, all these bastards lying on the boat are asleep. Sher Ali is slumbering with his mouth wide open! Wasn’t his mother crying her heart out? The scrawny boy of sixteen that he is! The tiger took his father last year. And yet the boy is fast asleep! This is what hunger does to you.”</p><p>Arjun Kayal addressed everyone with the familiar “tui”. This was common to the people of the Sundarbans. Arjun was Muslim.</p><p>Rafadan flashed his five-celled torch. Trees stood deeply enmeshed in the jungle. The vines were thick; prickly bushes and shrubs of fanimansha, hental, harkoch, tekantal, banjhama, lankashirey, mansha, bajbaran, pan-shiuli, jaldumur, myaramara, seyankul and baichi everywhere. Rabbits, white and soft like cows’ ears, ran away hopping, scared by the light. A few ran into the water in bewilderment. Crocodiles slapped their tails on the damp sand bank, as if in agony from the sharp fins of aar-tyangra piercing their jaws.</p><p>The sounds of the Sundarbans at midnight were terrible. The sound of the crashing waves, the deep bass tune of the crickets all over the forest, occasional screeches of jungle fowl, the call of jackals and civet cats, the twittering of birds, the shrieks of monkeys, the roar of tigers, the clacking of monitor lizards, the distant howl of an attacked animal – it was terrifying, bloodcurdling altogether! It was impossible to perfectly describe everything in the forests here; the grass, vines, trees, beasts, insects, snakes, crocodiles, mud, roots, thorns, water, fishes, sky, clouds, tides, diseases, climate – it needed a few years’ labour, and would fill up more pages than the <em>Mahabharata</em>. The creator of this unwritten epic was the supreme Lord Himself, who had endowed the Sundarbans – the “beautiful forests” – with beauty and terror! How could a person cherish this horrific beauty with his limited senses! How much did the mahajan know even with his twenty years of experience! Even to him this endless forest was ever new! Ever fierce and turbulent!</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="966" data-height="1500" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/opaleqhrgo-1750752385.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p><em>Excerpted with permission from </em>‘The Merchant of Sagar Island’<em>, Abdul Jabbar, translated by Sarmistha Dutta Gupta and Shambhobi Ghosh in </em>Stayed Back, Stayed On: Short Stories by Bengali Muslim Writers<em>, edited by Epsita Halder, Orient Black Swan.</em></p>
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<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 2025 12:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Abdul JabbarSarmistha Dutta GuptaShambhobi Ghosh</author>
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<title>Demolishing homes of India’s urban poor fails to address the root causes for informal settlements</title>
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<p>Over the past few weeks, Delhi has witnessed renewed demolition drives in informal settlements, prompted in part by a Delhi High Court order to clear encroachments along major drains. While authorities describe this as essential for monsoon preparedness, it raises pressing concerns about the urban systems shaping our cities.</p><p>Over 350 homes were cleared in Jangpura’s Madrasi Camp to restore the Barapullah drain, of which 155 families remain without resettlement. In Batla House, over 100 homes faced eviction. Even though residents claimed that they had not received adequate notice and that rehabilitation plans were unclear, the<a class="link-external" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/sc-refuses-to-stay-demolition-drive-in-okhla-encroachments/articleshow/121584770.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> Supreme Court upheld the action</a>.</p><p>Though framed as steps toward a flood-resilient, green city, these actions prompt deeper questions: whose vision of the city is being realised, and what governance gaps fuel the spread of informal settlements?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Systemic gaps</h3><p>India’s urbanisation is rapid and complex, often outpacing the housing and infrastructure capacities of cities. Informal settlements, home to nearly <a class="link-external" href="https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">17% of the urban population</a>, reflect deeper structural challenges such as housing shortages, rural distress, and lack of affordable formal housing.</p><p>The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs estimated a shortfall of over <a class="link-external" href="https://mohua.gov.in/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">18 million housing units</a> for the urban poor.</p><p>While unauthorised construction is a concern, responses must be anchored in fairness, predictability, due process, and legal safeguards. Judgments such as<a class="link-external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Tellis_v._Bombay_Municipal_Corporation" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985)</a> and<a class="link-external" href="https://kanoonpedia.com/sudama-singh-vs-government-of-delhi-rehabilitation/#:~:text=In%20Sudama%20Singh%20vs%20Government%20of%20Delhi%2C%20the%20High%20Court,protection%20of%20life%20and%20limb." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> Sudama Singh v. GNCTD (2010)</a> affirm constitutional protections that mandate surveys, public consultations and rehabilitation plans.</p><p>Yet, implementation remains inconsistent. The urban poor often face eviction without alternatives, causing income loss, health insecurity and disrupted education.</p><p>Democratic local governance is central to inclusive urban development. Despite the 74th Constitutional Amendment mandating participatory institutions such as ward committees, these remain <a class="link-external" href="https://www.janaagraha.org/resources/asics-2023/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">largely dormant across states</a>, denying communities a voice in decisions that shape their lives.</p><p>Without having any influence in planning and design, local bodies cannot address the roots of informality. These institutions must evolve into active forums for participatory planning, embedding equity and the voice of citizens into how our cities grow.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Systemic approaches</h3><p>India’s cities need more than quick fixes. Bulldozers do not address the systemic roots of informality. Lasting change requires empathetic governance, foresight and institutional coherence. For instance, we at Janaagraha have developed a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.janaagraha.org/ncsr/pdf/NCSR-Concept-and-Framework.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">city-systems framework</a> that calls for planning, finance, governance, and citizen participation to work in tandem towards tackling root causes – not just visible symptoms.</p><p>Odisha’s <a class="link-external" href="https://world-habitat.org/news/press-releases/working-to-end-slums-in-indian-state-world-habitat-awards-bronze-winner-2023/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Jaga Mission</a> exemplifies this shift. Since 2017, it has combined tenure security, community engagement, and infrastructure investment to transform informal settlements, granting land titles to over 100,000 households and earning global acclaim.</p><p>Similar in-situ efforts in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Kerala show the power of tenure security and inclusive planning in developing resilient, functional neighbourhoods. As India urbanises, it must prioritise systemic reforms that embed justice and dignity at the heart of urban transformation.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Inclusive urban policy</h3><p>As our cities grow, we need policies that are inclusive and sustainable. First, evictions must follow due process, ensuring formal surveys, tenure verification, advance notice in accessible formats, legal recourse, and clear articulation of rehabilitation plans. These are not just legal mandates – they are essential for public trust.</p><p>Second, states must consider in-situ upgradation that links tenure security with improved services. Odisha’s Jaga Mission shows what is possible. Starting with settlements on non-objectionable public land can minimise displacement while leveraging existing infrastructure and fostering coordinated, community-led development.</p><p>Third, structural reforms in housing are overdue. Planning authorities must mandate inclusionary zoning, reserve land for housing for people from economically weaker sections and lower income groups, and utilise public land near transit corridors for cooperative or rental housing.</p><p>The<a class="link-external" href="https://prsindia.org/billtrack/the-model-tenancy-act-2021#:~:text=The%20Model%20Tenancy%20Act%2C%202021%20was%20approved%20by%20the%20Union,by%20states%20and%20union%20territories." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> Model Tenancy Act</a> offers a balanced framework to streamline the rental market. If implemented well with necessary safeguards, it can reduce spread of informal settlements.</p><p>Fourth, cities must work to revive ward-level participatory governance institutions. Making ward committees functional, with representation from informal settlement residents and women’s groups, will ensure planning is... |
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<title>Eco India: What do we stand to lose as critical coastal ecosystems go unmapped?</title>
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<h1>Eco India: What do we stand to lose as critical coastal ecosystems go unmapped?</h1>
<h2>Coastal Regulation Zone maps fail to include critical ecosystems, putting 245 km of India's southeast coastline at risk of encroachment and climate crises.</h2>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 291: How learning about our planet is a step towards healing it</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 291: How learning about our planet is a step towards healing it</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<h1>Eco India: How can Kannauj's famous perfume industry survive the effects of climate change?</h1>
<h2>Weather fluctuations over three years have disrupted rose and jasmine harvests in Kannauj, India's perfume capital.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 08 Jun 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 290: How can farm based industries adapt to climate change in a scientific way?</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 290: How can farm based industries adapt to climate change in a scientific way?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Jun 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h1>Eco India: Could happy and healthy hens make eggs taste better?</h1>
<h2>In India, about 80% of eggs come from battery-caged farms, but there's a global shift toward cage-free farming that allows natural hen behavior.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 289: Why animal welfare is the missing key to environmental health</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 289: Why animal welfare is the missing key to environmental health</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h2>In Delhi, about 93% residents are connected to piped water supply lines, while the rest depend on water tankers and vendor services for their water needs.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 20 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 288: How can our cities navigate water scarcity and rising demands better?</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 288: How can our cities navigate water scarcity and rising demands better?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2025 10:23:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h1>Eco India: Is unchecked urban expansion impacting our food security?</h1>
<h2>Reports suggest that the area of land that actually grows our food has shrunk by more than 3 million hectares. What could this mean for India's food security?</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 287: How can we strike a balance between development, nature and quality of life?</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 287: How can we strike a balance between development, nature and quality of life?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<title>2020 Delhi riots: Accused should be in jail till they are acquitted or convicted, police tell HC</title>
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<h1>2020 Delhi riots: Accused should be in jail till they are acquitted or convicted, police tell HC</h1>
<h2>The court on Wednesday reserved its judgment on the bail pleas of eight persons accused of being part of a ‘larger conspiracy’ behind the violence.</h2>
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<p>The Delhi Police on Wednesday urged the High Court to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/delhi/2025/Jul/09/delhi-riots-were-to-shame-india-globally-keep-accused-in-jail-till-acquittal-or-conviction-police-to-hc" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>deny bail</u></a> to those accused of being part of a “larger conspiracy” linked to the 2020 Delhi riots, claiming that they tried to defame the country in an orchestrated manner, PTI reported.</p><p>“If you are doing something against your nation then you better be in jail till you are acquitted or convicted,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the police, told a bench of Justices Naveen Chawla and Shalinder Kaur, according to the agency.</p><p>Mehta told the court that this was not an ordinary case, where those accused of a crime could argue that they should be released on bail since they had been incarcerated for a long time.</p><p>“In cases involving anti-national activities, long incarceration is not a factor,” the <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/2020-delhi-riots-larger-conspiracy-case-order-on-bail-pleas-of-umar-khalid-7-others-reserved-10116986/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">solicitor general</a> was quoted as saying by <em>The Indian Express</em>. “This is an attack on the sovereignty of the country. By attacking the National Capital, it would have an effect on the entire country.</p><p>Mehta alleged that the accused persons tried to promote communal narratives by forming a WhatsApp group named “Muslim students of JNU" [Jawaharlal Nehru University”. He claimed that former JNU students Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid, by doing so, “broke the secular fabric” of the university, PTI reported.</p><p>The solicitor general referred to an allegedly inflammatory speech that Imam made during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.</p><p>“The intention was to cause national embarrassment at a global level,” Mehta alleged, according to PTI. “February 24, 2020 was the date when the US President was to visit. Sharjeel Imam delivers a speech four weeks before this clearly indicating the timeline for execution of conspiracy. He says we have four weeks.”</p><p>In his speeches, Imam had purportedly asked the protestors to <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/951083/citizenship-act-assam-government-to-file-case-against-shaheen-bagh-protest-organiser"><u>“cut off Assam from India”</u></a> by occupying the “Muslim-dominated Chicken’s Neck”. The comment was widely perceived as secessionist, but Imam had later claimed that he had called for peaceful protests to <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/951159/citizenship-act-activist-charged-with-sedition-says-he-called-for-peaceful-road-blockades"><u>“block roads going to Assam”</u></a> – “basically a call for chakka jam”.</p><p>The High Court bench of Justices Naveen Chawla and Shalinder Kaur on Wednesday reserved its judgement on the bail petitions of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa ur Rehman, Athar Khan and Khalid Saifi. Another bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar reserved the bail petition of Tasleem Ahmed.</p><p>The bench of Justices Chawla and Kaur will hear the petition of a ninth accused person, Shadab Ahmed, on Thursday.</p><p>Clashes had <a href="https://scroll.in/tag/delhi-riots">broken out</a> in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence left 53 dead and hundreds injured.</p><p>The Delhi Police has claimed that the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Narendra Modi government and was plotted by those who organised the protests against the contentious citizenship law.</p><p>Imam, however, told the court in December that he did not <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1076778/did-not-call-for-violence-in-speeches-activist-sharjeel-imam-tells-delhi-hc">call for violence</a> in any of the speeches he gave during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. </p><p>Khalid, on his part, argued that merely being part of a <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1079442/being-part-of-whatsapp-group-does-not-imply-criminality-umar-khalid-tells-delhi-hc">WhatsApp group</a> did not imply criminal activity.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>Also read:</em></strong></p><ul class="cms-block cms-block-ul"><li><p><a href="https://scroll.in/article/1079764/five-years-on-has-india-forgotten-the-victims-of-the-delhi-riots"><strong><em><u>Five years on, has India forgotten the victims of the Delhi riots?</u></em></strong></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://scroll.in/article/1079476/five-years-later-delhi-polices-riots-conspiracy-case-is-built-on-sand"><strong><em><u>Five years later: Delhi Police’s riots conspiracy case is built on sand</u></em></strong></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://scroll.in/article/1074866/how-bench-changes-have-meant-unending-bail-proceedings-in-the-delhi-riots-case"><strong><em><u>How bench changes have meant unending bail proceedings in the Delhi riots case</u></em></strong></a></p></li></ul><hr class="block-break">
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<title>Pune car crash: Minor’s parents attempted to swap samples at second hospital, says prosecution</title>
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<h1>Pune car crash: Minor’s parents attempted to swap samples at second hospital, says prosecution</h1>
<h2>Doctors at the Aundh Government Hospital refused to tamper with the blood sample, said the police.</h2>
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<p>Parents of the minor accused in the Pune car crash attempted to swap blood samples at a second hospital as well, the police told a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.business-standard.com/india-news/juvenille-accused-in-pune-porsche-case-tried-to-swap-blood-samples-police-125070900573_1.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">court in the city</a> on Tuesday, reported PTI.</p><p>The case pertains to the death of two persons after the 17-year-old boy crashed into their motorbike with his Porsche car in Pune on May 19, 2024. The minor, reportedly from the family of a prominent city realtor, was allegedly driving under the influence of <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1068638/pune-car-crash-police-arrest-minors-mother-for-swapping-his-blood-samples"><u>alcohol</u></a>.</p><p>The first blood sample of the 17-year-old was taken at Sassoon General Hospital hours after the accident. However, the police requested another sample to be collected due to reports about possible tampering. The second sample was taken at the Aundh Government Hospital.</p><p>The <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/pune-porsche-crash-tamper-secret-second-sample-minor-driver-aundh-hospital-10115652/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">alleged attempt</a> to swap the sample at the district hospital in Aundh failed as doctors refused to tamper with it, <em>The Indian Express</em> reported. </p><p>The newspaper quoted an unidentified police officer as saying that the prosecution in the case has submitted additional documents to the court. </p><p>The documents showed that “the father and mother of the minor driver and middleman Ashpak Makandar had gone to the Aundh Government Hospital when the minor was taken there to collect a second blood sample…on May 19, 2024 by the police team”, the officer claimed.</p><p>“While the sample was supposed to be taken secretly, family members still learned about it, as some of them were at the Yerawada police station in the aftermath of the accident,” the officer claimed, adding that the accused attempted to “tamper” with the blood sample at the district hospital.</p><p>On May 20, 2024, both samples were sent to a forensics facility for DNA analysis.</p><p>Investigation had earlier shown that the <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1069765/pune-car-crash-bombay-high-court-orders-release-of-minor-accused-of-drunk-driving">blood samples</a> of the 17-year-old had been swapped with his mother at Sassoon General Hospital to conceal that he was intoxicated at the time of the crash.</p><p>Ajay Taware, head of the forensic department at Sassoon General Hospital, Medical Officer Shreehari Halnor and a staffer, Atul Ghatkamble, were arrested in the matter, PTI reported.</p><p>Others who were held are the minor’s father, Makandar, and four others identified as Amar Gaikwad, Aditya Avinash Sood, Ashish Mittal and Arun Kumar Singh.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<h1>Rush Hour: 9 dead in bridge collapse, Trump says BRICS was set up to ‘degenerate our dollar’ &amp; more</h1>
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<p><strong><em>We’re building a brand-new studio to bring you bold ground reports, sharp interviews, hard-hitting podcasts, explainers and more. </em></strong><a class="link-external" href="https://pages.razorpay.com/scrollstudiofund" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong><em>Support Scroll’s studio fund today.</em></strong></a></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>Nine persons died and six were injured as several vehicles fell into the Mahisagar river as a bridge collapsed in Gujarat’s Vadodara district on Wednesday.</strong> The incident took place at about 7.30 am when a slab between two piers of the 900-metre Gambhira bridge collapsed. The structure connected Vadodara and Anand districts.</p><p>The bridge was inaugurated in 1985. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said that the road construction department had been ordered to immediately investigate the accident. <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084345/vadodara-bridge-collapse-9-dead-after-several-vehicles-fall-into-river"><strong>Read on</strong></a></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>Two Indian Air Force pilots have died after a Jaguar fighter jet crashed near Rajasthan’s Churu.</strong> The two-seater Jaguar trainer aircraft was on a routine training mission, said the Air Force. </p><p>It also stated that no damage to civilian property had been reported. A court of inquiry has been constituted to ascertain the cause of the accident.</p><p>This is the third SEPECAT Jaguar jet to crash this year. <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084352/both-pilots-killed-as-fighter-jet-crashes-in-rajasthan"><strong>Read on</strong></a></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>The Supreme Court has refused to urgently hear a petition seeking to stop the release of the Hindi film <em>Udaipur Files</em>.</strong> The film, which is scheduled to release in theatres on Friday, is reportedly based on the 2022 killing of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal.</p><p>The writ petition was filed by Mohammed Javed, one of the eight persons accused in the murder case. Javed argued that the release of the film would violate his right to a fair trial. The petitioner has argued that the film, based on its trailer, appeared to be communally provocative.</p><p>In June 2022, Lal, a tailor, was killed in Rajasthan’s Udaipur for purportedly sharing a social media post in support of suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma. She had made disparaging remarks about Prophet Muhammad during a television debate in May 2022. <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084338/2022-kanhaiya-lal-murder-case-accused-moves-supreme-court-against-release-of-udaipur-files-film"><strong>Read on</strong></a></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>United States President Donald Trump has said that a 10% tariff on imports from countries that are part of the BRICS grouping will be introduced “pretty soon”.</strong> The comment followed Trump’s warning to countries on Sunday against aligning with the “anti-American policies” of the BRICS.</p><p>Without offering evidence, Trump also accused BRICS of trying to weaken the US and undermine the dollar’s position as the global reserve currency. “BRICS was set up to degenerate our dollar and take our dollar...take it off as the standard,” he said. “And that’s okay if they want to play that game, but I can play that game too.”</p><p>The BRICS grouping comprises India, Brazil, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Washington views the group as attempting to become an economic counterweight to the US. <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084339/brics-set-up-to-degenerate-our-dollar-says-trump"><strong>Read on</strong></a></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>If you haven’t already, sign up for our </em></strong><a class="link-external" href="https://scrollstack.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f11eeab993ed2fbea0bfb512e&amp;id=be5be8b6a9&amp;e=ad54a149f8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong><em><u>Daily Brief</u></em></strong></a><strong><em> newsletter.</em></strong></p><hr class="block-break">
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<title>Portrayal of ‘Janaki’ in Malayalam film may hurt religious sentiments: CBFC tells Kerala HC</title>
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<h1>Portrayal of ‘Janaki’ in Malayalam film may hurt religious sentiments: CBFC tells Kerala HC</h1>
<h2>The title character shares her name with the Hindu deity Sita and is depicted as a woman who was raped, the board told the court.</h2>
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<p>The Central Board of Film Certification told the Kerala High Court that it had <a class="link-external" href="https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/jsk-janaki-state-of-kerala-cbfc-objects-to-goddess-name-character-cross-examined-by-dfence-lawyer-296979#:~:text=The%20CBFC%20further%20said%20that,she%20had%20a%20boyfried%20etc." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>objected to the Malayalam film </u><em><u>Janaki vs State of Kerala</u></em></a> because the title character “Janaki”, another name of the Hindu deity Sita, is shown being subjected to rape and other traumatic experiences, <em>Live Law</em> reported on Wednesday.</p><p>In an affidavit, the board said that such a portrayal undermined “the dignity and sanctity associated with the revered persona of Goddess Sita, thereby causing grave offence to religious sentiments”.</p><p>It flagged a courtroom scene, where the character “Janaki” is being cross-examined by a defence lawyer from another religion, claiming that the interaction included “objectionable questions” and could disrupt public order. </p><p><em>Janaki vs State of Kerala</em>, which also stars Union minister Suresh Gopi, was earlier scheduled for release on June 27. However, its producers, Cosmos Entertainments, moved the High Court after the censor certificate was delayed despite their application being submitted on June 12.</p><p>On Wednesday, Justice N Nagaresh directed the board to grant the censor certification after the producers agreed to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.barandbench.com/news/kerala-high-court-orders-cbfc-to-grant-censor-certificate-to-suresh-gopi-movie-janaki-after-producers-agree-to-two-changes" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>two alterations</u></a> sought by the Central Board of Film Certification, <em>Bar and Bench</em> reported.</p><p>During the hearing, the film certification board’s counsel Abhinav Chandrachud told the court that although the board had initially proposed 96 cuts, it was now only seeking two revisions. </p><p>The first was to revise the subtitle <em>Janaki v State of Kerala</em> by changing the name to either “Janaki V” or “V Janaki” to reflect the character’s full name and second was to mute the character’s name during the courtroom scene. </p><p>Chandrachud also told the court that the Central Board of Film Certification would grant the censor certificate within three days after the revised version of the film is submitted. The matter has been listed for further hearing after a week.</p><p>During a previous hearing, Nagaresh, who watched the film on July 5, said that there was <a class="link-external" href="https://www.barandbench.com/news/why-cant-rape-survivors-character-in-suresh-gopi-film-be-named-janaki-kerala-high-court-asks-cbfc" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>no reason</u></a> why a woman who had been raped could not be named “Janaki”, <em>Bar and Bench</em> reported. He also criticised the certification board for interfering with free speech and artistic freedom.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>Also read: </em></strong><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/1083796/the-emergency-is-50-years-old-but-film-censorship-is-still-flourishing"><strong><em>The Emergency is 50 years old, but film censorship is still flourishing</em></strong></a></p><hr class="block-break">
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<title>Odisha detains more than 400 on suspicion that they are Bangladeshis, Rohingya refugees</title>
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<h1>Odisha detains more than 400 on suspicion that they are Bangladeshis, Rohingya refugees</h1>
<h2>The Trinamool Congress has claimed that among the detainees were migrants from West Bengal working in Odisha.</h2>
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<p>The Odisha Police has detained <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/odisha/over-400-suspected-illegal-immigrants-rounded-up-in-odisha-for-verification-police/article69788397.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>444 persons</u></a> in Jharsuguda for “identity verification”, suspecting them to be undocumented migrants from Bangladesh or Rohingya refugees, <em>The Hindu</em> reported on Wednesday.</p><p>Four others were detained in the port town of Paradip, according to the newspaper.</p><p>Later in the day, the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal claimed that among the detainees were migrants from the state working in Odisha. </p><p>The detentions are part of a <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1083999/west-bengal-alleges-odisha-has-detained-nearly-100-of-its-migrants-claiming-they-are-bangladeshis"><u>statewide operation</u></a> launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Odisha to identify and deport undocumented Bangladeshi migrants living in the state.</p><p>In May, the Ministry of Home Affairs set a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/odisha/over-400-suspected-illegal-immigrants-rounded-up-in-odisha-for-verification-police/article69788397.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>30-day deadline</u></a> for all states and Union Territories to verify the identity and documentation of individuals suspected to be undocumented migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar. Those failing to produce valid documents would be liable for deportation.</p><p>The ministry also instructed states to invoke their statutory powers to detect, detain and deport illegal immigrants.</p><p>On Wednesday, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP and Chairman of West Bengal’s Migrant Welfare Board Samirul Islam claimed that more than 200 migrant workers from the state had been detained in Jharsuguda “on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals”.</p><p>“This is a fresh round of detentions by the BJP-ruled Odisha government, following the earlier confinement of hundreds of migrant workers from Bengal,” Islam claimed in a social media post. “What is their fault? That they speak Bengali?”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1942873418866811165" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Once again, atrocities against Bengali-speaking migrant workers continue in Odisha's Jharsuguda district.<br>The BJP-ruled Odisha government recently detained over 200 migrant workers from various districts of Bengal — including Murshidabad, Birbhum,Malda, Nadia, Purba Burdwan, and… <a href="https://t.co/FL2WN2CsS2">pic.twitter.com/FL2WN2CsS2</a></p>— Samirul Islam (@SamirulAITC) <a href="https://twitter.com/SamirulAITC/status/1942873418866811165?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>Mahua Moitra, the party MP from Krishnanagar, claimed that 23 workers from the Nadia district were being held in “illegal detention” in Jharsuguda. </p><p>In a social media post, she said that the Krishnanagar Police had sent<a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/MahuaMoitra/status/1942901731441999993?t=bKYZ1o3vWo9Zd7-Pu5BQIw&amp;s=19" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> verification reports</a> of all the workers to Odisha and requested the authorities to release the detainees. </p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1942832845753348165" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">23 workers from Nadia being held in illegal detention in Jharsuguda. I urge <a href="https://twitter.com/SecyChief?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecyChief</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DGPOdisha?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DGPOdisha</a> to release immediately. Never happened in 24 years of <a href="https://twitter.com/Naveen_Odisha?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Naveen_Odisha</a> &amp; now it is daily occurrence. Do not think there is no-one to fight for these workers. <a href="https://t.co/n4WMBFQlB6">pic.twitter.com/n4WMBFQlB6</a></p>— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) <a href="https://twitter.com/MahuaMoitra/status/1942832845753348165?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>On Tuesday, Superintendent of Police Parmar Smit Parshottamdashose told <em>The Hindu</em> that those detained in Jharsuguda were “mainly working in the construction sector while some were engaged in the mining sector”.</p><p>“All 444 of them are men,” Parshottamdas added. </p><p>The development comes nearly a month after four men from West Bengal, who had been picked up by the Maharashtra Police and “pushed” into Bangladesh, were <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1083532/bengali-man-in-thane-sent-to-bangladesh-despite-family-government-giving-citizenship-proof-report">brought back</a> on June 15. The Murshidabad Police in West Bengal had presented proof of them being Indian citizens.</p><p>Over the past month, Indian authorities have been <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1083414/indias-pushback-policy-violates-domestic-and-international-law-but-wont-face-global-censure">pursuing a policy</a> to “push” individuals claimed to be undocumented migrants into Bangladesh. India has “pushed back” more than 2,000 persons into Bangladesh since the country launched “<a href="https://scroll.in/tag/operation-sindoor">Operation Sindoor</a>”, a military operation against terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.</p><p>The legality of the “push back” policy has been debated in India and internationally. Experts have told <em>Scroll </em>that the policy violated India’s obligations under international law and customary international law.</p><p>In March, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi informed the Assembly that <a class="link-external" href="https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2025/Jul/09/448-detained-as-odisha-government-starts-action-against-bangladeshis-rohingyas" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>3,738 undocumented migrants from Bangladesh</u></a> were identified in the state, <em>The New Indian Express</em> reported.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>Also read:</strong> <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1083414/indias-pushback-policy-violates-domestic-and-international-law-but-wont-face-global-censure"><strong><em><u>India’s ‘pushback’ policy violates domestic and international law – but won’t face global censure</u></em></strong></a></p><hr class="block-break">
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<title>Maharashtra: Shinde Sena MLA assaults canteen worker claiming he was served stale food</title>
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<h1>Maharashtra: Shinde Sena MLA assaults canteen worker claiming he was served stale food</h1>
<h2>Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis described Sanjay Gaikwad’s actions as being ‘unacceptable’.</h2>
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Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad
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<a href="https://x.com/sanjaygaikwad34/status/1931291550623158537/photo/1" target="_blank"> Sanjay Gaikwad - संजय गायकवाड, @sanjaygaikwad34/X</a>
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<p>A row has erupted in Maharashtra after Shiv Sena legislator <a class="link-external" href="https://theprint.in/india/shiv-sena-mla-sanjay-gaikwad-slaps-canteen-staffer-in-mumbai-over-stale-food/2684357/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">... |
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<title>Why Indian cities flood within hours of rain</title>
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<p><strong>W</strong>hen the monsoon arrived in Delhi last year, it brought welcome respite from the relentless heat. But for Rahish, this comfort was short-lived.</p><p>With just a short spell of rain, the street in front of his tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri was waterlogged with about a foot of rainwater. It took around four hours for it to subside.</p><p>But Rahish was expecting it. After all, he had seen the pattern repeat year after year for the last 30 years. This year, the water even entered his shop and damaged some of his cloth material. “I am still paying for the losses,” he said, as he finished the final stitches on a pair of trousers for a customer.</p><p>“The biggest problem is that there is no exit for the water that collects,” said Rahish.</p><p>Tigri is adjacent to Sangam Vihar, one of Delhi’s largest unplanned colonies, where waterlogging occurs frequently.</p><p>Excess rainwater is meant to flow into the Barapullah stormwater drain here, but most of the smaller drains that connect to it are blocked with solid waste. As a result, water seeps through manholes and flows into the sewerage system under the roads.</p><p>“But since the pipes are small, very soon it starts giving out backflow,” Rahish said. When this happens, rainwater, mixed with sewerage, flows out and contributes to the waterlogging.</p><p>This is what happened last year when water entered his home in Tigri. “We could not even use the toilet because we have an Indian-styled one, and it was covered with sewage water,” he said.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1428" data-height="1071" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/ygouopifkq-1750440721.jpg" alt="" title="Rahish (seated) has a tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri. He has seen the street in front of his shop become waterlogged during the monsoons for 30 years. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Rahish (seated) has a tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri. He has seen the street in front of his shop become waterlogged during the monsoons for 30 years. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>It isn’t just low-income neighbourhoods like Tigri that are affected by waterlogging. During the monsoon last year, rainwater also stagnated in Defence Colony, an upscale residential colony around eight kilometres north.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Numerous basements flooded here, and people lost about Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh worth of furniture and other things they had stored,” said Bhavreen Kandhari, a resident of the colony.</h3><p>The story is a familiar one across Indian cities and towns, most of whose stormwater drains are proving inadequate for increasing bouts of heavy rainfall. Last month was Mumbai’s wettest May in more than a hundred years – rains left roads waterlogged and commuters stranded, and even gushed into a newly inaugurated metro station. Media reported that the rains revealed <a class="link-external" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-rain-bmc-plans-to-revamp-drainage-capacity-targets-120mm-rainfall-per-hour/articleshow/121794660.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>80 new places</u></a> that were prone to flooding, and municipal corporation officials stated that they were planning to increase drainage capacities of vulnerable areas.</p><p>Similar scenes of flooding played out in Bengaluru, where three people were also killed in rain-related accidents.</p><p>While part of the reason for frequent flooding in Indian cities is the changing rainfall patterns – more rain tends to fall in shorter periods – another <a class="link-external" href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/gaps-in-dealing-with-bengaluru-floods-3555392" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>key factor</u></a> is poor drainage. The pattern across cities is common: poorly planned expansion means that existing drains typically lack adequate capacity; and even these are poorly maintained, almost guaranteeing their failure during days of high rainfall.</p><p>In Delhi, both Defence Colony and Tigri are adjacent to the Barapullah drain. This is a naturally occurring seasonal stream that is a tributary of the Yamuna, and earlier came alive only with the monsoon, thereby acting as a natural stormwater drain. It originates from Mehrauli in south Delhi, and flows past congested homes in Chirag Dilli, the localities of Defence Colony and Jangpura, and the busy Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station, shortly after which it meets the Yamuna.</p><p>Numerous smaller, local drains constructed by the Public Works Department are connected to this natural drain – they are supposed to collect rainwater and feed it to Barapullah, which should then carry it to the Yamuna. With these smaller drains included, Barapullah has a vast catchment area – it covers <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>91%</u></a> of South Delhi and 95% of Central Delhi.</p><p>Other stormwater drains carry out similar functions in other parts of the city – Najafgarh drains out West Delhi, while across the Yamuna, the Shahdara and Ghazipur drains carry out the same function. In all, 201 natural drains flow through Delhi.</p><p>However, <em>Scroll</em>’s ground reporting found that in numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1428" data-height="1071" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/iouximrmmf-1750441005.jpg" alt="" title="In numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">In numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>“The drains are all connected to each other, but because of such blocks the water does not reach the main drain,” said another Tigri resident Prem, pointing to a blocked drain next to the road on which a gift shop she runs is situated. She explained that the road gets waterlogged every year.</p><p>The Delhi Traffic Police has identified over <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>260 hotspots</u></a> that face frequent waterlogging in the city. This urban flooding occurs even during short spells of rain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">In Sangam Vihar, for instance, a Centre for Science and Environment <a class="link-external" href="https://www.cseindia.org/water-and-wastewater-visioning-for-large-dense-unplanned-urban-settlements-in-an-era-of-climate-risk-12177" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>report </u></a>found that with sewage lines also working as stormwater drains, flooding and sewage spillover occurs “even in a short 15-minute rainfall episode”.</h3><p>In response, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has focused on desilting the network of stormwater drains to ensure that they function at optimum capacity. As of early July, the corporation still had to <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/nearly-1-4th-of-mcd-drains-in-delhi-are-yet-to-be-desilted-report-10096657/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">complete 25%</a> of this work.</p><p>But experts told <em>Scroll </em>that while desilting is important, long-term answers to Delhi’s waterlogging would involve taking into account the natural topography of the city, delinking sewage with waste water, reviving old ponds and finding alternate exit routes for rainwater that exceeds the carrying capacity of drains.</p><p>“The administration is not looking at the issue as a system,” said AK Gosain, former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, who has worked extensively on problems of water resources engineering. Without such a holistic approach, he added, tackling individual issues through strategies such as desilting was unlikely to produce the desired results.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>This story is part of </em></strong><a href="https://scroll.in/topic/56439/common-ground"><strong><em><u>Common Ground</u></em></strong></a><strong><em>, our in-depth and investigative reporting project. Sign up </em></strong><a class="link-external" href="https://scrollstack.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f11eeab993ed2fbea0bfb512e&amp;id=e2fc1bf83f" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong><em><u>here</u></em></strong></a><strong><em> to get the stories in your inbox soon after they are released.</em></strong></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>D</strong>elhi sees broadly two kinds of flooding.</p><p>The first results when there is a rise in the level of the Yamuna, on whose banks Delhi is situated. When this occurs, usually in the monsoons, water from the river flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city.</p><p>“In such cases, the irrigation and flood department shuts the gates that connect the drains to the Yamuna, so that the river’s water does not go into the city,” said Rajender Ravi, founding member of the People’s Resource Centre, which researches infrastructure, rivers and urban agriculture. But, he added, this also prevents water in the city from draining into the Yamuna, leading to waterlogging anyway.</p><p>Low-intensity floods of this kind, where the river does not rise above its warning level of 204 metres, occur almost every monsoon. </p><p>Occasionally, these floods can also occur at a much greater intensity. This is what happened in the 2023 monsoon, when the Yamuna flowed at a level of 208.66 metres above sea level, breaking the earlier record of 207.49 metres in 1978. The irrigation and flood control department’s <a class="link-external" href="https://ifc.delhi.gov.in/ifc/flood-problem-due-river-yamuna" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>website</u></a> notes that the city saw eight such floods between the 1960s and the 1990s.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1641" data-height="1002" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hohszakyzs-1750849450.jpg" alt="" title="One kind of flooding that Delhi sees is when the Yamuna’s level rises, and water flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city. Photo: Reuters/Parth Sanyal (India Environment Society)" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">One kind of flooding that Delhi sees is when the Yamuna’s level rises, and water flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city. Photo: Reuters/Parth Sanyal (India Environment Society)</figcaption></figure><p>Such floods have also occurred when water levels rise in manmade tributaries of the Yamuna. One such tributary begins in the Najafgarh lake, which is fed by the Sahibi river, a natural tributary of the Yamuna. In 1865, the British <a class="link-external" href="https://cwp-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/White-paper-of-Najafgarh-basin-1.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>drained</u></a> this large lake out to create more arable land – to do this, they created a new channel to the Yamuna, which came to be known as the Najafgarh drain. In 1967, this channel as well as the lake itself flooded.</p><p>But a far more frequent kind of flooding is the waterlogging that occurs within localities even when the Yamuna is not in spate.</p><p>These floods are primarily caused by unplanned construction as the city has expanded. “Because of so much concretisation, there is a lot of surface flow of rainwater which is not percolating into the ground naturally, because there is no soft space for the water to enter,” said Manu Bhatnagar, who heads INTACH’s natural heritage division, and has led work on rejuvenation of drains in Delhi.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">He added that there was also a lot of “poor engineering” of drainage systems – for example, the openings of several engineered drains are higher than the grounds they are supposed to drain.</h3><p>A major impediment to tackling this problem is the fact that administrative authority over stormwater drains is currently spread out between ten institutions, including the flood and irrigation department, the Delhi Jal Board, municipal corporations and public works department.</p><p>The Delhi government has attempted to tackle the problem. To start with, it asked Gosain and his team at IIT Delhi to consolidate data from various government departments on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains, and then indicate points at which there were problems. The government also asked the team to suggest possible solutions. They were to compile the information and recommendations in a drainage masterplan – the first such to be drawn up since 1978.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/kqlgjpwwok-1750441474.jpg" alt="" title="The Delhi government asked a team at IIT Delhi to consolidate from various government departments data on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Delhi government asked a team at IIT Delhi to consolidate from various government departments data on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>When the team began gathering available data, they came up against stark limitations.</p><p>In some instances, “We found only a line was made on a GIS map,” said Gosain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“There were no dimensions, no invert levels,” he added, referring to measurements that are essential to ascertain the capacity of the stormwater drains. “These are the basic data that have to be used to understand why water is not being evacuated.”</h3><p>The team also struggled because several departments delayed providing information to them. Gosain suggested that in some instances, team members could themselves collect data from the ground, and submit it to departments for vetting.</p><p>For the next 18 months, his team collected this data, both from the ground and from different departments, analysing the functioning of stormwater drains and identifying areas that faced the most waterlogging. They also made recommendations, such as correcting the slopes of artificial drains to prevent stagnation. In 2018, they put together a <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>new masterplan</u></a>.</p><p>But the report noted that though government departments had agreed beforehand to vet the data that the team compiled, not all departments had done so. It stated that “It was unfortunate that various departments passed on the survey data without vetting the data properly.” Some departments, like the Delhi Development Authority, did not even send the data the team had sought.</p><p>Though the government itself was responsible for some of these shortcomings of the report, a government committee that reviewed the master plan put the master plan on <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-govts-technical-panel-rejects-drainage-master-plan/article37182454.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>hold</u></a><u> in 2021, </u>citing “discrepancies in data”.</p><p>It was only this April that the Public Works Department announced that by June this year, it would <a class="link-external" href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/pwd-likely-to-finalise-project-report-for-delhi-drainage-master-plan-by-jun-101743608155790.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>finalise</u></a> a detailed project report for the drainage masterplan.</p><p>Gosain hinted that he was disappointed with the delay in implementing his team’s solutions, “We prepared this huge scientific database,” he said. “It is possible to reduce the extent of flooding by implementing the recommendations made by our study and accepted by the government, as long as they do it with proper intent and effort.”</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>A</strong>mong the major measures that the government undertakes each year to try and tackle flooding is the desilting of stormwater drains.</p><p>In May, across Delhi, workers with large spades were seen entering manholes and clearing wet mud from the manmade drains. Along the larger natural drains, like Barapullah, large bulldozers did the same work. This work, typically done before the monsoon, is aimed at increasing the capacity of the drains.</p><p>But experts pointed out that poor planning has made it impossible for desilting to be carried out to the extent needed. Specifically, in many areas of the city, long stretches of these drains have been covered over in ways that leave them inaccessible. “When we were analysing the data and preparing the master plan, we found many stretches of drains around 1 km to 2 km, where there is no access to the drain and desilting is not possible,” said Gosain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Stormwater drains are only supposed to be covered temporarily so as to gain access whenever required,” he added. “But now, most are permanent. Unless you break them you won’t know if the drain is silted or not.”</h3><p>In Defence Colony, the Delhi Development Authority covered large portions of Kushak drain – a part of the Barapullah drain – to create a park. Kandhari said that residents had raised their voices “for years to not cover the drain since it prevented routine inspection, desilting and maintenance which caused silt to build up, stagnate, and lead to foul odour”.</p><p>This year, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is attempting to rectify this mistake. An official told <em>Scroll </em>that they had broken large rectangular tracts of the covered portions of this drain so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1660" data-height="1200" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/indvczeeoh-1750441739.jpg" alt="" title="After building over the Kushak drain in Defence Colony to create a park, this year the Municipal Corporation of Delhi broke rectangular tracts of the covered portions so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.&nbsp;Photo: Special arrangement" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">After building over the Kushak drain in Defence Colony to create a park, this year the Municipal Corporation of Delhi broke rectangular tracts of the covered portions so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.&nbsp;Photo: Special arrangement</figcaption></figure><p>“It is such a waste of resources,” said Kandhari, who recorded a drone video along the Kushak drain where these bulldozers can be seen at work.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1929738271732781204" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kushak Drain Saga ⬇️ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DefenceColony?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DefenceColony</a> <br><br>*Started covering: 2009<br>*Stalled: 2013<br>*Abandoned: 2014<br>* <a href="https://twitter.com/rsuri54?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rsuri54</a> moved NGT: 2015 → SC twice over→ Yamuna Committee (till 2021)<br>*2025: Back to NGT<br><br>Citizens suffer for decades while absurd decisions go unchecked.<br><br>Video as on 2/6/25 ⬇️ <a href="https://t.co/abzwQvHmZh">pic.twitter.com/abzwQvHmZh</a></p>— Bhavreen Kandhari (@BhavreenMK) <a href="https://twitter.com/BhavreenMK/status/1929738271732781204?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>It was not only residents who opposed this work. In 2015, the National Green Tribunal <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Reply%20by%20DPCC%20in%20OA%20No.%20274%20of%202022%20(Prem%20Aggarwal%20&amp;%20Ors%20Vs.%20Govt.%20of%20NCT%20of%20Delhi.).pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>noted</u></a> that work of covering drains had begun in Defence Colony and other parts of south Delhi, but that this would have “very adverse impacts upon the environment and ecology of Delhi”. It added, “This would result in more flooding, explosion of diseases and clogging of drains.”</p><p>Many smaller drains within colonies have also been covered, such as with footpaths, or with extensions of shops.</p><p>“In most of the colonies, rooftop water is connected to the sewer line, which is not designed to get the stormwater,” said Gosain. </p><p>Elsewhere, drains have temporary coverings. In Tigri for example, Prem pointed to a few shops that had covered the naalas running outside their shops with cemented slabs, but ensured that they had iron handles that would allow them to be lifted. But allowing this access has not helped residents.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“These can be opened,” she said. “If the MCD comes tomorrow to clean these drains, no one will say no. But they should at least come.”</h3><p>It was not just silt that hindered the flow of water in the drains. Prem also pointed towards a cave-like cemented structure on one side of Tigri’s market – this was an opening to a stormwater drain, towards which the ground around was intended to slope, so that water would flow into it.</p><p>The opening to this drain had not been cleaned for years, she said. It was choked with plastic packets and other waste, and had no water in it. During rains, too, residents said, this drain did not carry any water at all.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>W</strong>hile in many places, rainwater enters the sewer system and causes floods, elsewhere, sewerage is directly released into stormwater drains, polluting them and choking their capacity.</p><p>On an early June morning, a portion of the Barapullah flowing in Chirag Dilli was a muddy green channel with plastic waste and cloth material on its banks. But experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/dsnkyeklue-1750441872.jpg" alt="" title="The Barapullah drain near Chirag Dilli. Experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Barapullah drain near Chirag Dilli. Experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>“Over a period of time as urbanisation surrounded them, stormwater drains have been used as a substitute to sewer systems,” INTACH’s Bhatnagar said. “Earlier in the non-monsoon period there was never any flow. Now around the year the flow is there and that is basically sewerage.”</p><p>During the rains, since stormwater drains are already carrying sewage, they have limited capacity to take on excess rainwater.</p><p>A court-appointed Yamuna Monitoring Committee flagged this problem in 2020 – it found that sewage was mixing with stormwater in <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>144 places</u></a> in the city. The IIT Delhi Master plan found that at least 50% of the capital territory does not have access to the engineered sewer system, and that “sewage generated from these areas is inevitably discharged into the storm water system”, which leads to “overflows and sluggish movement of the storm water within the drainage network”.</p><p>Not just sewage, even industrial waste flows in these drains. When the Yamuna Monitoring Committee did a random survey of industries in Bawana and Narela between 2019 and 2020, they found that <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>29 industries </u></a>were discharging their wastewater into stormwater drains.</p><p>The National Green Tribunal also issued directions to the Delhi Jal Board in 2015, 2017 and 2019 to ensure that stormwater drains do not carry sewage. In 2017, the board claimed that it had indeed stopped the entry of sewage into 11 out of 17 drains where it had been mixing with stormwater. But upon ground verification, the committee <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>found</u></a> that a number of these drains were still carrying sewage.</p><p>The Municipal Corporation of Delhi official agreed that sewage and industrial waste continues to flow into nalas. “But that is anyway the responsibility of Delhi Jal Board,” he said.</p><p><em>Scroll</em> emailed Delhi government authorities, seeking their responses to criticisms of poor planning and management of the the city’s stormwater drain system. This story will be updated if they respond.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>I</strong>n some parts of Delhi, the Public Works Department has <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-pwd-begins-preliminary-work-redeveloping-18-km-stormwater-drain-9665443/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>proposed</u></a> that it will lay drains of a larger width to prevent waterlogging. But experts argue that this would not be practical because it would entail digging up large parts of the city.</p><p>“The other option we have is to use and rejuvenate all the existing waterbodies, induce infiltration through rainwater harvesting, create retention storages in the city to reduce the stormwater and flooding to some extent,” said Gosain.</p><p>Indeed, in the master plan, Gosain and his team created simulations based on the data of slopes and drains they collected, to see if waterbodies in Delhi could naturally absorb the rainwater run-off. After mapping existing lakes and ponds in the three major drainage basins – Najafgarh, Barapullah, and Trans Yamuna – they found that waterbodies “could store a considerable volume” of water.</p><p>In Budhela, an urban village in south-west Delhi, residents explained that up till about two decades ago, an old pond or johad, played exactly this role. “This is where we used to take cows and goats for a swim, and we would swim ourselves,” said Ramniwas, a resident of the village. He explained that the natural incline of the area was such that during rains, runoff from the interiors of the densely laid streets of Budhela would flow into this rainfed lake. The village is part of the Najafgarh drainage basin, and the main Najafgarh drain flows less than a kilometre from Budhela.</p><p>But in 2002, Delhi Development Authority acquired the pond from the gram sabha and handed it over to Delhi government’s cultural wing to develop a building to host cultural events. To make the ground stable, the Delhi government filled the pond completely in the years following it.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Since that time, we have started seeing waterlogging issues in a few of our streets like this one,” said another resident Harmohan, as we walked on a street adjacent to the boundary of the pond.</h3><p>Budhela’s waterlogged street in the rains has also presented a health hazard – Harmohan explained that numerous mosquitoes breed on the still water, raising the risk of diseases spreading among residents.</p><p>It was only in late 2023 that the construction of the building began on the land where the pond had been. In 2024, a resident challenged the project in the Delhi High Court, arguing that the court had set precedent in 2013, when it directed the Delhi Development Authority to cancel all allotments of land on waterbodies wherever the land was still vacant – the court had also ordered the authority to revive these water bodies.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/gddlemzcyx-1750441983.jpg" alt="" title="In 2002, the Delhi government acquired a pond in Budhela village in south-west Delhi to construct a building to host cultural events. Since then, the village has seen significant waterlogging. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">In 2002, the Delhi government acquired a pond in Budhela village in south-west Delhi to construct a building to host cultural events. Since then, the village has seen significant waterlogging. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>This March, the Delhi High Court stayed the construction of the building.</p><p>When <em>Scroll</em> visited the johad on a hot June morning, a half constructed two-storey building stood in the depression of the dry pond. “We want the pond to be used as a pond, so that it can be used for the village residents,” said Ramniwas.</p><p>Experts also suggest other methods to tackle excess water that do not rely on stormwater drains – though they cautioned that the authorities had delayed acting on the problem. “Public parks also might have certain depressed areas where the stormwater can collect and recharge acquifers,” said Bhatnagar. He explained that rainwater being collected from roofs in homes around those localities could be directed into these depressions, rather than into into stormwater drains.</p><p>For now, residents are unsure of how much the desilting work in the city will help during the monsoon. Tigri’s Rahish said that he had been writing to different authorities for years to pay attention to the waterlogging in their locality, but that nothing had changed. “When it rains, the water stops, our lives stop for a few hours,” he said.</p>
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<author>Vaishnavi Rathore</author>
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<title>Marang Buru vs Parasnath: The conflict over Jharkhand’s highest peak</title>
