“Ram ayenge toh angana sajayenge” – The popular song played on the transistor radio in the small chai ki tapri in a bylane of Delhi’s Sukhdev Vihar, a posh, urban upper middle-class neighborhood, as I sipped my cup of quintessential masala tea. There was an element of joie de vivre in the air as the … Read more
Magazine Hindutva may have proclaimed the supremacy of all things traditional, but it makes no room for diversity, dynamism, dilemmas, and doubt. Such has never been the only Indian way. Local musicians blow horns as a Hindu priest, face smeared with color and sacrificial blood, performs rituals during the Deodhani festival at the Kamakhya Hindu … Read more
Advertisement Earlier this month, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost the assembly elections in the southern state of Karnataka by a significant margin. The party, which espouses a philosophy of Hindu nationalism, was defeated by the center-left Indian National Congress, which ostensibly advocates civic nationalism and secularism. What does this mean for Indian politics … Read more