While the reforms in the Waqf Amendment Bill are welcome, serious questions arise about the wisdom of some proposals and the motivations behind them.

In this issue

29-11-202427 STORIES

Muslims waiting in queue

WAQF AMENDMENT—THE LEDE

Propriety, not just property: The Waqf debate

Since the impacts of the amendments will go far beyond legal changes, the government must balance reforms with the rights of the Muslim community.

Shaikh Mujibur Rehman

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Editor’s Note: Putting Muslims in their place?

Behind the façade of Waqf reforms lies a sinister and systematic campaign to further marginalise the country’s largest minority.

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Who really benefits from the Waqf Amendment Bill?

While some provisions attempt to address corruption and mismanagement, the Bill contradicts BJP government’s stated “one nation, one law” principle.

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Right move, wrong motive? Waqf Bill promises better management but delivers state control

The changes would remove key protections for waqf properties, centralising control under government officials rather than community representatives.

P.S. Munawar Hussain

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BJP’s agenda is to defame Muslims: Syed Naseer Hussain

MP and member of the JPC says the BJP wants to desecularise India.

Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in West Singhbhum

FROM THE SIDELINES

BJP is back to its favourite bogey: ‘The Other’

The measured campaign in Haryana was an aberration. In Jharkhand, the BJP has reverted to its radical right-wing playbook.

BJP supporters in Maharashtra

ASSEMBLY ELECTION

BJP returns to Ma-Dha-Va formula as Maratha-OBC polarisation threatens its Assembly prospects

The party is working hard to consolidate non-Maratha Hindu vote in its favour, using the same social engineering formula it employed in the 1980s.

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren

ASSEMBLY ELECTION

In Jharkhand, a contest between BJP’s anti-infiltration stance and JMM’s tribal identity politics

While BJP stirs fears of demographic change in Santhal Pargana, JMM banks on Sarna Code demand and welfare promises to protect tribal rights.

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Congress’ inability to effectively build and maintain alliances is undermining opposition unity

From Haryana to Rajasthan, the party’s reluctance to share seats with partners has led to “friendly fights” within the INDIA bloc, benefiting the BJP.

T.K. Rajalakshmi

Actor Vijay

Thalapathy Vijay’s grand political entry stumbles on basic ideological contradictions

His attempt to merge inclusive “Dravidam” philosophy with exclusive “Tamil nationalism” reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of Dravidian politics.

Ilangovan Rajasekaran

An Assamese woman clutching her baby

Assam citizenship crisis: 19 lakh people continue to face uncertainty over cut-off dates

Supreme Court reinforces 1971 cutoff by upholding Section 6A, shielding citizenship rights of East Pak migrants as State moves parallel CAA framework.

Sushanta Talukdar

CPI (ML) Liberation activists

Revisiting Bhojpur and its naxal legacy

The violent struggle between marginalised castes and feudal landlords has ended, but the movement’s impact on dignity and social relations lives on.

Poor people of India

The great inequality myth that rules India

For decades, policymakers and businessmen sold the hoax that making the rich richer would lift all boats. History proves them catastrophically wrong.

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India’s claim of pursuing ‘strategic autonomy’ in its foreign policy is a facade

In reality, the country is caught in three strategic triangles (US-China, US-Russia, and Russia-China) where it must balance multiple dependencies.

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2024 FOCAC summit

When China rules Africa

With strategic bases and mammoth trade deals, Beijing’s influence in Africa moves beyond trade to empire-building, posing myriad challenges to India.

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Human Struggles

Men at sea: The untethered lives of deep-sea fisherfolk

For the fisherfolk of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, earning a living often means sailing on the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal for months on end.

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Paradise in Peril: India’s great banyan garden fights for survival

The Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, a living heritage site, is in desperate need of funds to sustain itself.

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Counter Culture

Rohit Shetty’s Singham Again is an epic cop-out

The movie, a forceful, joyless retracing of the Ramayana does a disservice to the very thing it purports to be in service of: the police force.

Prathyush Parasuraman

College students in 1965

How anti-Hindi protests of the 1960s created India’s most successful regional political movement

The agitation proved singular: it toppled a regime, rewrote India’s language policy, and established Dravidian party rule that continues even today.

Karthick Ram Manoharan

Depictions of mythological scenes

Sea change: How maritime connections enabled ancient India’s global impact

Dalrymple shows how traders and monks sailed beyond borders, turning India into the ancient world’s cultural powerhouse.

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Muslims in New India: A survival story

Hilal Ahmed’s latest book says Muslims in contemporary India are not passive victims; they are adapting to survive and thrive within the constraints.

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The invisible she: How working-class women bear the weight of India’s economy

Neha Dixit’s The Many Lives of Syeda X is uniquely authentic and eye-opening in portraying womenfolk in big South Asian cities.

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A worthy follow-up to Tomb of Sand

Geetanjali Shree’s latest novel in translation captures the moral degradation and erosion of the secular compact in the 1990s, after the Babri Masjid

Poster of Alam Ara (1931)

Queer love and freedom in 1920s India

Ruth Vanita’s historical examines scans queer desire, cinema, and modernisation through interconnected lives in 1920s Bombay and Delhi.

New books on the shelves

A feminist retelling of a story from the Mahabharata, the memoir of a Sri Lankan Tamil transwoman, and much more.

Coolie, a short story

Coolie

The story is from the book, Distant Traveller: New and Selected Fiction by Attia Hosain

‘The Dystopian Times’ by Appupen

Archive

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