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<p><strong class="drop-cap">I</strong>t was 8.30 pm in the town of Madhuban in Jharkhand, and Itwari Soren and Ramesh Murmu sat listless outside a lavish Jain mansion.</p><p>The two, who are palanquin bearers and belong to the Santal Adivasi community, were waiting for shops on the town’s main road to close so that they could sleep.</p><p>“We sleep on the roads with just our gamchas to lie down on,” said Itwari, referring to the towel also often used as a headscarf. “The mosquitoes keep biting us and if it rains, we get drenched. There are several guesthouses around here for pilgrims, but no facilities for us doliwale to stay.”</p><p>The two had not had any work that day in mid-May, or in fact that week. “This is the off season. The peak season is between March and October when Jain pilgrims visit in flocks,” Itwari said. “Then, we compete to book passengers and carry them up the hill.”</p><p>The hill he was referring to is the highest point in Jharkhand, and goes by two names. To Jains, it is Parasnath Hill, named after Parsvanatha, the twenty-third of 24 Jain tirthankaras, the central spiritual figures of the religion. Jains know the sacred site atop the hill as Sammed Shikarji and believe that 20 tirthankaras attained salvation there.</p><p>But the hill is also a sacred site to Itwari and Ramesh’s community. The Santals call the hill Marang Buru, after the foremost hill deity in their pantheon. They have three key sacred sites – the dishom manjhi thaan, where the headman worships ancestors and deities, the jug jaher thaan, a sacred grove, and the lo bir vaisi bodra darha, where the traditional court of Adivasis of the region is held.</p><p>At the same time, the hill is also a crucial source of employment to thousands of doliwalas like Itwari and Ramesh, who depend on Jain pilgrims and other visitors for a livelihood for at least six months in a year.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1800" data-height="806" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lstaeqzytd-1750157310.jpg" alt="" title="Ramesh Murmu (centre) and Itwari Soren (right) work as palanquin bearers in Madhuban, Jharkhand. They earn a living by carrying Jain pilgrims to the top of the Parasnath hill, where a Jain shrine is located. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Ramesh Murmu (centre) and Itwari Soren (right) work as palanquin bearers in Madhuban, Jharkhand. They earn a living by carrying Jain pilgrims to the top of the Parasnath hill, where a Jain shrine is located. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>“Pilgrims, especially older ones, are not able to climb to the top,” said Sikandar Hembrom of the Marang Buru Sanvta Susaar Baisi, an organisation which is fighting for the rights of Adivasis over the hill – Hembrom is also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.</p><p>He explained that it was typically Adivasis, as well as members of a few other marginalised groups, such as the Ghatwar and Turi communities, who carried pilgrims to the peak.</p><p>The palanquin bearers usually set out at 2 am, and take at least eight hours to complete the trek of 27 km. Two bearers charge Rs 2,300 to carry a person who weighs less than 49 kg, and Rs 2,760 for a person who weighs between 50 kg and 69 kg. For those who weigh more, bearers usually use chairs carried by four people, for which rates start at Rs 4,600.</p><p>These rates haven’t changed since 2019, Itwari said, showing me a rate card. During peak season, the bearers get regular work and earn between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 a month. For the remainder of the time, they work on their fields in neighbouring villages and do small odd jobs. “It is not an easy job, carrying so much weight while climbing a hill,” said Ramesh. “But we don’t have a choice and are compelled to do it. There are no better opportunities around here to earn a living.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hvonnjwwie-1750157379.jpg" alt="" title="Two palanquin bearers await customers in Madhuban. The rates for the work have not changed since 2019. Photos: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Two palanquin bearers await customers in Madhuban. The rates for the work have not changed since 2019. Photos: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1587" data-height="1200" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/ubokijgtpb-1750157787.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>Some locals claim that the two communities have co-existed in this fashion since time immemorial.</p><p>“Jains and Adivasis live harmoniously here,” said Amit Jain, the mahamantri, or general secretary, of Madhuban’s Jain community. “This practice of Adivasi doliwalas carrying pilgrims up to the peak has been going on for thousands of years.”</p><p>But this description also elides a tension that has long simmered between the two groups over their rights to the hill. It is centred around the very different relationships the two communities have with the site, and with their faith.</p><p>The most prominent point of contention is Sendra, an annual religious festival of the Adivasis, at which the community hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. A 2024 <a class="link-external" href="https://wap.hapres.com/htmls/JSR_1572_Detail.html#09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>paper</u></a> on Sendra in West Bengal and “ethnotourism” notes that the hunting in the festival is largely a “symbolic expression of ancient culture” through which tribes seek to “retain their ancestral legacy”.</p><p>Jains, meanwhile, see nonviolence as a core principle of their religion – over the years, some members of the community have challenged the hunt as a practice that hurts their religious sentiments.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1638" data-height="734" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jvsadqhzzs-1750245416.jpg" alt="" title="The most prominent point of contention between the Adivasi and Jain communities is an annual religious festival in which the former hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The most prominent point of contention between the Adivasi and Jain communities is an annual religious festival in which the former hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>In January, a Jain trust filed a petition in the Jharkhand High Court – among its demands was that the government “take preventive measures against activities that defile the sanctity of the Hill”. The petition also sought the implementation of a 2023 environment ministry memorandum, which effectively prohibited hunting, and the consumption of meat and alcohol, on the hill.</p><p>“This ruling fails to recognise Adivasi traditions, so we will challenge it and fight for our rights in court,” said Hembrom.</p><p>Some Adivasis argue that these demands contravene core tenets of Jainism itself. “The Jain religion is a beautiful one, they have a principle which says – live and let live,” said Bhagwan Kisku, an activist. “But in Madhuban, they are not practicing that. Instead, they are erasing Adivasis.”</p><p><em>Scroll </em>sent queries about the conflict over the hill to Jain trusts involved in litigation, as well as the environment ministry, local police and the state government. This story will be updated if any responses are received.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong class="drop-cap">C</strong>ommunities’ legal claims over the hill, and efforts to gain control over it, have a long and chequered history.</p><p>In 1893, for instance, the Calcutta High Court heard a dispute over the running of a pig’s lard factory on the hill, which offended the sentiments of Jains.</p><p>In its judgement in favour of the Jains, the court cited a previous order of a district judge, stating “the plaintiff’s witnesses have told us that in their estimation every stone of Parash Nath Hill is holy and an object of adoration”. That order noted that it could not mark out particular places as sacred because the tirthankaras “may have died anywhere on the Hill”.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1400" data-height="627" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/einwrvfbsn-1750242508.jpg" alt="" title="Communities attempts to gain control over the hill date back to at least the nineteenth century, when the Jain community protested a pig’s lard factory on it. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Communities attempts to gain control over the hill date back to at least the nineteenth century, when the Jain community protested a pig’s lard factory on it. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>But over the years, courts and administrative bodies have also upheld the rights of Adivasis over the hill.</p><p>For instance, the community’s hunting tradition was noted in a 1911 “cadastral survey”, which set out land rights of communities over particular tracts of land.</p><p>That same year, Maharaj Bahadur Singh, acting on behalf of the Shwetambar Jain community, filed<a class="link-external" href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/239245/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u> a case</u></a> in the Patna High Court demanding, among other things, that the entry about the hunt in the cadastral survey be expunged. The judge ruled in favour of the natives, stating that they had a “prescriptive or customary right” to the hill. He further quoted the “assistant settlement officer”, who had stated that “the hunting does not seem to me to do any harm to the worshippers of the temples and the hills, as the hunters do nothing which could hurt their feelings”.</p><p>The petitioners appealed this decision in the highest court of appeal in the British empire at the time. “The case went up to the Privy Council and it was held that the Santals have the customary right of hunting on Parasnath Hill,” the 1957 Hazaribagh district gazetteer stated.</p><p>The Jain community continued to try and gain exclusive control over the hill. Court <a class="link-external" href="https://www.courtkutchehry.com/Judgement/Search/AdvancedV2?s_acts=Bihar%20Land%20Reforms%20(Amendment)%20Act,%201954&amp;section_art=section&amp;s_article_val=4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>documents</u></a> show that in 1918, the Seth Anandji Kalyanji Trust, representing the Shwetambar Jain community, paid to gain rights to the hill from local rulers.</p><p>But these efforts were negated after India acquired independence and became a democracy. Specifically, in 1953, the state of Bihar passed the Bihar Land Reforms Act, which vested rights over the hill with the state government.</p><p>In the decades that followed, both communities used the hill as part of their customs without any significant disputes arising between them. In 1984, the government granted the area significant protection by forming the Parasnath and Topchanchi wildlife sanctuaries, which included large portions of the hill.</p><p>The area under protection was widened in 2019, when the ministry of environment, forests and climate change issued a new notification declaring a strip of land 25 km wide around the sanctuaries, amounting to a total of 208.82 sq km, as an “eco-sensitive zone”.</p><p>Developments that followed this left both communities worried about their rights over the hill, albeit for strikingly different reasons.</p><p>In 2019, the environment ministry instructed the state government to promote eco-tourism in the area and develop a “tourism master plan”. Accordingly, in February 2022, the Jharkhand government launched a tourism <a class="link-external" href="https://www.nsws.gov.in/s3fs/2022-10/Jharkhand%20Tourism%20Policy%202021.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>policy</u></a>, under which it stated that Parasnath, along with other sites, would be developed as a religious pilgrimage site. This move led to widespread outrage in the Jain community, which came out in large numbers across the country to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jain-protests-notification-sammed-shikharji-parasnath-hill-giridih-shetrunjaya-bhavnagar/article66346041.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>protest</u></a> the proposed changes to the site. “We were afraid that the promotion of tourism would desecrate the sanctity of the site,” said Amit Jain.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/tkgzxtzqsg-1750242879.jpg" alt="" title="The Jain community protested a move by the government in 2022 to promote the hill as a tourist site. They argued that doing so would desecrate its sanctity. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Jain community protested a move by the government in 2022 to promote the hill as a tourist site. They argued that doing so would desecrate its sanctity. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>In January 2023, under pressure from the protests, the environment ministry issued an office <a class="link-external" href="https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2023/jan/doc202315150001.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>memorandum</u></a> that stayed all activities on the hill related to tourism.</p><p>But the memorandum contained another directive that Adivasis argued impinged on their rights over the hill: it instructed the state government to “strictly enforce” provisions of a clause of the “management plan” of the Parasnath sanctuary “which protects the whole Parasnath Hill”. This provision includes a categorical prohibition on the sale and consumption of “liquor, drugs, and other intoxicants” and “committing injurious acts to animals”.</p><p>These prohibitions are in keeping with the Jain tenets of vegetarianism, teetotalism and non-violence towards all living creatures.</p><p>However, they are in direct opposition to customary Adivasi rituals that require the use of hadiya, or rice beer, and often include the sacrifice of animals like chickens. Thus, the Adivasi community believes that these policies favour the Jain community over them.</p><p>But the state government did not press forward with the implementation of these directions.</p><p>It was in this context that the Ahmedabad-based Jain trust, named Jyot, filed the petition in the Jharkhand High Court asking that the directions be implemented. After hearing the petition, the High Court <a class="link-external" href="https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/jharkhand-high-court/jharkhand-high-court-orders-parasnath-hill-sacred-to-jain-ban-tourism-liquor-non-veg-food-291116" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>directed</u></a> the state government to implement the clauses listed in the memorandum.</p><p>Following this order, Giridih’s superintendent of police told <em>Scroll</em>,<em> </em>the number of home guards in the area had been increased to ensure that the court’s orders were enforced. As of May 13, they had not received any complaints of the order being violated.</p><p>But several Adivasis in and around Marang Buru are outraged. “It’s not like we’re forcibly entering their temples to perform our rituals,” said Arjun Marandi, a local Adivasi leader from Sohraia village. “We’re doing it on our land, which is far away from their temples.”</p><p>Referring to the Ahmedabad-based petitioners, Hembrom argued that urban, non-Jharkhandis from outside the state had no right to dictate terms on Marang Buru. “As Adivasis we were here first,” he said. “We have co-existed in harmony with the Jain population here so far. How can those sitting in metropolitan cities decide that the hill belongs solely to them?”</p><p>A group of activists from the area, including Hembrom, filed a counter-petition in the high court on May 5. The petition asserts Adivasis’ claims over Marang Buru and seeks the protection of their right to conduct their customary practices and rituals on the hill.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong class="drop-cap">E</strong>ven as the dispute between the communities plays out, Adivasis argue that their presence on the hill and their rights over it have to a large extent been erased.</p><p>This is despite the fact that there are far more Adivasis in the region than Jains. According to the 2011 census, Scheduled Tribes form 44% and Jains form 0.6% of the total population in Pirtand block, where Madhuban is located.</p><p>The eco-sensitive zone also has a large Adivasi population. Giridih’s district collector Naman Priyesh Lakra told <em>Scroll</em> that many of the 99 villages located within this region were inhabited by Adivasis. But he noted that the last land survey in the area was conducted in 1911 and that official current data was unavailable. The administration planned to start work on a social profile led by the District Legal Services Authority soon, he added.</p><p>Meanwhile, in recent years, “none of the government notifications regarding Parasnath hill have recognised that the place is also sacred to Santals”, Hembrom said.</p><p>Indeed, the recent notifications by the centre and the state government, pertaining to environmental protections and restrictions on tourism on the hill, make no reference to the site as Marang Buru, or mention Adivasis. “This is despite the fact that multiple Adivasi chief ministers from the state, and even President Droupadi Murmu, have travelled to Marang Buru to pay their respects,” Hembrom said.</p><p>This was apparent on the route from Parasnath railway station to Madhuban, along which one only sees signboards directing travellers to “Parasnath hill”. Upon entering Madhuban, one is greeted by a tall ornamental gateway typical of Jain architecture. Inside the town, there are several grand temples, mansions and guest houses, all for Jain pilgrims who visit from across the country.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/gxeekjwwqs-1750242958.jpg" alt="" title="The gateway in Madhuban. The town has numerous grand temples, mansions and guesthouses for the Jain pilgrims who visit it from across the country. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The gateway in Madhuban. The town has numerous grand temples, mansions and guesthouses for the Jain pilgrims who visit it from across the country. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>The main pathway that leads to the top of the hill has a tall signboard with a logo of the government of Jharkhand that welcomes visitors to Shikarji Sammed. It is only below this that a much smaller signboard welcomes visitors to Marang Buru. A few steps ahead, a few Sarna flags can be seen near the manjhi thaan.</p><p>Some activists noted that Adivasis had been edged out of Madhuban by wealthier communities. “A lot of the land that has been developed in Madhuban originally belonged to the Turi community,” said the activist Bhagwan Kisku. “But today when you walk through the town, you’ll find it difficult to spot a Turi person. There are so many grand mansions there of different sects of the Jain community but the number of locals is very less.”</p><p>The Jain community’s dominance over land in Madhuban is clear atop the hill too. Lakra, the district collector, told <em>Scroll</em> that the Jain community owned only eight decimals of land on the hill. But Jain sacred sites stretch across the 27-km-long parikrama path, or circular pilgrimage path. “For the longest time there were only two temples on top of Parasnath,” said Kisku. “But after the 2000s, these grew in number and today there are a total of 32 sacred Jain structures on top of the hill.”</p><p>He noted that it was not just that Adivasi customs conflicted with the Jain religion, but also the reverse. “Adivasis worship trees and rocks. Haven’t Jains torn down these trees and rocks to build their temples? But nobody thinks of that as an issue,” said Kisku, who is a member of an association called Marang Buru Sansthan, which is affiliated to the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party.</p><p>Some local leaders from the Jain community sought to downplay the conflict. “We don’t deny that this is an Adivasi area. Adivasis have been living in the forest for thousands of years,” said Amit Jain. “Of course they have the right to practice their own customs in their homes and sacred sites.”</p><p>He added, “The actual community based here is far away from this conflict. It is small leaders who are spreading political propaganda to agitate local people.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/agzzvqudka-1750243870.jpg" alt="" title="The dishom manjhi thaan of the Adivasi community on the hill, where the headman worships ancestors. They argued that Jains had torn down rocks and trees to build their numerous temples. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The dishom manjhi thaan of the Adivasi community on the hill, where the headman worships ancestors. They argued that Jains had torn down rocks and trees to build their numerous temples. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>But when it came to specific rules and restrictions, it was clear that there was a lack of clarity among the communities, which was breeding resentment.</p><p>The question of consumption of meat and alcohol on the hill is among the most contentious of these matters. Upon entering the pathway to the peak, one is greeted by large hoardings installed by the Madhuban panchayat, which state that the “consumption of non-vegetarian food and alcohol is a punishable offence, as per orders from the district administration”.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1433" data-height="642" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/itfowavofx-1750243949.jpg" alt="" title="A board near the entrance of the pathway to the peak, which states that consuming meat and alcohol is punishable. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A board near the entrance of the pathway to the peak, which states that consuming meat and alcohol is punishable. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>Savita Tudu, the panchayat pramukh of Madhuban, and the sole Adivasi person mentioned on the hoardings, said that the rule only applied to the Jain community’s sacred sites and not everywhere on the hill. “It’s possible that Adivasis might give up alcohol and meat but our deities cannot do without them,” she said. “They are an inherent part of our culture.”</p><p>Jain, meanwhile, said that tourists to Parasnath hill consumed ... |
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<title>What does Trump’s ceasefire announcement mean for Modi's strongman image?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>follow</u></em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>At 5.25 pm on Saturday, the President of the United States posted a message on social media that brought relief to nearly two billion people. “After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE,” he said (caps are Trump’s, not mine).</p><p>It was only half an hour later that the government of India actually announced a ceasefire. “Both sides would stop all firing and military action on land, air and sea at 5 pm,” said Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in a press briefing that lasted less than a minute.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1220" data-height="1107" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/eaqcjqtfhy-1746948336.jpeg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>Why did another country announce that India’s armed forces are going to stop hostilities with Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack? And what does that politically mean for Modi’s strongman image?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Made in America</h3><p>The answer to the first question is simple: the US is claiming credit for brokering peace between the subcontinental twins. In fact, the US state department has put out a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/05/announcing-a-u-s-brokered-ceasefire-between-india-and-pakistan/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>statement</u></a> calling this a “US-Brokered Ceasefire between India and Pakistan”. </p><p>CNN has <a class="link-external" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/10/politics/vance-modi-india-pakistan-intelligence" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>reported</u></a> that the US received “alarming intelligence” on Friday that could lead to a “dramatic escalation”. The US Vice President then called Modi urging him to talk to Pakistan and “to consider options for de-escalation”. This was the “critical moment” that got India and Pakistan moving towards a ceasefire, according to CNN.</p><p>India’s long-held position has always been that its conflict with Pakistan is a bilateral matter and it does not want any mediation. Unsurprisingly, the Modi government has rushed to firefight these US statements, putting a flurry of anonymous quotes in the media denying that the US had any role to play.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="638" data-height="290" style=""><a href="https://x.com/sidhant/status/1921198484897546663" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jdmahldmik-1746948383.png" alt="" title="A journalist tweets out a statement from an anonymous source denying US mediation." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A journalist tweets out a statement from an anonymous source denying US mediation.</figcaption></figure><p>Even worse, the US’ statements seem to suggest that it thinks Kashmir is back as an issue internationally. On Sunday, Trump put out another <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/MichaelKugelman/status/1921419633824788981" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">statement</a> offering to mediate so that a “solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir”. Before that Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that India and Pakistan had agreed to “start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site,” contradicting Delhi’s position that it will not talk till Islamabad abjures terror.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="633" data-height="845" style=""><a href="https://x.com/MichaelKugelman/status/1921419633824788981" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/chmikmrloq-1746948424.png" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Strong, man?</strong></h3><p>India’s ideal war aim, as it bombed Pakistan on May 7, was to make the country bend completely. “India seeks for Pakistan to have an embarrassing defeat,” <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/clary_co/status/1921092414128767438" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>said</u></a> Christopher Clary, a US academic and an expert on South Asia’s security politics.</p><p>However, rather than a Pakistani military surrender as India achieved in 1971 when Indira Gandhi was prime minister, what Modi has managed to pull off is a ceasefire. The absence of a surrender is risky for Modi's strongman image. That the US is now claiming that it brokered the ceasefire is doubly so.</p><p>Notably, Modi has long attacked the Congress as being weak for reaching out to the US. “Our minister went to America and started crying ‘Obama, Obama’,” Modi had said in a viral <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/nehafolksinger/status/1921442607592263691" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>interview</u></a> from when he was Gujarat chief minister, making mock actions of tears.</p><p>Will the Congress now be able to politicise this in the same way, attacking Modi’s as being weak for Trump’s claims of mediation?</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="631" data-height="372" style=""><a href="https://x.com/ShefVaidya/status/1921186640665415817" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lwraiplaku-1746948452.png" alt="" title="A prominent social media influencer and Modi supporter announces disappointment with the ceasefire" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A prominent social media influencer and Modi supporter announces disappointment with the ceasefire</figcaption></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">What happens now?</h3><p>The other risk for Modi is if Pakistan decides to continue its policy of supporting terror. Like the ceasefire after India’s and Pakistan’s tit-for-tat airstrikes in 2019, the current detente is premised on allowing both sides to go to their people and claim a Potemkin victory. However, 2019 is a poor template for Delhi: if India hoped that airstrikes would dissuade Pakistan from backing terror, that is clearly not the case, given the horror in Pahalgam.</p><p>Will the 2025 hostilities persuade Pakistan to end its support to terror if 2019 didn’t? There are already prominent voices of scepticism asking what India achieved by Operation Sindoor, given the ceasefire only three days later.</p><p>“We have left India’s future history to ask what politico-strategic advantages, if any, were gained after its kinetic and non-kinetic actions post Pakistani horrific terror strike in Pahalgam on 22 April,” former Indian Army chief Ved Malik <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/Vedmalik1/status/1921202136592879853" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>posted</u></a> on social media.</p><p>Even as journalists and analysts unpack the political losses and gains for individual players and states, one thing is certain: the people of South Asia simply cannot afford conflict. Both India and Pakistan are poor countries with large populations and nuclear weapons. War is simply not an option. A ceasefire is great news. Now we only need to hope that it sticks.</p>
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<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>The importance of secular optics during ‘Operation Sindoor’</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>follow</u></em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>In the early hours of Wednesday, the Indian armed forces struck nine terrorist camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This was in response to the April 22 attack in Pahalgam that left 26 dead.</p><p>War is about weapons. But it is also about narrative. Even as India delivered a military response to Pakistan for its support to cross-border terror, its post-operation messaging was also strong.</p><p>For one, India’s name for the military attack, Operation Sindoor, highlighted the fact that the Pahalgam terrorists had shot dead men in front of their families. The Hindi word “sindoor” refers to the vermillion pigment many Indian women use on their heads as a sign of marriage. Even more vivid were the secular optics of the government briefing on Wednesday morning.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Communal terror</h3><p>Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri was emphatic that the aim of the terrorists in Pahalgam was to spread strife within Indian society. “The manner of the attack was also driven by the objective of provoking communal discord, both in Jammu and Kashmir and in the rest of the nation,” Misri said, referring to the fact that many male tourists in Kashmir had been shot dead after being asked about their faith; Hindus were targetted. “It is to the credit of the government and the people of India that these designs were foiled.”</p><p>The Foreign Secretary was flanked by Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, who provided details of Operation Sindoor.</p><p>By explicitly saying that the terrorists in Pahalgam intended to stoke communal conflict and including a Muslim army officer as part of the high-voltage briefing, the Indian government was using explicitly secular messaging even as India militarily stared down its nuclear twin, Pakistan.</p><p>Misri’s statement was not made in a vacuum. Pahalgam was followed by a wave of bitter communalism within India. Several Hindutva ideologues tried to attack Indian Muslims using the cover of the Pakistan-backed terror strike.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1920019600785158232" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Terrorists who attacked Hindus in Pehalgam wanted to provoke "communal discord" in India. <br>These accounts such as <a href="https://twitter.com/randomsena?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@randomsena</a> are helping them by targeting 25+ Crore Indian Muslims. Unfortunately the Indian government or the Police will never take any action against them. <a href="https://t.co/yxv2VMVTM1">pic.twitter.com/yxv2VMVTM1</a></p>— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) <a href="https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1920019600785158232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>The online hate was so bitter that even <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081984/womens-commission-condemns-online-trolling-of-pahalgam-attack-victims-wife-after-her-peace-appeal">Himanshi Narwal</a>, wife of Indian Navy officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, who was killed in Pahalgam, was not spared. Her statement asking Indians not to “spew hate” against “Muslims and Kashmiris” attracted a spate of abuse from Hindutva supporters. It was so intense, the National Commission for Women stepped in to condemn the online abuse.</p><p>But it was not just online hate. There were <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081835/after-pahalgam-terror-attack-anti-muslim-violence-reported-in-four-states">physical attacks</a> too. A day after Pahalgam, for example, Kashmiri shawl sellers were assaulted in Mussoorie, leading to at least 16 people fleeing from the city.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">An exception</h3><p>Even as the Modi government’s messaging post-Sindoor has been secular and attempted to counter the obvious aims of the Pahalgam terrorists, this level-headedness has been rare. Over the past decade, the Modi government has often stoked communal given its adherence to Hindutva as well as the electoral dividends that sectarian politics has paid for the BJP since the 1990s.</p><p>However, as Pahalgam and its aftermath shows, communal strife is not just a moral wrong – for India it is a major security faultline that its adversaries are more than happy to try to widen. India is a continent-sized country with most of its people desperately poor. To add constant communal strife to this mix is a surefire recipe for disaster.</p><p>The phrase “anti-national” is often thrown about loosely nowadays and I am always wary of using so blunt a phrase. But if there is one place it can be used, perhaps it applies to those who tried to exploit the Pahalgam terror attack to spread communal strife within Indian society.</p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 13:10:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Caste census: Will the 50% reservation cap soon be history?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics (though this week, it intersects quite a bit with global politics).</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>follow</em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>After the Pahalgam terror attack, much of India was expecting a retaliatory attack against Pakistan. Instead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a surgical strike of a political kind. On Wednesday, the Union cabinet decided that caste would be counted as part of the upcoming census.</p><p>This is a major U-turn by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi. Just a year ago, Modi had denounced those lobbying for a caste census as “urban naxals”. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath, arguably the second-most popular BJP leader after Modi, set the line for opposition to the caste census with the slogan “batenge to katenge” – divided we will get slaughtered. </p><p>The graphic imagery refers to a long-held Hindutva belief that demands for caste equity will only end up fracturing Hindu society. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/supporting-the-spirit-of-yogis-batenge-to-katenge-slogan-rss-says-hindu-unity-is-in-national-interest/article68799885.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">backed Adityanath</a> on his call for purported Hindu unity.</p><p>Soon Modi <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4enF0Ssv7tA" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">echoed</a> Adityanath’s line with his own “ek hai to safe hai” – there is safety in unity. Clearly, the BJP was going hammer and tongs against the Congress party, which has pressed hard for a caste census as part of its social equity focus under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>An about turn</strong></h3><p>That the saffron party has turned on a dime and now sought to take credit for the caste census is a good indicator of just how popular the policy plank is. Clearly the BJP hopes to blunt some of the Dalit and Other Backward Class anger that led to it losing the support of these groups in the last Lok Sabha elections.</p><p>But even as the BJP is trying to run off with the Congress’ agenda, the main Opposition party has stepped up its game: it says it will now concentrate on getting the government to remove the 50% cap that has been set on reservations for seats in educational institutions and government jobs.</p><p>If it happens, it would cause a political earthquake that could be bigger than even the anti-Mandal agitation of the early 1990s. In 1990, the VP Singh government implemented the Mandal Commission’s recommendations, providing reservations to Other Backward Classes – a vast, varied collection of agricultural and artisanal castes that fall between upper castes and Dalits in the social ladder.</p><p>This doubled caste quotas to nearly 50%, drastically shrinking the general category dominated by upper castes. Angry at this, members of the upper castes launched an agitation with a young brahmin student, Rajiv Goswami, even setting himself on fire in Delhi.</p><p>This agitation was mirrored by a new politics of OBC assertion, especially in the Hindi belt. Parties such as the Samajwadi and the Rashtriya Janata Dal drew OBC votes away from the upper caste-led Congress with the claim that OBC interests would be better protected by OBC leadership.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Judicial award</h3><p>Eventually, a political compromise was hammered out – not by politicians but by the Supreme Court of India. In the landmark 1992 Indra Sawhney judgment, the court upheld OBC reservations but also put in place significant caps. Reservations could not extend beyond 50% and the “creamy layer” or well-off OBCs would be excluded from availing of the quota.</p><p>Notably, the court did not really explain why it chose the 50% figure. It said that the power of reservations should be “exercised in a fair manner and within reasonable limits” and hence “reservation under Clause (4) shall not exceed 50% of the appointments or posts, barring certain extraordinary situations as explained hereinafter”.</p><p>But why was 50% a “reasonable limit” given that Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs constitute around 80% of the Indian population?</p><p>Even more confusingly, in 2022 the court allowed this 50% limit to be breached for the Economically Weaker Section quota for poor members of the upper castes. The Indra Sawhney cap was only applicable to caste quotas, it held.</p><p>That such a major policy decision was taken by the court and not backed up in the political sphere meant the 50% cap was always on weak ground. The court in fact struck a blow of its own by upholding the Economically Weaker Section quota.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Caste society</h3><p>India is the only country in the world where affirmative action quotas extend to the majority of the population. With the Economically Weaker Section quota in place, it now stands at almost 60%.</p><p>Part of this flows from just how unique Indian society is. For example, the endogamy that underpins it, with the idea that marriages must only take place within a caste or even a subcaste, has shocked geneticists. Famously, David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard University, quipped that while the Chinese are a truly large population, Indians are actually a “large number of small populations”. </p><p>Given this hermetically sealed social structure, the vast majority of Indian castes do not feel they can ever compete with the savarna castes that have dominated the social system for the past two millennia.</p><p>Add to this is the fact that the Indian economy has been terrible at creating employment. In fact, <a class="link-external" href="https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/publications/2023/report/state-of-working-india-2023-social-identities-and-labour-market-outcomes" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">studies</a> show that there is little relationship at all between economic growth and employment growth in India. </p><p>“What this means is that far from employment growing faster when GDP grows faster, years of fast GDP growth have, on the contrary, tended to be years of slow employment growth,” the <em>State of Working India </em>report 2023 said.</p><p>Both these factors mean that almost everyone in India thinks they need state-backed quotas to access wealth and education. Hence, the massive support for removing the quota cap.</p><p>Modi has bent to Rahul Gandhi on the caste census. Will he now also buckle on the 50% limit?</p>
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<pubDate>Sun, 04 May 2025 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Interview: ‘Pahalgam shows Balakot did not create deterrence’</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal, a newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up here (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>follow</em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>A horrific attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed, has left South Asia on edge as India has blamed Pakistan and its support for cross-border terrorism. Delhi has said that it would hold the Indus Waters Treaty “in abeyance” and Modi promised that India would soon “raze whatever is left of the terror haven”, a thinly-veiled reference to Pakistan.</p><p>To understand Delhi’s military options at this time, how the Modi government overstated its claims that “normalcy” has returned to Kashmir and the risky business of de-escalating conflict between two nuclear powers, I spoke to former military officer Sushant Singh, a lecturer at Yale University and one of India’s foremost security experts.</p><p><strong>Do you think India can do another Balakot [striking across the border as it did in the wake of the Pulwama attack of 2019]?</strong><br>It depends on what you mean by Balakot. The question is what did Balakot achieve? As this particular incident has shown, Balakot did not create deterrence which stopped militants or Pakistan from undertaking another terror attack in Kashmir. That’s one thing.</p><p>Secondly, Balakot, as I wrote in <em>The Caravan</em>, was not a military success. It was a political success because it happened just before elections, and it worked for them [the Bharatiya Janata Party]. </p><p>Thirdly, Balakot did escalate up to a point. As you know, [Mike] Pompeo, who was [United States] Secretary of State at that time, in his memo mentioned the nuclear escalation between India and Pakistan.</p><p>So, I really don’t know what we mean by another Balakot. If the idea is that India would do a kinetic operation against Pakistan, yes, that possibility definitely exists, particularly going by the rhetoric we’re seeing from the government.</p><p><strong>I want to go to your reporting on Balakot, especially your piece in <em>The Caravan</em>. You’ve taken a view which is at variance with much of the Indian mainstream media. You say Balakot was actually not a military success. Do you think that will inform what is happening now? Will it reduce India’s options?</strong><br>Let me put it this way. The political leadership in India would want to do something that would assuage the heightened emotions of their supporters at least, if not the Indian people. They have already set a bar because of what they claim to have done in 2016 with the surgical strikes across the LoC [Line of Control] and then in 2019 with Balakot. Once you’ve done that, you can’t do anything lesser than that. If you claim that you achieved so much, then you need to do something bigger. That’s one big constraint.</p><p>The second constraint, of course, is the military failure of doing Balakot and the escalation that happened. Balakot is not just about what the Indian Air Force tried to do in Balakot; it’s also what happened thereafter – when [Indian Air Force pilot] Abhinandan [Varthaman] was captured, when the Indian MiG-21 was brought down, the threat of missile launches from both sides. That, too, is part of the Balakot episode.</p><p>The question isn’t what India can do, it’s how do you de-escalate from there. Anyone can order a ground-based missile, an airborne strike or a drone swarm attack. The point is, will Pakistan retaliate? Yes. After Pakistan retaliates, what do you do? Do you take it lying down? Do you say, “thank you, 1-1” and go back home? Or do you escalate further? How do you de-escalate?</p><p>The political leadership has to answer how it intends to prevent serious escalation between two nuclear weapon states and how to de-escalate after you have taken the first step. The military leadership must answer what their constraints are, whether they can honestly tell the political leadership that they are operating within limitations: shortage of soldiers, deployment at the China border, modern equipment shortages and so on. These two considerations – political and military – will come into play.</p><p><strong>I want to go back to the horrific terrorist attack in Pahalgam. Do you think there was a security lapse there?</strong><br>Definitely. There were two CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force] battalions until a year or two ago. One of them was moved out. Armed men fired for more than 20-30 minutes, and no security forces came. The family of one of the dead naval officers <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/LogicalIndians/status/1915711028966678652" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">said</a> no help came for 90 minutes and her husband died. Clearly, there was a security lapse.</p><p>There was also an intelligence failure. You have militants in the area, roaming around with weapons, clearly embedded in the area with local support. It’s not like the militant came that morning itself and suddenly did this. The intelligence failure is that you didn’t have any idea of all this happening.</p><p>Security failed on two levels. First, you left the place completely unguarded – probably believing that tourists wouldn’t like to see soldiers and that would belie claims of normalcy. There was also the belief that militants wouldn’t do anything to attack tourism, which is the lifeline of the Kashmiri economy – so therefore we can leave it unguarded. Second, the response during the attack was very poor. Unless you are buying your own Kool Aid of normalcy having returned, there was no reason to have no forces present in that spot.</p><p>There were three failures: intelligence, and two levels of security – before and during the incident.</p><p><strong>Let’s dig a bit deeper on your Kool Aid point. What does this incident say about the Modi government’s claim that Kashmir is now normal and militancy has ended after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019?</strong><br>This incident shows that these claims are untrue. In fact, even earlier, incidents in <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1071111/jammu-and-kashmir-soldier-killed-in-gunfight-with-suspected-militants-in-poonch">Poonch</a> and <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/941402/j-k-indian-army-officer-killed-in-pakistani-firing-in-rajouri-district-say-reports">Rajouri </a>already disproved that claim.</p><p>Let’s be clear: the violence isn’t at the level of the early ’90s or just after Kargil. But violence had already come down when Omar Abdullah was chief minister [2009-2015]. In 2011-2012, there were a lot of street protests, a lot of stone pelting, but militancy was already down.</p><p>Then PDP [People’s Democratic Party] formed the government with BJP [in 2016], and young Kashmiri men began joining the militancy. Violence was artificially suppressed, but the anger against the Indian state and the lack of political redress remains, creating fertile ground for militancy – even if you take Pakistan away from the equation.</p><p><strong>One of the claims for abrogating Article 370 was better security, which you’re saying has not come through. Do you think India’s security apparatus is actually now weaker because local Kashmiri parties have been destroyed and Kashmir is now ruled directly from Delhi?</strong><br>Absolutely. Remember, during demonetisation [in 2016], it was claimed that the terrorism’s back has been broken in Kashmir. The same was said after surgical strikes and after abrogating Article 370. In all cases, security has not improved.</p><p>We’ve lost even the limited support we had among Kashmiris. You could generate local intelligence, you had sympathisers. All that has been broken down by the kind of politics pursued in the rest of India and by Delhi in Kashmir: hardcore Hindutva politics, demonising Muslims and Kashmiris, TV debates running horribly anti-Kashmir content nightly. You can’t expect sympathy when you’ve done what was done after August 2019: shutting everything down, taking away the internet. It is a very oppressive environment in Kashmir.</p><p>Even tourism, though economically vital, has become a tool of humiliation and oppression.</p><p><strong>Could you expand on that? What do you mean by tourism being a tool of humiliation?</strong><br>Many tourists from the mainland, influenced by the current Islamophobic political climate, behave in obnoxious ways – sometimes unknowingly, sometimes knowingly – acting as if they sustain Kashmir. Even non-Kashmiri friends have observed this when they travel to Kashmir and have felt embarrassed.</p><p>The way tourism is conducted doesn’t foster healthy ties between Kashmir and the rest of India. It’s often perceived as an extension of the politics India has seen since 2014.</p><p><strong>Let’s zoom out to geopolitical security. If India launches any kinetic operation now, what are Pakistan’s options?</strong><br>It depends on whether India launches a covert or overt operation. A covert operation can be denied by Pakistan, and meanwhile India, using its godi media channels, can run a propaganda campaign. That’s easier – since there is no escalation.</p><p>If India does something visible that Pakistan cannot deny, Pakistan will have to retaliate. General Khalid Kidwai, a key figure in Pakistan’s nuclear policy, lays out a very clear line: QPQ+. If India does something, Pakistan will have to do quid pro quo plus. Something additional will have to be done when Pakistan retaliates. Because the Pakistan military can’t afford to lose face. If they acknowledge India’s action, they must retaliate.</p><p>Then the question becomes, what does India do? Retaliate again? Escalate? Step back? Does a third party – Americans, Saudis, UAE, China – intervene and say, “guys, this is enough”? Or do intelligence agencies start talking like after Balakot and find a way to de-escalate? The political leadership in India must think through this before taking any step.</p><p><strong>You said the Pakistani army <em>must</em> retaliate. Last week, Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir gave a provocative speech saying Kashmir is Pakistan’s jugular vein. Do you think there’s any connection between that and what happened in Pahalgam?</strong><br>It’s hard to say. Asim Munir is not the first to use such rhetoric. Ayub, Zia, Kayani – many have said similar things.This is a long-standing belief in a large section of the Pakistani military. There is nothing new in this.</p><p>Whether there’s a direct link between Munir’s speech and Pahalgam is hard to say. My sense, not based on any input, is that it was a soft target which was left unprotected. The attackers saw it as easy to hit and escape. Militants, unless they’re fidayeen, want to hit and get out. They don’t want to be caught up in a pitched battle. My gut feeling is that it doesn’t seem directly connected to Munir’s speech, but it’s hard to say for sure.</p><p><strong>Your own writing has shown that Modi actually managed domestic perception really well after Balakot, no matter the military assessment. Do you think something similar will happen or do you think that there will be some hard questions asked of the security lapses in Pahalgam?</strong><br>I don’t think that India’s corporate-owned media, the television channels, and newspapers, where a lot of our friends work, are going to ask any tough questions whatsoever of Mr Modi or Mr Shah. They didn’t ask those questions after Manipur.</p><p>They didn’t even ask those questions even when the then governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Satyapal Malik, went public about everything that happened in Pulwama during the suicide bombing of the CRPF convoy. Those questions were not asked then. I doubt that the people who call themselves journalists and editors have the courage or even the capability to ask those questions.</p><p>It will be incumbent upon some analysts, some commentators, and independent platforms like <em>Scroll, Caravan, Wire, News Minute, Newslaundry</em> to ask those questions.</p><p><strong>Yes, and I think that really leaves the country weaker as these incidents show. If you do not ask questions of the government, then the government performs worse.</strong><br>Absolutely. I’ll say only one more thing before I end. Demanding accountability is extremely important if you want to fix things for the future. If you don’t demand accountability in a democratic setup, then you are sowing seeds for future disasters.</p>
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<pubDate>Sat, 26 Apr 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Modi-Trump bhai bhai: Can there be a global right-wing coalition?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics (though this week, it intersects quite a bit with global politics).</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “follow”).</em></p><p>On February 21, the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni speaking via video link at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC on February 21, launched a broad attack at the left, arguing that the rise of the global right has frustrated them.</p><p>As she did so, she mentioned Narendra Modi as part of the global right:</p><blockquote class="cms-block cms-block-quote"><p>“When Bill Clinton and Tony Blair created the global leftist liberal network in the 90s, they were called statesmen. Today, when [Donald] Trump, Meloni, [Javier] Milei, or maybe [Narendra] Modi talk, they are called a threat to democracy. This is the left’s double standard, but we are used to it. And the good news is people no longer believe in their lies. Despite all the mud they throw at us, citizens keep voting for us.”</p></blockquote><p>The fact that a Western politician praised Modi and included him in the pantheon of the global right would please many supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its Hindutva ideology. For some time now, Hindutva ideologues in India have clamoured for exactly this sort of recognition, as they looked to the right in the West for inspiration, tactics and vocabulary.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Taking notes</h3><p>Take George Soros, for example. Last year in December, BJP MPs <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/lok-sabha-plunges-into-chaos-again-as-bjp-mp-reiterates-soros-congress-link/article68955799.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">plunged</a> the Lok Sabha into chaos with allegations that the Congress party was in cahoots with the Hungarian-American billionaire-philanthropist. “Congress ka haath Soros ke saath,” as BJP MP Nishikant Dubey put it in Hindi rhyme. The Congress is hand-in-hand with Soros</p><p>For some time now, the BJP has invoked Soros as a way to attack the Congress. This is remarkable given the fact that Soros is relatively unknown in India. But he is a major figure in the United States, where the right attacks him for funding liberal causes. <em>Al Jazeera</em> <a class="link-external" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/5/boogeyman-why-republicans-invoke-soros-to-defend-trump" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">describes</a> Soros as the “ultimate villain in [American] conservative circles”. Even Donald Trump has attacked the billionire.</p><p>The BJP is so tuned into US right-wing politics that it simply imported Soros conspiracy theories from the West ock, stock and barrel.</p><p>More evidence of this inspiration can be found in the very vocabulary of Hindutva in India. In 2023, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat launched an attack on “woke” people: a term so unfamiliar to his listeners that he had to go on to comically <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozse58e4xW8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">describe</a> “woke” as “jage huye” [people who are awake] in Hindi.</p><p><a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hBOovhAJE4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Several</a> <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hBOovhAJE4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">BJP</a> politicians have launched attacks on purported attempts to “bring in Sharia law into India”. The phrasing is aalso <a class="link-external" href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4651114-chip-roy-sharia-law-will-soon-be-forced-upon-the-american-people/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">direct import</a> from the American right, surreally ignoring the fact that sharia or Islamic law is <em>actually</em> law in India as part of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937. </p><p>The BJP has enthusiastically capitalised on the rise of Islamophobia in the West in the wake of the War on Terror to advance its anti-minority politics at home.</p><p>This fascination with the Western right peaked with the rise of Donald Trump and his unabashed Islamophobia. In a zany turn of events, Hindutva supporters in India even conducted public prayers for Trump. Modi, in an unusual move for an Indian prime minister, <a href="https://scroll.in/article/938218/ab-ki-baar-trump-sarkar-did-narendra-modi-really-endorse-the-us-president-for-re-election">endorsed</a> Trump for president in 2019.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="990" data-height="644" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/uqkcuxfbty-1740740994.jpg" alt="" title="A Hindutva organisation praying for Donald Trump in 2017. Prakash Singh / AFP" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A Hindutva organisation praying for Donald Trump in 2017. Prakash Singh / AFP</figcaption></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">A global alliance</h3><p>What is driving this sudden urge to create a global rightist coalition? Part of the reason is, as Meloni herself put in, the fact that leftists and liberals have been doing something similar for some time now. Communists have explicit international organisational links and liberals often create networks via institutions such as think tanks.</p><p>The right has lagged behind, until now.</p><p>This urge to catch up has driven close cooperation between elements of the Western right. Trump, for example, both <a class="link-external" href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-backed-brexit-then-he-used-it-as-leverage/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">backed and benefited</a> from the UK’s Brexit decision. Right-wing American billionaire Elon Musk has explicitly supported far-right politics in the United Kingdom and Germany. On a much smaller scale, there is also some coordination between White nationalists in the West and Hindutva supporters in India. In a <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1070161/how-hindutva-is-playing-a-silent-role-in-british-politics">ground report</a> I did from the United Kingdom, I found the far right in the UK often <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx_8swDlJaE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">feeding off Hindutva platforms such as <em>OpIndia</em></a><em>.</em></p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Speed bumps</h3><p>Unfortunately, for the right, there is a fundamental contradiction in creating international linkages given that almost all right-wing ideologies have parochialism as a core feature. This, in fact, has sharply come to fore with respect to Hindutva in India after Trump assumed office as American president in January. As part of his “America First” ideology, Trump has humiliated Indian undocumented migrants, sending them back in chains. He has also threatened India with high tariffs, singling it out for <a class="link-external" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48961235" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">criticism</a> as the “king of tariffs”.</p><p>A passive Modi has swallowed these insults, being wary of American power but also faced by the fact that the BJP lacks a language to attack a person that it has for so long admired.</p><p>A 2024 <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/NatConTalk/status/1810764034008125773" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">tweet</a> by the Washington DC-based National Conservatism Conference put this faultline in focus. The post featured a photo of the BJP’s Ram Madhav joining his hands in a namaste gesture with the text asking if the next convention should be held in India. This simple exchange saw an ugly racist backlash from the organisation’s supporters.</p><p>“The millions of Indians flooding western countries do not care about our culture, they are an invasive species,” said a reply from a White nationalist.</p><p>Many Hindutva supporters might look to the Western right for inspiration, but given that White nationalism often drives the latter, these warm feelings are often not reciprocated. The intrinsic insular nature of the right means international cooperation is difficult if not impossible.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1811035472002461818" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">As someone who has to interact with Indians every day for work - let's not do this <a href="https://t.co/jDQ9KuuqxI">https://t.co/jDQ9KuuqxI</a></p>— Modern Brzrkr (@ModernBrzrkr) <a href="https://twitter.com/ModernBrzrkr/status/1811035472002461818?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>That said, while Hindutva supporters may be enamoured by Western rightists, it is unclear whether it really <em>needs</em> them. Hindutva is a movement with deep roots in India. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s parent organisation, was founded a century ago. The Jana Sangh, the first iteration of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was born in 1951. Modi’s politics has decades of ideological and organisational work behind it. The Western right has little to do with Hindutva’s success – and even if it were to embrace India’s largest party, it would hardly benefit from this in any concrete way.</p><p>In the end, there is little to link right-wing politics in the West and in India. The only place they do intersect, it seems, is on Islamophobia. It is from this area that Hindutva has borrowed narratives from the right in the West which, due to the War on Terror, has demonised Muslims for more than two decades now.</p>
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<title>What AAP’s defeat says about corruption as an issue for Indian voters</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. This time I unpack the Aam Aadmi Party defeat in Delhi and try and draw an insight from it that applies across Indian politics: the relevance (or not) of corruption as an issue.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “follow”).</em></p><p>By Indian standards, the anti-corruption movement of 2011 was not particularly large. The Ramlila Maidan in Delhi where it began has a capacity of around 25,000 – a modest number for even routine political rallies in India.</p><p>However, what made it different was the incredible media attention it received. For months, it dominated headlines. Eventually, one section of this movement used this publicity to launch a new political outfit: the Aam Aadmi Party.</p><p>Boosted by media momentum, the Aam Aadmi Party shot off the blocks. In its very first election, for the 2013 Delhi Assembly, it managed to form the government. Curiously, it did so with support from the Congress – the very party that the AAP’s founders had attacked as irredeemably corrupt just a couple of years before.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Welfare &gt; Corruption</strong></h3><p>Subsequently, in the 2015 and 2020 Delhi elections, AAP won massive mandates. It did this not by appealing to its origin as a party battling corruption but by reinventing itself as an economically populist force, highlighting its development work and welfare schemes targeted at the city’s working class.</p><p>This dynamic was maintained in the 2025 Assembly polls, the result of which were declared on Saturday. AAP contested the election on its welfare record – not on fighting corruption. In fact, the elections were conducted against the backdrop of serious allegations of corruption against AAP. Senior party leaders, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had even spent time in prison.</p><p>However, this did not seem to have played a significant role in AAP’s loss. Eventually, it was <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1078652/anger-against-aap-is-palpable-in-delhis-slums-is-it-enough-to-cost-the-party-the-election">dissatisfaction with the AAP’s welfare delivery</a> that resulted in a portion of its working-class support moving to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The number was not large, though: AAP got nearly 44% of the popular vote, less than two percentage points behind the winner, the BJP.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Correlation and causation</strong></h3><p>The Aam Aadmi Party’s journey in Delhi therefore has an interesting insight for Indian politics as a whole: big-ticket corruption is a hot button topic for India’s middle classes and hence the media. However, in elections, most voters do not vote directly on the issue of corruption. This is why AAP had to concentrate its efforts in Delhi on delivering welfare – not fighting corruption.</p><p>This is not a new insight. Research from 2013 shows that even as the Congress was relentlessly pilloried by the media on the issue of big ticket corruption, most voters had not even heard of the names of the alleged scams. Even more remarkably, knowledge of a scam <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/does-corruption-influence-voter-choice/article6050324.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">did little to influence voter choice</a>. Attributing the Congress’s 2014 loss to claims of corruption might be a case of confusing correlation with causation.</p><p>Another way to observe this same insight is to look at the Teflon immunity enjoyed by the Modi government even in the face of widespread allegations of corruption such as the controversy about the purchase of Rafale fighter jets or claims that it favours the Adani group. India’s middle class – the principal cohort that raises its voice against corruption allegations – is a strong supporter of Modi and the BJP. Hence, since 2014, the issue of corruption has taken a back seat nationally, as India’s middle class voters are hesitant to point fingers at their own political choice.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Free pass</h3><p>As the<a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1078634/budget-2025-no-income-tax-payable-on-income-up-to-rs-12-lakh-under-new-regime"> recent tax cuts</a> show, the only real pressure that the Modi government has faced from the middle class has been on hard economic matters. Wage stagnation and inflation are problems that have actually channeled middle-class anger against Modi in a way that, say, being seen as close to Adani has never done.</p><p>Why does the Indian voter ignore corruption when it comes to the hustings? For one, the link between big-ticket corruption and quality of life is difficult to see in real time. A voter happy with, say, cash transfers would hardly abandon Modi over his alleged connections with Adani. Moreover, corruption, both big and small, is a systemic problem that no party seems to be able to solve.</p><p>AAP, which was literally cr... |
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<title>A psychologist underlines ‘lifetraps’ that make romantic relationships inhospitable for women</title>
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<p>The term “lifetrap” originates from the Schema theory coined by Dr Jeffrey Young who pronounced that lifetraps create a belief system in such a way that you are attracted towards someone unsuitable because they replay your core conflict over and over again. Yet, you move towards them because you don’t recognise anything different, ending up in heartbreak almost every time. </p><p>As a therapist, I ensure that even before I begin my work, I take my clients through a detailed assessment of their personalities and lifetraps. Over the years, I have gained adequate insights and data, allowing me to study patterns in these findings. What I have learnt from these studies is that three lifetraps are most operational in toxic relationships – emotional deprivation, abandonment and self-sacrifice. </p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Emotional deprivation</strong></h3><p>A 45-year-old woman, Gitanjali, is the picture of confidence. While she loves her job and the perks of corporate life, she feels terrible about herself, as despite her attempts, she fails to get the love she desires. When she was a child, her father was always distant and unaffectionate. She spent her entire childhood trying to win a warm smile or a hug from him. When she grew up, she kept falling for distant men who were disapproving of her. She sincerely believed these men loved her but didn’t know how to show her and that she could change that with her love. With every relationship, she felt tired of craving warmth and connection, and she did not realise when she became demanding and clingy. She was confused when these men broke up with her, saying nothing was ever enough for her.</p><p>Do you see a deep emotional, insatiable hunger in Gitanjali? If you too tell yourself absolute statements such as, “I’ll never find the love that I need”, then it is possible that your emotional hunger was created due to an early childhood experience, including an absentee parent, an emotionally detached parent, or parents who provided all the material comforts you needed but nobody could connect with your inner world. This creates a feeling of perpetual emptiness within, making you crave for love and fulfilment and nothing ever seems to be enough.</p><p>When you meet someone emotionally unavailable, you recognise this unavailable energy as familiar, because this was what you grew up with. The mind always gravitates towards familiar energy, which is not necessarily healthy. It is the exact opposite of what you crave yet you feel an unexplainable pull towards this person. You believe, “If only this time I can make this person love me, I’ll be happy forever!” This happens because your unconscious mind is full of all the pain you have locked away, trying to resolve your life’s earliest psychological conflicts and fill those early voids. </p><p>The unavailable person is not a bad human; they just aren’t right for us. Due to these unconscious conflicts, love seems worthy only when it comes from a person who makes us work hard for it, rather than someone willingly offering it. We don’t recognise it, because that’s unfamiliar to us, making us think, “There’s something missing here!”</p><p>This traps us in a vicious cycle wherein we offer everything you have, especially emotionally, and often all at once, in the desire to get the love we want. We also try to change the person into giving the love desired instead of reading the signs that convey this is not the person for us.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Abandonment</strong></h3><p>I was recently watching season six of <em>Love is Blind</em> on Netflix, a reality series where men and women form connections without seeing each other, get engaged, and spend time together to see if they are truly compatible. One of the contestants, Chelsea, caught my attention. She formed intense connections with two men on the show: Trevor, who was all in from the start, and Jimmy, who was unsure and formed a connection with another woman as well. </p><p>Eventually, both men proposed to Chelsea, but she chose Jimmy, feeling a huge sense of relief when he declared his love for her. However, as their relationship progressed, Chelsea’s constant need for reassurance from Jimmy that he loved her led to frequent conflicts and she gets visibly upset when he has a friendly conversation with another woman. When they moved in together, she was always hyper-alert about whether he kissed her today, turned towards her, or looked at her a certain way. She continued to challenge him that these little signs showed her that she couldn’t be sure about his commitment. </p><p>Mind you, Jimmy is not doing anything different, he’s the same as always. One day, during a fight, Jimmy tells her that he finds her clingy and Chelsea loses her temper and breaks down. Jimmy is so overwhelmed and confused hearing her say that she has been giving and giving to the relationship, that he has to leave home for the night. Although I had not even finished watching the show, I knew that Chelsea’s lifetrap was her deep-rooted sense of abandonment, which was constantly telling her: “People who love me can leave me anytime!”</p><p>Like Chelsea, people who grow up with a fear of abandonment usually come from households where caregivers are completely wrapped up in their own emotional drama such that their moods define how they meet the child’s need for love and security. On one hand, the child naturally loves feeling secure when love is provided, and parallelly, feels an intense anxiety that the feeling of being safe and secure may go away at any time. Growing up in an environment where unpredictability is high, and affection and a sense of security are either conditional and/or highly erratic, the child becomes good at reading people’s faces and body language cues to figure out what mood they are in. If the child learns to please people, it is to ensure that they are loved. However, the child carries a looming uncertainty about the feelings, which leads to the development of the fear of abandonment. </p><p>When she grows up and engages in romantic relationships, she finds it hard to believe her partner will stay. She keeps expecting to be abandoned at any time and finds it hard to trust a man’s commitment. So, when he seems distant, she sometimes clings to him for reassurance, and other times withdraws completely at a perceived rejection, thinking that he doesn’t want her and she shouldn’t give any more of herself. Therefore, she swings between wanting a deeper connection and protecting her fragile heart, ending up giving mixed signals to her partner, which, in turn, creates distance, making her think, “See, I knew it, he’s drifting away!”</p><p>Just like emotional deprivation, the fear of abandonment also draws people to partners more likely to make this prophecy come true – men who are not willing to commit, who are erratically available, or who make their love conditional. And once again, many women gravitate towards the same kind of men, because erratic and conditional love is what they are used to, and they can’t imagine anything better. Moreover, their nervous system is so conditioned to this chaotic attachment style that stable attachment from anyone feels “boring” or “suspicious”.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Self sacrifice</strong></h3><p>The third life trap I see in every single profile of someone caught in a toxic relationship pattern is self-sacrifice. This life trap states: “I will do everything in my power to make you happy because I love you.” On the surface, this looks like a noble thought to have. After all, haven’t we all been taught the virtues of sacrifice for love? But this life trap is a sneaky devil that also makes us extremely vulnerable to toxicity. </p><p>This schema develops in people who were made responsible for someone’s care as children. Either you had a sick parent whom you had to play caregiver for, or you had a parent whose emotions you had to take care of by either tiptoeing around their moods or by becoming their shoulder to cry on. It could also be that you had a sibling with challenges and were made to play the “bigger” person repeatedly to accommodate that sibling. All this was done while conditioning you to believe this was how you show love. </p><p>Remember how I had to constantly tiptoe around my mother’s erratic moods so I could avoid beatings? I also had to constantly “prove” my love to my parents by doing exactly what they wanted or by being exactly how they wanted me to be. This is the template I carried forward for all my subsequent relationships and I constantly tried to anticipate what they needed and tried to fulfil all their needs while ignoring my own. I had the self-sacrifice life trap, too. On a healthy level, we all go the extra mile for the people we love, and we do so willingly. But when it becomes a maladaptive schema or a life trap, which is an unconsciously ingrained survival coping strategy, it leads to self-destruction. There are two toxic traits that arise because of the self-sacrifice life trap.</p><p>First, they are so used to giving their all to make the other person happy that they never think about their own boundaries. They constantly put their own needs on the back burner in favour of their partner’s. In this manner, they teach their partners to put their needs second. After a while, when their cup runs empty, they try to bring their needs to the forefront, but their partners don’t acknowledge them because they have never seen these needs before.</p><p>Ordinarily, for someone without the self-sacrifice schema, this would be a sign to pause and figure out how to get their needs met. On the contrary, someone with the self-sacrifice schema thinks, <em>Oh, let me give some more to this relationship … maybe then they will recognise my needs.</em> They were already running on empty, now they have gone beyond it. However, nothing changes because they just give and give, not knowing how to say “enough” or draw boundaries. When this continues for a long time, they begin to resent the person they love for not meeting their needs, therefore acting out, rebelling, or lashing out. They still don’t know how to stop giving.</p><p>The second toxic trait of this schema is that they think they know better about what makes their partner happy and continue to do the things they feel are good for them, without often paying attention to what their partner needs.</p><p>We can be so caught up in our identity as the “giver” that we don’t even stop to take notice if the partner even wants what we are giving. You can also think of this as a love language clash. For instance, if your partner’s love language is physical touch, but yours is giving gifts, you may continue to buy them the most luxurious things to express your love, but if you aren’t engaging in physical affection or sexual intimacy, your partner will not feel loved. The self-sacrifice life trap suggests that the giver’s actions are superior.</p><p>This schema convinces the sacrificer that they know what will truly make others happy, but the recipients just fail to appreciate their efforts. This thought process leaves both partners unsatisfied because the receiver is not getting what they need to feel loved, and the giver is not getting acknowledged and seen for what they are giving because they are offering the wrong gifts. So, they get caught in this vicious cycle where the giver feels, “But what about all that I have done for you?” and the receiver wonders, “Did I even ask you to do that for me?”</p><p>Let me end this section with two very interesting facts about the self-sacrifice life trap. You would be shocked to know that even narcissists have self-sacrifice life traps in their profiles. Although many believe that narcissists are supposed to be the most selfish people alive, even they believe that they do everything for everyone and what they do for everyone is superior to what others do for them, and yet nobody appreciates them. Second, the higher the level of self-sacrifice schema in your profile, the more you’re likely to get attracted to a ‘taker’ or an entitled person who is used to taking everything given to them for granted. This further makes you doubly vulnerable to falling into a toxic relationship from the get-go. </p><p>You have now learnt how our early childhood experiences and their deeper emotional impact make us vulnerable to falling prey to toxic relationships and/or even enable toxic patterns to be repeated. We stay trapped in these patterns because:</p><ul class="cms-block cms-block-ul"><li><p>We are not aware of its roots</p></li><li><p>We find safety in familiarity, so we avoid a relationship that’s likely to heal these wounds</p></li><li><p>We struggle with breaking the pattern and forming new habits</p></li></ul><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="973" data-height="1500" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/bduvcnwtua-1749195140.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p><em>Excerpted with permission from </em>When You Give Everything All at Once: The Indian Woman’s Guide to Navigating Toxic Relationships, <em>Prachi Saxena, Hay House Publishers India.</em></p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 08:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Prachi Saxena</author>
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<title>‘Confused product of a confused brain’: When Guru Dutt cast a spell over everyone – except one man</title>
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<p>The film “leaves one confused because it is a confused product of a confused brain”, the reviewer complains. Also, “It is a picture which lacks coherence, a clear and cognizable theme and, consequently, any emotional appeal whatsoever.” Finally, the movie is “pretentious in tone and dull and confusing in effect”.</p><p>Many films have been misunderstood in their times, only to be given their due belatedly. And yet, the <em>Filmindia</em> magazine’s overwhelmingly negative review of <a href="https://scroll.in/reel/762633/pyaasa-is-the-guru-dutt-gift-that-keeps-giving">Guru Dutt’s <em>Pyaasa</em></a> is confounding, especially since <em>Pyaasa</em>, despite – or more likely because of – its melancholic poet-hero and themes of rejection and disillusionment resonated strongly with audiences when it was released in 1957.</p><p><em>Pyaasa</em> is now regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made. The celebration of Guru Dutt’s centenary – he was born on July 9, 1925 – will refocus attention on the eight features he directed. <em>Pyaasa</em>, starring Guru Dutt as the poet Vijay, who is cheated out of fame and accepted only by the sex worker played by Waheeda Rehman, will likely be recognised once again for the masterpiece that it is.</p><p>Guru Dutt’s penultimate movie is a staggering feat on all levels – the performances, SD Burman’s music, Sahir Ludhianvi’s lyrics, cinematographer VK Murthy’s beautiful compositions. Guru Dutt’s command over his craft, his sensitivity for the aesthetics of cinema, have never been better.</p><p>However, none of this was evident to the <em>Filmindia</em> reviewer, the magazine’s editor Baburao Patel. A critic who revelled in eviscerating films and their makers, Patel had a special distaste for Guru Dutt.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="400" data-height="600" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/wyncanmldl-1751987585.jpg" alt="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75764717" title="Baburao Patel in 1938. " itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Baburao Patel in 1938. </figcaption></figure><p>Patel attacked the films that Guru Dutt directed as well as produced, such as Raj Khosla’s <em>C.I.D.</em> (1956). <em>C.I.D. </em>was “thin as air and unconvincing as a Russian prisoner’s confession”. Patel, who liked to twist the knife in deep, added that the stylish Indian noir film<em> </em>was “a cheaply and stupidly conceived, unpalatable crime picture”.</p><p>Patel similarly dismissed Guru Dutt’s <em>Mr. and Mrs. 55 </em>(1955) as<em> </em>an example of the filmmaker’s “usual glamorized jugglery”.</p><p><em>Mr. and Mrs. 55, </em>starring Guru Dutt and Madhubala, is a breezily charming, if dated, film about an impecunious cartoonist who marries a clueless heiress. The movie is in the<em> </em>vein of Hollywood’s screwball comedies, with zingy repartee and beautifully filmed tunes that underscore Guru Dutt’s talent for making song interludes part of the larger story.</p><p>For Patel, the film was “an odd mixture of some silly satire, mild comedy, ludicrous characterizations, popularly tuned songs, and the usual laboriously dandified song takings which seem to have become Guru Dutt’s stock-in-trade”. Not for the first time in his reviewing career, Patel confused artistry for phoniness and cinematic bravura for flashiness.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="780" data-height="350" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/skpvcpxtbl-1751988272.jpg" alt="" title="Mr and Mrs 55 (1955). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Mr and Mrs 55 (1955). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>Baburao Patel founded <em>Filmindia</em> in 1935 and quickly established himself as an <em>enfant terrible. </em>Patel<em> </em>used his authority to not only provide contrarian views of the Hindi and other language industries but also fulminate on politics, the economy and perceived social ills.</p><p>For several decades of its existence until it shut down in 1985, <em>Filmindia</em> was one of the most powerful purveyors of the Hindi and other language industries, Sidharth Bhatia writes in <em>The Patels of Filmindia – Pioneers of Film Journalism</em> (Indus Source Books). Patel ran the magazine with his third wife, the actor and singer Sushila Rani Patel.</p><p>“Baburao was an extraordinary editor – he practically wrote the entire magazine himself until Sushila Rani came and shared some of the burden with him,” Bhatia writes. Patel’s stentorian and carping voice was on every page, whether in the industry news tidbits, the gossip columns, the opinion section written under the pseudonym Judas, or the reviews.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="369" data-height="495" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jheyxlrfgx-1752004210.jpg" alt="" title="Filmindia, January 1940." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Filmindia, January 1940.</figcaption></figure><p>‘Kaagaz Ke Phool Inflicts Severe Boredom’ was a considerably less nasty headline than the one for another film released in 1959, <em>Dil Deke Dekho</em> (“Rape of Indian Culture”) or the description of <em>Marine Drive</em> from 1955 as “a disgrace to our country”.</p><p>Ironically, one of Guru Dutt’s oft-repeated remarks was “don’t bore me.”</p><p>Patel trashed <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em>, about the vagaries of show business, as “an ineffective glycerine tear shed over the transience of a showman’s glory”. Guru Dutt too acknowledged the movie’s drawbacks, telling <em>Filmfare</em> that it was “too slow and went over the heads of audiences”.</p><p>After the <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool </em>debacle,<em> </em>Guru Dutt did not direct a film again, instead getting heavily involved with his productions. Baburao Patel seemed to approve of this decision, lavishing praise on M Sadiq’s <em>Chaudhvin Ka Chand</em> (1960) and Abrar Alvi’s <em>Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam</em> (1962).</p><p>Patel described <em>Chaudhvin Ka Chand</em> as “feelingly written and lovingly mounted”, as well as “the scintillating result of a good story and skilful presentation” that was “likely to be long remembered by picturegoers”.</p><p>These words apply more accurately to <em>Pyaasa</em>.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="800" data-height="610" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/myzcjcxwao-1751987081.png" alt="" title="Waheeda Rehman in Pyaasa (1957). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Waheeda Rehman in Pyaasa (1957). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>The source of Baburao Patel’s grudge against Guru Dutt is unclear. Sushila Rani Patel shed some light on the matter when she spoke to filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur for a biopic he was planning on Guru Dutt in 2008. Dungarpur conducted scores of interviews with Guru Dutt’s collaborators, including Abrar Alvi and VK Murthy, and people who knew the director and his wife, Geeta Dutt.</p><p>Sushila Rani Patel told Dungarpur and his research team that Guru Dutt knew her sister Sumati in the 1940s, when they were both at the dancer Uday Shankar’s cultural school in Almora. Patel also revealed that she was related to Guru Dutt’s sister, the painter Lalita Lajmi – Lajmi’s husband Gopi Lajmi was Patel’s nephew.</p><p>“My husband was very fond of pictures with a classic touch,” Patel told Dungarpur. “He didn’t like the masala films.” She did not share her husband’s view of <em>Pyaasa, </em>saying that the film “had something” and deserved its reputation as a classic.</p><p>Baburao Patel was not swayed by the reputation of a star director or actor, Sushila Rani Patel said in the interview. Her spouse “wrote fearlessly”, she said, adding. “Whatever he felt, he wrote.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="282" data-height="352" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jmahbewxwi-1751988413.gif" alt="" title="Sushila Rani Patel." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Sushila Rani Patel.</figcaption></figure><p>Dungarpur has a theory that the character played by Mala Sinha in <em>Pyaasa</em> is inspired by Sushila Rani Patel. In the film, Guru Dutt’s struggling poet Vijay and Sinha’s Meena are lovers. Meena later marries the odious publisher Ghosh (Rehman), who sets out to destroy Vijay.</p><p>Guru Dutt directed his first feature, the crime drama <em>Baazi</em>, in 1951, when he was 26 years old. In his lifetime, he was a successful filmmaker by the Hindi film industry’s standards – his movies had popular actors, most of them made good money, the songs were hits.</p><p>Yet, the reverence that is now accorded to Guru Dutt, the awe with which his innate understanding of cinema is studied, the regard for how he filmed songs – all these only followed his death most likely by suicide on October 10, 1964.</p><p>He had previously attempted suicide at least twice. His passing at the age of 39 was blamed on a lethal combination of professional setbacks, personal turmoil and possibly undiagnosed depression.</p><p>In her definitive study <em>Guru Dutt – A Life in Cinema</em> (Oxford University Press), Nasreen Munni Kabir writes: “The cruel irony of belated recognition has visited itself upon many artists, and if we think of the posthumous recognition of the poet Vijay of <em>Pyaasa</em>, it could be said that Guru Dutt had a premonition of being among such artists; indeed, his contribution to Indian cinema has only been fully recognized some years after his death in 1964.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1920" data-height="810" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/mmphdhyozx-1751987537.jpg" alt="" title="Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman in Kaagez Ke Phool (1959). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman in Kaagez Ke Phool (1959). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>A deeply complex man by all accounts, of an intense and brooding personality but also generous and affectionate, Guru Dutt was an enigma while alive. After his death, he entered the annals of geniuses who leave too early.</p><p>Kabir, who also directed the documentary <em>In Search of Guru Dutt</em> (1989), writes in her book on the filmmaker,<em> </em>“Guru Dutt could not have predicted the impact that he would have in time; not only in India but in many parts of Europe. Death has indeed brought the kind of erasure that echoes his own feelings suggested in <em>Pyaasa</em> – that a dead artist is more greatly valued.”</p><p>The cover of the <em>Filmfare</em> issue dedicated to Guru Dutt after his passing doesn’t even mention his name. The cover has a black-and-white photo of Guru Dutt’s half-shaded, pensive face looking into the camera. The text, inspired by <em>Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, </em>reads “Khuda, Maut Aur Ghulam.” God, death and the slave.</p><p>“The interviews [for the proposed biopic] revealed that people thought of Guru Dutt very highly when he was alive, but they also recognised his self-destructive streak,” Shivendra Singh Dungarpur told <em>Scroll</em>. “His peers – Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan, K Asif – had great regard for his work. Guru Dutt was the only outside director who was permitted to shoot <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em> at Mehboob’s studio.”</p><p>Although Guru Dutt was frequently described as aloof and focused on his work, he appears to have taken his revenge on Baburao Patel in <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em>.</p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/972946/as-guru-dutt-biopic-gets-underway-a-reminder-of-how-the-director-laid-himself-bare-in-his-own-films">Guru Dutt’s most autobiographical film</a> is about the tragedy of Suresh Sinha, a successful director undone by self-doubt, a bad marriage, and an extra-marital affair with his new discovery, Shanti (Waheeda Rehman). Suresh’s wealthy in-laws look down on his profession and scheme to keep their daughter Veena away from him.</p><p>Suresh’s marital family comprises a bunch of grotesque characters. In one scene, Veena’s parents, played by Mahesh Kaul and Pratima Devi, are in their living room surrounded by dogs – a staging that is almost identical to a photograph of the Patel couple that hung in their house in Mumbai, Dungarpur pointed out.</p><p>“Guru Dutt was obsessed with the artist Vincent Van Gogh, but he was pre-occupied with himself too,” Dungarpur said. “I don’t think the scene in <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool </em>was an act of revenge as such. Guru Dutt was always taking ideas from real life and giving them an autobiographical touch.”</p><p>In an essay <em>Classics and Cash</em>, which is reproduced in Kabir’s book, Guru Dutt writes about the eternal battle between creativity and commerce.</p><p>“Since centuries, the creators of classics have had to pay the price for rising above the rut of prevailing mediocrity and for their daring isolation from the hoi polloi,” Guru Dutt observes. A filmmaker who dares to experiment has to be prepared for an unpredictable outcome, which “gives edge to the thrill of movie-making”, he adds.</p><p>Although Guru Dutt lost the battle in 1964, he won the war, evident in the continuing interest in and interpretations of his exquisite and haunting films.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1200" data-height="816" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/mtzrkmffqy-1751987738.jpg" alt="" title="Guru Dutt in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, which was reshot with Dharmendra after his death. Courtesy Arun Dutt." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Guru Dutt in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, which was reshot with Dharmendra after his death. Courtesy Arun Dutt.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Also read:</strong></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/720318/photos-rare-glimpses-of-guru-dutts-last-unfinished-movie-baharen-phir-bhi-aayengi"><strong>[Photos] Rare glimpses of Guru Dutt’s last unfinished movie ‘Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi’</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/972946/as-guru-dutt-biopic-gets-underway-a-reminder-of-how-the-director-laid-himself-bare-in-his-own-films"><strong>How Guru Dutt laid himself bare in his films</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/739403/even-before-pyaasa-the-shadows-had-started-gathering-in-guru-dutts-mr-mrs-55"><strong>Even before ‘Pyaasa’, the shadows had started gathering in Guru Dutt’s ‘Mr &amp; Mrs 55’</strong></a></p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 02:15:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Assam: Homes of 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families bulldozed in Dhubri eviction drive</title>
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<h1>Assam: Homes of 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families bulldozed in Dhubri eviction drive</h1>
<h2>‘These are erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra,’ said an affected resident.</h2>
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<address><a href="https://scroll.in/author/21934" rel="author">Rokibuz Zaman</a></address>
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Around 1,400 Muslim families were displaced during an eviction driver in Assam's Dhubri district.
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<p>The Assam government has demolished the homes of 1,400 Muslim families of Bengali origin from nearly 1,157 acres of government land in Dhubri district to make way for a solar power project, District Magistrate Dibakar Nath told <em>Scroll</em> on Tuesday.</p><p>The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited, which is heading the project, has already been allotted the land, Nath added.</p><p>Residents affected by the demolitions told <em>Scroll</em> that nearly 10,000 Bengali-origin Muslims, who had been living in the area for at least three to four decades, were displaced from Chirakuta 1 and 2, Charuakhara Jungle Block and Santeshpur villages under the Chapar revenue circle in Dhubri.</p><p>“These are erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra,” Towfique Hussian, a resident, told <em>Scroll</em>.</p><p>On March 30, the district administration submitted a proposal to convert the Village Grazing Land, a category of government land designated for cattle grazing, for the solar power project, according to minutes of a district-level land advisory meeting held on April 2.</p><p>The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited had acquired around 1,289 acres of government land for the plant.</p><p>According to the district administration, it had issued eviction notices in advance and made daily public announcements asking residents to vacate and dismantle their homes before Sunday.</p><p>Police personnel and bulldozers began arriving at the eviction sites on Monday.</p><p>The district authorities have allocated 300 bighas of land in Baizar Alga village for the rehabilitation of the affected people, according to the eviction notice issued by the Chapar revenue circle officer. It had earmarked Rs 50,000 for one-time relief for residents to transport their belongings.</p><p>Some of the residents have received the Rs 50,000 though others claimed they have not.</p><p>However, affected residents told <em>Scroll</em> that the rehabilitation site, Baizar Alga village, is in a low-lyring riverine area. "It gets flooded most of the time in monsoon," Nazrul Islam, a displaced resident, said. "People are reluctant to go there with no roads or any other communication."</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="960" data-height="720" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/irtyihkius-1751985763.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>“Many of the residents have already moved their belongings out of fear…Everyday people were moving,” Hussian said. “Those who did not move earlier, their homes were demolished on Tuesday.”</p><p>Some residents protested against the eviction drive and threw stones at the bulldozers, damaging three of them. The police lathi-charged the protesters. </p><p>Akhil Gogoi, independent MLA and chief of Raijor Dal, arrived at the eviction site on Tuesday. He told those displaced that he would request Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to allot 165 acres for their rehabilitation.</p><p>Gogoi was subsequently detained by police for a brief period.</p><p>“This eviction is illegal and unconstitutional,” he later said. “The matter is pending before the Gauhati High Court. The Himanta Biswa Sarma government is demolishing homes unlawfully.”</p><p>Gogoi claimed that such evictions were being conducted against Muslims to capture Hindu votes. “The BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government is targeting the minorities just because they are Muslims,” he added.</p><p>Later in the day, <a class="link-external" href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1268665581642018&amp;rdid=SZ2S2DOWz6wh94ke" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Sarma said the state government</a> will carry out another eviction drive on July 10 in the Paikar area, a reserved forest area in Goalpara district.</p><p>“Our aim is clear the encroached land and use them for the public,” the chief minister told reporters. “We are with the indigenous people of Assam while Akhil Gogoi stands for a particular community. That's our poltical ideology. We will keep doing our work.”</p><p>About 400 residents from the Charuabakhra Jangal Block village, who were living on the government land after losing their homes due to erosion caused by the Brahmaputra river, had moved the Gauhati High Court against the eviction notices in April.</p><p>The residents said that the action of the district authorities violated the judgement laid down by the <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1075610/how-supreme-court-finally-checked-bulldozer-justice-and-why-it-may-not-be-enough">Supreme Court</a> in November.</p><p>The case is still pending in the High Court.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1280" data-height="960" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lkmnnfrtyh-1751985786.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>In November, the Supreme Court had held as illegal the practice of <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1072759/homes-cant-be-demolished-sc-proposes-to-issue-pan-indian-guidelines-on-bulldozer-justice"><u>demolishing properties</u></a> of persons accused of crimes as a punitive measure. It added that <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1075458/bulldozer-justice-is-unacceptable-under-rule-of-law-says-supreme-court"><u>processes must be followed</u></a> before removing allegedly illegal encroachments.</p><p>This is the fourth major eviction carried out in the last 30 days.</p><p>On June 16, Goalpara authorities <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1083555/assam-begins-drive-to-bulldoze-over-600-homes-in-goalpara-district">demolished the homes of 690 families</a>, all of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims, who were living on an allegedly encroached land in the Hasila Beel, a wetland.</p><p>The families told <em>Scroll</em> that many of them were living in the area before it was declared a wetland.</p><p>Ninety-three families of Bengali-origin Muslims were evicted on June 30 in Assam’s <a class="link-external" href="https://www.pratidintime.com/latest-assam-news-breaking-news-assam/nalbari/93-homes-demolished-in-major-eviction-drive-in-assams-nalbari-9448948" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Nalbari district</a> during an anti-encroachment drive on nearly 150 acres of village grazing reserve land in the Barkhetri revenue circle.</p><p>On Thursday, around 220 families were evicted during an <a class="link-external" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/228-bighas-of-encroached-land-cleared-in-lakhimpur/articleshow/122233640.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">anti-encroachment drive</a> in upper Assam’s Lakhimpur district. The district authorities said the families were living on 77 acres of land at four locations, including three Village Grazing Reserves.</p><p>Since the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslim – have been ousted from government land, between 2016 and August 2024, according to data provided by the state revenue and disaster management department.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:20:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Silica gel: What’s in those little packs and is it toxic?</title>
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<div class="cms-block cms-block-tracker" data-embed-type="tracker" data-embed-url="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/258398/count.gif" data-embed-loaded="false"></div><p>When you buy a new electronic appliance, shoes, medicines or even some food items, you often find a small paper sachet with the warning: “silica gel, do not eat”.</p><p>What exactly is it, is it toxic, and can you use it for anything?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Importance of desiccants</h3><p>That little sachet is a desiccant – a type of material that removes excess moisture from the air.</p><p>It’s important during the transport and storage of a wide range of products because we can’t always control the environment. Humid conditions can cause damage through corrosion, decay, the growth of mould and microorganisms.</p><p>This is why manufacturers include sachets with desiccants to make sure you receive the goods in pristine condition.</p><p>The most common desiccant is silica gel. The small, hard and translucent beads are made of silicon dioxide (like most sands or quartz) – a hydrophilic or water-loving material. Importantly, the beads are porous on the nano-scale, with pore sizes only 15 times larger than the radius of their atoms.</p><p>These pores have a capillary effect, meaning they condense and draw moisture into the bead similar to how trees transport water through the channelled structures in wood.</p><p>In addition, sponge-like porosity makes their surface area very large. A single gram of silica gel can have an area of up to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/AU/en/product/mm/101969" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">700 square metres</a> – almost four tennis courts – making them exceptionally efficient at capturing and storing water.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Is silica gel toxic?</h3><p>The “do not eat” warning is easily the most prominent text on silica gel sachets.</p><p>According to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.poison.org/articles/silica-gel" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">health professionals</a>, most silica beads found in these sachets are non-toxic and don’t present the same risk as <a class="link-external" href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-10-tunnel-workers-could-develop-silicosis-our-new-research-shows-252186" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">silica dust</a>, for example. They mainly pose a choking hazard, which is good enough reason to keep them away from children and pets.</p><p>However, if silica gel is accidentally ingested, it’s still recommended to contact health professionals to determine the best course of action.</p><p>Some variants of silica gel contain a moisture-sensitive dye. One particular variant, based on cobalt chloride, is blue when the desiccant is dry and turns pink when saturated with moisture. While the dye is toxic, in desiccant pellets it is present only in a small amount – approximately 1% of the total weight.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Desiccants come in other forms too</h3><p>Apart from silica gel, a number of other materials are used as moisture absorbers and desiccants. These are <a class="link-external" href="https://www.britannica.com/science/zeolite" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">zeolites</a>, <a class="link-external" href="https://www.britannica.com/science/alumina" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">activated alumina</a> and <a class="link-external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">activated carbon</a> – materials engineered to be highly porous.</p><p>Another desiccant type you’ll often see in moisture absorbers for larger areas like pantries or wardrobes is calcium chloride. It typically comes in a box filled with powder or crystals found in most hardware stores, and is a type of salt.</p><p>Kitchen salt – sodium chloride – attracts water and easily becomes lumpy. Calcium chloride works in the same way, but has an even stronger hygroscopic effect and “traps” the water through a hydration reaction. Once the salt is saturated, you’ll see liquid separating in the container.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Something that looks like desiccant</h3><p>Some food items such as tortilla wraps, noodles, beef jerky, and some medicines and vitamins contain slightly different sachets, labelled “oxygen absorbers”.</p><p>These small packets don’t contain desiccants. Instead, they have chemical compounds that “scavenge” or bond oxygen.</p><p>Their purpose is similar to desiccants – they extend the shelf life of food products and sensitive chemicals such as medicines. But they do so by directly preventing <a class="link-external" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zyq22hv/revision/1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">oxidation</a>. When some foods are exposed to oxygen, their chemical composition changes and can lead to decay (apples turning brown when cut is an example of oxidation).</p><p>There is a whole range of <a class="link-external" href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4375217/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">compounds</a> used as oxygen absorbers. These chemicals have a stronger affinity to oxygen than the protected substance. They range from simple compounds such as iron which “rusts” by using up oxygen, to more complex such as plastic films <a class="link-external" href="https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/full/10.5555/19840494805" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">that work when exposed to light</a>.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Can I reuse a desiccant</h3><p>Although desiccants and dehumidifiers are considered disposable, you can relatively easily reuse them.</p><p>To “recharge” or dehydrate silica gel, you can place it in an oven at approximately <a class="link-external" href="https://www.silicagel.com.au/silica-gel-beads/indicating/orange-green-3-5mm-beads" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">115-125 degrees celsius for two–three hours</a>, although you shouldn’t do this if it’s in a plastic sachet that could melt in the heat.</p><p>Interestingly, due to how they bind water, some desiccants require temperatures well above the boiling point of water to dehydrate (for example, <a class="link-external" href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpcs.2018.04.034%20Get%20rights%20and%20content" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">calcium chloride hydrates completely dehydrate at 200 degrees celsisus</a>).</p><p>After dehydration, silica gel sachets may be useful for drying small electronic items (<a class="link-external" href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-rescue-a-wet-phone/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">like your phone</a> after you accidentally dropped it into water), keeping your camera dry, or preventing your family photos and old films from sticking to each other.</p><p>This is a good alternative to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/20/wet-iphone-in-rice-what-to-do-instead" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">the questionable method of using uncooked rice</a>, as silica gel doesn’t decompose and won’t leave starch residues on your things.</p><p><a class="link-external" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kamil-zuber-2329273" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>Kamil Zuber</em></a><em> is Senior Industry Research Fellow, Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia</em>.</p><p>This article was first published on <a class="link-external" href="https://theconversation.com/do-not-eat-whats-in-those-little-desiccant-sachets-and-how-do-they-work-258398" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>The Conversation</u></em></a>.</p>
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<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2025 16:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Kamil Zuber, The Conversation</author>
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<title>‘Seek knowledge here’: A conversation between Greek King Milinda and the Buddhist monk Nagasena</title>
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<p>Homage to the Bhagavan, the Enlightened One, the Perfectly Awakened Buddha.</p><p>A king named Milinda approached Nagasena in that <br>best of cities, Sagala, much as the Ganga draws <br>near the ocean. </p><p>The king advanced and put to that brilliant orator, a <br>torchbearer dispelling darkness, numerous subtle <br>questions on possibilities and impossibilities. </p><p>The marvellous questions and answers pertain to <br>matters of profound significance, as they stir the <br>heart, please the ear, and send shivers down the spine. </p><p>The brilliant talk of Nagasena, with its analogies <br>and methods, penetrated the heart of the <br>abhidhamma and the vinaya, and unravelled the net of suttas.</p><p>So seek knowledge here and cheer the mind <br>as you listen to these subtle questions that resolve all <br>points of uncertainty.</p><p>This is the account that has been handed down by tradition. The city called Sagala was a centre of trade for the Yonakas, part of a lovely region of earth, resplendent with rivers and mountains and abounding in parks, gardens, woods, lakes, and lotus pools. It was a city founded by learned people and delightful for its rivers, hills, and woods. Its enemies vanquished, it was free of oppression by adversaries. It boasted diverse and formidable watchtowers and gates, excellent and noble arches mounted over the city portals, and encircling white walls and deep moats around the palace.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Its streets, squares, and intersections were well planned, and the interiors of its shops were stocked with many varieties of fine goods exquisitely displayed. It was graced with hundreds of diverse alms halls and embellished with hundreds of thousands of fine houses resembling Himalayan peaks. </h3><p>The city teemed with elephants, horses, chariots, and infantry. It was crowded with the multitudes of humanity, including throngs of handsome men and women and numerous Kshatriyas, Brahmans, Vaishyas, and Shudras. It resounded with cries of welcome to various renouncers and Brahmans and became the resort of many types of educated and heroic men. Fragrant with scents, the city’s bazaars were packed with stores of various cloths, including Kasi and Kotumbara textiles, and emporia displaying numerous exquisite flowers and perfumes. Its shops were arrayed in all directions and boasted many prized jewels. The city was the home of glittering treasure, full of merchant guilds trading in finery, bursting with copper, silver, gold, bronze, and stoneware, a place of lavish ric... |
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<title>Eco India: What do we stand to lose as critical coastal ecosystems go unmapped?</title>
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<h2>Coastal Regulation Zone maps fail to include critical ecosystems, putting 245 km of India's southeast coastline at risk of encroachment and climate crises.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 06 Jul 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 291: How learning about our planet is a step towards healing it</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 291: How learning about our planet is a step towards healing it</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<h1>Eco India: How can Kannauj's famous perfume industry survive the effects of climate change?</h1>
<h2>Weather fluctuations over three years have disrupted rose and jasmine harvests in Kannauj, India's perfume capital.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 08 Jun 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 290: How can farm based industries adapt to climate change in a scientific way?</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 290: How can farm based industries adapt to climate change in a scientific way?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<h1>Eco India: Could happy and healthy hens make eggs taste better?</h1>
<h2>In India, about 80% of eggs come from battery-caged farms, but there's a global shift toward cage-free farming that allows natural hen behavior.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 289: Why animal welfare is the missing key to environmental health</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 289: Why animal welfare is the missing key to environmental health</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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May 24, 2025 · 03:25 pm
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<pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h1>Eco India: Are Water ATMs a solution to Delhi's water problems?</h1>
<h2>In Delhi, about 93% residents are connected to piped water supply lines, while the rest depend on water tankers and vendor services for their water needs.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 20 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 288: How can our cities navigate water scarcity and rising demands better?</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 288: How can our cities navigate water scarcity and rising demands better?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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Apr 19, 2025 · 03:53 pm
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<pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2025 10:23:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India: Is unchecked urban expansion impacting our food security?</title>
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<h1>Eco India: Is unchecked urban expansion impacting our food security?</h1>
<h2>Reports suggest that the area of land that actually grows our food has shrunk by more than 3 million hectares. What could this mean for India's food security?</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 287: How can we strike a balance between development, nature and quality of life?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<title>2020 Delhi riots: Accused should be in jail till they are acquitted or convicted, police tell HC</title>
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<h1>2020 Delhi riots: Accused should be in jail till they are acquitted or convicted, police tell HC</h1>
<h2>The court on Wednesday reserved its judgment on the bail pleas of eight persons accused of being part of a ‘larger conspiracy’ behind the violence.</h2>
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<p>The Delhi Police on Wednesday urged the High Court to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/delhi/2025/Jul/09/delhi-riots-were-to-shame-india-globally-keep-accused-in-jail-till-acquittal-or-conviction-police-to-hc" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>deny bail</u></a> to those accused of being part of a “larger conspiracy” linked to the 2020 Delhi riots, claiming that they tried to defame the country in an orchestrated manner, PTI reported.</p><p>“If you are doing something against your nation then you better be in jail till you are acquitted or convicted,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the police, told a bench of Justices Naveen Chawla and Shalinder Kaur, according to the agency.</p><p>Mehta told the court that this was not an ordinary case, where those accused of a crime could argue that they should be released on bail since they had been incarcerated for a long time.</p><p>“In cases involving anti-national activities, long incarceration is not a factor,” the <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/2020-delhi-riots-larger-conspiracy-case-order-on-bail-pleas-of-umar-khalid-7-others-reserved-10116986/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">solicitor general</a> was quoted as saying by <em>The Indian Express</em>. “This is an attack on the sovereignty of the country. By attacking the National Capital, it would have an effect on the entire country.</p><p>Mehta alleged that the accused persons tried to promote communal narratives by forming a WhatsApp group named “Muslim students of JNU" [Jawaharlal Nehru University”. He claimed that former JNU students Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid, by doing so, “broke the secular fabric” of the university, PTI reported.</p><p>The solicitor general referred to an allegedly inflammatory speech that Imam made during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.</p><p>“The intention was to cause national embarrassment at a global level,” Mehta alleged, according to PTI. “February 24, 2020 was the date when the US President was to visit. Sharjeel Imam delivers a speech four weeks before this clearly indicating the timeline for execution of conspiracy. He says we have four weeks.”</p><p>In his speeches, Imam had purportedly asked the protestors to <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/951083/citizenship-act-assam-government-to-file-case-against-shaheen-bagh-protest-organiser"><u>“cut off Assam from India”</u></a> by occupying the “Muslim-dominated Chicken’s Neck”. The comment was widely perceived as secessionist, but Imam had later claimed that he had called for peaceful protests to <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/951159/citizenship-act-activist-charged-with-sedition-says-he-called-for-peaceful-road-blockades"><u>“block roads going to Assam”</u></a> – “basically a call for chakka jam”.</p><p>The High Court bench of Justices Naveen Chawla and Shalinder Kaur on Wednesday reserved its judgement on the bail petitions of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, Mohd Saleem Khan, Shifa ur Rehman, Athar Khan and Khalid Saifi. Another bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar reserved the bail petition of Tasleem Ahmed.</p><p>The bench of Justices Chawla and Kaur will hear the petition of a ninth accused person, Shadab Ahmed, on Thursday.</p><p>Clashes had <a href="https://scroll.in/tag/delhi-riots">broken out</a> in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence left 53 dead and hundreds injured.</p><p>The Delhi Police has claimed that the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Narendra Modi government and was plotted by those who organised the protests against the contentious citizenship law.</p><p>Imam, however, told the court in December that he did not <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1076778/did-not-call-for-violence-in-speeches-activist-sharjeel-imam-tells-delhi-hc">call for violence</a> in any of the speeches he gave during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. </p><p>Khalid, on his part, argued that merely being part of a <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1079442/being-part-of-whatsapp-group-does-not-imply-criminality-umar-khalid-tells-delhi-hc">WhatsApp group</a> did not imply criminal activity.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>Also read:</em></strong></p><ul class="cms-block cms-block-ul"><li><p><a href="https://scroll.in/article/1079764/five-years-on-has-india-forgotten-the-victims-of-the-delhi-riots"><strong><em><u>Five years on, has India forgotten the victims of the Delhi riots?</u></em></strong></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://scroll.in/article/1079476/five-years-later-delhi-polices-riots-conspiracy-case-is-built-on-sand"><strong><em><u>Five years later: Delhi Police’s riots conspiracy case is built on sand</u></em></strong></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://scroll.in/article/1074866/how-bench-changes-have-meant-unending-bail-proceedings-in-the-delhi-riots-case"><strong><em><u>How bench changes have meant unending bail proceedings in the Delhi riots case</u></em></strong></a></p></li></ul><hr class="block-break">
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<title>Pune car crash: Minor’s parents attempted to swap samples at second hospital, says prosecution</title>
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<h1>Pune car crash: Minor’s parents attempted to swap samples at second hospital, says prosecution</h1>
<h2>Doctors at the Aundh Government Hospital refused to tamper with the blood sample, said the police.</h2>
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<p>Parents of the minor accused in the Pune car crash attempted to swap blood samples at a second hospital as well, the police told a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.business-standard.com/india-news/juvenille-accused-in-pune-porsche-case-tried-to-swap-blood-samples-police-125070900573_1.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">court in the city</a> on Tuesday, reported PTI.</p><p>The case pertains to the death of two persons after the 17-year-old boy crashed into their motorbike with his Porsche car in Pune on May 19, 2024. The minor, reportedly from the family of a prominent city realtor, was allegedly driving under the influence of <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1068638/pune-car-crash-police-arrest-minors-mother-for-swapping-his-blood-samples"><u>alcohol</u></a>.</p><p>The first blood sample of the 17-year-old was taken at Sassoon General Hospital hours after the accident. However, the police requested another sample to be collected due to reports about possible tampering. The second sample was taken at the Aundh Government Hospital.</p><p>The <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/pune-porsche-crash-tamper-secret-second-sample-minor-driver-aundh-hospital-10115652/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">alleged attempt</a> to swap the sample at the district hospital in Aundh failed as doctors refused to tamper with it, <em>The Indian Express</em> reported. </p><p>The newspaper quoted an unidentified police officer as saying that the prosecution in the case has submitted additional documents to the court. </p><p>The documents showed that “the father and mother of the minor driver and middleman Ashpak Makandar had gone to the Aundh Government Hospital when the minor was taken there to collect a second blood sample…on May 19, 2024 by the police team”, the officer claimed.</p><p>“While the sample was supposed to be taken secretly, family members still learned about it, as some of them were at the Yerawada police station in the aftermath of the accident,” the officer claimed, adding that the accused attempted to “tamper” with the blood sample at the district hospital.</p><p>On May 20, 2024, both samples were sent to a forensics facility for DNA analysis.</p><p>Investigation had earlier shown that the <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1069765/pune-car-crash-bombay-high-court-orders-release-of-minor-accused-of-drunk-driving">blood samples</a> of the 17-year-old had been swapped with his mother at Sassoon General Hospital to conceal that he was intoxicated at the time of the crash.</p><p>Ajay Taware, head of the forensic department at Sassoon General Hospital, Medical Officer Shreehari Halnor and a staffer, Atul Ghatkamble, were arrested in the matter, PTI reported.</p><p>Others who were held are the minor’s father, Makandar, and four others identified as Amar Gaikwad, Aditya Avinash Sood, Ashish Mittal and Arun Kumar Singh.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<h1>Rush Hour: 9 dead in bridge collapse, Trump says BRICS was set up to ‘degenerate our dollar’ &amp; more</h1>
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<p><strong><em>We’re building a brand-new studio to bring you bold ground reports, sharp interviews, hard-hitting podcasts, explainers and more. </em></strong><a class="link-external" href="https://pages.razorpay.com/scrollstudiofund" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong><em>Support Scroll’s studio fund today.</em></strong></a></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>Nine persons died and six were injured as several vehicles fell into the Mahisagar river as a bridge collapsed in Gujarat’s Vadodara district on Wednesday.</strong> The incident took place at about 7.30 am when a slab between two piers of the 900-metre Gambhira bridge collapsed. The structure connected Vadodara and Anand districts.</p><p>The bridge was inaugurated in 1985. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said that the road construction department had been ordered to immediately investigate the accident. <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084345/vadodara-bridge-collapse-9-dead-after-several-vehicles-fall-into-river"><strong>Read on</strong></a></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>Two Indian Air Force pilots have died after a Jaguar fighter jet crashed near Rajasthan’s Churu.</strong> The two-seater Jaguar trainer aircraft was on a routine training mission, said the Air Force. </p><p>It also stated that no damage to civilian property had been reported. A court of inquiry has been constituted to ascertain the cause of the accident.</p><p>This is the third SEPECAT Jaguar jet to crash this year. <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084352/both-pilots-killed-as-fighter-jet-crashes-in-rajasthan"><strong>Read on</strong></a></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>The Supreme Court has refused to urgently hear a petition seeking to stop the release of the Hindi film <em>Udaipur Files</em>.</strong> The film, which is scheduled to release in theatres on Friday, is reportedly based on the 2022 killing of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal.</p><p>The writ petition was filed by Mohammed Javed, one of the eight persons accused in the murder case. Javed argued that the release of the film would violate his right to a fair trial. The petitioner has argued that the film, based on its trailer, appeared to be communally provocative.</p><p>In June 2022, Lal, a tailor, was killed in Rajasthan’s Udaipur for purportedly sharing a social media post in support of suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma. She had made disparaging remarks about Prophet Muhammad during a television debate in May 2022. <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084338/2022-kanhaiya-lal-murder-case-accused-moves-supreme-court-against-release-of-udaipur-files-film"><strong>Read on</strong></a></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>United States President Donald Trump has said that a 10% tariff on imports from countries that are part of the BRICS grouping will be introduced “pretty soon”.</strong> The comment followed Trump’s warning to countries on Sunday against aligning with the “anti-American policies” of the BRICS.</p><p>Without offering evidence, Trump also accused BRICS of trying to weaken the US and undermine the dollar’s position as the global reserve currency. “BRICS was set up to degenerate our dollar and take our dollar...take it off as the standard,” he said. “And that’s okay if they want to play that game, but I can play that game too.”</p><p>The BRICS grouping comprises India, Brazil, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Washington views the group as attempting to become an economic counterweight to the US. <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1084339/brics-set-up-to-degenerate-our-dollar-says-trump"><strong>Read on</strong></a></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>If you haven’t already, sign up for our </em></strong><a class="link-external" href="https://scrollstack.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f11eeab993ed2fbea0bfb512e&amp;id=be5be8b6a9&amp;e=ad54a149f8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong><em><u>Daily Brief</u></em></strong></a><strong><em> newsletter.</em></strong></p><hr class="block-break">
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<title>Portrayal of ‘Janaki’ in Malayalam film may hurt religious sentiments: CBFC tells Kerala HC</title>
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<h1>Portrayal of ‘Janaki’ in Malayalam film may hurt religious sentiments: CBFC tells Kerala HC</h1>
<h2>The title character shares her name with the Hindu deity Sita and is depicted as a woman who was raped, the board told the court.</h2>
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<p>The Central Board of Film Certification told the Kerala High Court that it had <a class="link-external" href="https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/jsk-janaki-state-of-kerala-cbfc-objects-to-goddess-name-character-cross-examined-by-dfence-lawyer-296979#:~:text=The%20CBFC%20further%20said%20that,she%20had%20a%20boyfried%20etc." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>objected to the Malayalam film </u><em><u>Janaki vs State of Kerala</u></em></a> because the title character “Janaki”, another name of the Hindu deity Sita, is shown being subjected to rape and other traumatic experiences, <em>Live Law</em> reported on Wednesday.</p><p>In an affidavit, the board said that such a portrayal undermined “the dignity and sanctity associated with the revered persona of Goddess Sita, thereby causing grave offence to religious sentiments”.</p><p>It flagged a courtroom scene, where the character “Janaki” is being cross-examined by a defence lawyer from another religion, claiming that the interaction included “objectionable questions” and could disrupt public order. </p><p><em>Janaki vs State of Kerala</em>, which also stars Union minister Suresh Gopi, was earlier scheduled for release on June 27. However, its producers, Cosmos Entertainments, moved the High Court after the censor certificate was delayed despite their application being submitted on June 12.</p><p>On Wednesday, Justice N Nagaresh directed the board to grant the censor certification after the producers agreed to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.barandbench.com/news/kerala-high-court-orders-cbfc-to-grant-censor-certificate-to-suresh-gopi-movie-janaki-after-producers-agree-to-two-changes" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>two alterations</u></a> sought by the Central Board of Film Certification, <em>Bar and Bench</em> reported.</p><p>During the hearing, the film certification board’s counsel Abhinav Chandrachud told the court that although the board had initially proposed 96 cuts, it was now only seeking two revisions. </p><p>The first was to revise the subtitle <em>Janaki v State of Kerala</em> by changing the name to either “Janaki V” or “V Janaki” to reflect the character’s full name and second was to mute the character’s name during the courtroom scene. </p><p>Chandrachud also told the court that the Central Board of Film Certification would grant the censor certificate within three days after the revised version of the film is submitted. The matter has been listed for further hearing after a week.</p><p>During a previous hearing, Nagaresh, who watched the film on July 5, said that there was <a class="link-external" href="https://www.barandbench.com/news/why-cant-rape-survivors-character-in-suresh-gopi-film-be-named-janaki-kerala-high-court-asks-cbfc" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>no reason</u></a> why a woman who had been raped could not be named “Janaki”, <em>Bar and Bench</em> reported. He also criticised the certification board for interfering with free speech and artistic freedom.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>Also read: </em></strong><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/1083796/the-emergency-is-50-years-old-but-film-censorship-is-still-flourishing"><strong><em>The Emergency is 50 years old, but film censorship is still flourishing</em></strong></a></p><hr class="block-break">
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<title>Odisha detains more than 400 on suspicion that they are Bangladeshis, Rohingya refugees</title>
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<h1>Odisha detains more than 400 on suspicion that they are Bangladeshis, Rohingya refugees</h1>
<h2>The Trinamool Congress has claimed that among the detainees were migrants from West Bengal working in Odisha.</h2>
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<p>The Odisha Police has detained <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/odisha/over-400-suspected-illegal-immigrants-rounded-up-in-odisha-for-verification-police/article69788397.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>444 persons</u></a> in Jharsuguda for “identity verification”, suspecting them to be undocumented migrants from Bangladesh or Rohingya refugees, <em>The Hindu</em> reported on Wednesday.</p><p>Four others were detained in the port town of Paradip, according to the newspaper.</p><p>Later in the day, the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal claimed that among the detainees were migrants from the state working in Odisha. </p><p>The detentions are part of a <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1083999/west-bengal-alleges-odisha-has-detained-nearly-100-of-its-migrants-claiming-they-are-bangladeshis"><u>statewide operation</u></a> launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Odisha to identify and deport undocumented Bangladeshi migrants living in the state.</p><p>In May, the Ministry of Home Affairs set a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/odisha/over-400-suspected-illegal-immigrants-rounded-up-in-odisha-for-verification-police/article69788397.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>30-day deadline</u></a> for all states and Union Territories to verify the identity and documentation of individuals suspected to be undocumented migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar. Those failing to produce valid documents would be liable for deportation.</p><p>The ministry also instructed states to invoke their statutory powers to detect, detain and deport illegal immigrants.</p><p>On Wednesday, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP and Chairman of West Bengal’s Migrant Welfare Board Samirul Islam claimed that more than 200 migrant workers from the state had been detained in Jharsuguda “on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals”.</p><p>“This is a fresh round of detentions by the BJP-ruled Odisha government, following the earlier confinement of hundreds of migrant workers from Bengal,” Islam claimed in a social media post. “What is their fault? That they speak Bengali?”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1942873418866811165" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Once again, atrocities against Bengali-speaking migrant workers continue in Odisha's Jharsuguda district.<br>The BJP-ruled Odisha government recently detained over 200 migrant workers from various districts of Bengal — including Murshidabad, Birbhum,Malda, Nadia, Purba Burdwan, and… <a href="https://t.co/FL2WN2CsS2">pic.twitter.com/FL2WN2CsS2</a></p>— Samirul Islam (@SamirulAITC) <a href="https://twitter.com/SamirulAITC/status/1942873418866811165?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>Mahua Moitra, the party MP from Krishnanagar, claimed that 23 workers from the Nadia district were being held in “illegal detention” in Jharsuguda. </p><p>In a social media post, she said that the Krishnanagar Police had sent<a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/MahuaMoitra/status/1942901731441999993?t=bKYZ1o3vWo9Zd7-Pu5BQIw&amp;s=19" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> verification reports</a> of all the workers to Odisha and requested the authorities to release the detainees. </p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1942832845753348165" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">23 workers from Nadia being held in illegal detention in Jharsuguda. I urge <a href="https://twitter.com/SecyChief?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecyChief</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DGPOdisha?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DGPOdisha</a> to release immediately. Never happened in 24 years of <a href="https://twitter.com/Naveen_Odisha?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Naveen_Odisha</a> &amp; now it is daily occurrence. Do not think there is no-one to fight for these workers. <a href="https://t.co/n4WMBFQlB6">pic.twitter.com/n4WMBFQlB6</a></p>— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) <a href="https://twitter.com/MahuaMoitra/status/1942832845753348165?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>On Tuesday, Superintendent of Police Parmar Smit Parshottamdashose told <em>The Hindu</em> that those detained in Jharsuguda were “mainly working in the construction sector while some were engaged in the mining sector”.</p><p>“All 444 of them are men,” Parshottamdas added. </p><p>The development comes nearly a month after four men from West Bengal, who had been picked up by the Maharashtra Police and “pushed” into Bangladesh, were <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1083532/bengali-man-in-thane-sent-to-bangladesh-despite-family-government-giving-citizenship-proof-report">brought back</a> on June 15. The Murshidabad Police in West Bengal had presented proof of them being Indian citizens.</p><p>Over the past month, Indian authorities have been <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1083414/indias-pushback-policy-violates-domestic-and-international-law-but-wont-face-global-censure">pursuing a policy</a> to “push” individuals claimed to be undocumented migrants into Bangladesh. India has “pushed back” more than 2,000 persons into Bangladesh since the country launched “<a href="https://scroll.in/tag/operation-sindoor">Operation Sindoor</a>”, a military operation against terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.</p><p>The legality of the “push back” policy has been debated in India and internationally. Experts have told <em>Scroll </em>that the policy violated India’s obligations under international law and customary international law.</p><p>In March, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi informed the Assembly that <a class="link-external" href="https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2025/Jul/09/448-detained-as-odisha-government-starts-action-against-bangladeshis-rohingyas" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>3,738 undocumented migrants from Bangladesh</u></a> were identified in the state, <em>The New Indian Express</em> reported.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>Also read:</strong> <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1083414/indias-pushback-policy-violates-domestic-and-international-law-but-wont-face-global-censure"><strong><em><u>India’s ‘pushback’ policy violates domestic and international law – but won’t face global censure</u></em></strong></a></p><hr class="block-break">
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<title>Maharashtra: Shinde Sena MLA assaults canteen worker claiming he was served stale food</title>
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<h1>Maharashtra: Shinde Sena MLA assaults canteen worker claiming he was served stale food</h1>
<h2>Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis described Sanjay Gaikwad’s actions as being ‘unacceptable’.</h2>
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Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad
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<a href="https://x.com/sanjaygaikwad34/status/1931291550623158537/photo/1" target="_blank"> Sanjay Gaikwad - संजय गायकवाड, @sanjaygaikwad34/X</a>
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<p>A row has erupted in Maharashtra after Shiv Sena legislator <a class="link-external" href="https://theprint.in/india/shiv-sena-mla-sanjay-gaikwad-slaps-canteen-staffer-in-mumbai-over-stale-food/2684357/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">San... |
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<title>Why Indian cities flood within hours of rain</title>
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<p><strong>W</strong>hen the monsoon arrived in Delhi last year, it brought welcome respite from the relentless heat. But for Rahish, this comfort was short-lived.</p><p>With just a short spell of rain, the street in front of his tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri was waterlogged with about a foot of rainwater. It took around four hours for it to subside.</p><p>But Rahish was expecting it. After all, he had seen the pattern repeat year after year for the last 30 years. This year, the water even entered his shop and damaged some of his cloth material. “I am still paying for the losses,” he said, as he finished the final stitches on a pair of trousers for a customer.</p><p>“The biggest problem is that there is no exit for the water that collects,” said Rahish.</p><p>Tigri is adjacent to Sangam Vihar, one of Delhi’s largest unplanned colonies, where waterlogging occurs frequently.</p><p>Excess rainwater is meant to flow into the Barapullah stormwater drain here, but most of the smaller drains that connect to it are blocked with solid waste. As a result, water seeps through manholes and flows into the sewerage system under the roads.</p><p>“But since the pipes are small, very soon it starts giving out backflow,” Rahish said. When this happens, rainwater, mixed with sewerage, flows out and contributes to the waterlogging.</p><p>This is what happened last year when water entered his home in Tigri. “We could not even use the toilet because we have an Indian-styled one, and it was covered with sewage water,” he said.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1428" data-height="1071" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/ygouopifkq-1750440721.jpg" alt="" title="Rahish (seated) has a tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri. He has seen the street in front of his shop become waterlogged during the monsoons for 30 years. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Rahish (seated) has a tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri. He has seen the street in front of his shop become waterlogged during the monsoons for 30 years. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>It isn’t just low-income neighbourhoods like Tigri that are affected by waterlogging. During the monsoon last year, rainwater also stagnated in Defence Colony, an upscale residential colony around eight kilometres north.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Numerous basements flooded here, and people lost about Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh worth of furniture and other things they had stored,” said Bhavreen Kandhari, a resident of the colony.</h3><p>The story is a familiar one across Indian cities and towns, most of whose stormwater drains are proving inadequate for increasing bouts of heavy rainfall. Last month was Mumbai’s wettest May in more than a hundred years – rains left roads waterlogged and commuters stranded, and even gushed into a newly inaugurated metro station. Media reported that the rains revealed <a class="link-external" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-rain-bmc-plans-to-revamp-drainage-capacity-targets-120mm-rainfall-per-hour/articleshow/121794660.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>80 new places</u></a> that were prone to flooding, and municipal corporation officials stated that they were planning to increase drainage capacities of vulnerable areas.</p><p>Similar scenes of flooding played out in Bengaluru, where three people were also killed in rain-related accidents.</p><p>While part of the reason for frequent flooding in Indian cities is the changing rainfall patterns – more rain tends to fall in shorter periods – another <a class="link-external" href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/gaps-in-dealing-with-bengaluru-floods-3555392" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>key factor</u></a> is poor drainage. The pattern across cities is common: poorly planned expansion means that existing drains typically lack adequate capacity; and even these are poorly maintained, almost guaranteeing their failure during days of high rainfall.</p><p>In Delhi, both Defence Colony and Tigri are adjacent to the Barapullah drain. This is a naturally occurring seasonal stream that is a tributary of the Yamuna, and earlier came alive only with the monsoon, thereby acting as a natural stormwater drain. It originates from Mehrauli in south Delhi, and flows past congested homes in Chirag Dilli, the localities of Defence Colony and Jangpura, and the busy Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station, shortly after which it meets the Yamuna.</p><p>Numerous smaller, local drains constructed by the Public Works Department are connected to this natural drain – they are supposed to collect rainwater and feed it to Barapullah, which should then carry it to the Yamuna. With these smaller drains included, Barapullah has a vast catchment area – it covers <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>91%</u></a> of South Delhi and 95% of Central Delhi.</p><p>Other stormwater drains carry out similar functions in other parts of the city – Najafgarh drains out West Delhi, while across the Yamuna, the Shahdara and Ghazipur drains carry out the same function. In all, 201 natural drains flow through Delhi.</p><p>However, <em>Scroll</em>’s ground reporting found that in numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1428" data-height="1071" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/iouximrmmf-1750441005.jpg" alt="" title="In numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">In numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>“The drains are all connected to each other, but because of such blocks the water does not reach the main drain,” said another Tigri resident Prem, pointing to a blocked drain next to the road on which a gift shop she runs is situated. She explained that the road gets waterlogged every year.</p><p>The Delhi Traffic Police has identified over <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>260 hotspots</u></a> that face frequent waterlogging in the city. This urban flooding occurs even during short spells of rain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">In Sangam Vihar, for instance, a Centre for Science and Environment <a class="link-external" href="https://www.cseindia.org/water-and-wastewater-visioning-for-large-dense-unplanned-urban-settlements-in-an-era-of-climate-risk-12177" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>report </u></a>found that with sewage lines also working as stormwater drains, flooding and sewage spillover occurs “even in a short 15-minute rainfall episode”.</h3><p>In response, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has focused on desilting the network of stormwater drains to ensure that they function at optimum capacity. As of early July, the corporation still had to <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/nearly-1-4th-of-mcd-drains-in-delhi-are-yet-to-be-desilted-report-10096657/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">complete 25%</a> of this work.</p><p>But experts told <em>Scroll </em>that while desilting is important, long-term answers to Delhi’s waterlogging would involve taking into account the natural topography of the city, delinking sewage with waste water, reviving old ponds and finding alternate exit routes for rainwater that exceeds the carrying capacity of drains.</p><p>“The administration is not looking at the issue as a system,” said AK Gosain, former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, who has worked extensively on problems of water resources engineering. Without such a holistic approach, he added, tackling individual issues through strategies such as desilting was unlikely to produce the desired results.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>This story is part of </em></strong><a href="https://scroll.in/topic/56439/common-ground"><strong><em><u>Common Ground</u></em></strong></a><strong><em>, our in-depth and investigative reporting project. Sign up </em></strong><a class="link-external" href="https://scrollstack.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f11eeab993ed2fbea0bfb512e&amp;id=e2fc1bf83f" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong><em><u>here</u></em></strong></a><strong><em> to get the stories in your inbox soon after they are released.</em></strong></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>D</strong>elhi sees broadly two kinds of flooding.</p><p>The first results when there is a rise in the level of the Yamuna, on whose banks Delhi is situated. When this occurs, usually in the monsoons, water from the river flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city.</p><p>“In such cases, the irrigation and flood department shuts the gates that connect the drains to the Yamuna, so that the river’s water does not go into the city,” said Rajender Ravi, founding member of the People’s Resource Centre, which researches infrastructure, rivers and urban agriculture. But, he added, this also prevents water in the city from draining into the Yamuna, leading to waterlogging anyway.</p><p>Low-intensity floods of this kind, where the river does not rise above its warning level of 204 metres, occur almost every monsoon. </p><p>Occasionally, these floods can also occur at a much greater intensity. This is what happened in the 2023 monsoon, when the Yamuna flowed at a level of 208.66 metres above sea level, breaking the earlier record of 207.49 metres in 1978. The irrigation and flood control department’s <a class="link-external" href="https://ifc.delhi.gov.in/ifc/flood-problem-due-river-yamuna" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>website</u></a> notes that the city saw eight such floods between the 1960s and the 1990s.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1641" data-height="1002" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hohszakyzs-1750849450.jpg" alt="" title="One kind of flooding that Delhi sees is when the Yamuna’s level rises, and water flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city. Photo: Reuters/Parth Sanyal (India Environment Society)" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">One kind of flooding that Delhi sees is when the Yamuna’s level rises, and water flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city. Photo: Reuters/Parth Sanyal (India Environment Society)</figcaption></figure><p>Such floods have also occurred when water levels rise in manmade tributaries of the Yamuna. One such tributary begins in the Najafgarh lake, which is fed by the Sahibi river, a natural tributary of the Yamuna. In 1865, the British <a class="link-external" href="https://cwp-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/White-paper-of-Najafgarh-basin-1.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>drained</u></a> this large lake out to create more arable land – to do this, they created a new channel to the Yamuna, which came to be known as the Najafgarh drain. In 1967, this channel as well as the lake itself flooded.</p><p>But a far more frequent kind of flooding is the waterlogging that occurs within localities even when the Yamuna is not in spate.</p><p>These floods are primarily caused by unplanned construction as the city has expanded. “Because of so much concretisation, there is a lot of surface flow of rainwater which is not percolating into the ground naturally, because there is no soft space for the water to enter,” said Manu Bhatnagar, who heads INTACH’s natural heritage division, and has led work on rejuvenation of drains in Delhi.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">He added that there was also a lot of “poor engineering” of drainage systems – for example, the openings of several engineered drains are higher than the grounds they are supposed to drain.</h3><p>A major impediment to tackling this problem is the fact that administrative authority over stormwater drains is currently spread out between ten institutions, including the flood and irrigation department, the Delhi Jal Board, municipal corporations and public works department.</p><p>The Delhi government has attempted to tackle the problem. To start with, it asked Gosain and his team at IIT Delhi to consolidate data from various government departments on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains, and then indicate points at which there were problems. The government also asked the team to suggest possible solutions. They were to compile the information and recommendations in a drainage masterplan – the first such to be drawn up since 1978.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/kqlgjpwwok-1750441474.jpg" alt="" title="The Delhi government asked a team at IIT Delhi to consolidate from various government departments data on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Delhi government asked a team at IIT Delhi to consolidate from various government departments data on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>When the team began gathering available data, they came up against stark limitations.</p><p>In some instances, “We found only a line was made on a GIS map,” said Gosain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“There were no dimensions, no invert levels,” he added, referring to measurements that are essential to ascertain the capacity of the stormwater drains. “These are the basic data that have to be used to understand why water is not being evacuated.”</h3><p>The team also struggled because several departments delayed providing information to them. Gosain suggested that in some instances, team members could themselves collect data from the ground, and submit it to departments for vetting.</p><p>For the next 18 months, his team collected this data, both from the ground and from different departments, analysing the functioning of stormwater drains and identifying areas that faced the most waterlogging. They also made recommendations, such as correcting the slopes of artificial drains to prevent stagnation. In 2018, they put together a <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>new masterplan</u></a>.</p><p>But the report noted that though government departments had agreed beforehand to vet the data that the team compiled, not all departments had done so. It stated that “It was unfortunate that various departments passed on the survey data without vetting the data properly.” Some departments, like the Delhi Development Authority, did not even send the data the team had sought.</p><p>Though the government itself was responsible for some of these shortcomings of the report, a government committee that reviewed the master plan put the master plan on <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-govts-technical-panel-rejects-drainage-master-plan/article37182454.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>hold</u></a><u> in 2021, </u>citing “discrepancies in data”.</p><p>It was only this April that the Public Works Department announced that by June this year, it would <a class="link-external" href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/pwd-likely-to-finalise-project-report-for-delhi-drainage-master-plan-by-jun-101743608155790.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>finalise</u></a> a detailed project report for the drainage masterplan.</p><p>Gosain hinted that he was disappointed with the delay in implementing his team’s solutions, “We prepared this huge scientific database,” he said. “It is possible to reduce the extent of flooding by implementing the recommendations made by our study and accepted by the government, as long as they do it with proper intent and effort.”</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>A</strong>mong the major measures that the government undertakes each year to try and tackle flooding is the desilting of stormwater drains.</p><p>In May, across Delhi, workers with large spades were seen entering manholes and clearing wet mud from the manmade drains. Along the larger natural drains, like Barapullah, large bulldozers did the same work. This work, typically done before the monsoon, is aimed at increasing the capacity of the drains.</p><p>But experts pointed out that poor planning has made it impossible for desilting to be carried out to the extent needed. Specifically, in many areas of the city, long stretches of these drains have been covered over in ways that leave them inaccessible. “When we were analysing the data and preparing the master plan, we found many stretches of drains around 1 km to 2 km, where there is no access to the drain and desilting is not possible,” said Gosain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Stormwater drains are only supposed to be covered temporarily so as to gain access whenever required,” he added. “But now, most are permanent. Unless you break them you won’t know if the drain is silted or not.”</h3><p>In Defence Colony, the Delhi Development Authority covered large portions of Kushak drain – a part of the Barapullah drain – to create a park. Kandhari said that residents had raised their voices “for years to not cover the drain since it prevented routine inspection, desilting and maintenance which caused silt to build up, stagnate, and lead to foul odour”.</p><p>This year, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is attempting to rectify this mistake. An official told <em>Scroll </em>that they had broken large rectangular tracts of the covered portions of this drain so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1660" data-height="1200" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/indvczeeoh-1750441739.jpg" alt="" title="After building over the Kushak drain in Defence Colony to create a park, this year the Municipal Corporation of Delhi broke rectangular tracts of the covered portions so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.&nbsp;Photo: Special arrangement" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">After building over the Kushak drain in Defence Colony to create a park, this year the Municipal Corporation of Delhi broke rectangular tracts of the covered portions so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.&nbsp;Photo: Special arrangement</figcaption></figure><p>“It is such a waste of resources,” said Kandhari, who recorded a drone video along the Kushak drain where these bulldozers can be seen at work.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1929738271732781204" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kushak Drain Saga ⬇️ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DefenceColony?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DefenceColony</a> <br><br>*Started covering: 2009<br>*Stalled: 2013<br>*Abandoned: 2014<br>* <a href="https://twitter.com/rsuri54?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rsuri54</a> moved NGT: 2015 → SC twice over→ Yamuna Committee (till 2021)<br>*2025: Back to NGT<br><br>Citizens suffer for decades while absurd decisions go unchecked.<br><br>Video as on 2/6/25 ⬇️ <a href="https://t.co/abzwQvHmZh">pic.twitter.com/abzwQvHmZh</a></p>— Bhavreen Kandhari (@BhavreenMK) <a href="https://twitter.com/BhavreenMK/status/1929738271732781204?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>It was not only residents who opposed this work. In 2015, the National Green Tribunal <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Reply%20by%20DPCC%20in%20OA%20No.%20274%20of%202022%20(Prem%20Aggarwal%20&amp;%20Ors%20Vs.%20Govt.%20of%20NCT%20of%20Delhi.).pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>noted</u></a> that work of covering drains had begun in Defence Colony and other parts of south Delhi, but that this would have “very adverse impacts upon the environment and ecology of Delhi”. It added, “This would result in more flooding, explosion of diseases and clogging of drains.”</p><p>Many smaller drains within colonies have also been covered, such as with footpaths, or with extensions of shops.</p><p>“In most of the colonies, rooftop water is connected to the sewer line, which is not designed to get the stormwater,” said Gosain. </p><p>Elsewhere, drains have temporary coverings. In Tigri for example, Prem pointed to a few shops that had covered the naalas running outside their shops with cemented slabs, but ensured that they had iron handles that would allow them to be lifted. But allowing this access has not helped residents.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“These can be opened,” she said. “If the MCD comes tomorrow to clean these drains, no one will say no. But they should at least come.”</h3><p>It was not just silt that hindered the flow of water in the drains. Prem also pointed towards a cave-like cemented structure on one side of Tigri’s market – this was an opening to a stormwater drain, towards which the ground around was intended to slope, so that water would flow into it.</p><p>The opening to this drain had not been cleaned for years, she said. It was choked with plastic packets and other waste, and had no water in it. During rains, too, residents said, this drain did not carry any water at all.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>W</strong>hile in many places, rainwater enters the sewer system and causes floods, elsewhere, sewerage is directly released into stormwater drains, polluting them and choking their capacity.</p><p>On an early June morning, a portion of the Barapullah flowing in Chirag Dilli was a muddy green channel with plastic waste and cloth material on its banks. But experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/dsnkyeklue-1750441872.jpg" alt="" title="The Barapullah drain near Chirag Dilli. Experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Barapullah drain near Chirag Dilli. Experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>“Over a period of time as urbanisation surrounded them, stormwater drains have been used as a substitute to sewer systems,” INTACH’s Bhatnagar said. “Earlier in the non-monsoon period there was never any flow. Now around the year the flow is there and that is basically sewerage.”</p><p>During the rains, since stormwater drains are already carrying sewage, they have limited capacity to take on excess rainwater.</p><p>A court-appointed Yamuna Monitoring Committee flagged this problem in 2020 – it found that sewage was mixing with stormwater in <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>144 places</u></a> in the city. The IIT Delhi Master plan found that at least 50% of the capital territory does not have access to the engineered sewer system, and that “sewage generated from these areas is inevitably discharged into the storm water system”, which leads to “overflows and sluggish movement of the storm water within the drainage network”.</p><p>Not just sewage, even industrial waste flows in these drains. When the Yamuna Monitoring Committee did a random survey of industries in Bawana and Narela between 2019 and 2020, they found that <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>29 industries </u></a>were discharging their wastewater into stormwater drains.</p><p>The National Green Tribunal also issued directions to the Delhi Jal Board in 2015, 2017 and 2019 to ensure that stormwater drains do not carry sewage. In 2017, the board claimed that it had indeed stopped the entry of sewage into 11 out of 17 drains where it had been mixing with stormwater. But upon ground verification, the committee <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>found</u></a> that a number of these drains were still carrying sewage.</p><p>The Municipal Corporation of Delhi official agreed that sewage and industrial waste continues to flow into nalas. “But that is anyway the responsibility of Delhi Jal Board,” he said.</p><p><em>Scroll</em> emailed Delhi government authorities, seeking their responses to criticisms of poor planning and management of the the city’s stormwater drain system. This story will be updated if they respond.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>I</strong>n some parts of Delhi, the Public Works Department has <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-pwd-begins-preliminary-work-redeveloping-18-km-stormwater-drain-9665443/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>proposed</u></a> that it will lay drains of a larger width to prevent waterlogging. But experts argue that this would not be practical because it would entail digging up large parts of the city.</p><p>“The other option we have is to use and rejuvenate all the existing waterbodies, induce infiltration through rainwater harvesting, create retention storages in the city to reduce the stormwater and flooding to some extent,” said Gosain.</p><p>Indeed, in the master plan, Gosain and his team created simulations based on the data of slopes and drains they collected, to see if waterbodies in Delhi could naturally absorb the rainwater run-off. After mapping existing lakes and ponds in the three major drainage basins – Najafgarh, Barapullah, and Trans Yamuna – they found that waterbodies “could store a considerable volume” of water.</p><p>In Budhela, an urban village in south-west Delhi, residents explained that up till about two decades ago, an old pond or johad, played exactly this role. “This is where we used to take cows and goats for a swim, and we would swim ourselves,” said Ramniwas, a resident of the village. He explained that the natural incline of the area was such that during rains, runoff from the interiors of the densely laid streets of Budhela would flow into this rainfed lake. The village is part of the Najafgarh drainage basin, and the main Najafgarh drain flows less than a kilometre from Budhela.</p><p>But in 2002, Delhi Development Authority acquired the pond from the gram sabha and handed it over to Delhi government’s cultural wing to develop a building to host cultural events. To make the ground stable, the Delhi government filled the pond completely in the years following it.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Since that time, we have started seeing waterlogging issues in a few of our streets like this one,” said another resident Harmohan, as we walked on a street adjacent to the boundary of the pond.</h3><p>Budhela’s waterlogged street in the rains has also presented a health hazard – Harmohan explained that numerous mosquitoes breed on the still water, raising the risk of diseases spreading among residents.</p><p>It was only in late 2023 that the construction of the building began on the land where the pond had been. In 2024, a resident challenged the project in the Delhi High Court, arguing that the court had set precedent in 2013, when it directed the Delhi Development Authority to cancel all allotments of land on waterbodies wherever the land was still vacant – the court had also ordered the authority to revive these water bodies.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/gddlemzcyx-1750441983.jpg" alt="" title="In 2002, the Delhi government acquired a pond in Budhela village in south-west Delhi to construct a building to host cultural events. Since then, the village has seen significant waterlogging. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">In 2002, the Delhi government acquired a pond in Budhela village in south-west Delhi to construct a building to host cultural events. Since then, the village has seen significant waterlogging. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>This March, the Delhi High Court stayed the construction of the building.</p><p>When <em>Scroll</em> visited the johad on a hot June morning, a half constructed two-storey building stood in the depression of the dry pond. “We want the pond to be used as a pond, so that it can be used for the village residents,” said Ramniwas.</p><p>Experts also suggest other methods to tackle excess water that do not rely on stormwater drains – though they cautioned that the authorities had delayed acting on the problem. “Public parks also might have certain depressed areas where the stormwater can collect and recharge acquifers,” said Bhatnagar. He explained that rainwater being collected from roofs in homes around those localities could be directed into these depressions, rather than into into stormwater drains.</p><p>For now, residents are unsure of how much the desilting work in the city will help during the monsoon. Tigri’s Rahish said that he had been writing to different authorities for years to pay attention to the waterlogging in their locality, but that nothing had changed. “When it rains, the water stops, our lives stop for a few hours,” he said.</p>
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<author>Vaishnavi Rathore</author>
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<title>Marang Buru vs Parasnath: The conflict over Jharkhand’s highest peak</title>
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<p><strong class="drop-cap">I</strong>t was 8.30 pm in the town of Madhuban in Jharkhand, and Itwari Soren and Ramesh Murmu sat listless outside a lavish Jain mansion.</p><p>The two, who are palanquin bearers and belong to the Santal Adivasi community, were waiting for shops on the town’s main road to close so that they could sleep.</p><p>“We sleep on the roads with just our gamchas to lie down on,” said Itwari, referring to the towel also often used as a headscarf. “The mosquitoes keep biting us and if it rains, we get drenched. There are several guesthouses around here for pilgrims, but no facilities for us doliwale to stay.”</p><p>The two had not had any work that day in mid-May, or in fact that week. “This is the off season. The peak season is between March and October when Jain pilgrims visit in flocks,” Itwari said. “Then, we compete to book passengers and carry them up the hill.”</p><p>The hill he was referring to is the highest point in Jharkhand, and goes by two names. To Jains, it is Parasnath Hill, named after Parsvanatha, the twenty-third of 24 Jain tirthankaras, the central spiritual figures of the religion. Jains know the sacred site atop the hill as Sammed Shikarji and believe that 20 tirthankaras attained salvation there.</p><p>But the hill is also a sacred site to Itwari and Ramesh’s community. The Santals call the hill Marang Buru, after the foremost hill deity in their pantheon. They have three key sacred sites – the dishom manjhi thaan, where the headman worships ancestors and deities, the jug jaher thaan, a sacred grove, and the lo bir vaisi bodra darha, where the traditional court of Adivasis of the region is held.</p><p>At the same time, the hill is also a crucial source of employment to thousands of doliwalas like Itwari and Ramesh, who depend on Jain pilgrims and other visitors for a livelihood for at least six months in a year.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1800" data-height="806" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lstaeqzytd-1750157310.jpg" alt="" title="Ramesh Murmu (centre) and Itwari Soren (right) work as palanquin bearers in Madhuban, Jharkhand. They earn a living by carrying Jain pilgrims to the top of the Parasnath hill, where a Jain shrine is located. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Ramesh Murmu (centre) and Itwari Soren (right) work as palanquin bearers in Madhuban, Jharkhand. They earn a living by carrying Jain pilgrims to the top of the Parasnath hill, where a Jain shrine is located. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>“Pilgrims, especially older ones, are not able to climb to the top,” said Sikandar Hembrom of the Marang Buru Sanvta Susaar Baisi, an organisation which is fighting for the rights of Adivasis over the hill – Hembrom is also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.</p><p>He explained that it was typically Adivasis, as well as members of a few other marginalised groups, such as the Ghatwar and Turi communities, who carried pilgrims to the peak.</p><p>The palanquin bearers usually set out at 2 am, and take at least eight hours to complete the trek of 27 km. Two bearers charge Rs 2,300 to carry a person who weighs less than 49 kg, and Rs 2,760 for a person who weighs between 50 kg and 69 kg. For those who weigh more, bearers usually use chairs carried by four people, for which rates start at Rs 4,600.</p><p>These rates haven’t changed since 2019, Itwari said, showing me a rate card. During peak season, the bearers get regular work and earn between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 a month. For the remainder of the time, they work on their fields in neighbouring villages and do small odd jobs. “It is not an easy job, carrying so much weight while climbing a hill,” said Ramesh. “But we don’t have a choice and are compelled to do it. There are no better opportunities around here to earn a living.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hvonnjwwie-1750157379.jpg" alt="" title="Two palanquin bearers await customers in Madhuban. The rates for the work have not changed since 2019. Photos: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Two palanquin bearers await customers in Madhuban. The rates for the work have not changed since 2019. Photos: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1587" data-height="1200" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/ubokijgtpb-1750157787.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>Some locals claim that the two communities have co-existed in this fashion since time immemorial.</p><p>“Jains and Adivasis live harmoniously here,” said Amit Jain, the mahamantri, or general secretary, of Madhuban’s Jain community. “This practice of Adivasi doliwalas carrying pilgrims up to the peak has been going on for thousands of years.”</p><p>But this description also elides a tension that has long simmered between the two groups over their rights to the hill. It is centred around the very different relationships the two communities have with the site, and with their faith.</p><p>The most prominent point of contention is Sendra, an annual religious festival of the Adivasis, at which the community hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. A 2024 <a class="link-external" href="https://wap.hapres.com/htmls/JSR_1572_Detail.html#09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>paper</u></a> on Sendra in West Bengal and “ethnotourism” notes that the hunting in the festival is largely a “symbolic expression of ancient culture” through which tribes seek to “retain their ancestral legacy”.</p><p>Jains, meanwhile, see nonviolence as a core principle of their religion – over the years, some members of the community have challenged the hunt as a practice that hurts their religious sentiments.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1638" data-height="734" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jvsadqhzzs-1750245416.jpg" alt="" title="The most prominent point of contention between the Adivasi and Jain communities is an annual religious festival in which the former hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The most prominent point of contention between the Adivasi and Jain communities is an annual religious festival in which the former hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>In January, a Jain trust filed a petition in the Jharkhand High Court – among its demands was that the government “take preventive measures against activities that defile the sanctity of the Hill”. The petition also sought the implementation of a 2023 environment ministry memorandum, which effectively prohibited hunting, and the consumption of meat and alcohol, on the hill.</p><p>“This ruling fails to recognise Adivasi traditions, so we will challenge it and fight for our rights in court,” said Hembrom.</p><p>Some Adivasis argue that these demands contravene core tenets of Jainism itself. “The Jain religion is a beautiful one, they have a principle which says – live and let live,” said Bhagwan Kisku, an activist. “But in Madhuban, they are not practicing that. Instead, they are erasing Adivasis.”</p><p><em>Scroll </em>sent queries about the conflict over the hill to Jain trusts involved in litigation, as well as the environment ministry, local police and the state government. This story will be updated if any responses are received.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong class="drop-cap">C</strong>ommunities’ legal claims over the hill, and efforts to gain control over it, have a long and chequered history.</p><p>In 1893, for instance, the Calcutta High Court heard a dispute over the running of a pig’s lard factory on the hill, which offended the sentiments of Jains.</p><p>In its judgement in favour of the Jains, the court cited a previous order of a district judge, stating “the plaintiff’s witnesses have told us that in their estimation every stone of Parash Nath Hill is holy and an object of adoration”. That order noted that it could not mark out particular places as sacred because the tirthankaras “may have died anywhere on the Hill”.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1400" data-height="627" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/einwrvfbsn-1750242508.jpg" alt="" title="Communities attempts to gain control over the hill date back to at least the nineteenth century, when the Jain community protested a pig’s lard factory on it. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Communities attempts to gain control over the hill date back to at least the nineteenth century, when the Jain community protested a pig’s lard factory on it. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>But over the years, courts and administrative bodies have also upheld the rights of Adivasis over the hill.</p><p>For instance, the community’s hunting tradition was noted in a 1911 “cadastral survey”, which set out land rights of communities over particular tracts of land.</p><p>That same year, Maharaj Bahadur Singh, acting on behalf of the Shwetambar Jain community, filed<a class="link-external" href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/239245/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u> a case</u></a> in the Patna High Court demanding, among other things, that the entry about the hunt in the cadastral survey be expunged. The judge ruled in favour of the natives, stating that they had a “prescriptive or customary right” to the hill. He further quoted the “assistant settlement officer”, who had stated that “the hunting does not seem to me to do any harm to the worshippers of the temples and the hills, as the hunters do nothing which could hurt their feelings”.</p><p>The petitioners appealed this decision in the highest court of appeal in the British empire at the time. “The case went up to the Privy Council and it was held that the Santals have the customary right of hunting on Parasnath Hill,” the 1957 Hazaribagh district gazetteer stated.</p><p>The Jain community continued to try and gain exclusive control over the hill. Court <a class="link-external" href="https://www.courtkutchehry.com/Judgement/Search/AdvancedV2?s_acts=Bihar%20Land%20Reforms%20(Amendment)%20Act,%201954&amp;section_art=section&amp;s_article_val=4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>documents</u></a> show that in 1918, the Seth Anandji Kalyanji Trust, representing the Shwetambar Jain community, paid to gain rights to the hill from local rulers.</p><p>But these efforts were negated after India acquired independence and became a democracy. Specifically, in 1953, the state of Bihar passed the Bihar Land Reforms Act, which vested rights over the hill with the state government.</p><p>In the decades that followed, both communities used the hill as part of their customs without any significant disputes arising between them. In 1984, the government granted the area significant protection by forming the Parasnath and Topchanchi wildlife sanctuaries, which included large portions of the hill.</p><p>The area under protection was widened in 2019, when the ministry of environment, forests and climate change issued a new notification declaring a strip of land 25 km wide around the sanctuaries, amounting to a total of 208.82 sq km, as an “eco-sensitive zone”.</p><p>Developments that followed this left both communities worried about their rights over the hill, albeit for strikingly different reasons.</p><p>In 2019, the environment ministry instructed the state government to promote eco-tourism in the area and develop a “tourism master plan”. Accordingly, in February 2022, the Jharkhand government launched a tourism <a class="link-external" href="https://www.nsws.gov.in/s3fs/2022-10/Jharkhand%20Tourism%20Policy%202021.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>policy</u></a>, under which it stated that Parasnath, along with other sites, would be developed as a religious pilgrimage site. This move led to widespread outrage in the Jain community, which came out in large numbers across the country to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jain-protests-notification-sammed-shikharji-parasnath-hill-giridih-shetrunjaya-bhavnagar/article66346041.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>protest</u></a> the proposed changes to the site. “We were afraid that the promotion of tourism would desecrate the sanctity of the site,” said Amit Jain.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/tkgzxtzqsg-1750242879.jpg" alt="" title="The Jain community protested a move by the government in 2022 to promote the hill as a tourist site. They argued that doing so would desecrate its sanctity. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Jain community protested a move by the government in 2022 to promote the hill as a tourist site. They argued that doing so would desecrate its sanctity. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>In January 2023, under pressure from the protests, the environment ministry issued an office <a class="link-external" href="https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2023/jan/doc202315150001.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>memorandum</u></a> that stayed all activities on the hill related to tourism.</p><p>But the memorandum contained another directive that Adivasis argued impinged on their rights over the hill: it instructed the state government to “strictly enforce” provisions of a clause of the “management plan” of the Parasnath sanctuary “which protects the whole Parasnath Hill”. This provision includes a categorical prohibition on the sale and consumption of “liquor, drugs, and other intoxicants” and “committing injurious acts to animals”.</p><p>These prohibitions are in keeping with the Jain tenets of vegetarianism, teetotalism and non-violence towards all living creatures.</p><p>However, they are in direct opposition to customary Adivasi rituals that require the use of hadiya, or rice beer, and often include the sacrifice of animals like chickens. Thus, the Adivasi community believes that these policies favour the Jain community over them.</p><p>But the state government did not press forward with the implementation of these directions.</p><p>It was in this context that the Ahmedabad-based Jain trust, named Jyot, filed the petition in the Jharkhand High Court asking that the directions be implemented. After hearing the petition, the High Court <a class="link-external" href="https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/jharkhand-high-court/jharkhand-high-court-orders-parasnath-hill-sacred-to-jain-ban-tourism-liquor-non-veg-food-291116" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>directed</u></a> the state government to implement the clauses listed in the memorandum.</p><p>Following this order, Giridih’s superintendent of police told <em>Scroll</em>,<em> </em>the number of home guards in the area had been increased to ensure that the court’s orders were enforced. As of May 13, they had not received any complaints of the order being violated.</p><p>But several Adivasis in and around Marang Buru are outraged. “It’s not like we’re forcibly entering their temples to perform our rituals,” said Arjun Marandi, a local Adivasi leader from Sohraia village. “We’re doing it on our land, which is far away from their temples.”</p><p>Referring to the Ahmedabad-based petitioners, Hembrom argued that urban, non-Jharkhandis from outside the state had no right to dictate terms on Marang Buru. “As Adivasis we were here first,” he said. “We have co-existed in harmony with the Jain population here so far. How can those sitting in metropolitan cities decide that the hill belongs solely to them?”</p><p>A group of activists from the area, including Hembrom, filed a counter-petition in the high court on May 5. The petition asserts Adivasis’ claims over Marang Buru and seeks the protection of their right to conduct their customary practices and rituals on the hill.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong class="drop-cap">E</strong>ven as the dispute between the communities plays out, Adivasis argue that their presence on the hill and their rights over it have to a large extent been erased.</p><p>This is despite the fact that there are far more Adivasis in the region than Jains. According to the 2011 census, Scheduled Tribes form 44% and Jains form 0.6% of the total population in Pirtand block, where Madhuban is located.</p><p>The eco-sensitive zone also has a large Adivasi population. Giridih’s district collector Naman Priyesh Lakra told <em>Scroll</em> that many of the 99 villages located within this region were inhabited by Adivasis. But he noted that the last land survey in the area was conducted in 1911 and that official current data was unavailable. The administration planned to start work on a social profile led by the District Legal Services Authority soon, he added.</p><p>Meanwhile, in recent years, “none of the government notifications regarding Parasnath hill have recognised that the place is also sacred to Santals”, Hembrom said.</p><p>Indeed, the recent notifications by the centre and the state government, pertaining to environmental protections and restrictions on tourism on the hill, make no reference to the site as Marang Buru, or mention Adivasis. “This is despite the fact that multiple Adivasi chief ministers from the state, and even President Droupadi Murmu, have travelled to Marang Buru to pay their respects,” Hembrom said.</p><p>This was apparent on the route from Parasnath railway station to Madhuban, along which one only sees signboards directing travellers to “Parasnath hill”. Upon entering Madhuban, one is greeted by a tall ornamental gateway typical of Jain architecture. Inside the town, there are several grand temples, mansions and guest houses, all for Jain pilgrims who visit from across the country.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/gxeekjwwqs-1750242958.jpg" alt="" title="The gateway in Madhuban. The town has numerous grand temples, mansions and guesthouses for the Jain pilgrims who visit it from across the country. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The gateway in Madhuban. The town has numerous grand temples, mansions and guesthouses for the Jain pilgrims who visit it from across the country. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>The main pathway that leads to the top of the hill has a tall signboard with a logo of the government of Jharkhand that welcomes visitors to Shikarji Sammed. It is only below this that a much smaller signboard welcomes visitors to Marang Buru. A few steps ahead, a few Sarna flags can be seen near the manjhi thaan.</p><p>Some activists noted that Adivasis had been edged out of Madhuban by wealthier communities. “A lot of the land that has been developed in Madhuban originally belonged to the Turi community,” said the activist Bhagwan Kisku. “But today when you walk through the town, you’ll find it difficult to spot a Turi person. There are so many grand mansions there of different sects of the Jain community but the number of locals is very less.”</p><p>The Jain community’s dominance over land in Madhuban is clear atop the hill too. Lakra, the district collector, told <em>Scroll</em> that the Jain community owned only eight decimals of land on the hill. But Jain sacred sites stretch across the 27-km-long parikrama path, or circular pilgrimage path. “For the longest time there were only two temples on top of Parasnath,” said Kisku. “But after the 2000s, these grew in number and today there are a total of 32 sacred Jain structures on top of the hill.”</p><p>He noted that it was not just that Adivasi customs conflicted with the Jain religion, but also the reverse. “Adivasis worship trees and rocks. Haven’t Jains torn down these trees and rocks to build their temples? But nobody thinks of that as an issue,” said Kisku, who is a member of an association called Marang Buru Sansthan, which is affiliated to the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party.</p><p>Some local leaders from the Jain community sought to downplay the conflict. “We don’t deny that this is an Adivasi area. Adivasis have been living in the forest for thousands of years,” said Amit Jain. “Of course they have the right to practice their own customs in their homes and sacred sites.”</p><p>He added, “The actual community based here is far away from this conflict. It is small leaders who are spreading political propaganda to agitate local people.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/agzzvqudka-1750243870.jpg" alt="" title="The dishom manjhi thaan of the Adivasi community on the hill, where the headman worships ancestors. They argued that Jains had torn down rocks and trees to build their numerous temples. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The dishom manjhi thaan of the Adivasi community on the hill, where the headman worships ancestors. They argued that Jains had torn down rocks and trees to build their numerous temples. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>But when it came to specific rules and restrictions, it was clear that there was a lack of clarity among the communities, which was breeding resentment.</p><p>The question of consumption of meat and alcohol on the hill is among the most contentious of these matters. Upon entering the pathway to the peak, one is greeted by large hoardings installed by the Madhuban panchayat, which state that the “consumption of non-vegetarian food and alcohol is a punishable offence, as per orders from the district administration”.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1433" data-height="642" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/itfowavofx-1750243949.jpg" alt="" title="A board near the entrance of the pathway to the peak, which states that consuming meat and alcohol is punishable. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A board near the entrance of the pathway to the peak, which states that consuming meat and alcohol is punishable. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>Savita Tudu, the panchayat pramukh of Madhuban, and the sole Adivasi person mentioned on the hoardings, said that the rule only applied to the Jain community’s sacred sites and not everywhere on the hill. “It’s possible that Adivasis might give up alcohol and meat but our deities cannot do without them,” she said. “They are an inherent part of our culture.”</p><p>Jain, meanwhile, said that tourists to Parasnath hill consumed ... |
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<title>What does Trump’s ceasefire announcement mean for Modi's strongman image?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>follow</u></em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>At 5.25 pm on Saturday, the President of the United States posted a message on social media that brought relief to nearly two billion people. “After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE,” he said (caps are Trump’s, not mine).</p><p>It was only half an hour later that the government of India actually announced a ceasefire. “Both sides would stop all firing and military action on land, air and sea at 5 pm,” said Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in a press briefing that lasted less than a minute.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1220" data-height="1107" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/eaqcjqtfhy-1746948336.jpeg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>Why did another country announce that India’s armed forces are going to stop hostilities with Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack? And what does that politically mean for Modi’s strongman image?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Made in America</h3><p>The answer to the first question is simple: the US is claiming credit for brokering peace between the subcontinental twins. In fact, the US state department has put out a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/05/announcing-a-u-s-brokered-ceasefire-between-india-and-pakistan/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>statement</u></a> calling this a “US-Brokered Ceasefire between India and Pakistan”. </p><p>CNN has <a class="link-external" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/10/politics/vance-modi-india-pakistan-intelligence" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>reported</u></a> that the US received “alarming intelligence” on Friday that could lead to a “dramatic escalation”. The US Vice President then called Modi urging him to talk to Pakistan and “to consider options for de-escalation”. This was the “critical moment” that got India and Pakistan moving towards a ceasefire, according to CNN.</p><p>India’s long-held position has always been that its conflict with Pakistan is a bilateral matter and it does not want any mediation. Unsurprisingly, the Modi government has rushed to firefight these US statements, putting a flurry of anonymous quotes in the media denying that the US had any role to play.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="638" data-height="290" style=""><a href="https://x.com/sidhant/status/1921198484897546663" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jdmahldmik-1746948383.png" alt="" title="A journalist tweets out a statement from an anonymous source denying US mediation." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A journalist tweets out a statement from an anonymous source denying US mediation.</figcaption></figure><p>Even worse, the US’ statements seem to suggest that it thinks Kashmir is back as an issue internationally. On Sunday, Trump put out another <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/MichaelKugelman/status/1921419633824788981" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">statement</a> offering to mediate so that a “solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir”. Before that Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that India and Pakistan had agreed to “start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site,” contradicting Delhi’s position that it will not talk till Islamabad abjures terror.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="633" data-height="845" style=""><a href="https://x.com/MichaelKugelman/status/1921419633824788981" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/chmikmrloq-1746948424.png" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Strong, man?</strong></h3><p>India’s ideal war aim, as it bombed Pakistan on May 7, was to make the country bend completely. “India seeks for Pakistan to have an embarrassing defeat,” <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/clary_co/status/1921092414128767438" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>said</u></a> Christopher Clary, a US academic and an expert on South Asia’s security politics.</p><p>However, rather than a Pakistani military surrender as India achieved in 1971 when Indira Gandhi was prime minister, what Modi has managed to pull off is a ceasefire. The absence of a surrender is risky for Modi's strongman image. That the US is now claiming that it brokered the ceasefire is doubly so.</p><p>Notably, Modi has long attacked the Congress as being weak for reaching out to the US. “Our minister went to America and started crying ‘Obama, Obama’,” Modi had said in a viral <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/nehafolksinger/status/1921442607592263691" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>interview</u></a> from when he was Gujarat chief minister, making mock actions of tears.</p><p>Will the Congress now be able to politicise this in the same way, attacking Modi’s as being weak for Trump’s claims of mediation?</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="631" data-height="372" style=""><a href="https://x.com/ShefVaidya/status/1921186640665415817" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lwraiplaku-1746948452.png" alt="" title="A prominent social media influencer and Modi supporter announces disappointment with the ceasefire" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A prominent social media influencer and Modi supporter announces disappointment with the ceasefire</figcaption></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">What happens now?</h3><p>The other risk for Modi is if Pakistan decides to continue its policy of supporting terror. Like the ceasefire after India’s and Pakistan’s tit-for-tat airstrikes in 2019, the current detente is premised on allowing both sides to go to their people and claim a Potemkin victory. However, 2019 is a poor template for Delhi: if India hoped that airstrikes would dissuade Pakistan from backing terror, that is clearly not the case, given the horror in Pahalgam.</p><p>Will the 2025 hostilities persuade Pakistan to end its support to terror if 2019 didn’t? There are already prominent voices of scepticism asking what India achieved by Operation Sindoor, given the ceasefire only three days later.</p><p>“We have left India’s future history to ask what politico-strategic advantages, if any, were gained after its kinetic and non-kinetic actions post Pakistani horrific terror strike in Pahalgam on 22 April,” former Indian Army chief Ved Malik <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/Vedmalik1/status/1921202136592879853" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>posted</u></a> on social media.</p><p>Even as journalists and analysts unpack the political losses and gains for individual players and states, one thing is certain: the people of South Asia simply cannot afford conflict. Both India and Pakistan are poor countries with large populations and nuclear weapons. War is simply not an option. A ceasefire is great news. Now we only need to hope that it sticks.</p>
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<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>The importance of secular optics during ‘Operation Sindoor’</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>follow</u></em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>In the early hours of Wednesday, the Indian armed forces struck nine terrorist camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This was in response to the April 22 attack in Pahalgam that left 26 dead.</p><p>War is about weapons. But it is also about narrative. Even as India delivered a military response to Pakistan for its support to cross-border terror, its post-operation messaging was also strong.</p><p>For one, India’s name for the military attack, Operation Sindoor, highlighted the fact that the Pahalgam terrorists had shot dead men in front of their families. The Hindi word “sindoor” refers to the vermillion pigment many Indian women use on their heads as a sign of marriage. Even more vivid were the secular optics of the government briefing on Wednesday morning.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Communal terror</h3><p>Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri was emphatic that the aim of the terrorists in Pahalgam was to spread strife within Indian society. “The manner of the attack was also driven by the objective of provoking communal discord, both in Jammu and Kashmir and in the rest of the nation,” Misri said, referring to the fact that many male tourists in Kashmir had been shot dead after being asked about their faith; Hindus were targetted. “It is to the credit of the government and the people of India that these designs were foiled.”</p><p>The Foreign Secretary was flanked by Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, who provided details of Operation Sindoor.</p><p>By explicitly saying that the terrorists in Pahalgam intended to stoke communal conflict and including a Muslim army officer as part of the high-voltage briefing, the Indian government was using explicitly secular messaging even as India militarily stared down its nuclear twin, Pakistan.</p><p>Misri’s statement was not made in a vacuum. Pahalgam was followed by a wave of bitter communalism within India. Several Hindutva ideologues tried to attack Indian Muslims using the cover of the Pakistan-backed terror strike.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1920019600785158232" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Terrorists who attacked Hindus in Pehalgam wanted to provoke "communal discord" in India. <br>These accounts such as <a href="https://twitter.com/randomsena?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@randomsena</a> are helping them by targeting 25+ Crore Indian Muslims. Unfortunately the Indian government or the Police will never take any action against them. <a href="https://t.co/yxv2VMVTM1">pic.twitter.com/yxv2VMVTM1</a></p>— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) <a href="https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1920019600785158232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>The online hate was so bitter that even <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081984/womens-commission-condemns-online-trolling-of-pahalgam-attack-victims-wife-after-her-peace-appeal">Himanshi Narwal</a>, wife of Indian Navy officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, who was killed in Pahalgam, was not spared. Her statement asking Indians not to “spew hate” against “Muslims and Kashmiris” attracted a spate of abuse from Hindutva supporters. It was so intense, the National Commission for Women stepped in to condemn the online abuse.</p><p>But it was not just online hate. There were <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081835/after-pahalgam-terror-attack-anti-muslim-violence-reported-in-four-states">physical attacks</a> too. A day after Pahalgam, for example, Kashmiri shawl sellers were assaulted in Mussoorie, leading to at least 16 people fleeing from the city.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">An exception</h3><p>Even as the Modi government’s messaging post-Sindoor has been secular and attempted to counter the obvious aims of the Pahalgam terrorists, this level-headedness has been rare. Over the past decade, the Modi government has often stoked communal given its adherence to Hindutva as well as the electoral dividends that sectarian politics has paid for the BJP since the 1990s.</p><p>However, as Pahalgam and its aftermath shows, communal strife is not just a moral wrong – for India it is a major security faultline that its adversaries are more than happy to try to widen. India is a continent-sized country with most of its people desperately poor. To add constant communal strife to this mix is a surefire recipe for disaster.</p><p>The phrase “anti-national” is often thrown about loosely nowadays and I am always wary of using so blunt a phrase. But if there is one place it can be used, perhaps it applies to those who tried to exploit the Pahalgam terror attack to spread communal strife within Indian society.</p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 13:10:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Caste census: Will the 50% reservation cap soon be history?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics (though this week, it intersects quite a bit with global politics).</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>follow</em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>After the Pahalgam terror attack, much of India was expecting a retaliatory attack against Pakistan. Instead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a surgical strike of a political kind. On Wednesday, the Union cabinet decided that caste would be counted as part of the upcoming census.</p><p>This is a major U-turn by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi. Just a year ago, Modi had denounced those lobbying for a caste census as “urban naxals”. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath, arguably the second-most popular BJP leader after Modi, set the line for opposition to the caste census with the slogan “batenge to katenge” – divided we will get slaughtered. </p><p>The graphic imagery refers to a long-held Hindutva belief that demands for caste equity will only end up fracturing Hindu society. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/supporting-the-spirit-of-yogis-batenge-to-katenge-slogan-rss-says-hindu-unity-is-in-national-interest/article68799885.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">backed Adityanath</a> on his call for purported Hindu unity.</p><p>Soon Modi <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4enF0Ssv7tA" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">echoed</a> Adityanath’s line with his own “ek hai to safe hai” – there is safety in unity. Clearly, the BJP was going hammer and tongs against the Congress party, which has pressed hard for a caste census as part of its social equity focus under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>An about turn</strong></h3><p>That the saffron party has turned on a dime and now sought to take credit for the caste census is a good indicator of just how popular the policy plank is. Clearly the BJP hopes to blunt some of the Dalit and Other Backward Class anger that led to it losing the support of these groups in the last Lok Sabha elections.</p><p>But even as the BJP is trying to run off with the Congress’ agenda, the main Opposition party has stepped up its game: it says it will now concentrate on getting the government to remove the 50% cap that has been set on reservations for seats in educational institutions and government jobs.</p><p>If it happens, it would cause a political earthquake that could be bigger than even the anti-Mandal agitation of the early 1990s. In 1990, the VP Singh government implemented the Mandal Commission’s recommendations, providing reservations to Other Backward Classes – a vast, varied collection of agricultural and artisanal castes that fall between upper castes and Dalits in the social ladder.</p><p>This doubled caste quotas to nearly 50%, drastically shrinking the general category dominated by upper castes. Angry at this, members of the upper castes launched an agitation with a young brahmin student, Rajiv Goswami, even setting himself on fire in Delhi.</p><p>This agitation was mirrored by a new politics of OBC assertion, especially in the Hindi belt. Parties such as the Samajwadi and the Rashtriya Janata Dal drew OBC votes away from the upper caste-led Congress with the claim that OBC interests would be better protected by OBC leadership.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Judicial award</h3><p>Eventually, a political compromise was hammered out – not by politicians but by the Supreme Court of India. In the landmark 1992 Indra Sawhney judgment, the court upheld OBC reservations but also put in place significant caps. Reservations could not extend beyond 50% and the “creamy layer” or well-off OBCs would be excluded from availing of the quota.</p><p>Notably, the court did not really explain why it chose the 50% figure. It said that the power of reservations should be “exercised in a fair manner and within reasonable limits” and hence “reservation under Clause (4) shall not exceed 50% of the appointments or posts, barring certain extraordinary situations as explained hereinafter”.</p><p>But why was 50% a “reasonable limit” given that Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs constitute around 80% of the Indian population?</p><p>Even more confusingly, in 2022 the court allowed this 50% limit to be breached for the Economically Weaker Section quota for poor members of the upper castes. The Indra Sawhney cap was only applicable to caste quotas, it held.</p><p>That such a major policy decision was taken by the court and not backed up in the political sphere meant the 50% cap was always on weak ground. The court in fact struck a blow of its own by upholding the Economically Weaker Section quota.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Caste society</h3><p>India is the only country in the world where affirmative action quotas extend to the majority of the population. With the Economically Weaker Section quota in place, it now stands at almost 60%.</p><p>Part of this flows from just how unique Indian society is. For example, the endogamy that underpins it, with the idea that marriages must only take place within a caste or even a subcaste, has shocked geneticists. Famously, David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard University, quipped that while the Chinese are a truly large population, Indians are actually a “large number of small populations”. </p><p>Given this hermetically sealed social structure, the vast majority of Indian castes do not feel they can ever compete with the savarna castes that have dominated the social system for the past two millennia.</p><p>Add to this is the fact that the Indian economy has been terrible at creating employment. In fact, <a class="link-external" href="https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/publications/2023/report/state-of-working-india-2023-social-identities-and-labour-market-outcomes" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">studies</a> show that there is little relationship at all between economic growth and employment growth in India. </p><p>“What this means is that far from employment growing faster when GDP grows faster, years of fast GDP growth have, on the contrary, tended to be years of slow employment growth,” the <em>State of Working India </em>report 2023 said.</p><p>Both these factors mean that almost everyone in India thinks they need state-backed quotas to access wealth and education. Hence, the massive support for removing the quota cap.</p><p>Modi has bent to Rahul Gandhi on the caste census. Will he now also buckle on the 50% limit?</p>
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<pubDate>Sun, 04 May 2025 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Interview: ‘Pahalgam shows Balakot did not create deterrence’</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal, a newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up here (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>follow</em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>A horrific attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed, has left South Asia on edge as India has blamed Pakistan and its support for cross-border terrorism. Delhi has said that it would hold the Indus Waters Treaty “in abeyance” and Modi promised that India would soon “raze whatever is left of the terror haven”, a thinly-veiled reference to Pakistan.</p><p>To understand Delhi’s military options at this time, how the Modi government overstated its claims that “normalcy” has returned to Kashmir and the risky business of de-escalating conflict between two nuclear powers, I spoke to former military officer Sushant Singh, a lecturer at Yale University and one of India’s foremost security experts.</p><p><strong>Do you think India can do another Balakot [striking across the border as it did in the wake of the Pulwama attack of 2019]?</strong><br>It depends on what you mean by Balakot. The question is what did Balakot achieve? As this particular incident has shown, Balakot did not create deterrence which stopped militants or Pakistan from undertaking another terror attack in Kashmir. That’s one thing.</p><p>Secondly, Balakot, as I wrote in <em>The Caravan</em>, was not a military success. It was a political success because it happened just before elections, and it worked for them [the Bharatiya Janata Party]. </p><p>Thirdly, Balakot did escalate up to a point. As you know, [Mike] Pompeo, who was [United States] Secretary of State at that time, in his memo mentioned the nuclear escalation between India and Pakistan.</p><p>So, I really don’t know what we mean by another Balakot. If the idea is that India would do a kinetic operation against Pakistan, yes, that possibility definitely exists, particularly going by the rhetoric we’re seeing from the government.</p><p><strong>I want to go to your reporting on Balakot, especially your piece in <em>The Caravan</em>. You’ve taken a view which is at variance with much of the Indian mainstream media. You say Balakot was actually not a military success. Do you think that will inform what is happening now? Will it reduce India’s options?</strong><br>Let me put it this way. The political leadership in India would want to do something that would assuage the heightened emotions of their supporters at least, if not the Indian people. They have already set a bar because of what they claim to have done in 2016 with the surgical strikes across the LoC [Line of Control] and then in 2019 with Balakot. Once you’ve done that, you can’t do anything lesser than that. If you claim that you achieved so much, then you need to do something bigger. That’s one big constraint.</p><p>The second constraint, of course, is the military failure of doing Balakot and the escalation that happened. Balakot is not just about what the Indian Air Force tried to do in Balakot; it’s also what happened thereafter – when [Indian Air Force pilot] Abhinandan [Varthaman] was captured, when the Indian MiG-21 was brought down, the threat of missile launches from both sides. That, too, is part of the Balakot episode.</p><p>The question isn’t what India can do, it’s how do you de-escalate from there. Anyone can order a ground-based missile, an airborne strike or a drone swarm attack. The point is, will Pakistan retaliate? Yes. After Pakistan retaliates, what do you do? Do you take it lying down? Do you say, “thank you, 1-1” and go back home? Or do you escalate further? How do you de-escalate?</p><p>The political leadership has to answer how it intends to prevent serious escalation between two nuclear weapon states and how to de-escalate after you have taken the first step. The military leadership must answer what their constraints are, whether they can honestly tell the political leadership that they are operating within limitations: shortage of soldiers, deployment at the China border, modern equipment shortages and so on. These two considerations – political and military – will come into play.</p><p><strong>I want to go back to the horrific terrorist attack in Pahalgam. Do you think there was a security lapse there?</strong><br>Definitely. There were two CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force] battalions until a year or two ago. One of them was moved out. Armed men fired for more than 20-30 minutes, and no security forces came. The family of one of the dead naval officers <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/LogicalIndians/status/1915711028966678652" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">said</a> no help came for 90 minutes and her husband died. Clearly, there was a security lapse.</p><p>There was also an intelligence failure. You have militants in the area, roaming around with weapons, clearly embedded in the area with local support. It’s not like the militant came that morning itself and suddenly did this. The intelligence failure is that you didn’t have any idea of all this happening.</p><p>Security failed on two levels. First, you left the place completely unguarded – probably believing that tourists wouldn’t like to see soldiers and that would belie claims of normalcy. There was also the belief that militants wouldn’t do anything to attack tourism, which is the lifeline of the Kashmiri economy – so therefore we can leave it unguarded. Second, the response during the attack was very poor. Unless you are buying your own Kool Aid of normalcy having returned, there was no reason to have no forces present in that spot.</p><p>There were three failures: intelligence, and two levels of security – before and during the incident.</p><p><strong>Let’s dig a bit deeper on your Kool Aid point. What does this incident say about the Modi government’s claim that Kashmir is now normal and militancy has ended after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019?</strong><br>This incident shows that these claims are untrue. In fact, even earlier, incidents in <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1071111/jammu-and-kashmir-soldier-killed-in-gunfight-with-suspected-militants-in-poonch">Poonch</a> and <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/941402/j-k-indian-army-officer-killed-in-pakistani-firing-in-rajouri-district-say-reports">Rajouri </a>already disproved that claim.</p><p>Let’s be clear: the violence isn’t at the level of the early ’90s or just after Kargil. But violence had already come down when Omar Abdullah was chief minister [2009-2015]. In 2011-2012, there were a lot of street protests, a lot of stone pelting, but militancy was already down.</p><p>Then PDP [People’s Democratic Party] formed the government with BJP [in 2016], and young Kashmiri men began joining the militancy. Violence was artificially suppressed, but the anger against the Indian state and the lack of political redress remains, creating fertile ground for militancy – even if you take Pakistan away from the equation.</p><p><strong>One of the claims for abrogating Article 370 was better security, which you’re saying has not come through. Do you think India’s security apparatus is actually now weaker because local Kashmiri parties have been destroyed and Kashmir is now ruled directly from Delhi?</strong><br>Absolutely. Remember, during demonetisation [in 2016], it was claimed that the terrorism’s back has been broken in Kashmir. The same was said after surgical strikes and after abrogating Article 370. In all cases, security has not improved.</p><p>We’ve lost even the limited support we had among Kashmiris. You could generate local intelligence, you had sympathisers. All that has been broken down by the kind of politics pursued in the rest of India and by Delhi in Kashmir: hardcore Hindutva politics, demonising Muslims and Kashmiris, TV debates running horribly anti-Kashmir content nightly. You can’t expect sympathy when you’ve done what was done after August 2019: shutting everything down, taking away the internet. It is a very oppressive environment in Kashmir.</p><p>Even tourism, though economically vital, has become a tool of humiliation and oppression.</p><p><strong>Could you expand on that? What do you mean by tourism being a tool of humiliation?</strong><br>Many tourists from the mainland, influenced by the current Islamophobic political climate, behave in obnoxious ways – sometimes unknowingly, sometimes knowingly – acting as if they sustain Kashmir. Even non-Kashmiri friends have observed this when they travel to Kashmir and have felt embarrassed.</p><p>The way tourism is conducted doesn’t foster healthy ties between Kashmir and the rest of India. It’s often perceived as an extension of the politics India has seen since 2014.</p><p><strong>Let’s zoom out to geopolitical security. If India launches any kinetic operation now, what are Pakistan’s options?</strong><br>It depends on whether India launches a covert or overt operation. A covert operation can be denied by Pakistan, and meanwhile India, using its godi media channels, can run a propaganda campaign. That’s easier – since there is no escalation.</p><p>If India does something visible that Pakistan cannot deny, Pakistan will have to retaliate. General Khalid Kidwai, a key figure in Pakistan’s nuclear policy, lays out a very clear line: QPQ+. If India does something, Pakistan will have to do quid pro quo plus. Something additional will have to be done when Pakistan retaliates. Because the Pakistan military can’t afford to lose face. If they acknowledge India’s action, they must retaliate.</p><p>Then the question becomes, what does India do? Retaliate again? Escalate? Step back? Does a third party – Americans, Saudis, UAE, China – intervene and say, “guys, this is enough”? Or do intelligence agencies start talking like after Balakot and find a way to de-escalate? The political leadership in India must think through this before taking any step.</p><p><strong>You said the Pakistani army <em>must</em> retaliate. Last week, Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir gave a provocative speech saying Kashmir is Pakistan’s jugular vein. Do you think there’s any connection between that and what happened in Pahalgam?</strong><br>It’s hard to say. Asim Munir is not the first to use such rhetoric. Ayub, Zia, Kayani – many have said similar things.This is a long-standing belief in a large section of the Pakistani military. There is nothing new in this.</p><p>Whether there’s a direct link between Munir’s speech and Pahalgam is hard to say. My sense, not based on any input, is that it was a soft target which was left unprotected. The attackers saw it as easy to hit and escape. Militants, unless they’re fidayeen, want to hit and get out. They don’t want to be caught up in a pitched battle. My gut feeling is that it doesn’t seem directly connected to Munir’s speech, but it’s hard to say for sure.</p><p><strong>Your own writing has shown that Modi actually managed domestic perception really well after Balakot, no matter the military assessment. Do you think something similar will happen or do you think that there will be some hard questions asked of the security lapses in Pahalgam?</strong><br>I don’t think that India’s corporate-owned media, the television channels, and newspapers, where a lot of our friends work, are going to ask any tough questions whatsoever of Mr Modi or Mr Shah. They didn’t ask those questions after Manipur.</p><p>They didn’t even ask those questions even when the then governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Satyapal Malik, went public about everything that happened in Pulwama during the suicide bombing of the CRPF convoy. Those questions were not asked then. I doubt that the people who call themselves journalists and editors have the courage or even the capability to ask those questions.</p><p>It will be incumbent upon some analysts, some commentators, and independent platforms like <em>Scroll, Caravan, Wire, News Minute, Newslaundry</em> to ask those questions.</p><p><strong>Yes, and I think that really leaves the country weaker as these incidents show. If you do not ask questions of the government, then the government performs worse.</strong><br>Absolutely. I’ll say only one more thing before I end. Demanding accountability is extremely important if you want to fix things for the future. If you don’t demand accountability in a democratic setup, then you are sowing seeds for future disasters.</p>
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<pubDate>Sat, 26 Apr 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Modi-Trump bhai bhai: Can there be a global right-wing coalition?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics (though this week, it intersects quite a bit with global politics).</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “follow”).</em></p><p>On February 21, the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni speaking via video link at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC on February 21, launched a broad attack at the left, arguing that the rise of the global right has frustrated them.</p><p>As she did so, she mentioned Narendra Modi as part of the global right:</p><blockquote class="cms-block cms-block-quote"><p>“When Bill Clinton and Tony Blair created the global leftist liberal network in the 90s, they were called statesmen. Today, when [Donald] Trump, Meloni, [Javier] Milei, or maybe [Narendra] Modi talk, they are called a threat to democracy. This is the left’s double standard, but we are used to it. And the good news is people no longer believe in their lies. Despite all the mud they throw at us, citizens keep voting for us.”</p></blockquote><p>The fact that a Western politician praised Modi and included him in the pantheon of the global right would please many supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its Hindutva ideology. For some time now, Hindutva ideologues in India have clamoured for exactly this sort of recognition, as they looked to the right in the West for inspiration, tactics and vocabulary.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Taking notes</h3><p>Take George Soros, for example. Last year in December, BJP MPs <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/lok-sabha-plunges-into-chaos-again-as-bjp-mp-reiterates-soros-congress-link/article68955799.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">plunged</a> the Lok Sabha into chaos with allegations that the Congress party was in cahoots with the Hungarian-American billionaire-philanthropist. “Congress ka haath Soros ke saath,” as BJP MP Nishikant Dubey put it in Hindi rhyme. The Congress is hand-in-hand with Soros</p><p>For some time now, the BJP has invoked Soros as a way to attack the Congress. This is remarkable given the fact that Soros is relatively unknown in India. But he is a major figure in the United States, where the right attacks him for funding liberal causes. <em>Al Jazeera</em> <a class="link-external" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/5/boogeyman-why-republicans-invoke-soros-to-defend-trump" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">describes</a> Soros as the “ultimate villain in [American] conservative circles”. Even Donald Trump has attacked the billionire.</p><p>The BJP is so tuned into US right-wing politics that it simply imported Soros conspiracy theories from the West ock, stock and barrel.</p><p>More evidence of this inspiration can be found in the very vocabulary of Hindutva in India. In 2023, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat launched an attack on “woke” people: a term so unfamiliar to his listeners that he had to go on to comically <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozse58e4xW8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">describe</a> “woke” as “jage huye” [people who are awake] in Hindi.</p><p><a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hBOovhAJE4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Several</a> <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hBOovhAJE4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">BJP</a> politicians have launched attacks on purported attempts to “bring in Sharia law into India”. The phrasing is aalso <a class="link-external" href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4651114-chip-roy-sharia-law-will-soon-be-forced-upon-the-american-people/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">direct import</a> from the American right, surreally ignoring the fact that sharia or Islamic law is <em>actually</em> law in India as part of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937. </p><p>The BJP has enthusiastically capitalised on the rise of Islamophobia in the West in the wake of the War on Terror to advance its anti-minority politics at home.</p><p>This fascination with the Western right peaked with the rise of Donald Trump and his unabashed Islamophobia. In a zany turn of events, Hindutva supporters in India even conducted public prayers for Trump. Modi, in an unusual move for an Indian prime minister, <a href="https://scroll.in/article/938218/ab-ki-baar-trump-sarkar-did-narendra-modi-really-endorse-the-us-president-for-re-election">endorsed</a> Trump for president in 2019.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="990" data-height="644" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/uqkcuxfbty-1740740994.jpg" alt="" title="A Hindutva organisation praying for Donald Trump in 2017. Prakash Singh / AFP" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A Hindutva organisation praying for Donald Trump in 2017. Prakash Singh / AFP</figcaption></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">A global alliance</h3><p>What is driving this sudden urge to create a global rightist coalition? Part of the reason is, as Meloni herself put in, the fact that leftists and liberals have been doing something similar for some time now. Communists have explicit international organisational links and liberals often create networks via institutions such as think tanks.</p><p>The right has lagged behind, until now.</p><p>This urge to catch up has driven close cooperation between elements of the Western right. Trump, for example, both <a class="link-external" href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-backed-brexit-then-he-used-it-as-leverage/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">backed and benefited</a> from the UK’s Brexit decision. Right-wing American billionaire Elon Musk has explicitly supported far-right politics in the United Kingdom and Germany. On a much smaller scale, there is also some coordination between White nationalists in the West and Hindutva supporters in India. In a <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1070161/how-hindutva-is-playing-a-silent-role-in-british-politics">ground report</a> I did from the United Kingdom, I found the far right in the UK often <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx_8swDlJaE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">feeding off Hindutva platforms such as <em>OpIndia</em></a><em>.</em></p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Speed bumps</h3><p>Unfortunately, for the right, there is a fundamental contradiction in creating international linkages given that almost all right-wing ideologies have parochialism as a core feature. This, in fact, has sharply come to fore with respect to Hindutva in India after Trump assumed office as American president in January. As part of his “America First” ideology, Trump has humiliated Indian undocumented migrants, sending them back in chains. He has also threatened India with high tariffs, singling it out for <a class="link-external" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48961235" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">criticism</a> as the “king of tariffs”.</p><p>A passive Modi has swallowed these insults, being wary of American power but also faced by the fact that the BJP lacks a language to attack a person that it has for so long admired.</p><p>A 2024 <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/NatConTalk/status/1810764034008125773" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">tweet</a> by the Washington DC-based National Conservatism Conference put this faultline in focus. The post featured a photo of the BJP’s Ram Madhav joining his hands in a namaste gesture with the text asking if the next convention should be held in India. This simple exchange saw an ugly racist backlash from the organisation’s supporters.</p><p>“The millions of Indians flooding western countries do not care about our culture, they are an invasive species,” said a reply from a White nationalist.</p><p>Many Hindutva supporters might look to the Western right for inspiration, but given that White nationalism often drives the latter, these warm feelings are often not reciprocated. The intrinsic insular nature of the right means international cooperation is difficult if not impossible.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1811035472002461818" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">As someone who has to interact with Indians every day for work - let's not do this <a href="https://t.co/jDQ9KuuqxI">https://t.co/jDQ9KuuqxI</a></p>— Modern Brzrkr (@ModernBrzrkr) <a href="https://twitter.com/ModernBrzrkr/status/1811035472002461818?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>That said, while Hindutva supporters may be enamoured by Western rightists, it is unclear whether it really <em>needs</em> them. Hindutva is a movement with deep roots in India. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s parent organisation, was founded a century ago. The Jana Sangh, the first iteration of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was born in 1951. Modi’s politics has decades of ideological and organisational work behind it. The Western right has little to do with Hindutva’s success – and even if it were to embrace India’s largest party, it would hardly benefit from this in any concrete way.</p><p>In the end, there is little to link right-wing politics in the West and in India. The only place they do intersect, it seems, is on Islamophobia. It is from this area that Hindutva has borrowed narratives from the right in the West which, due to the War on Terror, has demonised Muslims for more than two decades now.</p>
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<title>What AAP’s defeat says about corruption as an issue for Indian voters</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. This time I unpack the Aam Aadmi Party defeat in Delhi and try and draw an insight from it that applies across Indian politics: the relevance (or not) of corruption as an issue.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “follow”).</em></p><p>By Indian standards, the anti-corruption movement of 2011 was not particularly large. The Ramlila Maidan in Delhi where it began has a capacity of around 25,000 – a modest number for even routine political rallies in India.</p><p>However, what made it different was the incredible media attention it received. For months, it dominated headlines. Eventually, one section of this movement used this publicity to launch a new political outfit: the Aam Aadmi Party.</p><p>Boosted by media momentum, the Aam Aadmi Party shot off the blocks. In its very first election, for the 2013 Delhi Assembly, it managed to form the government. Curiously, it did so with support from the Congress – the very party that the AAP’s founders had attacked as irredeemably corrupt just a couple of years before.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Welfare &gt; Corruption</strong></h3><p>Subsequently, in the 2015 and 2020 Delhi elections, AAP won massive mandates. It did this not by appealing to its origin as a party battling corruption but by reinventing itself as an economically populist force, highlighting its development work and welfare schemes targeted at the city’s working class.</p><p>This dynamic was maintained in the 2025 Assembly polls, the result of which were declared on Saturday. AAP contested the election on its welfare record – not on fighting corruption. In fact, the elections were conducted against the backdrop of serious allegations of corruption against AAP. Senior party leaders, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had even spent time in prison.</p><p>However, this did not seem to have played a significant role in AAP’s loss. Eventually, it was <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1078652/anger-against-aap-is-palpable-in-delhis-slums-is-it-enough-to-cost-the-party-the-election">dissatisfaction with the AAP’s welfare delivery</a> that resulted in a portion of its working-class support moving to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The number was not large, though: AAP got nearly 44% of the popular vote, less than two percentage points behind the winner, the BJP.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Correlation and causation</strong></h3><p>The Aam Aadmi Party’s journey in Delhi therefore has an interesting insight for Indian politics as a whole: big-ticket corruption is a hot button topic for India’s middle classes and hence the media. However, in elections, most voters do not vote directly on the issue of corruption. This is why AAP had to concentrate its efforts in Delhi on delivering welfare – not fighting corruption.</p><p>This is not a new insight. Research from 2013 shows that even as the Congress was relentlessly pilloried by the media on the issue of big ticket corruption, most voters had not even heard of the names of the alleged scams. Even more remarkably, knowledge of a scam <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/does-corruption-influence-voter-choice/article6050324.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">did little to influence voter choice</a>. Attributing the Congress’s 2014 loss to claims of corruption might be a case of confusing correlation with causation.</p><p>Another way to observe this same insight is to look at the Teflon immunity enjoyed by the Modi government even in the face of widespread allegations of corruption such as the controversy about the purchase of Rafale fighter jets or claims that it favours the Adani group. India’s middle class – the principal cohort that raises its voice against corruption allegations – is a strong supporter of Modi and the BJP. Hence, since 2014, the issue of corruption has taken a back seat nationally, as India’s middle class voters are hesitant to point fingers at their own political choice.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Free pass</h3><p>As the<a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1078634/budget-2025-no-income-tax-payable-on-income-up-to-rs-12-lakh-under-new-regime"> recent tax cuts</a> show, the only real pressure that the Modi government has faced from the middle class has been on hard economic matters. Wage stagnation and inflation are problems that have actually channeled middle-class anger against Modi in a way that, say, being seen as close to Adani has never done.</p><p>Why does the Indian voter ignore corruption when it comes to the hustings? For one, the link between big-ticket corruption and quality of life is difficult to see in real time. A voter happy with, say, cash transfers would hardly abandon Modi over his alleged connections with Adani. Moreover, corruption, both big and small, is a systemic problem that no party seems to be able to solve.</p><p>AAP, which was literally cr... |
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<title>A psychologist underlines ‘lifetraps’ that make romantic relationships inhospitable for women</title>
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<p>The term “lifetrap” originates from the Schema theory coined by Dr Jeffrey Young who pronounced that lifetraps create a belief system in such a way that you are attracted towards someone unsuitable because they replay your core conflict over and over again. Yet, you move towards them because you don’t recognise anything different, ending up in heartbreak almost every time. </p><p>As a therapist, I ensure that even before I begin my work, I take my clients through a detailed assessment of their personalities and lifetraps. Over the years, I have gained adequate insights and data, allowing me to study patterns in these findings. What I have learnt from these studies is that three lifetraps are most operational in toxic relationships – emotional deprivation, abandonment and self-sacrifice. </p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Emotional deprivation</strong></h3><p>A 45-year-old woman, Gitanjali, is the picture of confidence. While she loves her job and the perks of corporate life, she feels terrible about herself, as despite her attempts, she fails to get the love she desires. When she was a child, her father was always distant and unaffectionate. She spent her entire childhood trying to win a warm smile or a hug from him. When she grew up, she kept falling for distant men who were disapproving of her. She sincerely believed these men loved her but didn’t know how to show her and that she could change that with her love. With every relationship, she felt tired of craving warmth and connection, and she did not realise when she became demanding and clingy. She was confused when these men broke up with her, saying nothing was ever enough for her.</p><p>Do you see a deep emotional, insatiable hunger in Gitanjali? If you too tell yourself absolute statements such as, “I’ll never find the love that I need”, then it is possible that your emotional hunger was created due to an early childhood experience, including an absentee parent, an emotionally detached parent, or parents who provided all the material comforts you needed but nobody could connect with your inner world. This creates a feeling of perpetual emptiness within, making you crave for love and fulfilment and nothing ever seems to be enough.</p><p>When you meet someone emotionally unavailable, you recognise this unavailable energy as familiar, because this was what you grew up with. The mind always gravitates towards familiar energy, which is not necessarily healthy. It is the exact opposite of what you crave yet you feel an unexplainable pull towards this person. You believe, “If only this time I can make this person love me, I’ll be happy forever!” This happens because your unconscious mind is full of all the pain you have locked away, trying to resolve your life’s earliest psychological conflicts and fill those early voids. </p><p>The unavailable person is not a bad human; they just aren’t right for us. Due to these unconscious conflicts, love seems worthy only when it comes from a person who makes us work hard for it, rather than someone willingly offering it. We don’t recognise it, because that’s unfamiliar to us, making us think, “There’s something missing here!”</p><p>This traps us in a vicious cycle wherein we offer everything you have, especially emotionally, and often all at once, in the desire to get the love we want. We also try to change the person into giving the love desired instead of reading the signs that convey this is not the person for us.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Abandonment</strong></h3><p>I was recently watching season six of <em>Love is Blind</em> on Netflix, a reality series where men and women form connections without seeing each other, get engaged, and spend time together to see if they are truly compatible. One of the contestants, Chelsea, caught my attention. She formed intense connections with two men on the show: Trevor, who was all in from the start, and Jimmy, who was unsure and formed a connection with another woman as well. </p><p>Eventually, both men proposed to Chelsea, but she chose Jimmy, feeling a huge sense of relief when he declared his love for her. However, as their relationship progressed, Chelsea’s constant need for reassurance from Jimmy that he loved her led to frequent conflicts and she gets visibly upset when he has a friendly conversation with another woman. When they moved in together, she was always hyper-alert about whether he kissed her today, turned towards her, or looked at her a certain way. She continued to challenge him that these little signs showed her that she couldn’t be sure about his commitment. </p><p>Mind you, Jimmy is not doing anything different, he’s the same as always. One day, during a fight, Jimmy tells her that he finds her clingy and Chelsea loses her temper and breaks down. Jimmy is so overwhelmed and confused hearing her say that she has been giving and giving to the relationship, that he has to leave home for the night. Although I had not even finished watching the show, I knew that Chelsea’s lifetrap was her deep-rooted sense of abandonment, which was constantly telling her: “People who love me can leave me anytime!”</p><p>Like Chelsea, people who grow up with a fear of abandonment usually come from households where caregivers are completely wrapped up in their own emotional drama such that their moods define how they meet the child’s need for love and security. On one hand, the child naturally loves feeling secure when love is provided, and parallelly, feels an intense anxiety that the feeling of being safe and secure may go away at any time. Growing up in an environment where unpredictability is high, and affection and a sense of security are either conditional and/or highly erratic, the child becomes good at reading people’s faces and body language cues to figure out what mood they are in. If the child learns to please people, it is to ensure that they are loved. However, the child carries a looming uncertainty about the feelings, which leads to the development of the fear of abandonment. </p><p>When she grows up and engages in romantic relationships, she finds it hard to believe her partner will stay. She keeps expecting to be abandoned at any time and finds it hard to trust a man’s commitment. So, when he seems distant, she sometimes clings to him for reassurance, and other times withdraws completely at a perceived rejection, thinking that he doesn’t want her and she shouldn’t give any more of herself. Therefore, she swings between wanting a deeper connection and protecting her fragile heart, ending up giving mixed signals to her partner, which, in turn, creates distance, making her think, “See, I knew it, he’s drifting away!”</p><p>Just like emotional deprivation, the fear of abandonment also draws people to partners more likely to make this prophecy come true – men who are not willing to commit, who are erratically available, or who make their love conditional. And once again, many women gravitate towards the same kind of men, because erratic and conditional love is what they are used to, and they can’t imagine anything better. Moreover, their nervous system is so conditioned to this chaotic attachment style that stable attachment from anyone feels “boring” or “suspicious”.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Self sacrifice</strong></h3><p>The third life trap I see in every single profile of someone caught in a toxic relationship pattern is self-sacrifice. This life trap states: “I will do everything in my power to make you happy because I love you.” On the surface, this looks like a noble thought to have. After all, haven’t we all been taught the virtues of sacrifice for love? But this life trap is a sneaky devil that also makes us extremely vulnerable to toxicity. </p><p>This schema develops in people who were made responsible for someone’s care as children. Either you had a sick parent whom you had to play caregiver for, or you had a parent whose emotions you had to take care of by either tiptoeing around their moods or by becoming their shoulder to cry on. It could also be that you had a sibling with challenges and were made to play the “bigger” person repeatedly to accommodate that sibling. All this was done while conditioning you to believe this was how you show love. </p><p>Remember how I had to constantly tiptoe around my mother’s erratic moods so I could avoid beatings? I also had to constantly “prove” my love to my parents by doing exactly what they wanted or by being exactly how they wanted me to be. This is the template I carried forward for all my subsequent relationships and I constantly tried to anticipate what they needed and tried to fulfil all their needs while ignoring my own. I had the self-sacrifice life trap, too. On a healthy level, we all go the extra mile for the people we love, and we do so willingly. But when it becomes a maladaptive schema or a life trap, which is an unconsciously ingrained survival coping strategy, it leads to self-destruction. There are two toxic traits that arise because of the self-sacrifice life trap.</p><p>First, they are so used to giving their all to make the other person happy that they never think about their own boundaries. They constantly put their own needs on the back burner in favour of their partner’s. In this manner, they teach their partners to put their needs second. After a while, when their cup runs empty, they try to bring their needs to the forefront, but their partners don’t acknowledge them because they have never seen these needs before.</p><p>Ordinarily, for someone without the self-sacrifice schema, this would be a sign to pause and figure out how to get their needs met. On the contrary, someone with the self-sacrifice schema thinks, <em>Oh, let me give some more to this relationship … maybe then they will recognise my needs.</em> They were already running on empty, now they have gone beyond it. However, nothing changes because they just give and give, not knowing how to say “enough” or draw boundaries. When this continues for a long time, they begin to resent the person they love for not meeting their needs, therefore acting out, rebelling, or lashing out. They still don’t know how to stop giving.</p><p>The second toxic trait of this schema is that they think they know better about what makes their partner happy and continue to do the things they feel are good for them, without often paying attention to what their partner needs.</p><p>We can be so caught up in our identity as the “giver” that we don’t even stop to take notice if the partner even wants what we are giving. You can also think of this as a love language clash. For instance, if your partner’s love language is physical touch, but yours is giving gifts, you may continue to buy them the most luxurious things to express your love, but if you aren’t engaging in physical affection or sexual intimacy, your partner will not feel loved. The self-sacrifice life trap suggests that the giver’s actions are superior.</p><p>This schema convinces the sacrificer that they know what will truly make others happy, but the recipients just fail to appreciate their efforts. This thought process leaves both partners unsatisfied because the receiver is not getting what they need to feel loved, and the giver is not getting acknowledged and seen for what they are giving because they are offering the wrong gifts. So, they get caught in this vicious cycle where the giver feels, “But what about all that I have done for you?” and the receiver wonders, “Did I even ask you to do that for me?”</p><p>Let me end this section with two very interesting facts about the self-sacrifice life trap. You would be shocked to know that even narcissists have self-sacrifice life traps in their profiles. Although many believe that narcissists are supposed to be the most selfish people alive, even they believe that they do everything for everyone and what they do for everyone is superior to what others do for them, and yet nobody appreciates them. Second, the higher the level of self-sacrifice schema in your profile, the more you’re likely to get attracted to a ‘taker’ or an entitled person who is used to taking everything given to them for granted. This further makes you doubly vulnerable to falling into a toxic relationship from the get-go. </p><p>You have now learnt how our early childhood experiences and their deeper emotional impact make us vulnerable to falling prey to toxic relationships and/or even enable toxic patterns to be repeated. We stay trapped in these patterns because:</p><ul class="cms-block cms-block-ul"><li><p>We are not aware of its roots</p></li><li><p>We find safety in familiarity, so we avoid a relationship that’s likely to heal these wounds</p></li><li><p>We struggle with breaking the pattern and forming new habits</p></li></ul><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="973" data-height="1500" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/bduvcnwtua-1749195140.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p><em>Excerpted with permission from </em>When You Give Everything All at Once: The Indian Woman’s Guide to Navigating Toxic Relationships, <em>Prachi Saxena, Hay House Publishers India.</em></p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 08:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Prachi Saxena</author>
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<title>‘Confused product of a confused brain’: When Guru Dutt cast a spell over everyone – except one man</title>
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<p>The film “leaves one confused because it is a confused product of a confused brain”, the reviewer complains. Also, “It is a picture which lacks coherence, a clear and cognizable theme and, consequently, any emotional appeal whatsoever.” Finally, the movie is “pretentious in tone and dull and confusing in effect”.</p><p>Many films have been misunderstood in their times, only to be given their due belatedly. And yet, the <em>Filmindia</em> magazine’s overwhelmingly negative review of <a href="https://scroll.in/reel/762633/pyaasa-is-the-guru-dutt-gift-that-keeps-giving">Guru Dutt’s <em>Pyaasa</em></a> is confounding, especially since <em>Pyaasa</em>, despite – or more likely because of – its melancholic poet-hero and themes of rejection and disillusionment resonated strongly with audiences when it was released in 1957.</p><p><em>Pyaasa</em> is now regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made. The celebration of Guru Dutt’s centenary – he was born on July 9, 1925 – will refocus attention on the eight features he directed. <em>Pyaasa</em>, starring Guru Dutt as the poet Vijay, who is cheated out of fame and accepted only by the sex worker played by Waheeda Rehman, will likely be recognised once again for the masterpiece that it is.</p><p>Guru Dutt’s penultimate movie is a staggering feat on all levels – the performances, SD Burman’s music, Sahir Ludhianvi’s lyrics, cinematographer VK Murthy’s beautiful compositions. Guru Dutt’s command over his craft, his sensitivity for the aesthetics of cinema, have never been better.</p><p>However, none of this was evident to the <em>Filmindia</em> reviewer, the magazine’s editor Baburao Patel. A critic who revelled in eviscerating films and their makers, Patel had a special distaste for Guru Dutt.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="400" data-height="600" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/wyncanmldl-1751987585.jpg" alt="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75764717" title="Baburao Patel in 1938. " itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Baburao Patel in 1938. </figcaption></figure><p>Patel attacked the films that Guru Dutt directed as well as produced, such as Raj Khosla’s <em>C.I.D.</em> (1956). <em>C.I.D. </em>was “thin as air and unconvincing as a Russian prisoner’s confession”. Patel, who liked to twist the knife in deep, added that the stylish Indian noir film<em> </em>was “a cheaply and stupidly conceived, unpalatable crime picture”.</p><p>Patel similarly dismissed Guru Dutt’s <em>Mr. and Mrs. 55 </em>(1955) as<em> </em>an example of the filmmaker’s “usual glamorized jugglery”.</p><p><em>Mr. and Mrs. 55, </em>starring Guru Dutt and Madhubala, is a breezily charming, if dated, film about an impecunious cartoonist who marries a clueless heiress. The movie is in the<em> </em>vein of Hollywood’s screwball comedies, with zingy repartee and beautifully filmed tunes that underscore Guru Dutt’s talent for making song interludes part of the larger story.</p><p>For Patel, the film was “an odd mixture of some silly satire, mild comedy, ludicrous characterizations, popularly tuned songs, and the usual laboriously dandified song takings which seem to have become Guru Dutt’s stock-in-trade”. Not for the first time in his reviewing career, Patel confused artistry for phoniness and cinematic bravura for flashiness.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="780" data-height="350" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/skpvcpxtbl-1751988272.jpg" alt="" title="Mr and Mrs 55 (1955). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Mr and Mrs 55 (1955). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>Baburao Patel founded <em>Filmindia</em> in 1935 and quickly established himself as an <em>enfant terrible. </em>Patel<em> </em>used his authority to not only provide contrarian views of the Hindi and other language industries but also fulminate on politics, the economy and perceived social ills.</p><p>For several decades of its existence until it shut down in 1985, <em>Filmindia</em> was one of the most powerful purveyors of the Hindi and other language industries, Sidharth Bhatia writes in <em>The Patels of Filmindia – Pioneers of Film Journalism</em> (Indus Source Books). Patel ran the magazine with his third wife, the actor and singer Sushila Rani Patel.</p><p>“Baburao was an extraordinary editor – he practically wrote the entire magazine himself until Sushila Rani came and shared some of the burden with him,” Bhatia writes. Patel’s stentorian and carping voice was on every page, whether in the industry news tidbits, the gossip columns, the opinion section written under the pseudonym Judas, or the reviews.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="369" data-height="495" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jheyxlrfgx-1752004210.jpg" alt="" title="Filmindia, January 1940." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Filmindia, January 1940.</figcaption></figure><p>‘Kaagaz Ke Phool Inflicts Severe Boredom’ was a considerably less nasty headline than the one for another film released in 1959, <em>Dil Deke Dekho</em> (“Rape of Indian Culture”) or the description of <em>Marine Drive</em> from 1955 as “a disgrace to our country”.</p><p>Ironically, one of Guru Dutt’s oft-repeated remarks was “don’t bore me.”</p><p>Patel trashed <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em>, about the vagaries of show business, as “an ineffective glycerine tear shed over the transience of a showman’s glory”. Guru Dutt too acknowledged the movie’s drawbacks, telling <em>Filmfare</em> that it was “too slow and went over the heads of audiences”.</p><p>After the <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool </em>debacle,<em> </em>Guru Dutt did not direct a film again, instead getting heavily involved with his productions. Baburao Patel seemed to approve of this decision, lavishing praise on M Sadiq’s <em>Chaudhvin Ka Chand</em> (1960) and Abrar Alvi’s <em>Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam</em> (1962).</p><p>Patel described <em>Chaudhvin Ka Chand</em> as “feelingly written and lovingly mounted”, as well as “the scintillating result of a good story and skilful presentation” that was “likely to be long remembered by picturegoers”.</p><p>These words apply more accurately to <em>Pyaasa</em>.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="800" data-height="610" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/myzcjcxwao-1751987081.png" alt="" title="Waheeda Rehman in Pyaasa (1957). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Waheeda Rehman in Pyaasa (1957). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>The source of Baburao Patel’s grudge against Guru Dutt is unclear. Sushila Rani Patel shed some light on the matter when she spoke to filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur for a biopic he was planning on Guru Dutt in 2008. Dungarpur conducted scores of interviews with Guru Dutt’s collaborators, including Abrar Alvi and VK Murthy, and people who knew the director and his wife, Geeta Dutt.</p><p>Sushila Rani Patel told Dungarpur and his research team that Guru Dutt knew her sister Sumati in the 1940s, when they were both at the dancer Uday Shankar’s cultural school in Almora. Patel also revealed that she was related to Guru Dutt’s sister, the painter Lalita Lajmi – Lajmi’s husband Gopi Lajmi was Patel’s nephew.</p><p>“My husband was very fond of pictures with a classic touch,” Patel told Dungarpur. “He didn’t like the masala films.” She did not share her husband’s view of <em>Pyaasa, </em>saying that the film “had something” and deserved its reputation as a classic.</p><p>Baburao Patel was not swayed by the reputation of a star director or actor, Sushila Rani Patel said in the interview. Her spouse “wrote fearlessly”, she said, adding. “Whatever he felt, he wrote.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="282" data-height="352" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jmahbewxwi-1751988413.gif" alt="" title="Sushila Rani Patel." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Sushila Rani Patel.</figcaption></figure><p>Dungarpur has a theory that the character played by Mala Sinha in <em>Pyaasa</em> is inspired by Sushila Rani Patel. In the film, Guru Dutt’s struggling poet Vijay and Sinha’s Meena are lovers. Meena later marries the odious publisher Ghosh (Rehman), who sets out to destroy Vijay.</p><p>Guru Dutt directed his first feature, the crime drama <em>Baazi</em>, in 1951, when he was 26 years old. In his lifetime, he was a successful filmmaker by the Hindi film industry’s standards – his movies had popular actors, most of them made good money, the songs were hits.</p><p>Yet, the reverence that is now accorded to Guru Dutt, the awe with which his innate understanding of cinema is studied, the regard for how he filmed songs – all these only followed his death most likely by suicide on October 10, 1964.</p><p>He had previously attempted suicide at least twice. His passing at the age of 39 was blamed on a lethal combination of professional setbacks, personal turmoil and possibly undiagnosed depression.</p><p>In her definitive study <em>Guru Dutt – A Life in Cinema</em> (Oxford University Press), Nasreen Munni Kabir writes: “The cruel irony of belated recognition has visited itself upon many artists, and if we think of the posthumous recognition of the poet Vijay of <em>Pyaasa</em>, it could be said that Guru Dutt had a premonition of being among such artists; indeed, his contribution to Indian cinema has only been fully recognized some years after his death in 1964.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1920" data-height="810" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/mmphdhyozx-1751987537.jpg" alt="" title="Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman in Kaagez Ke Phool (1959). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman in Kaagez Ke Phool (1959). Courtesy Guru Dutt Films.</figcaption></figure><p>A deeply complex man by all accounts, of an intense and brooding personality but also generous and affectionate, Guru Dutt was an enigma while alive. After his death, he entered the annals of geniuses who leave too early.</p><p>Kabir, who also directed the documentary <em>In Search of Guru Dutt</em> (1989), writes in her book on the filmmaker,<em> </em>“Guru Dutt could not have predicted the impact that he would have in time; not only in India but in many parts of Europe. Death has indeed brought the kind of erasure that echoes his own feelings suggested in <em>Pyaasa</em> – that a dead artist is more greatly valued.”</p><p>The cover of the <em>Filmfare</em> issue dedicated to Guru Dutt after his passing doesn’t even mention his name. The cover has a black-and-white photo of Guru Dutt’s half-shaded, pensive face looking into the camera. The text, inspired by <em>Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, </em>reads “Khuda, Maut Aur Ghulam.” God, death and the slave.</p><p>“The interviews [for the proposed biopic] revealed that people thought of Guru Dutt very highly when he was alive, but they also recognised his self-destructive streak,” Shivendra Singh Dungarpur told <em>Scroll</em>. “His peers – Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan, K Asif – had great regard for his work. Guru Dutt was the only outside director who was permitted to shoot <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em> at Mehboob’s studio.”</p><p>Although Guru Dutt was frequently described as aloof and focused on his work, he appears to have taken his revenge on Baburao Patel in <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool</em>.</p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/972946/as-guru-dutt-biopic-gets-underway-a-reminder-of-how-the-director-laid-himself-bare-in-his-own-films">Guru Dutt’s most autobiographical film</a> is about the tragedy of Suresh Sinha, a successful director undone by self-doubt, a bad marriage, and an extra-marital affair with his new discovery, Shanti (Waheeda Rehman). Suresh’s wealthy in-laws look down on his profession and scheme to keep their daughter Veena away from him.</p><p>Suresh’s marital family comprises a bunch of grotesque characters. In one scene, Veena’s parents, played by Mahesh Kaul and Pratima Devi, are in their living room surrounded by dogs – a staging that is almost identical to a photograph of the Patel couple that hung in their house in Mumbai, Dungarpur pointed out.</p><p>“Guru Dutt was obsessed with the artist Vincent Van Gogh, but he was pre-occupied with himself too,” Dungarpur said. “I don’t think the scene in <em>Kaagaz Ke Phool </em>was an act of revenge as such. Guru Dutt was always taking ideas from real life and giving them an autobiographical touch.”</p><p>In an essay <em>Classics and Cash</em>, which is reproduced in Kabir’s book, Guru Dutt writes about the eternal battle between creativity and commerce.</p><p>“Since centuries, the creators of classics have had to pay the price for rising above the rut of prevailing mediocrity and for their daring isolation from the hoi polloi,” Guru Dutt observes. A filmmaker who dares to experiment has to be prepared for an unpredictable outcome, which “gives edge to the thrill of movie-making”, he adds.</p><p>Although Guru Dutt lost the battle in 1964, he won the war, evident in the continuing interest in and interpretations of his exquisite and haunting films.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1200" data-height="816" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/mtzrkmffqy-1751987738.jpg" alt="" title="Guru Dutt in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, which was reshot with Dharmendra after his death. Courtesy Arun Dutt." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Guru Dutt in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, which was reshot with Dharmendra after his death. Courtesy Arun Dutt.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Also read:</strong></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/720318/photos-rare-glimpses-of-guru-dutts-last-unfinished-movie-baharen-phir-bhi-aayengi"><strong>[Photos] Rare glimpses of Guru Dutt’s last unfinished movie ‘Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi’</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/972946/as-guru-dutt-biopic-gets-underway-a-reminder-of-how-the-director-laid-himself-bare-in-his-own-films"><strong>How Guru Dutt laid himself bare in his films</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://scroll.in/reel/739403/even-before-pyaasa-the-shadows-had-started-gathering-in-guru-dutts-mr-mrs-55"><strong>Even before ‘Pyaasa’, the shadows had started gathering in Guru Dutt’s ‘Mr &amp; Mrs 55’</strong></a></p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 02:15:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Assam: Homes of 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families bulldozed in Dhubri eviction drive</title>
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<h1>Assam: Homes of 1,400 Bengali-origin Muslim families bulldozed in Dhubri eviction drive</h1>
<h2>‘These are erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra,’ said an affected resident.</h2>
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<address><a href="https://scroll.in/author/21934" rel="author">Rokibuz Zaman</a></address>
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Around 1,400 Muslim families were displaced during an eviction driver in Assam's Dhubri district.
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<p>The Assam government has demolished the homes of 1,400 Muslim families of Bengali origin from nearly 1,157 acres of government land in Dhubri district to make way for a solar power project, District Magistrate Dibakar Nath told <em>Scroll</em> on Tuesday.</p><p>The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited, which is heading the project, has already been allotted the land, Nath added.</p><p>Residents affected by the demolitions told <em>Scroll</em> that nearly 10,000 Bengali-origin Muslims, who had been living in the area for at least three to four decades, were displaced from Chirakuta 1 and 2, Charuakhara Jungle Block and Santeshpur villages under the Chapar revenue circle in Dhubri.</p><p>“These are erosion-hit people who lost their ancestral homes due to the Brahmaputra,” Towfique Hussian, a resident, told <em>Scroll</em>.</p><p>On March 30, the district administration submitted a proposal to convert the Village Grazing Land, a category of government land designated for cattle grazing, for the solar power project, according to minutes of a district-level land advisory meeting held on April 2.</p><p>The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited had acquired around 1,289 acres of government land for the plant.</p><p>According to the district administration, it had issued eviction notices in advance and made daily public announcements asking residents to vacate and dismantle their homes before Sunday.</p><p>Police personnel and bulldozers began arriving at the eviction sites on Monday.</p><p>The district authorities have allocated 300 bighas of land in Baizar Alga village for the rehabilitation of the affected people, according to the eviction notice issued by the Chapar revenue circle officer. It had earmarked Rs 50,000 for one-time relief for residents to transport their belongings.</p><p>Some of the residents have received the Rs 50,000 though others claimed they have not.</p><p>However, affected residents told <em>Scroll</em> that the rehabilitation site, Baizar Alga village, is in a low-lyring riverine area. "It gets flooded most of the time in monsoon," Nazrul Islam, a displaced resident, said. "People are reluctant to go there with no roads or any other communication."</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="960" data-height="720" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/irtyihkius-1751985763.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>“Many of the residents have already moved their belongings out of fear…Everyday people were moving,” Hussian said. “Those who did not move earlier, their homes were demolished on Tuesday.”</p><p>Some residents protested against the eviction drive and threw stones at the bulldozers, damaging three of them. The police lathi-charged the protesters. </p><p>Akhil Gogoi, independent MLA and chief of Raijor Dal, arrived at the eviction site on Tuesday. He told those displaced that he would request Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to allot 165 acres for their rehabilitation.</p><p>Gogoi was subsequently detained by police for a brief period.</p><p>“This eviction is illegal and unconstitutional,” he later said. “The matter is pending before the Gauhati High Court. The Himanta Biswa Sarma government is demolishing homes unlawfully.”</p><p>Gogoi claimed that such evictions were being conducted against Muslims to capture Hindu votes. “The BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government is targeting the minorities just because they are Muslims,” he added.</p><p>Later in the day, <a class="link-external" href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1268665581642018&amp;rdid=SZ2S2DOWz6wh94ke" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Sarma said the state government</a> will carry out another eviction drive on July 10 in the Paikar area, a reserved forest area in Goalpara district.</p><p>“Our aim is clear the encroached land and use them for the public,” the chief minister told reporters. “We are with the indigenous people of Assam while Akhil Gogoi stands for a particular community. That's our poltical ideology. We will keep doing our work.”</p><p>About 400 residents from the Charuabakhra Jangal Block village, who were living on the government land after losing their homes due to erosion caused by the Brahmaputra river, had moved the Gauhati High Court against the eviction notices in April.</p><p>The residents said that the action of the district authorities violated the judgement laid down by the <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1075610/how-supreme-court-finally-checked-bulldozer-justice-and-why-it-may-not-be-enough">Supreme Court</a> in November.</p><p>The case is still pending in the High Court.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1280" data-height="960" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lkmnnfrtyh-1751985786.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>In November, the Supreme Court had held as illegal the practice of <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1072759/homes-cant-be-demolished-sc-proposes-to-issue-pan-indian-guidelines-on-bulldozer-justice"><u>demolishing properties</u></a> of persons accused of crimes as a punitive measure. It added that <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1075458/bulldozer-justice-is-unacceptable-under-rule-of-law-says-supreme-court"><u>processes must be followed</u></a> before removing allegedly illegal encroachments.</p><p>This is the fourth major eviction carried out in the last 30 days.</p><p>On June 16, Goalpara authorities <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1083555/assam-begins-drive-to-bulldoze-over-600-homes-in-goalpara-district">demolished the homes of 690 families</a>, all of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims, who were living on an allegedly encroached land in the Hasila Beel, a wetland.</p><p>The families told <em>Scroll</em> that many of them were living in the area before it was declared a wetland.</p><p>Ninety-three families of Bengali-origin Muslims were evicted on June 30 in Assam’s <a class="link-external" href="https://www.pratidintime.com/latest-assam-news-breaking-news-assam/nalbari/93-homes-demolished-in-major-eviction-drive-in-assams-nalbari-9448948" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Nalbari district</a> during an anti-encroachment drive on nearly 150 acres of village grazing reserve land in the Barkhetri revenue circle.</p><p>On Thursday, around 220 families were evicted during an <a class="link-external" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/228-bighas-of-encroached-land-cleared-in-lakhimpur/articleshow/122233640.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">anti-encroachment drive</a> in upper Assam’s Lakhimpur district. The district authorities said the families were living on 77 acres of land at four locations, including three Village Grazing Reserves.</p><p>Since the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016, more than 10,620 families – the majority of them Muslim – have been ousted from government land, between 2016 and August 2024, according to data provided by the state revenue and disaster management department.</p><hr class="block-break">
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<pubDate>Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:20:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Silica gel: What’s in those little packs and is it toxic?</title>
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<div class="cms-block cms-block-tracker" data-embed-type="tracker" data-embed-url="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/258398/count.gif" data-embed-loaded="false"></div><p>When you buy a new electronic appliance, shoes, medicines or even some food items, you often find a small paper sachet with the warning: “silica gel, do not eat”.</p><p>What exactly is it, is it toxic, and can you use it for anything?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Importance of desiccants</h3><p>That little sachet is a desiccant – a type of material that removes excess moisture from the air.</p><p>It’s important during the transport and storage of a wide range of products because we can’t always control the environment. Humid conditions can cause damage through corrosion, decay, the growth of mould and microorganisms.</p><p>This is why manufacturers include sachets with desiccants to make sure you receive the goods in pristine condition.</p><p>The most common desiccant is silica gel. The small, hard and translucent beads are made of silicon dioxide (like most sands or quartz) – a hydrophilic or water-loving material. Importantly, the beads are porous on the nano-scale, with pore sizes only 15 times larger than the radius of their atoms.</p><p>These pores have a capillary effect, meaning they condense and draw moisture into the bead similar to how trees transport water through the channelled structures in wood.</p><p>In addition, sponge-like porosity makes their surface area very large. A single gram of silica gel can have an area of up to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/AU/en/product/mm/101969" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">700 square metres</a> – almost four tennis courts – making them exceptionally efficient at capturing and storing water.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Is silica gel toxic?</h3><p>The “do not eat” warning is easily the most prominent text on silica gel sachets.</p><p>According to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.poison.org/articles/silica-gel" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">health professionals</a>, most silica beads found in these sachets are non-toxic and don’t present the same risk as <a class="link-external" href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-10-tunnel-workers-could-develop-silicosis-our-new-research-shows-252186" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">silica dust</a>, for example. They mainly pose a choking hazard, which is good enough reason to keep them away from children and pets.</p><p>However, if silica gel is accidentally ingested, it’s still recommended to contact health professionals to determine the best course of action.</p><p>Some variants of silica gel contain a moisture-sensitive dye. One particular variant, based on cobalt chloride, is blue when the desiccant is dry and turns pink when saturated with moisture. While the dye is toxic, in desiccant pellets it is present only in a small amount – approximately 1% of the total weight.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Desiccants come in other forms too</h3><p>Apart from silica gel, a number of other materials are used as moisture absorbers and desiccants. These are <a class="link-external" href="https://www.britannica.com/science/zeolite" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">zeolites</a>, <a class="link-external" href="https://www.britannica.com/science/alumina" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">activated alumina</a> and <a class="link-external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">activated carbon</a> – materials engineered to be highly porous.</p><p>Another desiccant type you’ll often see in moisture absorbers for larger areas like pantries or wardrobes is calcium chloride. It typically comes in a box filled with powder or crystals found in most hardware stores, and is a type of salt.</p><p>Kitchen salt – sodium chloride – attracts water and easily becomes lumpy. Calcium chloride works in the same way, but has an even stronger hygroscopic effect and “traps” the water through a hydration reaction. Once the salt is saturated, you’ll see liquid separating in the container.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Something that looks like desiccant</h3><p>Some food items such as tortilla wraps, noodles, beef jerky, and some medicines and vitamins contain slightly different sachets, labelled “oxygen absorbers”.</p><p>These small packets don’t contain desiccants. Instead, they have chemical compounds that “scavenge” or bond oxygen.</p><p>Their purpose is similar to desiccants – they extend the shelf life of food products and sensitive chemicals such as medicines. But they do so by directly preventing <a class="link-external" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zyq22hv/revision/1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">oxidation</a>. When some foods are exposed to oxygen, their chemical composition changes and can lead to decay (apples turning brown when cut is an example of oxidation).</p><p>There is a whole range of <a class="link-external" href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4375217/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">compounds</a> used as oxygen absorbers. These chemicals have a stronger affinity to oxygen than the protected substance. They range from simple compounds such as iron which “rusts” by using up oxygen, to more complex such as plastic films <a class="link-external" href="https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/full/10.5555/19840494805" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">that work when exposed to light</a>.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Can I reuse a desiccant</h3><p>Although desiccants and dehumidifiers are considered disposable, you can relatively easily reuse them.</p><p>To “recharge” or dehydrate silica gel, you can place it in an oven at approximately <a class="link-external" href="https://www.silicagel.com.au/silica-gel-beads/indicating/orange-green-3-5mm-beads" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">115-125 degrees celsius for two–three hours</a>, although you shouldn’t do this if it’s in a plastic sachet that could melt in the heat.</p><p>Interestingly, due to how they bind water, some desiccants require temperatures well above the boiling point of water to dehydrate (for example, <a class="link-external" href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpcs.2018.04.034%20Get%20rights%20and%20content" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">calcium chloride hydrates completely dehydrate at 200 degrees celsisus</a>).</p><p>After dehydration, silica gel sachets may be useful for drying small electronic items (<a class="link-external" href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-rescue-a-wet-phone/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">like your phone</a> after you accidentally dropped it into water), keeping your camera dry, or preventing your family photos and old films from sticking to each other.</p><p>This is a good alternative to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/20/wet-iphone-in-rice-what-to-do-instead" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">the questionable method of using uncooked rice</a>, as silica gel doesn’t decompose and won’t leave starch residues on your things.</p><p><a class="link-external" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kamil-zuber-2329273" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>Kamil Zuber</em></a><em> is Senior Industry Research Fellow, Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia</em>.</p><p>This article was first published on <a class="link-external" href="https://theconversation.com/do-not-eat-whats-in-those-little-desiccant-sachets-and-how-do-they-work-258398" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>The Conversation</u></em></a>.</p>
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<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2025 16:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Kamil Zuber, The Conversation</author>
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<title>‘Seek knowledge here’: A conversation between Greek King Milinda and the Buddhist monk Nagasena</title>
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<p>Homage to the Bhagavan, the Enlightened One, the Perfectly Awakened Buddha.</p><p>A king named Milinda approached Nagasena in that <br>best of cities, Sagala, much as the Ganga draws <br>near the ocean. </p><p>The king advanced and put to that brilliant orator, a <br>torchbearer dispelling darkness, numerous subtle <br>questions on possibilities and impossibilities. </p><p>The marvellous questions and answers pertain to <br>matters of profound significance, as they stir the <br>heart, please the ear, and send shivers down the spine. </p><p>The brilliant talk of Nagasena, with its analogies <br>and methods, penetrated the heart of the <br>abhidhamma and the vinaya, and unravelled the net of suttas.</p><p>So seek knowledge here and cheer the mind <br>as you listen to these subtle questions that resolve all <br>points of uncertainty.</p><p>This is the account that has been handed down by tradition. The city called Sagala was a centre of trade for the Yonakas, part of a lovely region of earth, resplendent with rivers and mountains and abounding in parks, gardens, woods, lakes, and lotus pools. It was a city founded by learned people and delightful for its rivers, hills, and woods. Its enemies vanquished, it was free of oppression by adversaries. It boasted diverse and formidable watchtowers and gates, excellent and noble arches mounted over the city portals, and encircling white walls and deep moats around the palace.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Its streets, squares, and intersections were well planned, and the interiors of its shops were stocked with many varieties of fine goods exquisitely displayed. It was graced with hundreds of diverse alms halls and embellished with hundreds of thousands of fine houses resembling Himalayan peaks. </h3><p>The city teemed with elephants, horses, chariots, and infantry. It was crowded with the multitudes of humanity, including throngs of handsome men and women and numerous Kshatriyas, Brahmans, Vaishyas, and Shudras. It resounded with cries of welcome to various renouncers and Brahmans and became the resort of many types of educated and heroic men. Fragrant with scents, the city’s bazaars were packed with stores of various cloths, including Kasi and Kotumbara textiles, and emporia displaying numerous exquisite flowers and perfumes. Its shops were arrayed in all directions and boasted many prized jewels. The city was the home of glittering treasure, full of merchant guilds trading in finery, bursting with copper, silver, gold, bronze, and stoneware, a place of lavish ric... |
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<title>Eco India: What do we stand to lose as critical coastal ecosystems go unmapped?</title>
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<h2>Coastal Regulation Zone maps fail to include critical ecosystems, putting 245 km of India's southeast coastline at risk of encroachment and climate crises.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 06 Jul 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 291: How learning about our planet is a step towards healing it</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 291: How learning about our planet is a step towards healing it</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<h1>Eco India: How can Kannauj's famous perfume industry survive the effects of climate change?</h1>
<h2>Weather fluctuations over three years have disrupted rose and jasmine harvests in Kannauj, India's perfume capital.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 08 Jun 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 290: How can farm based industries adapt to climate change in a scientific way?</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 290: How can farm based industries adapt to climate change in a scientific way?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<h1>Eco India: Could happy and healthy hens make eggs taste better?</h1>
<h2>In India, about 80% of eggs come from battery-caged farms, but there's a global shift toward cage-free farming that allows natural hen behavior.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 289: Why animal welfare is the missing key to environmental health</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 289: Why animal welfare is the missing key to environmental health</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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May 24, 2025 · 03:25 pm
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<pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h1>Eco India: Are Water ATMs a solution to Delhi's water problems?</h1>
<h2>In Delhi, about 93% residents are connected to piped water supply lines, while the rest depend on water tankers and vendor services for their water needs.</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 20 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 288: How can our cities navigate water scarcity and rising demands better?</title>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 288: How can our cities navigate water scarcity and rising demands better?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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Apr 19, 2025 · 03:53 pm
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<pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2025 10:23:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India: Is unchecked urban expansion impacting our food security?</title>
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<h1>Eco India: Is unchecked urban expansion impacting our food security?</h1>
<h2>Reports suggest that the area of land that actually grows our food has shrunk by more than 3 million hectares. What could this mean for India's food security?</h2>
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<pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<h1>Eco India, Episode 287: How can we strike a balance between development, nature and quality of life?</h1>
<h2>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</h2>
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<title>Why Indian cities flood within hours of rain</title>
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<p><strong>W</strong>hen the monsoon arrived in Delhi last year, it brought welcome respite from the relentless heat. But for Rahish, this comfort was short-lived.</p><p>With just a short spell of rain, the street in front of his tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri was waterlogged with about a foot of rainwater. It took around four hours for it to subside.</p><p>But Rahish was expecting it. After all, he had seen the pattern repeat year after year for the last 30 years. This year, the water even entered his shop and damaged some of his cloth material. “I am still paying for the losses,” he said, as he finished the final stitches on a pair of trousers for a customer.</p><p>“The biggest problem is that there is no exit for the water that collects,” said Rahish.</p><p>Tigri is adjacent to Sangam Vihar, one of Delhi’s largest unplanned colonies, where waterlogging occurs frequently.</p><p>Excess rainwater is meant to flow into the Barapullah stormwater drain here, but most of the smaller drains that connect to it are blocked with solid waste. As a result, water seeps through manholes and flows into the sewerage system under the roads.</p><p>“But since the pipes are small, very soon it starts giving out backflow,” Rahish said. When this happens, rainwater, mixed with sewerage, flows out and contributes to the waterlogging.</p><p>This is what happened last year when water entered his home in Tigri. “We could not even use the toilet because we have an Indian-styled one, and it was covered with sewage water,” he said.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1428" data-height="1071" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/ygouopifkq-1750440721.jpg" alt="" title="Rahish (seated) has a tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri. He has seen the street in front of his shop become waterlogged during the monsoons for 30 years. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Rahish (seated) has a tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri. He has seen the street in front of his shop become waterlogged during the monsoons for 30 years. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>It isn’t just low-income neighbourhoods like Tigri that are affected by waterlogging. During the monsoon last year, rainwater also stagnated in Defence Colony, an upscale residential colony around eight kilometres north.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Numerous basements flooded here, and people lost about Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh worth of furniture and other things they had stored,” said Bhavreen Kandhari, a resident of the colony.</h3><p>The story is a familiar one across Indian cities and towns, most of whose stormwater drains are proving inadequate for increasing bouts of heavy rainfall. Last month was Mumbai’s wettest May in more than a hundred years – rains left roads waterlogged and commuters stranded, and even gushed into a newly inaugurated metro station. Media reported that the rains revealed <a class="link-external" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-rain-bmc-plans-to-revamp-drainage-capacity-targets-120mm-rainfall-per-hour/articleshow/121794660.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>80 new places</u></a> that were prone to flooding, and municipal corporation officials stated that they were planning to increase drainage capacities of vulnerable areas.</p><p>Similar scenes of flooding played out in Bengaluru, where three people were also killed in rain-related accidents.</p><p>While part of the reason for frequent flooding in Indian cities is the changing rainfall patterns – more rain tends to fall in shorter periods – another <a class="link-external" href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/gaps-in-dealing-with-bengaluru-floods-3555392" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>key factor</u></a> is poor drainage. The pattern across cities is common: poorly planned expansion means that existing drains typically lack adequate capacity; and even these are poorly maintained, almost guaranteeing their failure during days of high rainfall.</p><p>In Delhi, both Defence Colony and Tigri are adjacent to the Barapullah drain. This is a naturally occurring seasonal stream that is a tributary of the Yamuna, and earlier came alive only with the monsoon, thereby acting as a natural stormwater drain. It originates from Mehrauli in south Delhi, and flows past congested homes in Chirag Dilli, the localities of Defence Colony and Jangpura, and the busy Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station, shortly after which it meets the Yamuna.</p><p>Numerous smaller, local drains constructed by the Public Works Department are connected to this natural drain – they are supposed to collect rainwater and feed it to Barapullah, which should then carry it to the Yamuna. With these smaller drains included, Barapullah has a vast catchment area – it covers <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>91%</u></a> of South Delhi and 95% of Central Delhi.</p><p>Other stormwater drains carry out similar functions in other parts of the city – Najafgarh drains out West Delhi, while across the Yamuna, the Shahdara and Ghazipur drains carry out the same function. In all, 201 natural drains flow through Delhi.</p><p>However, <em>Scroll</em>’s ground reporting found that in numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1428" data-height="1071" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/iouximrmmf-1750441005.jpg" alt="" title="In numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">In numerous places, like Tigri, the local drains that connect to main stormwater drains are frequently blocked with solid waste, restricting the flow of water through them. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>“The drains are all connected to each other, but because of such blocks the water does not reach the main drain,” said another Tigri resident Prem, pointing to a blocked drain next to the road on which a gift shop she runs is situated. She explained that the road gets waterlogged every year.</p><p>The Delhi Traffic Police has identified over <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>260 hotspots</u></a> that face frequent waterlogging in the city. This urban flooding occurs even during short spells of rain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">In Sangam Vihar, for instance, a Centre for Science and Environment <a class="link-external" href="https://www.cseindia.org/water-and-wastewater-visioning-for-large-dense-unplanned-urban-settlements-in-an-era-of-climate-risk-12177" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>report </u></a>found that with sewage lines also working as stormwater drains, flooding and sewage spillover occurs “even in a short 15-minute rainfall episode”.</h3><p>In response, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has focused on desilting the network of stormwater drains to ensure that they function at optimum capacity. As of early July, the corporation still had to <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/nearly-1-4th-of-mcd-drains-in-delhi-are-yet-to-be-desilted-report-10096657/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">complete 25%</a> of this work.</p><p>But experts told <em>Scroll </em>that while desilting is important, long-term answers to Delhi’s waterlogging would involve taking into account the natural topography of the city, delinking sewage with waste water, reviving old ponds and finding alternate exit routes for rainwater that exceeds the carrying capacity of drains.</p><p>“The administration is not looking at the issue as a system,” said AK Gosain, former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, who has worked extensively on problems of water resources engineering. Without such a holistic approach, he added, tackling individual issues through strategies such as desilting was unlikely to produce the desired results.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong><em>This story is part of </em></strong><a href="https://scroll.in/topic/56439/common-ground"><strong><em><u>Common Ground</u></em></strong></a><strong><em>, our in-depth and investigative reporting project. Sign up </em></strong><a class="link-external" href="https://scrollstack.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f11eeab993ed2fbea0bfb512e&amp;id=e2fc1bf83f" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong><em><u>here</u></em></strong></a><strong><em> to get the stories in your inbox soon after they are released.</em></strong></p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>D</strong>elhi sees broadly two kinds of flooding.</p><p>The first results when there is a rise in the level of the Yamuna, on whose banks Delhi is situated. When this occurs, usually in the monsoons, water from the river flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city.</p><p>“In such cases, the irrigation and flood department shuts the gates that connect the drains to the Yamuna, so that the river’s water does not go into the city,” said Rajender Ravi, founding member of the People’s Resource Centre, which researches infrastructure, rivers and urban agriculture. But, he added, this also prevents water in the city from draining into the Yamuna, leading to waterlogging anyway.</p><p>Low-intensity floods of this kind, where the river does not rise above its warning level of 204 metres, occur almost every monsoon. </p><p>Occasionally, these floods can also occur at a much greater intensity. This is what happened in the 2023 monsoon, when the Yamuna flowed at a level of 208.66 metres above sea level, breaking the earlier record of 207.49 metres in 1978. The irrigation and flood control department’s <a class="link-external" href="https://ifc.delhi.gov.in/ifc/flood-problem-due-river-yamuna" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>website</u></a> notes that the city saw eight such floods between the 1960s and the 1990s.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1641" data-height="1002" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hohszakyzs-1750849450.jpg" alt="" title="One kind of flooding that Delhi sees is when the Yamuna’s level rises, and water flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city. Photo: Reuters/Parth Sanyal (India Environment Society)" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">One kind of flooding that Delhi sees is when the Yamuna’s level rises, and water flows into the stormwater drains, creating a backflow into the city. Photo: Reuters/Parth Sanyal (India Environment Society)</figcaption></figure><p>Such floods have also occurred when water levels rise in manmade tributaries of the Yamuna. One such tributary begins in the Najafgarh lake, which is fed by the Sahibi river, a natural tributary of the Yamuna. In 1865, the British <a class="link-external" href="https://cwp-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/White-paper-of-Najafgarh-basin-1.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>drained</u></a> this large lake out to create more arable land – to do this, they created a new channel to the Yamuna, which came to be known as the Najafgarh drain. In 1967, this channel as well as the lake itself flooded.</p><p>But a far more frequent kind of flooding is the waterlogging that occurs within localities even when the Yamuna is not in spate.</p><p>These floods are primarily caused by unplanned construction as the city has expanded. “Because of so much concretisation, there is a lot of surface flow of rainwater which is not percolating into the ground naturally, because there is no soft space for the water to enter,” said Manu Bhatnagar, who heads INTACH’s natural heritage division, and has led work on rejuvenation of drains in Delhi.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">He added that there was also a lot of “poor engineering” of drainage systems – for example, the openings of several engineered drains are higher than the grounds they are supposed to drain.</h3><p>A major impediment to tackling this problem is the fact that administrative authority over stormwater drains is currently spread out between ten institutions, including the flood and irrigation department, the Delhi Jal Board, municipal corporations and public works department.</p><p>The Delhi government has attempted to tackle the problem. To start with, it asked Gosain and his team at IIT Delhi to consolidate data from various government departments on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains, and then indicate points at which there were problems. The government also asked the team to suggest possible solutions. They were to compile the information and recommendations in a drainage masterplan – the first such to be drawn up since 1978.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/kqlgjpwwok-1750441474.jpg" alt="" title="The Delhi government asked a team at IIT Delhi to consolidate from various government departments data on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Delhi government asked a team at IIT Delhi to consolidate from various government departments data on the existing capacity and function of stormwater drains. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>When the team began gathering available data, they came up against stark limitations.</p><p>In some instances, “We found only a line was made on a GIS map,” said Gosain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“There were no dimensions, no invert levels,” he added, referring to measurements that are essential to ascertain the capacity of the stormwater drains. “These are the basic data that have to be used to understand why water is not being evacuated.”</h3><p>The team also struggled because several departments delayed providing information to them. Gosain suggested that in some instances, team members could themselves collect data from the ground, and submit it to departments for vetting.</p><p>For the next 18 months, his team collected this data, both from the ground and from different departments, analysing the functioning of stormwater drains and identifying areas that faced the most waterlogging. They also made recommendations, such as correcting the slopes of artificial drains to prevent stagnation. In 2018, they put together a <a class="link-external" href="https://rgplan.com/delhi/Draingae-Master-plan_for-NCT-of-Delhi(final%20Report)2018.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>new masterplan</u></a>.</p><p>But the report noted that though government departments had agreed beforehand to vet the data that the team compiled, not all departments had done so. It stated that “It was unfortunate that various departments passed on the survey data without vetting the data properly.” Some departments, like the Delhi Development Authority, did not even send the data the team had sought.</p><p>Though the government itself was responsible for some of these shortcomings of the report, a government committee that reviewed the master plan put the master plan on <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-govts-technical-panel-rejects-drainage-master-plan/article37182454.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>hold</u></a><u> in 2021, </u>citing “discrepancies in data”.</p><p>It was only this April that the Public Works Department announced that by June this year, it would <a class="link-external" href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/pwd-likely-to-finalise-project-report-for-delhi-drainage-master-plan-by-jun-101743608155790.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>finalise</u></a> a detailed project report for the drainage masterplan.</p><p>Gosain hinted that he was disappointed with the delay in implementing his team’s solutions, “We prepared this huge scientific database,” he said. “It is possible to reduce the extent of flooding by implementing the recommendations made by our study and accepted by the government, as long as they do it with proper intent and effort.”</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>A</strong>mong the major measures that the government undertakes each year to try and tackle flooding is the desilting of stormwater drains.</p><p>In May, across Delhi, workers with large spades were seen entering manholes and clearing wet mud from the manmade drains. Along the larger natural drains, like Barapullah, large bulldozers did the same work. This work, typically done before the monsoon, is aimed at increasing the capacity of the drains.</p><p>But experts pointed out that poor planning has made it impossible for desilting to be carried out to the extent needed. Specifically, in many areas of the city, long stretches of these drains have been covered over in ways that leave them inaccessible. “When we were analysing the data and preparing the master plan, we found many stretches of drains around 1 km to 2 km, where there is no access to the drain and desilting is not possible,” said Gosain.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Stormwater drains are only supposed to be covered temporarily so as to gain access whenever required,” he added. “But now, most are permanent. Unless you break them you won’t know if the drain is silted or not.”</h3><p>In Defence Colony, the Delhi Development Authority covered large portions of Kushak drain – a part of the Barapullah drain – to create a park. Kandhari said that residents had raised their voices “for years to not cover the drain since it prevented routine inspection, desilting and maintenance which caused silt to build up, stagnate, and lead to foul odour”.</p><p>This year, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is attempting to rectify this mistake. An official told <em>Scroll </em>that they had broken large rectangular tracts of the covered portions of this drain so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1660" data-height="1200" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/indvczeeoh-1750441739.jpg" alt="" title="After building over the Kushak drain in Defence Colony to create a park, this year the Municipal Corporation of Delhi broke rectangular tracts of the covered portions so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.&nbsp;Photo: Special arrangement" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">After building over the Kushak drain in Defence Colony to create a park, this year the Municipal Corporation of Delhi broke rectangular tracts of the covered portions so that bulldozers could scoop out silt.&nbsp;Photo: Special arrangement</figcaption></figure><p>“It is such a waste of resources,” said Kandhari, who recorded a drone video along the Kushak drain where these bulldozers can be seen at work.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1929738271732781204" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kushak Drain Saga ⬇️ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DefenceColony?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DefenceColony</a> <br><br>*Started covering: 2009<br>*Stalled: 2013<br>*Abandoned: 2014<br>* <a href="https://twitter.com/rsuri54?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rsuri54</a> moved NGT: 2015 → SC twice over→ Yamuna Committee (till 2021)<br>*2025: Back to NGT<br><br>Citizens suffer for decades while absurd decisions go unchecked.<br><br>Video as on 2/6/25 ⬇️ <a href="https://t.co/abzwQvHmZh">pic.twitter.com/abzwQvHmZh</a></p>— Bhavreen Kandhari (@BhavreenMK) <a href="https://twitter.com/BhavreenMK/status/1929738271732781204?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>It was not only residents who opposed this work. In 2015, the National Green Tribunal <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Reply%20by%20DPCC%20in%20OA%20No.%20274%20of%202022%20(Prem%20Aggarwal%20&amp;%20Ors%20Vs.%20Govt.%20of%20NCT%20of%20Delhi.).pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>noted</u></a> that work of covering drains had begun in Defence Colony and other parts of south Delhi, but that this would have “very adverse impacts upon the environment and ecology of Delhi”. It added, “This would result in more flooding, explosion of diseases and clogging of drains.”</p><p>Many smaller drains within colonies have also been covered, such as with footpaths, or with extensions of shops.</p><p>“In most of the colonies, rooftop water is connected to the sewer line, which is not designed to get the stormwater,” said Gosain. </p><p>Elsewhere, drains have temporary coverings. In Tigri for example, Prem pointed to a few shops that had covered the naalas running outside their shops with cemented slabs, but ensured that they had iron handles that would allow them to be lifted. But allowing this access has not helped residents.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“These can be opened,” she said. “If the MCD comes tomorrow to clean these drains, no one will say no. But they should at least come.”</h3><p>It was not just silt that hindered the flow of water in the drains. Prem also pointed towards a cave-like cemented structure on one side of Tigri’s market – this was an opening to a stormwater drain, towards which the ground around was intended to slope, so that water would flow into it.</p><p>The opening to this drain had not been cleaned for years, she said. It was choked with plastic packets and other waste, and had no water in it. During rains, too, residents said, this drain did not carry any water at all.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>W</strong>hile in many places, rainwater enters the sewer system and causes floods, elsewhere, sewerage is directly released into stormwater drains, polluting them and choking their capacity.</p><p>On an early June morning, a portion of the Barapullah flowing in Chirag Dilli was a muddy green channel with plastic waste and cloth material on its banks. But experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/dsnkyeklue-1750441872.jpg" alt="" title="The Barapullah drain near Chirag Dilli. Experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Barapullah drain near Chirag Dilli. Experts noted that up to the monsoon period, which typically begins at the end of June, the drain should technically be empty. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>“Over a period of time as urbanisation surrounded them, stormwater drains have been used as a substitute to sewer systems,” INTACH’s Bhatnagar said. “Earlier in the non-monsoon period there was never any flow. Now around the year the flow is there and that is basically sewerage.”</p><p>During the rains, since stormwater drains are already carrying sewage, they have limited capacity to take on excess rainwater.</p><p>A court-appointed Yamuna Monitoring Committee flagged this problem in 2020 – it found that sewage was mixing with stormwater in <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>144 places</u></a> in the city. The IIT Delhi Master plan found that at least 50% of the capital territory does not have access to the engineered sewer system, and that “sewage generated from these areas is inevitably discharged into the storm water system”, which leads to “overflows and sluggish movement of the storm water within the drainage network”.</p><p>Not just sewage, even industrial waste flows in these drains. When the Yamuna Monitoring Committee did a random survey of industries in Bawana and Narela between 2019 and 2020, they found that <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>29 industries </u></a>were discharging their wastewater into stormwater drains.</p><p>The National Green Tribunal also issued directions to the Delhi Jal Board in 2015, 2017 and 2019 to ensure that stormwater drains do not carry sewage. In 2017, the board claimed that it had indeed stopped the entry of sewage into 11 out of 17 drains where it had been mixing with stormwater. But upon ground verification, the committee <a class="link-external" href="https://greentribunal.gov.in/sites/default/files/news_updates/Final%20Report%20by%20Yamuna%20Monitoring%20Committee%20in%20OA%20No.%2006%20of%202012.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>found</u></a> that a number of these drains were still carrying sewage.</p><p>The Municipal Corporation of Delhi official agreed that sewage and industrial waste continues to flow into nalas. “But that is anyway the responsibility of Delhi Jal Board,” he said.</p><p><em>Scroll</em> emailed Delhi government authorities, seeking their responses to criticisms of poor planning and management of the the city’s stormwater drain system. This story will be updated if they respond.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong>I</strong>n some parts of Delhi, the Public Works Department has <a class="link-external" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-pwd-begins-preliminary-work-redeveloping-18-km-stormwater-drain-9665443/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>proposed</u></a> that it will lay drains of a larger width to prevent waterlogging. But experts argue that this would not be practical because it would entail digging up large parts of the city.</p><p>“The other option we have is to use and rejuvenate all the existing waterbodies, induce infiltration through rainwater harvesting, create retention storages in the city to reduce the stormwater and flooding to some extent,” said Gosain.</p><p>Indeed, in the master plan, Gosain and his team created simulations based on the data of slopes and drains they collected, to see if waterbodies in Delhi could naturally absorb the rainwater run-off. After mapping existing lakes and ponds in the three major drainage basins – Najafgarh, Barapullah, and Trans Yamuna – they found that waterbodies “could store a considerable volume” of water.</p><p>In Budhela, an urban village in south-west Delhi, residents explained that up till about two decades ago, an old pond or johad, played exactly this role. “This is where we used to take cows and goats for a swim, and we would swim ourselves,” said Ramniwas, a resident of the village. He explained that the natural incline of the area was such that during rains, runoff from the interiors of the densely laid streets of Budhela would flow into this rainfed lake. The village is part of the Najafgarh drainage basin, and the main Najafgarh drain flows less than a kilometre from Budhela.</p><p>But in 2002, Delhi Development Authority acquired the pond from the gram sabha and handed it over to Delhi government’s cultural wing to develop a building to host cultural events. To make the ground stable, the Delhi government filled the pond completely in the years following it.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">“Since that time, we have started seeing waterlogging issues in a few of our streets like this one,” said another resident Harmohan, as we walked on a street adjacent to the boundary of the pond.</h3><p>Budhela’s waterlogged street in the rains has also presented a health hazard – Harmohan explained that numerous mosquitoes breed on the still water, raising the risk of diseases spreading among residents.</p><p>It was only in late 2023 that the construction of the building began on the land where the pond had been. In 2024, a resident challenged the project in the Delhi High Court, arguing that the court had set precedent in 2013, when it directed the Delhi Development Authority to cancel all allotments of land on waterbodies wherever the land was still vacant – the court had also ordered the authority to revive these water bodies.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1142" data-height="856" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/gddlemzcyx-1750441983.jpg" alt="" title="In 2002, the Delhi government acquired a pond in Budhela village in south-west Delhi to construct a building to host cultural events. Since then, the village has seen significant waterlogging. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">In 2002, the Delhi government acquired a pond in Budhela village in south-west Delhi to construct a building to host cultural events. Since then, the village has seen significant waterlogging. Photo: Vaishnavi Rathore</figcaption></figure><p>This March, the Delhi High Court stayed the construction of the building.</p><p>When <em>Scroll</em> visited the johad on a hot June morning, a half constructed two-storey building stood in the depression of the dry pond. “We want the pond to be used as a pond, so that it can be used for the village residents,” said Ramniwas.</p><p>Experts also suggest other methods to tackle excess water that do not rely on stormwater drains – though they cautioned that the authorities had delayed acting on the problem. “Public parks also might have certain depressed areas where the stormwater can collect and recharge acquifers,” said Bhatnagar. He explained that rainwater being collected from roofs in homes around those localities could be directed into these depressions, rather than into into stormwater drains.</p><p>For now, residents are unsure of how much the desilting work in the city will help during the monsoon. Tigri’s Rahish said that he had been writing to different authorities for years to pay attention to the waterlogging in their locality, but that nothing had changed. “When it rains, the water stops, our lives stop for a few hours,” he said.</p>
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<author>Vaishnavi Rathore</author>
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<title>Marang Buru vs Parasnath: The conflict over Jharkhand’s highest peak</title>
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<p><strong class="drop-cap">I</strong>t was 8.30 pm in the town of Madhuban in Jharkhand, and Itwari Soren and Ramesh Murmu sat listless outside a lavish Jain mansion.</p><p>The two, who are palanquin bearers and belong to the Santal Adivasi community, were waiting for shops on the town’s main road to close so that they could sleep.</p><p>“We sleep on the roads with just our gamchas to lie down on,” said Itwari, referring to the towel also often used as a headscarf. “The mosquitoes keep biting us and if it rains, we get drenched. There are several guesthouses around here for pilgrims, but no facilities for us doliwale to stay.”</p><p>The two had not had any work that day in mid-May, or in fact that week. “This is the off season. The peak season is between March and October when Jain pilgrims visit in flocks,” Itwari said. “Then, we compete to book passengers and carry them up the hill.”</p><p>The hill he was referring to is the highest point in Jharkhand, and goes by two names. To Jains, it is Parasnath Hill, named after Parsvanatha, the twenty-third of 24 Jain tirthankaras, the central spiritual figures of the religion. Jains know the sacred site atop the hill as Sammed Shikarji and believe that 20 tirthankaras attained salvation there.</p><p>But the hill is also a sacred site to Itwari and Ramesh’s community. The Santals call the hill Marang Buru, after the foremost hill deity in their pantheon. They have three key sacred sites – the dishom manjhi thaan, where the headman worships ancestors and deities, the jug jaher thaan, a sacred grove, and the lo bir vaisi bodra darha, where the traditional court of Adivasis of the region is held.</p><p>At the same time, the hill is also a crucial source of employment to thousands of doliwalas like Itwari and Ramesh, who depend on Jain pilgrims and other visitors for a livelihood for at least six months in a year.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1800" data-height="806" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lstaeqzytd-1750157310.jpg" alt="" title="Ramesh Murmu (centre) and Itwari Soren (right) work as palanquin bearers in Madhuban, Jharkhand. They earn a living by carrying Jain pilgrims to the top of the Parasnath hill, where a Jain shrine is located. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Ramesh Murmu (centre) and Itwari Soren (right) work as palanquin bearers in Madhuban, Jharkhand. They earn a living by carrying Jain pilgrims to the top of the Parasnath hill, where a Jain shrine is located. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>“Pilgrims, especially older ones, are not able to climb to the top,” said Sikandar Hembrom of the Marang Buru Sanvta Susaar Baisi, an organisation which is fighting for the rights of Adivasis over the hill – Hembrom is also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.</p><p>He explained that it was typically Adivasis, as well as members of a few other marginalised groups, such as the Ghatwar and Turi communities, who carried pilgrims to the peak.</p><p>The palanquin bearers usually set out at 2 am, and take at least eight hours to complete the trek of 27 km. Two bearers charge Rs 2,300 to carry a person who weighs less than 49 kg, and Rs 2,760 for a person who weighs between 50 kg and 69 kg. For those who weigh more, bearers usually use chairs carried by four people, for which rates start at Rs 4,600.</p><p>These rates haven’t changed since 2019, Itwari said, showing me a rate card. During peak season, the bearers get regular work and earn between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 a month. For the remainder of the time, they work on their fields in neighbouring villages and do small odd jobs. “It is not an easy job, carrying so much weight while climbing a hill,” said Ramesh. “But we don’t have a choice and are compelled to do it. There are no better opportunities around here to earn a living.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/hvonnjwwie-1750157379.jpg" alt="" title="Two palanquin bearers await customers in Madhuban. The rates for the work have not changed since 2019. Photos: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Two palanquin bearers await customers in Madhuban. The rates for the work have not changed since 2019. Photos: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1587" data-height="1200" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/ubokijgtpb-1750157787.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>Some locals claim that the two communities have co-existed in this fashion since time immemorial.</p><p>“Jains and Adivasis live harmoniously here,” said Amit Jain, the mahamantri, or general secretary, of Madhuban’s Jain community. “This practice of Adivasi doliwalas carrying pilgrims up to the peak has been going on for thousands of years.”</p><p>But this description also elides a tension that has long simmered between the two groups over their rights to the hill. It is centred around the very different relationships the two communities have with the site, and with their faith.</p><p>The most prominent point of contention is Sendra, an annual religious festival of the Adivasis, at which the community hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. A 2024 <a class="link-external" href="https://wap.hapres.com/htmls/JSR_1572_Detail.html#09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>paper</u></a> on Sendra in West Bengal and “ethnotourism” notes that the hunting in the festival is largely a “symbolic expression of ancient culture” through which tribes seek to “retain their ancestral legacy”.</p><p>Jains, meanwhile, see nonviolence as a core principle of their religion – over the years, some members of the community have challenged the hunt as a practice that hurts their religious sentiments.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1638" data-height="734" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jvsadqhzzs-1750245416.jpg" alt="" title="The most prominent point of contention between the Adivasi and Jain communities is an annual religious festival in which the former hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The most prominent point of contention between the Adivasi and Jain communities is an annual religious festival in which the former hunts animals in the jungles of the hill. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>In January, a Jain trust filed a petition in the Jharkhand High Court – among its demands was that the government “take preventive measures against activities that defile the sanctity of the Hill”. The petition also sought the implementation of a 2023 environment ministry memorandum, which effectively prohibited hunting, and the consumption of meat and alcohol, on the hill.</p><p>“This ruling fails to recognise Adivasi traditions, so we will challenge it and fight for our rights in court,” said Hembrom.</p><p>Some Adivasis argue that these demands contravene core tenets of Jainism itself. “The Jain religion is a beautiful one, they have a principle which says – live and let live,” said Bhagwan Kisku, an activist. “But in Madhuban, they are not practicing that. Instead, they are erasing Adivasis.”</p><p><em>Scroll </em>sent queries about the conflict over the hill to Jain trusts involved in litigation, as well as the environment ministry, local police and the state government. This story will be updated if any responses are received.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong class="drop-cap">C</strong>ommunities’ legal claims over the hill, and efforts to gain control over it, have a long and chequered history.</p><p>In 1893, for instance, the Calcutta High Court heard a dispute over the running of a pig’s lard factory on the hill, which offended the sentiments of Jains.</p><p>In its judgement in favour of the Jains, the court cited a previous order of a district judge, stating “the plaintiff’s witnesses have told us that in their estimation every stone of Parash Nath Hill is holy and an object of adoration”. That order noted that it could not mark out particular places as sacred because the tirthankaras “may have died anywhere on the Hill”.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1400" data-height="627" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/einwrvfbsn-1750242508.jpg" alt="" title="Communities attempts to gain control over the hill date back to at least the nineteenth century, when the Jain community protested a pig’s lard factory on it. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">Communities attempts to gain control over the hill date back to at least the nineteenth century, when the Jain community protested a pig’s lard factory on it. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>But over the years, courts and administrative bodies have also upheld the rights of Adivasis over the hill.</p><p>For instance, the community’s hunting tradition was noted in a 1911 “cadastral survey”, which set out land rights of communities over particular tracts of land.</p><p>That same year, Maharaj Bahadur Singh, acting on behalf of the Shwetambar Jain community, filed<a class="link-external" href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/239245/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u> a case</u></a> in the Patna High Court demanding, among other things, that the entry about the hunt in the cadastral survey be expunged. The judge ruled in favour of the natives, stating that they had a “prescriptive or customary right” to the hill. He further quoted the “assistant settlement officer”, who had stated that “the hunting does not seem to me to do any harm to the worshippers of the temples and the hills, as the hunters do nothing which could hurt their feelings”.</p><p>The petitioners appealed this decision in the highest court of appeal in the British empire at the time. “The case went up to the Privy Council and it was held that the Santals have the customary right of hunting on Parasnath Hill,” the 1957 Hazaribagh district gazetteer stated.</p><p>The Jain community continued to try and gain exclusive control over the hill. Court <a class="link-external" href="https://www.courtkutchehry.com/Judgement/Search/AdvancedV2?s_acts=Bihar%20Land%20Reforms%20(Amendment)%20Act,%201954&amp;section_art=section&amp;s_article_val=4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>documents</u></a> show that in 1918, the Seth Anandji Kalyanji Trust, representing the Shwetambar Jain community, paid to gain rights to the hill from local rulers.</p><p>But these efforts were negated after India acquired independence and became a democracy. Specifically, in 1953, the state of Bihar passed the Bihar Land Reforms Act, which vested rights over the hill with the state government.</p><p>In the decades that followed, both communities used the hill as part of their customs without any significant disputes arising between them. In 1984, the government granted the area significant protection by forming the Parasnath and Topchanchi wildlife sanctuaries, which included large portions of the hill.</p><p>The area under protection was widened in 2019, when the ministry of environment, forests and climate change issued a new notification declaring a strip of land 25 km wide around the sanctuaries, amounting to a total of 208.82 sq km, as an “eco-sensitive zone”.</p><p>Developments that followed this left both communities worried about their rights over the hill, albeit for strikingly different reasons.</p><p>In 2019, the environment ministry instructed the state government to promote eco-tourism in the area and develop a “tourism master plan”. Accordingly, in February 2022, the Jharkhand government launched a tourism <a class="link-external" href="https://www.nsws.gov.in/s3fs/2022-10/Jharkhand%20Tourism%20Policy%202021.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>policy</u></a>, under which it stated that Parasnath, along with other sites, would be developed as a religious pilgrimage site. This move led to widespread outrage in the Jain community, which came out in large numbers across the country to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jain-protests-notification-sammed-shikharji-parasnath-hill-giridih-shetrunjaya-bhavnagar/article66346041.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>protest</u></a> the proposed changes to the site. “We were afraid that the promotion of tourism would desecrate the sanctity of the site,” said Amit Jain.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/tkgzxtzqsg-1750242879.jpg" alt="" title="The Jain community protested a move by the government in 2022 to promote the hill as a tourist site. They argued that doing so would desecrate its sanctity. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The Jain community protested a move by the government in 2022 to promote the hill as a tourist site. They argued that doing so would desecrate its sanctity. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>In January 2023, under pressure from the protests, the environment ministry issued an office <a class="link-external" href="https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2023/jan/doc202315150001.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>memorandum</u></a> that stayed all activities on the hill related to tourism.</p><p>But the memorandum contained another directive that Adivasis argued impinged on their rights over the hill: it instructed the state government to “strictly enforce” provisions of a clause of the “management plan” of the Parasnath sanctuary “which protects the whole Parasnath Hill”. This provision includes a categorical prohibition on the sale and consumption of “liquor, drugs, and other intoxicants” and “committing injurious acts to animals”.</p><p>These prohibitions are in keeping with the Jain tenets of vegetarianism, teetotalism and non-violence towards all living creatures.</p><p>However, they are in direct opposition to customary Adivasi rituals that require the use of hadiya, or rice beer, and often include the sacrifice of animals like chickens. Thus, the Adivasi community believes that these policies favour the Jain community over them.</p><p>But the state government did not press forward with the implementation of these directions.</p><p>It was in this context that the Ahmedabad-based Jain trust, named Jyot, filed the petition in the Jharkhand High Court asking that the directions be implemented. After hearing the petition, the High Court <a class="link-external" href="https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/jharkhand-high-court/jharkhand-high-court-orders-parasnath-hill-sacred-to-jain-ban-tourism-liquor-non-veg-food-291116" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>directed</u></a> the state government to implement the clauses listed in the memorandum.</p><p>Following this order, Giridih’s superintendent of police told <em>Scroll</em>,<em> </em>the number of home guards in the area had been increased to ensure that the court’s orders were enforced. As of May 13, they had not received any complaints of the order being violated.</p><p>But several Adivasis in and around Marang Buru are outraged. “It’s not like we’re forcibly entering their temples to perform our rituals,” said Arjun Marandi, a local Adivasi leader from Sohraia village. “We’re doing it on our land, which is far away from their temples.”</p><p>Referring to the Ahmedabad-based petitioners, Hembrom argued that urban, non-Jharkhandis from outside the state had no right to dictate terms on Marang Buru. “As Adivasis we were here first,” he said. “We have co-existed in harmony with the Jain population here so far. How can those sitting in metropolitan cities decide that the hill belongs solely to them?”</p><p>A group of activists from the area, including Hembrom, filed a counter-petition in the high court on May 5. The petition asserts Adivasis’ claims over Marang Buru and seeks the protection of their right to conduct their customary practices and rituals on the hill.</p><hr class="block-break"><p><strong class="drop-cap">E</strong>ven as the dispute between the communities plays out, Adivasis argue that their presence on the hill and their rights over it have to a large extent been erased.</p><p>This is despite the fact that there are far more Adivasis in the region than Jains. According to the 2011 census, Scheduled Tribes form 44% and Jains form 0.6% of the total population in Pirtand block, where Madhuban is located.</p><p>The eco-sensitive zone also has a large Adivasi population. Giridih’s district collector Naman Priyesh Lakra told <em>Scroll</em> that many of the 99 villages located within this region were inhabited by Adivasis. But he noted that the last land survey in the area was conducted in 1911 and that official current data was unavailable. The administration planned to start work on a social profile led by the District Legal Services Authority soon, he added.</p><p>Meanwhile, in recent years, “none of the government notifications regarding Parasnath hill have recognised that the place is also sacred to Santals”, Hembrom said.</p><p>Indeed, the recent notifications by the centre and the state government, pertaining to environmental protections and restrictions on tourism on the hill, make no reference to the site as Marang Buru, or mention Adivasis. “This is despite the fact that multiple Adivasi chief ministers from the state, and even President Droupadi Murmu, have travelled to Marang Buru to pay their respects,” Hembrom said.</p><p>This was apparent on the route from Parasnath railway station to Madhuban, along which one only sees signboards directing travellers to “Parasnath hill”. Upon entering Madhuban, one is greeted by a tall ornamental gateway typical of Jain architecture. Inside the town, there are several grand temples, mansions and guest houses, all for Jain pilgrims who visit from across the country.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/gxeekjwwqs-1750242958.jpg" alt="" title="The gateway in Madhuban. The town has numerous grand temples, mansions and guesthouses for the Jain pilgrims who visit it from across the country. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The gateway in Madhuban. The town has numerous grand temples, mansions and guesthouses for the Jain pilgrims who visit it from across the country. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>The main pathway that leads to the top of the hill has a tall signboard with a logo of the government of Jharkhand that welcomes visitors to Shikarji Sammed. It is only below this that a much smaller signboard welcomes visitors to Marang Buru. A few steps ahead, a few Sarna flags can be seen near the manjhi thaan.</p><p>Some activists noted that Adivasis had been edged out of Madhuban by wealthier communities. “A lot of the land that has been developed in Madhuban originally belonged to the Turi community,” said the activist Bhagwan Kisku. “But today when you walk through the town, you’ll find it difficult to spot a Turi person. There are so many grand mansions there of different sects of the Jain community but the number of locals is very less.”</p><p>The Jain community’s dominance over land in Madhuban is clear atop the hill too. Lakra, the district collector, told <em>Scroll</em> that the Jain community owned only eight decimals of land on the hill. But Jain sacred sites stretch across the 27-km-long parikrama path, or circular pilgrimage path. “For the longest time there were only two temples on top of Parasnath,” said Kisku. “But after the 2000s, these grew in number and today there are a total of 32 sacred Jain structures on top of the hill.”</p><p>He noted that it was not just that Adivasi customs conflicted with the Jain religion, but also the reverse. “Adivasis worship trees and rocks. Haven’t Jains torn down these trees and rocks to build their temples? But nobody thinks of that as an issue,” said Kisku, who is a member of an association called Marang Buru Sansthan, which is affiliated to the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party.</p><p>Some local leaders from the Jain community sought to downplay the conflict. “We don’t deny that this is an Adivasi area. Adivasis have been living in the forest for thousands of years,” said Amit Jain. “Of course they have the right to practice their own customs in their homes and sacred sites.”</p><p>He added, “The actual community based here is far away from this conflict. It is small leaders who are spreading political propaganda to agitate local people.”</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1600" data-height="716" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/agzzvqudka-1750243870.jpg" alt="" title="The dishom manjhi thaan of the Adivasi community on the hill, where the headman worships ancestors. They argued that Jains had torn down rocks and trees to build their numerous temples. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">The dishom manjhi thaan of the Adivasi community on the hill, where the headman worships ancestors. They argued that Jains had torn down rocks and trees to build their numerous temples. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>But when it came to specific rules and restrictions, it was clear that there was a lack of clarity among the communities, which was breeding resentment.</p><p>The question of consumption of meat and alcohol on the hill is among the most contentious of these matters. Upon entering the pathway to the peak, one is greeted by large hoardings installed by the Madhuban panchayat, which state that the “consumption of non-vegetarian food and alcohol is a punishable offence, as per orders from the district administration”.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1433" data-height="642" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/itfowavofx-1750243949.jpg" alt="" title="A board near the entrance of the pathway to the peak, which states that consuming meat and alcohol is punishable. Photo: Nolina Minj" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A board near the entrance of the pathway to the peak, which states that consuming meat and alcohol is punishable. Photo: Nolina Minj</figcaption></figure><p>Savita Tudu, the panchayat pramukh of Madhuban, and the sole Adivasi person mentioned on the hoardings, said that the rule only applied to the Jain community’s sacred sites and not everywhere on the hill. “It’s possible that Adivasis might give up alcohol and meat but our deities cannot do without them,” she said. “They are an inherent part of our culture.”</p><p>Jain, meanwhile, said that tourists to Parasnath hill consumed ... |
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<title>What does Trump’s ceasefire announcement mean for Modi's strongman image?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>follow</u></em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>At 5.25 pm on Saturday, the President of the United States posted a message on social media that brought relief to nearly two billion people. “After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE,” he said (caps are Trump’s, not mine).</p><p>It was only half an hour later that the government of India actually announced a ceasefire. “Both sides would stop all firing and military action on land, air and sea at 5 pm,” said Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in a press briefing that lasted less than a minute.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="1220" data-height="1107" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/eaqcjqtfhy-1746948336.jpeg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>Why did another country announce that India’s armed forces are going to stop hostilities with Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack? And what does that politically mean for Modi’s strongman image?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Made in America</h3><p>The answer to the first question is simple: the US is claiming credit for brokering peace between the subcontinental twins. In fact, the US state department has put out a <a class="link-external" href="https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/05/announcing-a-u-s-brokered-ceasefire-between-india-and-pakistan/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>statement</u></a> calling this a “US-Brokered Ceasefire between India and Pakistan”. </p><p>CNN has <a class="link-external" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/10/politics/vance-modi-india-pakistan-intelligence" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>reported</u></a> that the US received “alarming intelligence” on Friday that could lead to a “dramatic escalation”. The US Vice President then called Modi urging him to talk to Pakistan and “to consider options for de-escalation”. This was the “critical moment” that got India and Pakistan moving towards a ceasefire, according to CNN.</p><p>India’s long-held position has always been that its conflict with Pakistan is a bilateral matter and it does not want any mediation. Unsurprisingly, the Modi government has rushed to firefight these US statements, putting a flurry of anonymous quotes in the media denying that the US had any role to play.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="638" data-height="290" style=""><a href="https://x.com/sidhant/status/1921198484897546663" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/jdmahldmik-1746948383.png" alt="" title="A journalist tweets out a statement from an anonymous source denying US mediation." itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A journalist tweets out a statement from an anonymous source denying US mediation.</figcaption></figure><p>Even worse, the US’ statements seem to suggest that it thinks Kashmir is back as an issue internationally. On Sunday, Trump put out another <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/MichaelKugelman/status/1921419633824788981" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">statement</a> offering to mediate so that a “solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir”. Before that Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that India and Pakistan had agreed to “start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site,” contradicting Delhi’s position that it will not talk till Islamabad abjures terror.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="633" data-height="845" style=""><a href="https://x.com/MichaelKugelman/status/1921419633824788981" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/chmikmrloq-1746948424.png" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Strong, man?</strong></h3><p>India’s ideal war aim, as it bombed Pakistan on May 7, was to make the country bend completely. “India seeks for Pakistan to have an embarrassing defeat,” <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/clary_co/status/1921092414128767438" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>said</u></a> Christopher Clary, a US academic and an expert on South Asia’s security politics.</p><p>However, rather than a Pakistani military surrender as India achieved in 1971 when Indira Gandhi was prime minister, what Modi has managed to pull off is a ceasefire. The absence of a surrender is risky for Modi's strongman image. That the US is now claiming that it brokered the ceasefire is doubly so.</p><p>Notably, Modi has long attacked the Congress as being weak for reaching out to the US. “Our minister went to America and started crying ‘Obama, Obama’,” Modi had said in a viral <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/nehafolksinger/status/1921442607592263691" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>interview</u></a> from when he was Gujarat chief minister, making mock actions of tears.</p><p>Will the Congress now be able to politicise this in the same way, attacking Modi’s as being weak for Trump’s claims of mediation?</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="631" data-height="372" style=""><a href="https://x.com/ShefVaidya/status/1921186640665415817" target="_blank">
<img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/lwraiplaku-1746948452.png" alt="" title="A prominent social media influencer and Modi supporter announces disappointment with the ceasefire" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer">
</a><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A prominent social media influencer and Modi supporter announces disappointment with the ceasefire</figcaption></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">What happens now?</h3><p>The other risk for Modi is if Pakistan decides to continue its policy of supporting terror. Like the ceasefire after India’s and Pakistan’s tit-for-tat airstrikes in 2019, the current detente is premised on allowing both sides to go to their people and claim a Potemkin victory. However, 2019 is a poor template for Delhi: if India hoped that airstrikes would dissuade Pakistan from backing terror, that is clearly not the case, given the horror in Pahalgam.</p><p>Will the 2025 hostilities persuade Pakistan to end its support to terror if 2019 didn’t? There are already prominent voices of scepticism asking what India achieved by Operation Sindoor, given the ceasefire only three days later.</p><p>“We have left India’s future history to ask what politico-strategic advantages, if any, were gained after its kinetic and non-kinetic actions post Pakistani horrific terror strike in Pahalgam on 22 April,” former Indian Army chief Ved Malik <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/Vedmalik1/status/1921202136592879853" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>posted</u></a> on social media.</p><p>Even as journalists and analysts unpack the political losses and gains for individual players and states, one thing is certain: the people of South Asia simply cannot afford conflict. Both India and Pakistan are poor countries with large populations and nuclear weapons. War is simply not an option. A ceasefire is great news. Now we only need to hope that it sticks.</p>
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<pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 06:39:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>The importance of secular optics during ‘Operation Sindoor’</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>follow</u></em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>In the early hours of Wednesday, the Indian armed forces struck nine terrorist camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This was in response to the April 22 attack in Pahalgam that left 26 dead.</p><p>War is about weapons. But it is also about narrative. Even as India delivered a military response to Pakistan for its support to cross-border terror, its post-operation messaging was also strong.</p><p>For one, India’s name for the military attack, Operation Sindoor, highlighted the fact that the Pahalgam terrorists had shot dead men in front of their families. The Hindi word “sindoor” refers to the vermillion pigment many Indian women use on their heads as a sign of marriage. Even more vivid were the secular optics of the government briefing on Wednesday morning.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Communal terror</h3><p>Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri was emphatic that the aim of the terrorists in Pahalgam was to spread strife within Indian society. “The manner of the attack was also driven by the objective of provoking communal discord, both in Jammu and Kashmir and in the rest of the nation,” Misri said, referring to the fact that many male tourists in Kashmir had been shot dead after being asked about their faith; Hindus were targetted. “It is to the credit of the government and the people of India that these designs were foiled.”</p><p>The Foreign Secretary was flanked by Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, who provided details of Operation Sindoor.</p><p>By explicitly saying that the terrorists in Pahalgam intended to stoke communal conflict and including a Muslim army officer as part of the high-voltage briefing, the Indian government was using explicitly secular messaging even as India militarily stared down its nuclear twin, Pakistan.</p><p>Misri’s statement was not made in a vacuum. Pahalgam was followed by a wave of bitter communalism within India. Several Hindutva ideologues tried to attack Indian Muslims using the cover of the Pakistan-backed terror strike.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1920019600785158232" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Terrorists who attacked Hindus in Pehalgam wanted to provoke "communal discord" in India. <br>These accounts such as <a href="https://twitter.com/randomsena?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@randomsena</a> are helping them by targeting 25+ Crore Indian Muslims. Unfortunately the Indian government or the Police will never take any action against them. <a href="https://t.co/yxv2VMVTM1">pic.twitter.com/yxv2VMVTM1</a></p>— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) <a href="https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1920019600785158232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>The online hate was so bitter that even <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081984/womens-commission-condemns-online-trolling-of-pahalgam-attack-victims-wife-after-her-peace-appeal">Himanshi Narwal</a>, wife of Indian Navy officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, who was killed in Pahalgam, was not spared. Her statement asking Indians not to “spew hate” against “Muslims and Kashmiris” attracted a spate of abuse from Hindutva supporters. It was so intense, the National Commission for Women stepped in to condemn the online abuse.</p><p>But it was not just online hate. There were <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1081835/after-pahalgam-terror-attack-anti-muslim-violence-reported-in-four-states">physical attacks</a> too. A day after Pahalgam, for example, Kashmiri shawl sellers were assaulted in Mussoorie, leading to at least 16 people fleeing from the city.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">An exception</h3><p>Even as the Modi government’s messaging post-Sindoor has been secular and attempted to counter the obvious aims of the Pahalgam terrorists, this level-headedness has been rare. Over the past decade, the Modi government has often stoked communal given its adherence to Hindutva as well as the electoral dividends that sectarian politics has paid for the BJP since the 1990s.</p><p>However, as Pahalgam and its aftermath shows, communal strife is not just a moral wrong – for India it is a major security faultline that its adversaries are more than happy to try to widen. India is a continent-sized country with most of its people desperately poor. To add constant communal strife to this mix is a surefire recipe for disaster.</p><p>The phrase “anti-national” is often thrown about loosely nowadays and I am always wary of using so blunt a phrase. But if there is one place it can be used, perhaps it applies to those who tried to exploit the Pahalgam terror attack to spread communal strife within Indian society.</p>
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<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 13:10:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Caste census: Will the 50% reservation cap soon be history?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics (though this week, it intersects quite a bit with global politics).</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>follow</em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>After the Pahalgam terror attack, much of India was expecting a retaliatory attack against Pakistan. Instead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a surgical strike of a political kind. On Wednesday, the Union cabinet decided that caste would be counted as part of the upcoming census.</p><p>This is a major U-turn by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi. Just a year ago, Modi had denounced those lobbying for a caste census as “urban naxals”. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath, arguably the second-most popular BJP leader after Modi, set the line for opposition to the caste census with the slogan “batenge to katenge” – divided we will get slaughtered. </p><p>The graphic imagery refers to a long-held Hindutva belief that demands for caste equity will only end up fracturing Hindu society. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/supporting-the-spirit-of-yogis-batenge-to-katenge-slogan-rss-says-hindu-unity-is-in-national-interest/article68799885.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">backed Adityanath</a> on his call for purported Hindu unity.</p><p>Soon Modi <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4enF0Ssv7tA" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">echoed</a> Adityanath’s line with his own “ek hai to safe hai” – there is safety in unity. Clearly, the BJP was going hammer and tongs against the Congress party, which has pressed hard for a caste census as part of its social equity focus under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>An about turn</strong></h3><p>That the saffron party has turned on a dime and now sought to take credit for the caste census is a good indicator of just how popular the policy plank is. Clearly the BJP hopes to blunt some of the Dalit and Other Backward Class anger that led to it losing the support of these groups in the last Lok Sabha elections.</p><p>But even as the BJP is trying to run off with the Congress’ agenda, the main Opposition party has stepped up its game: it says it will now concentrate on getting the government to remove the 50% cap that has been set on reservations for seats in educational institutions and government jobs.</p><p>If it happens, it would cause a political earthquake that could be bigger than even the anti-Mandal agitation of the early 1990s. In 1990, the VP Singh government implemented the Mandal Commission’s recommendations, providing reservations to Other Backward Classes – a vast, varied collection of agricultural and artisanal castes that fall between upper castes and Dalits in the social ladder.</p><p>This doubled caste quotas to nearly 50%, drastically shrinking the general category dominated by upper castes. Angry at this, members of the upper castes launched an agitation with a young brahmin student, Rajiv Goswami, even setting himself on fire in Delhi.</p><p>This agitation was mirrored by a new politics of OBC assertion, especially in the Hindi belt. Parties such as the Samajwadi and the Rashtriya Janata Dal drew OBC votes away from the upper caste-led Congress with the claim that OBC interests would be better protected by OBC leadership.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Judicial award</h3><p>Eventually, a political compromise was hammered out – not by politicians but by the Supreme Court of India. In the landmark 1992 Indra Sawhney judgment, the court upheld OBC reservations but also put in place significant caps. Reservations could not extend beyond 50% and the “creamy layer” or well-off OBCs would be excluded from availing of the quota.</p><p>Notably, the court did not really explain why it chose the 50% figure. It said that the power of reservations should be “exercised in a fair manner and within reasonable limits” and hence “reservation under Clause (4) shall not exceed 50% of the appointments or posts, barring certain extraordinary situations as explained hereinafter”.</p><p>But why was 50% a “reasonable limit” given that Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs constitute around 80% of the Indian population?</p><p>Even more confusingly, in 2022 the court allowed this 50% limit to be breached for the Economically Weaker Section quota for poor members of the upper castes. The Indra Sawhney cap was only applicable to caste quotas, it held.</p><p>That such a major policy decision was taken by the court and not backed up in the political sphere meant the 50% cap was always on weak ground. The court in fact struck a blow of its own by upholding the Economically Weaker Section quota.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Caste society</h3><p>India is the only country in the world where affirmative action quotas extend to the majority of the population. With the Economically Weaker Section quota in place, it now stands at almost 60%.</p><p>Part of this flows from just how unique Indian society is. For example, the endogamy that underpins it, with the idea that marriages must only take place within a caste or even a subcaste, has shocked geneticists. Famously, David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard University, quipped that while the Chinese are a truly large population, Indians are actually a “large number of small populations”. </p><p>Given this hermetically sealed social structure, the vast majority of Indian castes do not feel they can ever compete with the savarna castes that have dominated the social system for the past two millennia.</p><p>Add to this is the fact that the Indian economy has been terrible at creating employment. In fact, <a class="link-external" href="https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/publications/2023/report/state-of-working-india-2023-social-identities-and-labour-market-outcomes" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">studies</a> show that there is little relationship at all between economic growth and employment growth in India. </p><p>“What this means is that far from employment growing faster when GDP grows faster, years of fast GDP growth have, on the contrary, tended to be years of slow employment growth,” the <em>State of Working India </em>report 2023 said.</p><p>Both these factors mean that almost everyone in India thinks they need state-backed quotas to access wealth and education. Hence, the massive support for removing the quota cap.</p><p>Modi has bent to Rahul Gandhi on the caste census. Will he now also buckle on the 50% limit?</p>
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<pubDate>Sun, 04 May 2025 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Interview: ‘Pahalgam shows Balakot did not create deterrence’</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal, a newsletter on Indian politics.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up here (click on “</em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>follow</em></a><em>”).</em></p><p>A horrific attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed, has left South Asia on edge as India has blamed Pakistan and its support for cross-border terrorism. Delhi has said that it would hold the Indus Waters Treaty “in abeyance” and Modi promised that India would soon “raze whatever is left of the terror haven”, a thinly-veiled reference to Pakistan.</p><p>To understand Delhi’s military options at this time, how the Modi government overstated its claims that “normalcy” has returned to Kashmir and the risky business of de-escalating conflict between two nuclear powers, I spoke to former military officer Sushant Singh, a lecturer at Yale University and one of India’s foremost security experts.</p><p><strong>Do you think India can do another Balakot [striking across the border as it did in the wake of the Pulwama attack of 2019]?</strong><br>It depends on what you mean by Balakot. The question is what did Balakot achieve? As this particular incident has shown, Balakot did not create deterrence which stopped militants or Pakistan from undertaking another terror attack in Kashmir. That’s one thing.</p><p>Secondly, Balakot, as I wrote in <em>The Caravan</em>, was not a military success. It was a political success because it happened just before elections, and it worked for them [the Bharatiya Janata Party]. </p><p>Thirdly, Balakot did escalate up to a point. As you know, [Mike] Pompeo, who was [United States] Secretary of State at that time, in his memo mentioned the nuclear escalation between India and Pakistan.</p><p>So, I really don’t know what we mean by another Balakot. If the idea is that India would do a kinetic operation against Pakistan, yes, that possibility definitely exists, particularly going by the rhetoric we’re seeing from the government.</p><p><strong>I want to go to your reporting on Balakot, especially your piece in <em>The Caravan</em>. You’ve taken a view which is at variance with much of the Indian mainstream media. You say Balakot was actually not a military success. Do you think that will inform what is happening now? Will it reduce India’s options?</strong><br>Let me put it this way. The political leadership in India would want to do something that would assuage the heightened emotions of their supporters at least, if not the Indian people. They have already set a bar because of what they claim to have done in 2016 with the surgical strikes across the LoC [Line of Control] and then in 2019 with Balakot. Once you’ve done that, you can’t do anything lesser than that. If you claim that you achieved so much, then you need to do something bigger. That’s one big constraint.</p><p>The second constraint, of course, is the military failure of doing Balakot and the escalation that happened. Balakot is not just about what the Indian Air Force tried to do in Balakot; it’s also what happened thereafter – when [Indian Air Force pilot] Abhinandan [Varthaman] was captured, when the Indian MiG-21 was brought down, the threat of missile launches from both sides. That, too, is part of the Balakot episode.</p><p>The question isn’t what India can do, it’s how do you de-escalate from there. Anyone can order a ground-based missile, an airborne strike or a drone swarm attack. The point is, will Pakistan retaliate? Yes. After Pakistan retaliates, what do you do? Do you take it lying down? Do you say, “thank you, 1-1” and go back home? Or do you escalate further? How do you de-escalate?</p><p>The political leadership has to answer how it intends to prevent serious escalation between two nuclear weapon states and how to de-escalate after you have taken the first step. The military leadership must answer what their constraints are, whether they can honestly tell the political leadership that they are operating within limitations: shortage of soldiers, deployment at the China border, modern equipment shortages and so on. These two considerations – political and military – will come into play.</p><p><strong>I want to go back to the horrific terrorist attack in Pahalgam. Do you think there was a security lapse there?</strong><br>Definitely. There were two CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force] battalions until a year or two ago. One of them was moved out. Armed men fired for more than 20-30 minutes, and no security forces came. The family of one of the dead naval officers <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/LogicalIndians/status/1915711028966678652" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">said</a> no help came for 90 minutes and her husband died. Clearly, there was a security lapse.</p><p>There was also an intelligence failure. You have militants in the area, roaming around with weapons, clearly embedded in the area with local support. It’s not like the militant came that morning itself and suddenly did this. The intelligence failure is that you didn’t have any idea of all this happening.</p><p>Security failed on two levels. First, you left the place completely unguarded – probably believing that tourists wouldn’t like to see soldiers and that would belie claims of normalcy. There was also the belief that militants wouldn’t do anything to attack tourism, which is the lifeline of the Kashmiri economy – so therefore we can leave it unguarded. Second, the response during the attack was very poor. Unless you are buying your own Kool Aid of normalcy having returned, there was no reason to have no forces present in that spot.</p><p>There were three failures: intelligence, and two levels of security – before and during the incident.</p><p><strong>Let’s dig a bit deeper on your Kool Aid point. What does this incident say about the Modi government’s claim that Kashmir is now normal and militancy has ended after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019?</strong><br>This incident shows that these claims are untrue. In fact, even earlier, incidents in <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1071111/jammu-and-kashmir-soldier-killed-in-gunfight-with-suspected-militants-in-poonch">Poonch</a> and <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/941402/j-k-indian-army-officer-killed-in-pakistani-firing-in-rajouri-district-say-reports">Rajouri </a>already disproved that claim.</p><p>Let’s be clear: the violence isn’t at the level of the early ’90s or just after Kargil. But violence had already come down when Omar Abdullah was chief minister [2009-2015]. In 2011-2012, there were a lot of street protests, a lot of stone pelting, but militancy was already down.</p><p>Then PDP [People’s Democratic Party] formed the government with BJP [in 2016], and young Kashmiri men began joining the militancy. Violence was artificially suppressed, but the anger against the Indian state and the lack of political redress remains, creating fertile ground for militancy – even if you take Pakistan away from the equation.</p><p><strong>One of the claims for abrogating Article 370 was better security, which you’re saying has not come through. Do you think India’s security apparatus is actually now weaker because local Kashmiri parties have been destroyed and Kashmir is now ruled directly from Delhi?</strong><br>Absolutely. Remember, during demonetisation [in 2016], it was claimed that the terrorism’s back has been broken in Kashmir. The same was said after surgical strikes and after abrogating Article 370. In all cases, security has not improved.</p><p>We’ve lost even the limited support we had among Kashmiris. You could generate local intelligence, you had sympathisers. All that has been broken down by the kind of politics pursued in the rest of India and by Delhi in Kashmir: hardcore Hindutva politics, demonising Muslims and Kashmiris, TV debates running horribly anti-Kashmir content nightly. You can’t expect sympathy when you’ve done what was done after August 2019: shutting everything down, taking away the internet. It is a very oppressive environment in Kashmir.</p><p>Even tourism, though economically vital, has become a tool of humiliation and oppression.</p><p><strong>Could you expand on that? What do you mean by tourism being a tool of humiliation?</strong><br>Many tourists from the mainland, influenced by the current Islamophobic political climate, behave in obnoxious ways – sometimes unknowingly, sometimes knowingly – acting as if they sustain Kashmir. Even non-Kashmiri friends have observed this when they travel to Kashmir and have felt embarrassed.</p><p>The way tourism is conducted doesn’t foster healthy ties between Kashmir and the rest of India. It’s often perceived as an extension of the politics India has seen since 2014.</p><p><strong>Let’s zoom out to geopolitical security. If India launches any kinetic operation now, what are Pakistan’s options?</strong><br>It depends on whether India launches a covert or overt operation. A covert operation can be denied by Pakistan, and meanwhile India, using its godi media channels, can run a propaganda campaign. That’s easier – since there is no escalation.</p><p>If India does something visible that Pakistan cannot deny, Pakistan will have to retaliate. General Khalid Kidwai, a key figure in Pakistan’s nuclear policy, lays out a very clear line: QPQ+. If India does something, Pakistan will have to do quid pro quo plus. Something additional will have to be done when Pakistan retaliates. Because the Pakistan military can’t afford to lose face. If they acknowledge India’s action, they must retaliate.</p><p>Then the question becomes, what does India do? Retaliate again? Escalate? Step back? Does a third party – Americans, Saudis, UAE, China – intervene and say, “guys, this is enough”? Or do intelligence agencies start talking like after Balakot and find a way to de-escalate? The political leadership in India must think through this before taking any step.</p><p><strong>You said the Pakistani army <em>must</em> retaliate. Last week, Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir gave a provocative speech saying Kashmir is Pakistan’s jugular vein. Do you think there’s any connection between that and what happened in Pahalgam?</strong><br>It’s hard to say. Asim Munir is not the first to use such rhetoric. Ayub, Zia, Kayani – many have said similar things.This is a long-standing belief in a large section of the Pakistani military. There is nothing new in this.</p><p>Whether there’s a direct link between Munir’s speech and Pahalgam is hard to say. My sense, not based on any input, is that it was a soft target which was left unprotected. The attackers saw it as easy to hit and escape. Militants, unless they’re fidayeen, want to hit and get out. They don’t want to be caught up in a pitched battle. My gut feeling is that it doesn’t seem directly connected to Munir’s speech, but it’s hard to say for sure.</p><p><strong>Your own writing has shown that Modi actually managed domestic perception really well after Balakot, no matter the military assessment. Do you think something similar will happen or do you think that there will be some hard questions asked of the security lapses in Pahalgam?</strong><br>I don’t think that India’s corporate-owned media, the television channels, and newspapers, where a lot of our friends work, are going to ask any tough questions whatsoever of Mr Modi or Mr Shah. They didn’t ask those questions after Manipur.</p><p>They didn’t even ask those questions even when the then governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Satyapal Malik, went public about everything that happened in Pulwama during the suicide bombing of the CRPF convoy. Those questions were not asked then. I doubt that the people who call themselves journalists and editors have the courage or even the capability to ask those questions.</p><p>It will be incumbent upon some analysts, some commentators, and independent platforms like <em>Scroll, Caravan, Wire, News Minute, Newslaundry</em> to ask those questions.</p><p><strong>Yes, and I think that really leaves the country weaker as these incidents show. If you do not ask questions of the government, then the government performs worse.</strong><br>Absolutely. I’ll say only one more thing before I end. Demanding accountability is extremely important if you want to fix things for the future. If you don’t demand accountability in a democratic setup, then you are sowing seeds for future disasters.</p>
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<pubDate>Sat, 26 Apr 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Modi-Trump bhai bhai: Can there be a global right-wing coalition?</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. A newsletter on Indian politics (though this week, it intersects quite a bit with global politics).</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “follow”).</em></p><p>On February 21, the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni speaking via video link at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC on February 21, launched a broad attack at the left, arguing that the rise of the global right has frustrated them.</p><p>As she did so, she mentioned Narendra Modi as part of the global right:</p><blockquote class="cms-block cms-block-quote"><p>“When Bill Clinton and Tony Blair created the global leftist liberal network in the 90s, they were called statesmen. Today, when [Donald] Trump, Meloni, [Javier] Milei, or maybe [Narendra] Modi talk, they are called a threat to democracy. This is the left’s double standard, but we are used to it. And the good news is people no longer believe in their lies. Despite all the mud they throw at us, citizens keep voting for us.”</p></blockquote><p>The fact that a Western politician praised Modi and included him in the pantheon of the global right would please many supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its Hindutva ideology. For some time now, Hindutva ideologues in India have clamoured for exactly this sort of recognition, as they looked to the right in the West for inspiration, tactics and vocabulary.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Taking notes</h3><p>Take George Soros, for example. Last year in December, BJP MPs <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/lok-sabha-plunges-into-chaos-again-as-bjp-mp-reiterates-soros-congress-link/article68955799.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">plunged</a> the Lok Sabha into chaos with allegations that the Congress party was in cahoots with the Hungarian-American billionaire-philanthropist. “Congress ka haath Soros ke saath,” as BJP MP Nishikant Dubey put it in Hindi rhyme. The Congress is hand-in-hand with Soros</p><p>For some time now, the BJP has invoked Soros as a way to attack the Congress. This is remarkable given the fact that Soros is relatively unknown in India. But he is a major figure in the United States, where the right attacks him for funding liberal causes. <em>Al Jazeera</em> <a class="link-external" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/5/boogeyman-why-republicans-invoke-soros-to-defend-trump" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">describes</a> Soros as the “ultimate villain in [American] conservative circles”. Even Donald Trump has attacked the billionire.</p><p>The BJP is so tuned into US right-wing politics that it simply imported Soros conspiracy theories from the West ock, stock and barrel.</p><p>More evidence of this inspiration can be found in the very vocabulary of Hindutva in India. In 2023, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat launched an attack on “woke” people: a term so unfamiliar to his listeners that he had to go on to comically <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozse58e4xW8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">describe</a> “woke” as “jage huye” [people who are awake] in Hindi.</p><p><a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hBOovhAJE4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Several</a> <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hBOovhAJE4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">BJP</a> politicians have launched attacks on purported attempts to “bring in Sharia law into India”. The phrasing is aalso <a class="link-external" href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4651114-chip-roy-sharia-law-will-soon-be-forced-upon-the-american-people/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">direct import</a> from the American right, surreally ignoring the fact that sharia or Islamic law is <em>actually</em> law in India as part of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937. </p><p>The BJP has enthusiastically capitalised on the rise of Islamophobia in the West in the wake of the War on Terror to advance its anti-minority politics at home.</p><p>This fascination with the Western right peaked with the rise of Donald Trump and his unabashed Islamophobia. In a zany turn of events, Hindutva supporters in India even conducted public prayers for Trump. Modi, in an unusual move for an Indian prime minister, <a href="https://scroll.in/article/938218/ab-ki-baar-trump-sarkar-did-narendra-modi-really-endorse-the-us-president-for-re-election">endorsed</a> Trump for president in 2019.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image has-subtext" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="990" data-height="644" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/uqkcuxfbty-1740740994.jpg" alt="" title="A Hindutva organisation praying for Donald Trump in 2017. Prakash Singh / AFP" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption itemprop="caption description">A Hindutva organisation praying for Donald Trump in 2017. Prakash Singh / AFP</figcaption></figure><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">A global alliance</h3><p>What is driving this sudden urge to create a global rightist coalition? Part of the reason is, as Meloni herself put in, the fact that leftists and liberals have been doing something similar for some time now. Communists have explicit international organisational links and liberals often create networks via institutions such as think tanks.</p><p>The right has lagged behind, until now.</p><p>This urge to catch up has driven close cooperation between elements of the Western right. Trump, for example, both <a class="link-external" href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-backed-brexit-then-he-used-it-as-leverage/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">backed and benefited</a> from the UK’s Brexit decision. Right-wing American billionaire Elon Musk has explicitly supported far-right politics in the United Kingdom and Germany. On a much smaller scale, there is also some coordination between White nationalists in the West and Hindutva supporters in India. In a <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1070161/how-hindutva-is-playing-a-silent-role-in-british-politics">ground report</a> I did from the United Kingdom, I found the far right in the UK often <a class="link-external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx_8swDlJaE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">feeding off Hindutva platforms such as <em>OpIndia</em></a><em>.</em></p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Speed bumps</h3><p>Unfortunately, for the right, there is a fundamental contradiction in creating international linkages given that almost all right-wing ideologies have parochialism as a core feature. This, in fact, has sharply come to fore with respect to Hindutva in India after Trump assumed office as American president in January. As part of his “America First” ideology, Trump has humiliated Indian undocumented migrants, sending them back in chains. He has also threatened India with high tariffs, singling it out for <a class="link-external" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48961235" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">criticism</a> as the “king of tariffs”.</p><p>A passive Modi has swallowed these insults, being wary of American power but also faced by the fact that the BJP lacks a language to attack a person that it has for so long admired.</p><p>A 2024 <a class="link-external" href="https://x.com/NatConTalk/status/1810764034008125773" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">tweet</a> by the Washington DC-based National Conservatism Conference put this faultline in focus. The post featured a photo of the BJP’s Ram Madhav joining his hands in a namaste gesture with the text asking if the next convention should be held in India. This simple exchange saw an ugly racist backlash from the organisation’s supporters.</p><p>“The millions of Indians flooding western countries do not care about our culture, they are an invasive species,” said a reply from a White nationalist.</p><p>Many Hindutva supporters might look to the Western right for inspiration, but given that White nationalism often drives the latter, these warm feelings are often not reciprocated. The intrinsic insular nature of the right means international cooperation is difficult if not impossible.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-twitter" data-embed-type="twitter" data-embed-id="1811035472002461818" data-embed-loaded="false"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">As someone who has to interact with Indians every day for work - let's not do this <a href="https://t.co/jDQ9KuuqxI">https://t.co/jDQ9KuuqxI</a></p>— Modern Brzrkr (@ModernBrzrkr) <a href="https://twitter.com/ModernBrzrkr/status/1811035472002461818?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>That said, while Hindutva supporters may be enamoured by Western rightists, it is unclear whether it really <em>needs</em> them. Hindutva is a movement with deep roots in India. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s parent organisation, was founded a century ago. The Jana Sangh, the first iteration of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was born in 1951. Modi’s politics has decades of ideological and organisational work behind it. The Western right has little to do with Hindutva’s success – and even if it were to embrace India’s largest party, it would hardly benefit from this in any concrete way.</p><p>In the end, there is little to link right-wing politics in the West and in India. The only place they do intersect, it seems, is on Islamophobia. It is from this area that Hindutva has borrowed narratives from the right in the West which, due to the War on Terror, has demonised Muslims for more than two decades now.</p>
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<pubDate>Sun, 02 Mar 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>What AAP’s defeat says about corruption as an issue for Indian voters</title>
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<p><em>Welcome to The India Fix by Shoaib Daniyal. This time I unpack the Aam Aadmi Party defeat in Delhi and try and draw an insight from it that applies across Indian politics: the relevance (or not) of corruption as an issue.</em></p><p><em>As always, if you’ve been sent this newsletter and like it, to get it in your inbox every week, sign up </em><a class="link-external" href="https://indiafix.stck.me/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>here</u></em></a><em> (click on “follow”).</em></p><p>By Indian standards, the anti-corruption movement of 2011 was not particularly large. The Ramlila Maidan in Delhi where it began has a capacity of around 25,000 – a modest number for even routine political rallies in India.</p><p>However, what made it different was the incredible media attention it received. For months, it dominated headlines. Eventually, one section of this movement used this publicity to launch a new political outfit: the Aam Aadmi Party.</p><p>Boosted by media momentum, the Aam Aadmi Party shot off the blocks. In its very first election, for the 2013 Delhi Assembly, it managed to form the government. Curiously, it did so with support from the Congress – the very party that the AAP’s founders had attacked as irredeemably corrupt just a couple of years before.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Welfare &gt; Corruption</strong></h3><p>Subsequently, in the 2015 and 2020 Delhi elections, AAP won massive mandates. It did this not by appealing to its origin as a party battling corruption but by reinventing itself as an economically populist force, highlighting its development work and welfare schemes targeted at the city’s working class.</p><p>This dynamic was maintained in the 2025 Assembly polls, the result of which were declared on Saturday. AAP contested the election on its welfare record – not on fighting corruption. In fact, the elections were conducted against the backdrop of serious allegations of corruption against AAP. Senior party leaders, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had even spent time in prison.</p><p>However, this did not seem to have played a significant role in AAP’s loss. Eventually, it was <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1078652/anger-against-aap-is-palpable-in-delhis-slums-is-it-enough-to-cost-the-party-the-election">dissatisfaction with the AAP’s welfare delivery</a> that resulted in a portion of its working-class support moving to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The number was not large, though: AAP got nearly 44% of the popular vote, less than two percentage points behind the winner, the BJP.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Correlation and causation</strong></h3><p>The Aam Aadmi Party’s journey in Delhi therefore has an interesting insight for Indian politics as a whole: big-ticket corruption is a hot button topic for India’s middle classes and hence the media. However, in elections, most voters do not vote directly on the issue of corruption. This is why AAP had to concentrate its efforts in Delhi on delivering welfare – not fighting corruption.</p><p>This is not a new insight. Research from 2013 shows that even as the Congress was relentlessly pilloried by the media on the issue of big ticket corruption, most voters had not even heard of the names of the alleged scams. Even more remarkably, knowledge of a scam <a class="link-external" href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/does-corruption-influence-voter-choice/article6050324.ece" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">did little to influence voter choice</a>. Attributing the Congress’s 2014 loss to claims of corruption might be a case of confusing correlation with causation.</p><p>Another way to observe this same insight is to look at the Teflon immunity enjoyed by the Modi government even in the face of widespread allegations of corruption such as the controversy about the purchase of Rafale fighter jets or claims that it favours the Adani group. India’s middle class – the principal cohort that raises its voice against corruption allegations – is a strong supporter of Modi and the BJP. Hence, since 2014, the issue of corruption has taken a back seat nationally, as India’s middle class voters are hesitant to point fingers at their own political choice.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Free pass</h3><p>As the<a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1078634/budget-2025-no-income-tax-payable-on-income-up-to-rs-12-lakh-under-new-regime"> recent tax cuts</a> show, the only real pressure that the Modi government has faced from the middle class has been on hard economic matters. Wage stagnation and inflation are problems that have actually channeled middle-class anger against Modi in a way that, say, being seen as close to Adani has never done.</p><p>Why does the Indian voter ignore corruption when it comes to the hustings? For one, the link between big-ticket corruption and quality of life is difficult to see in real time. A voter happy with, say, cash transfers would hardly abandon Modi over his alleged connections with Adani. Moreover, corruption, both big and small, is a systemic problem that no party seems to be able to solve.</p><p>AAP, which was literally cr... |
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<title>Five chosen for the New India Foundation’s Rs 18-lakh fellowships to write non-fiction books</title>
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<p>The New India Foundation has announced the names of the five writers who have been awarded the 2025 NIF Book Fellowships. They are: Amrita Sharma, Amandeep Singh Sandhu, P Anima, Urvashi Butalia, and Bakhtiar K Dadabhoy.</p><p>It is open to Indian nationals, including those currently living abroad. Each fellow is awarded a grant of Rs 18 lakhs payable as a monthly stipend of Rs 1 lakh for a period of twelve months, and the balance of Rs 6 lakh payable on the submission of the final manuscript.</p><p>The fellowship is awarded every two years to scholars and writers working on different aspects of the history of independent India. The fellows may choose to write a memoir, or a work of reportage, or a thickly footnoted academic study. Their books could be oriented towards economics, or politics, or culture.</p><p>This year’s winning projects are:</p><ul class="cms-block cms-block-ul"><li><p>Amrita Sharma – <em>Unruly Apples: State and Politics in Kashmir</em></p></li><li><p>Amandeep Singh Sandhu – <em>Keeping the Faith: Sikhs Who Live Outside Punjab, In India</em></p></li><li><p>P Anima – <em>Chaliyar: The River that Shaped the Malabar</em></p></li><li><p>Urvashi Butalia – <em>Memories of a Generation</em>: <em>The Feminist Movement in India</em></p></li><li><p>Bakhtiar K Dadabhoy – <em>Cultivating Many Gardens: A Life of CD Deshmukh</em></p></li></ul>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 06:23:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Why ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ is the perfect show for an India afraid of the future</title>
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<p>The current wave of sequels, reboots, and revivals in Indian popular culture is not merely a matter of commercial strategy. It reveals something deeper about the cultural imagination at this moment.</p><p>When a show such as <em>Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi</em> returns nearly two decades later with the same characters and the same mythology of domestic virtue, it prompts a question: what has changed – and what has been suspended?</p><p>There is, of course, the obvious economic rationale. Reboots offer built-in audiences. Familiar characters reduce the risks of failure. But repetition at this scale suggests more than financial caution: it suggests a certain cultural fatigue.</p><p>This fatigue is not a lack of output but a narrowing of ambition. The stories being told are no longer grappling with the present or gesturing toward the future. Instead, they are recreations of once-successful formulas, designed not to provoke but to reassure. It is a fatigue of imagination, where the capacity to ask new questions is substituted by the recycling of old answers.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">A mythic past</h3><p>If the early 2000s offered these stories in the context of a rising, aspirational India, where satellite television was expanding and middle-class identities were shifting, their reappearance today feels curiously static. We are not building on past narratives but looping back to them. The past has ceased to be a reference point and instead has become the destination.</p><p>This return is significant in a country where political discourse is increasingly centred around the recovery of a mythic, unified past. From the renaming of cities to the rewriting of textbooks, there is a growing attempt to frame history not as a field of complexity but as a source of moral clarity.</p><p>The cultural turn toward nostalgia aligns with broader ideological movements that imagine a time when identities were stable, roles were fixed and the nation was uncorrupted by pluralism. In such a climate, familiar stories serve a dual function: they comfort audiences and reinforce the ideological desire for order.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-youtube " data-iframe="<iframe width=&quot;200&quot; height=&quot;113&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/r3U2mgSOM5E?feature=oembed&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allow=&quot;accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share&quot; referrerpolicy=&quot;strict-origin-when-cross-origin&quot; allowfullscreen title=&quot;Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi | Streaming from 29th July at 10:30pm | @starplus | JioHotstar&quot;></iframe>" data-embed-type="youtube" data-thumbnail="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/r3U2mgSOM5E/hqdefault.jpg" data-embed-id="r3U2mgSOM5E" data-embed-loaded="false" data-height="113" data-width="200">
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</figure><p>What results is a convergence of market conservatism and political conservatism, both reluctant to take risks on the unfamiliar, both invested in the aesthetics of stability.</p><p>What is notably absent in this moment is speculative storytelling. Science fiction, utopias, and even dystopias – genres that traditionally gesture toward the future – occupy a marginal place in Indian cinema and television.</p><p>In their place, we find reimagined mythological epics, revived sitcoms, and the return of cult comedies such as Hera Pheri, as though the cultural clock has stopped somewhere around 2006. This is not necessarily a failure of creative talent but rather a structural disincentive to imagine otherwise. The speculative is risky because it must invent new worlds, new possibilities and unfamiliar futures.. The nostalgic is safer because it only has to remember.</p><p>There’s a telling contrast here. In periods of national confidence, say, India in the post-Independence Nehruvian era or the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was a clear cultural investment in the future. Films, literature, and television from those times did not shy away from reimagining India. Think of <em>Swades</em> and <em>Mr India</em>, works that envisioned a nation still in the making, still open to transformation.</p><p>The consequences of this trend are not confined to the realm of entertainment. When popular culture consistently privileges the familiar, it narrows the range of what can be imagined. A society that revisits old stories too frequently may lose the capacity or the will to invent new ones.</p><p>When the future becomes too uncertain or too difficult to narrate, the past begins to feel safer. In such a context, nostalgia is not merely emotional. It becomes political by shaping how people understand time itself. It encourages a view of history as destiny and promotes the claim that departure from tradition is decline. It positions innovation not as progress but as a threat to continuity.</p><p>In this way, cultural nostalgia supports political projects that seek to manage the present through selective memory.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Curated flashbacks</h3><p>The craving for control over stories, over meaning, over identity is what links the endless parade of sequels to the rewriting of civic discourse. It is no coincidence that both entertainment and politics now function like franchises, constantly rebooting older scripts to preserve the illusion of continuity. Our elections are sequels, our films are sequels, and our public memory is a series of curated flashbacks.</p><p>But history does not work like a soap opera. It is messy, discontinuous, and often refuses to conform to tidy plotlines. The attempt to resolve modern complexity through mythic templates may seem emotionally satisfying, but it comes at a cost. It can make dissent appear deviant, complexity look dangerous and novelty seem threatening.</p><p>At its core, the danger of this moment lies not just in the return of old stories, but in the loss of our storytelling muscle. A culture that cannot imagine alternatives is a culture in retreat.</p><p>It is not merely stuck, it is frightened. Frightened of the unfamiliar, of the unpredictable, of futures that do not align with sanctioned memories. And that fear is not just cinematic – it is civilisational.</p><p><em>Iftikar Ahmed is a writer and art critic in New Delhi interested in the shifting landscapes of culture, memory, and power in India today.</em></p>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Kumkum Roy, professor of Ancient History, recollects her days as an MA student at JNU, Delhi</title>
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<p>By January 1977, I made what seemed to be a more or less permanent move to Delhi. My parents had shifted into a large, spacious house with a garden in Safdarjung Enclave, very different from our home in Kolkata. There were strong feelings in the air about the Emergency and hopes that the election would bring it to an end. I realised from conversations at home that the Emergency had changed Delhi and people’s lives drastically – demolitions and displacement in the name of “improvement”, sterilisations to enforce “family planning”, censorship, and more. Somehow, all this seemed far more immediate and oppressive in Delhi than it had been in Kolkata. </p><p>Friends and relatives, rather different from those in Kolkata, were part of my parents’ social world. These included bureaucrats who were keenly interested in what I should or should not have been doing. So, while there were neighbours and friends who taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University ( JNU) and thought it would be the ideal place for me, there were those who felt I needed to join the bureaucracy, which they thought would be far more exciting than becoming an academic. </p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">I duly took the entrance tests for the MA programmes at the Centre for Historical Studies (CHS) and the School of International Studies (SIS), the latter being considered ideal for would-be bureaucrats (I had reluctantly decided to keep my options open). I cleared both the tests and appeared for both the interviews. I do not remember what I did or said at the SIS interview, but the one at CHS seemed to me to have been an unmitigated disaster – I boldly declared that I wanted to study ancient history in order to decipher the Harappan script and that I wanted to study at JNU simply because it was close to where my family lived at the time. It was perhaps out of appreciation for my naivete that the faculty decided to give me a chance. </h3><p>When I joined JNU, the academic sections of the university were located in what was affectionately referred to as the “down campus” in contrast to the “up campus”, which seemed rather remote and was located in what was then barren, rocky terrain. The more appropriate titles – “old campus” and “new campus” – were used sparingly, if at all. Smaller classes were held in the offices of the teachers, and as CHS was on the fifth floor of the southernmost building in the old campus, one could gaze out on a vast expanse of the campus. The view was pristine, or seemed so to me, anyway. </p><p>However, opportunities to gaze out of the windows during class were fleeting and momentary. The history we were being introduced to was very different from what we had learnt in college. Even dynastic history appeared in a new, almost unrecognisable avatar, as we learnt to evaluate and assess both the Mauryas and Guptas in terms not simply of battles won and lost but also of complex socio-economic and cultural contexts. We learnt the rudiments of Sanskrit, epigraphy, and archaeology. We also got to explore religious histories, histories of the economy and society, political ideas and institutions. Equally challenging and demanding were the “core courses”, which provided insights into broad global developments through lectures and readings that were remarkable for their breadth and depth. Then there were the “non-Indian” history courses, and we also had the option of taking courses in other centres. These had to be chosen in consultation with the faculty. So, while I chose to do a course on Bronze Age Mesopotamia, which was fascinating, I was advised, rather sternly and firmly, to do one on the Russian Revolution as well. I was petrified, but discovered, once I overcame my initial fear of the massive reading list, that the course had far more to offer than I had imagined. Also, doing a course on anthropological theories was particularly enriching, and, although I was and remain wary of abstruse theory, the course opened windows into new possibilities that perhaps informed my later interests. It seemed as if we were thrown into an immense ocean of books, talks, and more – we could sink, swim, or drift along. </p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">I am not sure whether I consciously thought through my choice of specialisation – “Ancient History” – at this stage. Perhaps it was the pursuit of origins. It may also have had to do with the passion of my teacher in college, which was infectious. But once I exercised the option, I had no regrets. It turned out to be an almost lifelong obsession. </h3><p>Our Ancient History class was small and fairly close-knit but markedly different from what I had been used to in Presidency College. I was the only Bengali, and we were three women in a class of 12. The men were from very diverse backgrounds, as indeed were the women. But what for me was particularly exciting was that virtually the entire faculty, with the notable exception of the quiet, uncompromising scholar Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, consisted of women, and rather formidable women at that. All of them were doyennes in their fields – R Champakalakshmi for her pioneering work in early Tamil history, K Meenakshi for her remarkable studies on Tamil and Sanskrit grammar, Romila Thapar for challenging the earlier understanding of Mauryan history, Shereen Ratnagar for opening up a fresh perspective on the Harappan civilisation, and Suvira Jaiswal for her revisionist religious history. I am not sure whether they saw themselves as mentors and role models, but for many of us, it was wonderful to have a cluster of women around, women who were very different from one another in terms of their lifestyles and styles of teaching. Passionate about their research, most of them were unsparing towards their students. As a result, almost before I realised it, I began to think that I was meant to become a researcher, as that seemed to be all that mattered. The past beckoned. </p><p>I do not think any of these women would have explicitly identified themselves as feminists. And yet, their very presence made a difference to the environment both within the classroom and beyond it. In retrospect, it does seem that the decades following 1947 were marked by the creation of spaces through debate and discussion and the building of new institutions. Our teachers were part of a generation that both benefited from these spaces and shaped them creatively and constructively. A fruitful conjuncture. </p><p>Not surprisingly, the faculty had put in place a demanding tutorial and semester system. We were expected to produce a tutorial of about 2,000 words every fortnight, according to what seemed to be a punishing timetable, and then present our work for discussion in groups of threes and fours. Our tutorial scripts were often returned with copious markings and comments along the margins – no shortcuts! Invariably, we were nervous and stressed out, but soon enough, we began to look forward to these ordeals, learning to hold our own, acknowledging what we had missed out or not understood, and working our way through sharing our ideas with others. The formal discussions would often continue as informal chats over countless cups of tea, sipped either in the canteen or, more commonly, sitting on the floors of corridors around the library. Some of those conversations, fortunately, still continue, even as the venues have shifted over the years. The sense that we were discovering and sharing new ways of thinking was a heady experience, to say the least. And the tutorial system, which accounted for 50 per cent of the evaluation, also meant that the pressure of the end-of-semester examination was considerably reduced.</p><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="978" data-height="1500" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/nuxnjswmhq-1750929147.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p><em>Excerpted with permission from </em>‘Multiple Legacies’ <em>by Kumkum Roy in</em> Women Writing History: Three Generations, <em>Kumkum Roy, Preeti Gulati, and Romila Thapar, Zubaan.</em></p>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 03:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Kumkum Roy</author>
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<title>A psychologist underlines ‘lifetraps’ that make romantic relationships inhospitable for women</title>
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<p>The term “lifetrap” originates from the Schema theory coined by Dr Jeffrey Young who pronounced that lifetraps create a belief system in such a way that you are attracted towards someone unsuitable because they replay your core conflict over and over again. Yet, you move towards them because you don’t recognise anything different, ending up in heartbreak almost every time. </p><p>As a therapist, I ensure that even before I begin my work, I take my clients through a detailed assessment of their personalities and lifetraps. Over the years, I have gained adequate insights and data, allowing me to study patterns in these findings. What I have learnt from these studies is that three lifetraps are most operational in toxic relationships – emotional deprivation, abandonment and self-sacrifice. </p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Emotional deprivation</strong></h3><p>A 45-year-old woman, Gitanjali, is the picture of confidence. While she loves her job and the perks of corporate life, she feels terrible about herself, as despite her attempts, she fails to get the love she desires. When she was a child, her father was always distant and unaffectionate. She spent her entire childhood trying to win a warm smile or a hug from him. When she grew up, she kept falling for distant men who were disapproving of her. She sincerely believed these men loved her but didn’t know how to show her and that she could change that with her love. With every relationship, she felt tired of craving warmth and connection, and she did not realise when she became demanding and clingy. She was confused when these men broke up with her, saying nothing was ever enough for her.</p><p>Do you see a deep emotional, insatiable hunger in Gitanjali? If you too tell yourself absolute statements such as, “I’ll never find the love that I need”, then it is possible that your emotional hunger was created due to an early childhood experience, including an absentee parent, an emotionally detached parent, or parents who provided all the material comforts you needed but nobody could connect with your inner world. This creates a feeling of perpetual emptiness within, making you crave for love and fulfilment and nothing ever seems to be enough.</p><p>When you meet someone emotionally unavailable, you recognise this unavailable energy as familiar, because this was what you grew up with. The mind always gravitates towards familiar energy, which is not necessarily healthy. It is the exact opposite of what you crave yet you feel an unexplainable pull towards this person. You believe, “If only this time I can make this person love me, I’ll be happy forever!” This happens because your unconscious mind is full of all the pain you have locked away, trying to resolve your life’s earliest psychological conflicts and fill those early voids. </p><p>The unavailable person is not a bad human; they just aren’t right for us. Due to these unconscious conflicts, love seems worthy only when it comes from a person who makes us work hard for it, rather than someone willingly offering it. We don’t recognise it, because that’s unfamiliar to us, making us think, “There’s something missing here!”</p><p>This traps us in a vicious cycle wherein we offer everything you have, especially emotionally, and often all at once, in the desire to get the love we want. We also try to change the person into giving the love desired instead of reading the signs that convey this is not the person for us.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Abandonment</strong></h3><p>I was recently watching season six of <em>Love is Blind</em> on Netflix, a reality series where men and women form connections without seeing each other, get engaged, and spend time together to see if they are truly compatible. One of the contestants, Chelsea, caught my attention. She formed intense connections with two men on the show: Trevor, who was all in from the start, and Jimmy, who was unsure and formed a connection with another woman as well. </p><p>Eventually, both men proposed to Chelsea, but she chose Jimmy, feeling a huge sense of relief when he declared his love for her. However, as their relationship progressed, Chelsea’s constant need for reassurance from Jimmy that he loved her led to frequent conflicts and she gets visibly upset when he has a friendly conversation with another woman. When they moved in together, she was always hyper-alert about whether he kissed her today, turned towards her, or looked at her a certain way. She continued to challenge him that these little signs showed her that she couldn’t be sure about his commitment. </p><p>Mind you, Jimmy is not doing anything different, he’s the same as always. One day, during a fight, Jimmy tells her that he finds her clingy and Chelsea loses her temper and breaks down. Jimmy is so overwhelmed and confused hearing her say that she has been giving and giving to the relationship, that he has to leave home for the night. Although I had not even finished watching the show, I knew that Chelsea’s lifetrap was her deep-rooted sense of abandonment, which was constantly telling her: “People who love me can leave me anytime!”</p><p>Like Chelsea, people who grow up with a fear of abandonment usually come from households where caregivers are completely wrapped up in their own emotional drama such that their moods define how they meet the child’s need for love and security. On one hand, the child naturally loves feeling secure when love is provided, and parallelly, feels an intense anxiety that the feeling of being safe and secure may go away at any time. Growing up in an environment where unpredictability is high, and affection and a sense of security are either conditional and/or highly erratic, the child becomes good at reading people’s faces and body language cues to figure out what mood they are in. If the child learns to please people, it is to ensure that they are loved. However, the child carries a looming uncertainty about the feelings, which leads to the development of the fear of abandonment. </p><p>When she grows up and engages in romantic relationships, she finds it hard to believe her partner will stay. She keeps expecting to be abandoned at any time and finds it hard to trust a man’s commitment. So, when he seems distant, she sometimes clings to him for reassurance, and other times withdraws completely at a perceived rejection, thinking that he doesn’t want her and she shouldn’t give any more of herself. Therefore, she swings between wanting a deeper connection and protecting her fragile heart, ending up giving mixed signals to her partner, which, in turn, creates distance, making her think, “See, I knew it, he’s drifting away!”</p><p>Just like emotional deprivation, the fear of abandonment also draws people to partners more likely to make this prophecy come true – men who are not willing to commit, who are erratically available, or who make their love conditional. And once again, many women gravitate towards the same kind of men, because erratic and conditional love is what they are used to, and they can’t imagine anything better. Moreover, their nervous system is so conditioned to this chaotic attachment style that stable attachment from anyone feels “boring” or “suspicious”.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading"><strong>Self sacrifice</strong></h3><p>The third life trap I see in every single profile of someone caught in a toxic relationship pattern is self-sacrifice. This life trap states: “I will do everything in my power to make you happy because I love you.” On the surface, this looks like a noble thought to have. After all, haven’t we all been taught the virtues of sacrifice for love? But this life trap is a sneaky devil that also makes us extremely vulnerable to toxicity. </p><p>This schema develops in people who were made responsible for someone’s care as children. Either you had a sick parent whom you had to play caregiver for, or you had a parent whose emotions you had to take care of by either tiptoeing around their moods or by becoming their shoulder to cry on. It could also be that you had a sibling with challenges and were made to play the “bigger” person repeatedly to accommodate that sibling. All this was done while conditioning you to believe this was how you show love. </p><p>Remember how I had to constantly tiptoe around my mother’s erratic moods so I could avoid beatings? I also had to constantly “prove” my love to my parents by doing exactly what they wanted or by being exactly how they wanted me to be. This is the template I carried forward for all my subsequent relationships and I constantly tried to anticipate what they needed and tried to fulfil all their needs while ignoring my own. I had the self-sacrifice life trap, too. On a healthy level, we all go the extra mile for the people we love, and we do so willingly. But when it becomes a maladaptive schema or a life trap, which is an unconsciously ingrained survival coping strategy, it leads to self-destruction. There are two toxic traits that arise because of the self-sacrifice life trap.</p><p>First, they are so used to giving their all to make the other person happy that they never think about their own boundaries. They constantly put their own needs on the back burner in favour of their partner’s. In this manner, they teach their partners to put their needs second. After a while, when their cup runs empty, they try to bring their needs to the forefront, but their partners don’t acknowledge them because they have never seen these needs before.</p><p>Ordinarily, for someone without the self-sacrifice schema, this would be a sign to pause and figure out how to get their needs met. On the contrary, someone with the self-sacrifice schema thinks, <em>Oh, let me give some more to this relationship … maybe then they will recognise my needs.</em> They were already running on empty, now they have gone beyond it. However, nothing changes because they just give and give, not knowing how to say “enough” or draw boundaries. When this continues for a long time, they begin to resent the person they love for not meeting their needs, therefore acting out, rebelling, or lashing out. They still don’t know how to stop giving.</p><p>The second toxic trait of this schema is that they think they know better about what makes their partner happy and continue to do the things they feel are good for them, without often paying attention to what their partner needs.</p><p>We can be so caught up in our identity as the “giver” that we don’t even stop to take notice if the partner even wants what we are giving. You can also think of this as a love language clash. For instance, if your partner’s love language is physical touch, but yours is giving gifts, you may continue to buy them the most luxurious things to express your love, but if you aren’t engaging in physical affection or sexual intimacy, your partner will not feel loved. The self-sacrifice life trap suggests that the giver’s actions are superior.</p><p>This schema convinces the sacrificer that they know what will truly make others happy, but the recipients just fail to appreciate their efforts. This thought process leaves both partners unsatisfied because the receiver is not getting what they need to feel loved, and the giver is not getting acknowledged and seen for what they are giving because they are offering the wrong gifts. So, they get caught in this vicious cycle where the giver feels, “But what about all that I have done for you?” and the receiver wonders, “Did I even ask you to do that for me?”</p><p>Let me end this section with two very interesting facts about the self-sacrifice life trap. You would be shocked to know that even narcissists have self-sacrifice life traps in their profiles. Although many believe that narcissists are supposed to be the most selfish people alive, even they believe that they do everything for everyone and what they do for everyone is superior to what others do for them, and yet nobody appreciates them. Second, the higher the level of self-sacrifice schema in your profile, the more you’re likely to get attracted to a ‘taker’ or an entitled person who is used to taking everything given to them for granted. This further makes you doubly vulnerable to falling into a toxic relationship from the get-go. </p><p>You have now learnt how our early childhood experiences and their deeper emotional impact make us vulnerable to falling prey to toxic relationships and/or even enable toxic patterns to be repeated. We stay trapped in these patterns because:</p><ul class="cms-block cms-block-ul"><li><p>We are not aware of its roots</p></li><li><p>We find safety in familiarity, so we avoid a relationship that’s likely to heal these wounds</p></li><li><p>We struggle with breaking the pattern and forming new habits</p></li></ul><figure class="cms-block cms-block-image " itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" data-width="973" data-height="1500" style=""><img src="https://sc0.blr1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/inline/bduvcnwtua-1749195140.jpg" alt="" title="" itemprop="contentUrl" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p><em>Excerpted with permission from </em>When You Give Everything All at Once: The Indian Woman’s Guide to Navigating Toxic Relationships, <em>Prachi Saxena, Hay House Publishers India.</em></p>
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<title>Silica gel: What’s in those little packs and is it toxic?</title>
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<div class="cms-block cms-block-tracker" data-embed-type="tracker" data-embed-url="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/258398/count.gif" data-embed-loaded="false"></div><p>When you buy a new electronic appliance, shoes, medicines or even some food items, you often find a small paper sachet with the warning: “silica gel, do not eat”.</p><p>What exactly is it, is it toxic, and can you use it for anything?</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Importance of desiccants</h3><p>That little sachet is a desiccant – a type of material that removes excess moisture from the air.</p><p>It’s important during the transport and storage of a wide range of products because we can’t always control the environment. Humid conditions can cause damage through corrosion, decay, the growth of mould and microorganisms.</p><p>This is why manufacturers include sachets with desiccants to make sure you receive the goods in pristine condition.</p><p>The most common desiccant is silica gel. The small, hard and translucent beads are made of silicon dioxide (like most sands or quartz) – a hydrophilic or water-loving material. Importantly, the beads are porous on the nano-scale, with pore sizes only 15 times larger than the radius of their atoms.</p><p>These pores have a capillary effect, meaning they condense and draw moisture into the bead similar to how trees transport water through the channelled structures in wood.</p><p>In addition, sponge-like porosity makes their surface area very large. A single gram of silica gel can have an area of up to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/AU/en/product/mm/101969" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">700 square metres</a> – almost four tennis courts – making them exceptionally efficient at capturing and storing water.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Is silica gel toxic?</h3><p>The “do not eat” warning is easily the most prominent text on silica gel sachets.</p><p>According to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.poison.org/articles/silica-gel" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">health professionals</a>, most silica beads found in these sachets are non-toxic and don’t present the same risk as <a class="link-external" href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-10-tunnel-workers-could-develop-silicosis-our-new-research-shows-252186" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">silica dust</a>, for example. They mainly pose a choking hazard, which is good enough reason to keep them away from children and pets.</p><p>However, if silica gel is accidentally ingested, it’s still recommended to contact health professionals to determine the best course of action.</p><p>Some variants of silica gel contain a moisture-sensitive dye. One particular variant, based on cobalt chloride, is blue when the desiccant is dry and turns pink when saturated with moisture. While the dye is toxic, in desiccant pellets it is present only in a small amount – approximately 1% of the total weight.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Desiccants come in other forms too</h3><p>Apart from silica gel, a number of other materials are used as moisture absorbers and desiccants. These are <a class="link-external" href="https://www.britannica.com/science/zeolite" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">zeolites</a>, <a class="link-external" href="https://www.britannica.com/science/alumina" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">activated alumina</a> and <a class="link-external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">activated carbon</a> – materials engineered to be highly porous.</p><p>Another desiccant type you’ll often see in moisture absorbers for larger areas like pantries or wardrobes is calcium chloride. It typically comes in a box filled with powder or crystals found in most hardware stores, and is a type of salt.</p><p>Kitchen salt – sodium chloride – attracts water and easily becomes lumpy. Calcium chloride works in the same way, but has an even stronger hygroscopic effect and “traps” the water through a hydration reaction. Once the salt is saturated, you’ll see liquid separating in the container.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Something that looks like desiccant</h3><p>Some food items such as tortilla wraps, noodles, beef jerky, and some medicines and vitamins contain slightly different sachets, labelled “oxygen absorbers”.</p><p>These small packets don’t contain desiccants. Instead, they have chemical compounds that “scavenge” or bond oxygen.</p><p>Their purpose is similar to desiccants – they extend the shelf life of food products and sensitive chemicals such as medicines. But they do so by directly preventing <a class="link-external" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zyq22hv/revision/1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">oxidation</a>. When some foods are exposed to oxygen, their chemical composition changes and can lead to decay (apples turning brown when cut is an example of oxidation).</p><p>There is a whole range of <a class="link-external" href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4375217/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">compounds</a> used as oxygen absorbers. These chemicals have a stronger affinity to oxygen than the protected substance. They range from simple compounds such as iron which “rusts” by using up oxygen, to more complex such as plastic films <a class="link-external" href="https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/full/10.5555/19840494805" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">that work when exposed to light</a>.</p><h3 class="cms-block cms-block-heading">Can I reuse a desiccant</h3><p>Although desiccants and dehumidifiers are considered disposable, you can relatively easily reuse them.</p><p>To “recharge” or dehydrate silica gel, you can place it in an oven at approximately <a class="link-external" href="https://www.silicagel.com.au/silica-gel-beads/indicating/orange-green-3-5mm-beads" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">115-125 degrees celsius for two–three hours</a>, although you shouldn’t do this if it’s in a plastic sachet that could melt in the heat.</p><p>Interestingly, due to how they bind water, some desiccants require temperatures well above the boiling point of water to dehydrate (for example, <a class="link-external" href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpcs.2018.04.034%20Get%20rights%20and%20content" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">calcium chloride hydrates completely dehydrate at 200 degrees celsisus</a>).</p><p>After dehydration, silica gel sachets may be useful for drying small electronic items (<a class="link-external" href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-rescue-a-wet-phone/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">like your phone</a> after you accidentally dropped it into water), keeping your camera dry, or preventing your family photos and old films from sticking to each other.</p><p>This is a good alternative to <a class="link-external" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/20/wet-iphone-in-rice-what-to-do-instead" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">the questionable method of using uncooked rice</a>, as silica gel doesn’t decompose and won’t leave starch residues on your things.</p><p><a class="link-external" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kamil-zuber-2329273" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em>Kamil Zuber</em></a><em> is Senior Industry Research Fellow, Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia</em>.</p><p>This article was first published on <a class="link-external" href="https://theconversation.com/do-not-eat-whats-in-those-little-desiccant-sachets-and-how-do-they-work-258398" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><em><u>The Conversation</u></em></a>.</p>
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<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2025 16:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India: What do we stand to lose as critical coastal ecosystems go unmapped?</title>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 291: How learning about our planet is a step towards healing it</title>
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<title>Eco India: How can Kannauj's famous perfume industry survive the effects of climate change?</title>
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<figcaption>Field Producer: Pracheta Sharma | Video Editor: Sujit Lad | Director of Photography: Paras Bhatt | Drone: Kundan Yadav | Voiceover: Soundarya Jayachandran | Producer: Ipsita Basu | Supervising Producer: Nooshin Mowla | Executive Producer: Sannuta Raghu</figcaption></figure>
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<pubDate>Sun, 08 Jun 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 290: How can farm based industries adapt to climate change in a scientific way?</title>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Jun 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: Could happy and healthy hens make eggs taste better?</title>
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<figcaption>Field Producer: Gangadharan B | Video Editor: Sujit Lad | Director of Photography: Nanda Kumar | Voiceover: Chandy Thomas | Producer: Ipsita Basu | Supervising Producer: Nooshin Mowla | Executive Producer: Sannuta Raghu</figcaption></figure>
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free range eggs
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<category>free range eggs</category>
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<item>
<title>Eco India, Episode 289: Why animal welfare is the missing key to environmental health</title>
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<pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: Are Water ATMs a solution to Delhi's water problems?</title>
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<figcaption>Field Producer: Juhi Chaudhary | Video Editor: Sujit Lad | Director of Photography: Rupam Mazumdar | Voiceover: Soundarya Jayachandran | Producer: Ipsita Basu | Supervising Producer: Nooshin Mowla | Executive Producer: Sannuta Raghu</figcaption></figure>
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water ATMs
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<pubDate>Sun, 20 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 288: How can our cities navigate water scarcity and rising demands better?</title>
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<link>https://scroll.in/video/1081498/eco-india-episode-288-how-can-our-cities-navigate-water-scarcity-and-rising-demands-better</link>
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<pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2025 10:23:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: Is unchecked urban expansion impacting our food security?</title>
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<figcaption>Field Producer: Vidheya | Video Editor: Sujit Lad | Director of Photography: Metro Media Works | Voiceover: Chandy Thomas | Producer: Ipsita Basu | Supervising Producer: Nooshin Mowla | Executive Producer: Sannuta Raghu</figcaption></figure>
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<pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 287: How can we strike a balance between development, nature and quality of life?</title>
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<pubDate>Sat, 12 Apr 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: How can restoring Chennai's wetlands help build a flood-resilient future?</title>
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<figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-youtube has-subtext" data-iframe="<iframe width=&quot;200&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/oriQPQREl0g?feature=oembed&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allow=&quot;accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share&quot; referrerpolicy=&quot;strict-origin-when-cross-origin&quot; allowfullscreen title=&quot;Eco India: How can restoring Chennai&amp;#39;s wetlands help build a flood-resilient future?&quot;></iframe>" data-embed-type="youtube" data-thumbnail="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oriQPQREl0g/hqdefault.jpg" data-embed-id="oriQPQREl0g" data-embed-loaded="false" data-height="150" data-width="200">
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<figcaption>Field Producer &amp; Script: Catherine Gilon | Director of Photography: Sam Zenith | Additional Camera: Sai Charan | Video Editor: Sujit Lad | Voiceover: Soundarya Jayachandran | Producer: Ipsita Basu | Supervising Producer: Nooshin Mowla | Executive Producer: Sannuta Raghu</figcaption></figure>
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We welcome your comments at
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eco india
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Chennai Floods
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<pubDate>Sun, 06 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<category>eco india</category>
<category>Chennai Floods</category>
<category>Wetlands</category>
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<item>
<title>Eco India: How community steam boilers in Gujarat are proving to be more energy efficient</title>
<description><div id="article-contents" class="article-body">
<figure class="cms-block cms-block-embed cms-block-embed-youtube has-subtext" data-iframe="<iframe width=&quot;200&quot; height=&quot;113&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/VggLc4vM180?feature=oembed&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allow=&quot;accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share&quot; referrerpolicy=&quot;strict-origin-when-cross-origin&quot; allowfullscreen title=&quot;Eco India: How community steam boilers in Gujarat are proving to be more energy efficient&quot;></iframe>" data-embed-type="youtube" data-thumbnail="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VggLc4vM180/hqdefault.jpg" data-embed-id="VggLc4vM180" data-embed-loaded="false" data-height="113" data-width="200">
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<figcaption>Field Producer: Pracheta Sharma | Director of Photography: Dhiraj Katkade | Video Editor: Sujit Lad | Voiceover: Chandy Thomas | Producer: Ipsita Basu | Supervising Producer: Nooshin Mowla | Executive Producer: Sannuta Raghu</figcaption></figure>
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We welcome your comments at
<a href="mailto:?Subject=Eco%20India%3A%20How%20community%20steam%20boilers%20in%20Gujarat%20are%20proving%20to%20be%20more%20energy%20efficient&amp;[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected]</a>.
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eco india
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<pubDate>Sun, 30 Mar 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<category>eco india</category>
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<author>Johanna Deeksha</author>
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<title>The unlikely success of a novel justice delivery system in Bihar</title>
<description>Despite lingering problems, the state’s village courts have an impressive disposal rate, and help settle a wide range of local disputes.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1079886/the-unlikely-success-of-a-novel-justice-delivery-system-in-bihar</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 12 Mar 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Anuradha Nagaraj</author>
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<title>Why drones are surveying Indian villages</title>
<description>The Svamitva scheme seeks to use drones to map out landholdings in inhabited rural areas. But so far, work has been opaque and riddled with errors.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1078535/why-drones-are-surveying-indian-villages</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 21 Feb 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Vaishnavi Rathore, Nolina Minj</author>
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<title>How Kerala’s trade unions have failed women</title>
<description>Kerala is the bastion of left movements and organisations in India. But within them, women have had to wage fierce battles to be heard and represented.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1078070/how-keralas-trade-unions-have-failed-women</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 24 Jan 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Johanna Deeksha</author>
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<title>The murky, unregulated world of psychological counselling in India</title>
<description>Indian law only recognises clinical psychology. The omission has allowed a boom in unqualified counsellors online and offline. </description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1077686/the-murky-unregulated-world-of-psychological-counselling-in-india</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 16 Jan 2025 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Nolina Minj</author>
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<title>For Jharkhand’s Asurs, the present matters more than a mythic past</title>
<description>Though some of their cultural beliefs are widely known, the community’s extreme deprivation receives little attention.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1076541/for-jharkhands-asurs-the-present-matters-more-than-a-mythic-past</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 09 Dec 2024 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Nolina Minj</author>
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<title>On the Great Nicobar island, why the future is fearful</title>
<description>The government has ambitious plans to build a shipping hub on the island. But are its native tribal communities on board? I travelled to the island to find out.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1075116/on-the-great-nicobar-island-why-the-future-is-fearful</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 08 Nov 2024 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Vaishnavi Rathore</author>
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<title>Why India needs to rethink its love for pigeons</title>
<description>The practice of feeding the birds has led to unnatural spikes in their population. Their close proximity to humans poses grave risks to pulmonary health.</description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 31 Oct 2024 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Vaishnavi Rathore</author>
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<title>What does Trump’s ceasefire announcement mean for Modi's strongman image?</title>
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<pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 06:39:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>The importance of secular optics during ‘Operation Sindoor’</title>
<description>The India Fix: A newsletter on Indian politics from Scroll.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1082107/the-importance-of-secular-optics-during-operation-sindoor</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 13:10:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Caste census: Will the 50% reservation cap soon be history?</title>
<description>The India Fix: A newsletter on Indian politics from Scroll.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1081948/caste-census-will-the-50-reservation-cap-soon-be-history</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 04 May 2025 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Interview: ‘Pahalgam shows Balakot did not create deterrence’</title>
<description>The India Fix: A newsletter on Indian politics from Scroll.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1081703/interview-pahalgam-shows-balakot-did-not-create-deterrence</link>
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<pubDate>Sat, 26 Apr 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Modi-Trump bhai bhai: Can there be a global right-wing coalition?</title>
<description>The India Fix: A newsletter on Indian politics from Scroll.</description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 02 Mar 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>What AAP’s defeat says about corruption as an issue for Indian voters</title>
<description>The India Fix: A newsletter on Indian politics from Scroll.</description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 09 Feb 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>‘We already have quasi universal income’: What the rise of cash transfers mean for the ‘India story’</title>
<description>The India Fix: A newsletter on Indian politics from Scroll.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1076439/we-already-have-quasi-universal-income-what-the-rise-of-cash-transfers-mean-for-the-india-story</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 05 Dec 2024 01:01:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>A Trump win would be a disaster for America – but how how much does it matter for the world?</title>
<description>The India Fix: A newsletter on Indian politics from Scroll.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1075168/a-trump-win-will-be-a-disaster-for-america-but-how-how-much-does-it-matter-for-the-world</link>
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<pubDate>Sat, 02 Nov 2024 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Haryana is a reminder how firmly Indian politics is controlled by caste</title>
<description>The India Fix: A newsletter on Indian politics from Scroll.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1074278/haryana-is-a-reminder-how-firmly-indian-politics-is-controlled-by-caste</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Oct 2024 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>How can Indian democracy allow the open oppression of Bengali-origin Muslims by Assam?</title>
<description>The India Fix: A newsletter on Indian politics from Scroll.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1073821/how-can-indian-democracy-allow-the-open-oppression-of-bengali-origin-muslims-by-assam</link>
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<pubDate>Sat, 28 Sep 2024 04:42:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Simultaneous elections are an unimplementable idea. Why is Modi so keen to push it?</title>
<description>The India Fix: A newsletter on Indian politics from Scroll.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1073582/simultaneous-elections-are-an-unimplementable-idea-why-is-modi-so-keen-to-push-it</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Sep 2024 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Modi’s campaign was the most hate-filled in India’s history. Why did it fail?</title>
<description>The India Fix: A newsletter on Indian politics from Scroll.in.</description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 06 Jun 2024 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Harsh Mander: How Nazi cinema finds a reflection in Hindutva films</title>
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<author>Harsh Mander</author>
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<title>The signature food of the Parsis: A history of dhansak and the many ways it can be made</title>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 08:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Sona Bahadur</author>
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<title>Five chosen for the New India Foundation’s Rs 18-lakh fellowships to write non-fiction books</title>
<description>This year’s winners are Amrita Sharma, Amandeep Singh Sandhu, P Anima, Urvashi Butalia, and Bakhtiar K Dadabhoy.</description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 06:23:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>A psychologist underlines ‘lifetraps’ that make romantic relationships inhospitable for women</title>
<description>An excerpt from ‘When You Give Everything All at Once: The Indian Woman’s Guide to Navigating Toxic Relationships’, by Prachi Saxena.</description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 08:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Prachi Saxena</author>
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<title>Silica gel: What’s in those little packs and is it toxic?</title>
<description>These moisture absorbers protect new products from damage.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1084018/silica-gel-whats-in-those-little-packs-and-is-it-toxic</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2025 16:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India: What do we stand to lose as critical coastal ecosystems go unmapped?</title>
<description>Coastal Regulation Zone maps fail to include critical ecosystems, putting 245 km of India's southeast coastline at risk of encroachment and climate crises.</description>
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<pubDate>Sun, 06 Jul 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 291: How learning about our planet is a step towards healing it</title>
<description>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1084213/eco-india-episode-291-how-learning-about-our-planet-is-a-step-towards-healing-it</link>
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<pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: How can Kannauj's famous perfume industry survive the effects of climate change?</title>
<description>Weather fluctuations over three years have disrupted rose and jasmine harvests in Kannauj, India's perfume capital.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1083299/eco-india-how-can-kannauj-s-famous-perfume-industry-survive-the-effects-of-climate-change</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 08 Jun 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 290: How can farm based industries adapt to climate change in a scientific way?</title>
<description>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1083297/eco-india-episode-290-how-can-farm-based-industries-adapt-to-climate-change-in-a-scientific-way</link>
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<pubDate>Sat, 07 Jun 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: Could happy and healthy hens make eggs taste better?</title>
<description>In India, about 80% of eggs come from battery-caged farms, but there's a global shift toward cage-free farming that allows natural hen behavior.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1082732/eco-india-could-happy-and-healthy-hens-make-eggs-taste-better</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 289: Why animal welfare is the missing key to environmental health</title>
<description>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1082731/eco-india-episode-289-why-animal-welfare-is-the-missing-key-to-environmental-health</link>
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<pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: Are Water ATMs a solution to Delhi's water problems?</title>
<description>In Delhi, about 93% residents are connected to piped water supply lines, while the rest depend on water tankers and vendor services for their water needs.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1081502/eco-india-are-water-atms-a-solution-to-delhi-s-water-problems</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 20 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 288: How can our cities navigate water scarcity and rising demands better?</title>
<description>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1081498/eco-india-episode-288-how-can-our-cities-navigate-water-scarcity-and-rising-demands-better</link>
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<pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2025 10:23:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: Is unchecked urban expansion impacting our food security?</title>
<description>Reports suggest that the area of land that actually grows our food has shrunk by more than 3 million hectares. What could this mean for India's food security?</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1081263/eco-india-is-unchecked-urban-expansion-impacting-our-food-security</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 287: How can we strike a balance between development, nature and quality of life?</title>
<description>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1081262/eco-india-episode-287-how-can-we-strike-a-balance-between-development-nature-and-quality-of-life</link>
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<pubDate>Sat, 12 Apr 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: How can restoring Chennai's wetlands help build a flood-resilient future?</title>
<description>Chennai is ranked among the top 10 cities globallyin terms of climate vulnerability, with 42% of its coastline eroded.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1081032/eco-india-how-can-restoring-chennai-s-wetlands-help-build-a-flood-resilient-future</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 06 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: How community steam boilers in Gujarat are proving to be more energy efficient</title>
<description>Community steam boilers cut emissions, offering MSMEs a cleaner alternative to individual units that emit up to 110 million tonnes of CO₂ annually.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1080798/eco-india-how-community-steam-boilers-in-gujarat-are-proving-to-be-more-energy-efficient</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 30 Mar 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eye on Tibet’s resources, China strikes aggressive note on Dalai Lama’s succession</title>
<description>Beijing sees having power over the selection of the spiritual leader’s successor as an opportunity to stamp more authority on Tibet.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1084378/eye-on-tibets-resources-china-strikes-aggressive-note-on-dalai-lamas-succession</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 16:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Tom Harper, The Conversation</author>
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<title>Caught between India and China, will Beijing’s ‘SAARC alternative’ find support in South Asia?</title>
<description>As the South Asian giant explores possibilities, New Delhi must urgently consider reviving a regional body.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1084286/caught-between-india-and-china-will-beijings-saarc-alternative-find-support-in-south-asia</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 14:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Anuradha Chenoy, OP Jindal Global University</author>
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<title>Rush Hour: India revises US retaliatory tariffs, Bhagwat’s ‘retire at 75’ remark sparks row and more</title>
<description>Become a Scroll member to get Rush Hour – a wrap of the day’s important stories delivered straight to your inbox every evening.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084428/rush-hour-india-revises-us-retaliatory-tariffs-bhagwats-retire-at-75-remark-sparks-row-and-more</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 13:58:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>India proposes to double retaliatory tariffs on US over aluminium, steel duties</title>
<description>With the revision, New Delhi would be able to collect duties worth $3.82 billion as against $1.9 billion proposed in May.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084419/india-proposes-to-double-retaliatory-tariffs-on-us-over-aluminium-steel-duties</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:11:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Donald Trump announces 35% tariff on Canada, plans 15%-20% levies on others</title>
<description>The US president’s decision came even as Ottawa and Washington were negotiating a trade deal.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084406/donald-trump-announces-35-tariff-on-canada-plans-15-20-levies-on-others</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 07:03:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>BRICS summit in Rio indicates that the bloc is quietly imploding</title>
<description>Founding members Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping were conspicuously absent while the US warned member countries of additional tariffs.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1084377/brics-summit-in-rio-indicates-that-the-bloc-is-quietly-imploding</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 16:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Amalendu Misra, The Conversation</author>
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<title>Rush Hour: SC asks EC to consider Aadhaar for voter roll revision, Sheikh Hasina indicted and more</title>
<description>Become a Scroll member to get Rush Hour – a wrap of the day’s important stories delivered straight to your inbox every evening.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084389/rush-hour-sc-asks-ec-to-consider-aadhaar-for-voter-roll-revision-sheikh-hasina-indicted-and-more</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 13:32:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Sheikh Hasina indicted in crimes against humanity case</title>
<description>Charges were also framed against Bangladesh’s former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084384/sheikh-hasina-indicted-in-crimes-against-humanity-case</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 10:21:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>SC to hear plea seeking Centre’s intervention to halt execution of Kerala nurse in Yemen</title>
<description>MPs from Kerala also urged the Union government to take diplomatic steps to stop Nimisha Priya’s death sentence.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084376/sc-to-hear-plea-seeking-centres-intervention-to-halt-execution-of-kerala-nurse-in-yemen</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 09:10:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Hamas agrees to partial hostage release in Gaza ceasefire talks</title>
<description>The ‘core points’ such as the flow of humanitarian aid and the withdrawal of Israeli forces ‘remain under negotiations’, said the Palestinian militant group.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084369/hamas-agrees-to-partial-hostage-release-in-gaza-ceasefire-talks</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 05:35:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>India among seven ‘safe’ countries on EU’s proposed list to refuse asylum applications</title>
<description>Human rights organisations fear it could undermine asylum seekers’ rights to fair asylum procedures.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1084307/india-among-seven-safe-countries-on-eus-proposed-list-to-refuse-asylum-applications</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 16:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Beatrice Tridimas, Thomson Reuters Foundation</author>
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<title>UAE says reports of golden visa for Rs 23 lakh are false</title>
<description>The claims have no legal basis and ‘were made without referring to the competent authorities’, said the country’s immigration department.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084344/uae-says-reports-of-golden-visa-for-rs-23-lakh-are-false</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 07:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Odisha: Adivasi couple tied to yoke, forced to plough farm as ‘punishment’</title>
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<title>Air India crash: Both engines shut down seconds after takeoff, says preliminary inquiry</title>
<description>The fuel control switches of the aircraft had transitioned from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’, after which one of the pilots was heard saying that he did not do so.</description>
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<title>Mumbai Police register case against Shinde Sena MLA for assaulting canteen worker</title>
<description>The police would need permission from a court to start an investigation against Sanjay Gaikwad, who represents Buldhana.</description>
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<title>Rush Hour: India revises US retaliatory tariffs, Bhagwat’s ‘retire at 75’ remark sparks row and more</title>
<description>Become a Scroll member to get Rush Hour – a wrap of the day’s important stories delivered straight to your inbox every evening.</description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 13:58:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Vadodara bridge collapsed due to ‘crushing of pedestal, articulation joints’: Minister</title>
<description>Four officials from the state Roads and Buildings Department had been suspended for ‘negligence’, said BJP’s Rushikesh Patel.</description>
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<title>Karnataka High Court stays trial against Siddaramaiah in BJP’s defamation case</title>
<description>The bench sought the Hindutva party’s response to the plea filed by the chief minister.</description>
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<title>Kashmir chief cleric says he was detained at home ahead of Martyrs’ Day</title>
<description>Mirwaiz Umar Farooq alleged that the action was taken due to fear that he would mention the Kashmir Martyrs’ Day in his Friday sermon.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084422/kashmirs-chief-cleric-says-he-was-detained-at-home-ahead-of-martyrs-day</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 12:15:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>India proposes to double retaliatory tariffs on US over aluminium, steel duties</title>
<description>With the revision, New Delhi would be able to collect duties worth $3.82 billion as against $1.9 billion proposed in May.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084419/india-proposes-to-double-retaliatory-tariffs-on-us-over-aluminium-steel-duties</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:11:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>India struck 13 Pakistani air bases during Operation Sindoor, says NSA Ajit Doval</title>
<description>The strikes on terror camps on May 7 lasted just 23 minutes, said the national security adviser.</description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 10:22:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Writing Bengali as mother tongue in census will reveal number of ‘foreigners’ in Assam: CM Sarma</title>
<description>The BJP leader’s remark came after a student leader said that Bengali-origin Muslims will not list Assamese as their mother tongue in the enumeration exercise.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084413/writing-bengali-as-mother-tongue-in-census-will-reveal-number-of-foreigners-in-assam-cm-sarma</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 09:13:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Madhya Pradesh HC refuses to quash FIR against Congress worker for ‘ludicrous’ post on Modi, Army</title>
<description>A complaint was filed against Yadvendra Pandey for allegedly claiming that the prime minister ‘withdrew’ from military action under pressure from Pakistan.</description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 08:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Mohan Bhagwat’s ‘retirement at 75’ remark sparks row, Opposition asks if PM Modi will step down</title>
<description>The BJP rejected the speculation, saying that there is no rule in the party that requires a person to retire at the age of 75.</description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 08:22:00 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Why Indian cities flood within hours of rain</title>
<description>As the case of Delhi illustrates, the mismanagement of stormwater drains is compounded by unplanned construction covering up spaces that would absorb rainwater.</description>
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<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Vaishnavi Rathore</author>
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<title>Marang Buru vs Parasnath: The conflict over Jharkhand’s highest peak</title>
<description>Jains claim Adivasi practices violate the sanctity of the hill. Adivasis argue that Jains use their economic dominance to stifle their age-old culture.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1083588/marang-buru-vs-parasnath-the-conflict-over-jharkhands-highest-peak</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jun 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Nolina Minj</author>
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<title>The deadliest wildlife conflict in India is being treated as a medical problem</title>
<description>Increasing access to anti-snake-venom is not enough to protect people, experts say. What is needed is an ecological approach.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1081606/the-deadliest-wildlife-conflict-in-india-is-being-treated-as-a-medical-problem</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 05 May 2025 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Vaishnavi Rathore</author>
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<title>How Adivasis are fighting to protect their sacred groves from destruction</title>
<description>Symbols of the Adivasi community’s deep cultural ties with the environment, these sites are being steadily encroached upon in Jharkhand.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1081090/how-adivasis-are-fighting-to-protect-their-sacred-groves-from-destruction</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Nolina Minj</author>
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<title>Why India has the worst amputation epidemic in the world</title>
<description>As a result of inadequate training and resources, doctors resort to the procedure too readily. </description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1079414/why-india-has-the-worst-amputation-epidemic-in-the-world</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 26 Mar 2025 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Johanna Deeksha</author>
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<title>The unlikely success of a novel justice delivery system in Bihar</title>
<description>Despite lingering problems, the state’s village courts have an impressive disposal rate, and help settle a wide range of local disputes.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1079886/the-unlikely-success-of-a-novel-justice-delivery-system-in-bihar</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 12 Mar 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Anuradha Nagaraj</author>
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<title>Why drones are surveying Indian villages</title>
<description>The Svamitva scheme seeks to use drones to map out landholdings in inhabited rural areas. But so far, work has been opaque and riddled with errors.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1078535/why-drones-are-surveying-indian-villages</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 21 Feb 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Vaishnavi Rathore, Nolina Minj</author>
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<title>How Kerala’s trade unions have failed women</title>
<description>Kerala is the bastion of left movements and organisations in India. But within them, women have had to wage fierce battles to be heard and represented.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1078070/how-keralas-trade-unions-have-failed-women</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 24 Jan 2025 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Johanna Deeksha</author>
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<title>The murky, unregulated world of psychological counselling in India</title>
<description>Indian law only recognises clinical psychology. The omission has allowed a boom in unqualified counsellors online and offline. </description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1077686/the-murky-unregulated-world-of-psychological-counselling-in-india</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 16 Jan 2025 03:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Nolina Minj</author>
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<title>For Jharkhand’s Asurs, the present matters more than a mythic past</title>
<description>Though some of their cultural beliefs are widely known, the community’s extreme deprivation receives little attention.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1076541/for-jharkhands-asurs-the-present-matters-more-than-a-mythic-past</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 09 Dec 2024 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Nolina Minj</author>
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<title>On the Great Nicobar island, why the future is fearful</title>
<description>The government has ambitious plans to build a shipping hub on the island. But are its native tribal communities on board? I travelled to the island to find out.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1075116/on-the-great-nicobar-island-why-the-future-is-fearful</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 08 Nov 2024 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Vaishnavi Rathore</author>
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<title>Why India needs to rethink its love for pigeons</title>
<description>The practice of feeding the birds has led to unnatural spikes in their population. Their close proximity to humans poses grave risks to pulmonary health.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1074979/why-india-needs-to-rethink-its-love-for-pigeons</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 31 Oct 2024 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Vaishnavi Rathore</author>
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<author>Shoaib Daniyal</author>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 288: How can our cities navigate water scarcity and rising demands better?</title>
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<pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2025 10:23:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: Is unchecked urban expansion impacting our food security?</title>
<description>Reports suggest that the area of land that actually grows our food has shrunk by more than 3 million hectares. What could this mean for India's food security?</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1081263/eco-india-is-unchecked-urban-expansion-impacting-our-food-security</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India, Episode 287: How can we strike a balance between development, nature and quality of life?</title>
<description>Every week, Eco India brings you stories that inspire you to build a cleaner, greener and better tomorrow.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1081262/eco-india-episode-287-how-can-we-strike-a-balance-between-development-nature-and-quality-of-life</link>
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<pubDate>Sat, 12 Apr 2025 09:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: How can restoring Chennai's wetlands help build a flood-resilient future?</title>
<description>Chennai is ranked among the top 10 cities globallyin terms of climate vulnerability, with 42% of its coastline eroded.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1081032/eco-india-how-can-restoring-chennai-s-wetlands-help-build-a-flood-resilient-future</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 06 Apr 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eco India: How community steam boilers in Gujarat are proving to be more energy efficient</title>
<description>Community steam boilers cut emissions, offering MSMEs a cleaner alternative to individual units that emit up to 110 million tonnes of CO₂ annually.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/video/1080798/eco-india-how-community-steam-boilers-in-gujarat-are-proving-to-be-more-energy-efficient</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 30 Mar 2025 03:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Eye on Tibet’s resources, China strikes aggressive note on Dalai Lama’s succession</title>
<description>Beijing sees having power over the selection of the spiritual leader’s successor as an opportunity to stamp more authority on Tibet.</description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 16:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Tom Harper, The Conversation</author>
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<title>Caught between India and China, will Beijing’s ‘SAARC alternative’ find support in South Asia?</title>
<description>As the South Asian giant explores possibilities, New Delhi must urgently consider reviving a regional body.</description>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 14:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Anuradha Chenoy, OP Jindal Global University</author>
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<title>Rush Hour: India revises US retaliatory tariffs, Bhagwat’s ‘retire at 75’ remark sparks row and more</title>
<description>Become a Scroll member to get Rush Hour – a wrap of the day’s important stories delivered straight to your inbox every evening.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084428/rush-hour-india-revises-us-retaliatory-tariffs-bhagwats-retire-at-75-remark-sparks-row-and-more</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 13:58:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>India proposes to double retaliatory tariffs on US over aluminium, steel duties</title>
<description>With the revision, New Delhi would be able to collect duties worth $3.82 billion as against $1.9 billion proposed in May.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084419/india-proposes-to-double-retaliatory-tariffs-on-us-over-aluminium-steel-duties</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:11:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Donald Trump announces 35% tariff on Canada, plans 15%-20% levies on others</title>
<description>The US president’s decision came even as Ottawa and Washington were negotiating a trade deal.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084406/donald-trump-announces-35-tariff-on-canada-plans-15-20-levies-on-others</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jul 2025 07:03:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>BRICS summit in Rio indicates that the bloc is quietly imploding</title>
<description>Founding members Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping were conspicuously absent while the US warned member countries of additional tariffs.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1084377/brics-summit-in-rio-indicates-that-the-bloc-is-quietly-imploding</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 16:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Amalendu Misra, The Conversation</author>
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<title>Rush Hour: SC asks EC to consider Aadhaar for voter roll revision, Sheikh Hasina indicted and more</title>
<description>Become a Scroll member to get Rush Hour – a wrap of the day’s important stories delivered straight to your inbox every evening.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084389/rush-hour-sc-asks-ec-to-consider-aadhaar-for-voter-roll-revision-sheikh-hasina-indicted-and-more</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 13:32:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Sheikh Hasina indicted in crimes against humanity case</title>
<description>Charges were also framed against Bangladesh’s former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084384/sheikh-hasina-indicted-in-crimes-against-humanity-case</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 10:21:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>SC to hear plea seeking Centre’s intervention to halt execution of Kerala nurse in Yemen</title>
<description>MPs from Kerala also urged the Union government to take diplomatic steps to stop Nimisha Priya’s death sentence.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084376/sc-to-hear-plea-seeking-centres-intervention-to-halt-execution-of-kerala-nurse-in-yemen</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 09:10:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>Hamas agrees to partial hostage release in Gaza ceasefire talks</title>
<description>The ‘core points’ such as the flow of humanitarian aid and the withdrawal of Israeli forces ‘remain under negotiations’, said the Palestinian militant group.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084369/hamas-agrees-to-partial-hostage-release-in-gaza-ceasefire-talks</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2025 05:35:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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<title>India among seven ‘safe’ countries on EU’s proposed list to refuse asylum applications</title>
<description>Human rights organisations fear it could undermine asylum seekers’ rights to fair asylum procedures.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/article/1084307/india-among-seven-safe-countries-on-eus-proposed-list-to-refuse-asylum-applications</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 16:30:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Beatrice Tridimas, Thomson Reuters Foundation</author>
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<title>UAE says reports of golden visa for Rs 23 lakh are false</title>
<description>The claims have no legal basis and ‘were made without referring to the competent authorities’, said the country’s immigration department.</description>
<link>https://scroll.in/latest/1084344/uae-says-reports-of-golden-visa-for-rs-23-lakh-are-false</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 09 Jul 2025 07:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Scroll Staff</author>
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Contributor
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|
@TonyRL Can we merge this? |
Contributor
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i m sorry, i did not not understand, we cant merge because of anti-crawl? |
kmk142789
approved these changes
Oct 6, 2025
Contributor
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@TonyRL Can we merge this? |
Contributor
Author
|
can you please help me understand why i need to undo it? |
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