Nearly 540 million people are in the grip of drought. Here’s what you can do: Find NGOs working in drought-affected areas. Reach out to them with donations in cash, kind and your time. At the very least try empathy, listen to stories, embrace compassion. On Facebook a friend asks: “But what can we in cities do?” I have just returned from a few days of heart-breaking reporting on the drought in Beed in Marathwada. In my ‘status update’ I had wondered how the lives of those of us who live in cities have become so disconnected with those that don’t.…

The injection of religious symbolism into the idea of India is deliberate, and dangerous Lawyers clash among themselves at Patiala House Courts where JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was produced on February 17(PTI Photo) The sons of Bharat Mata have put their love on public display and it is not a pretty sight. At the Patiala House district court, men in black shout Bharat Mata Ki Jai as they assault journalists, students, teachers and even a panel of senior lawyers sent by the Supreme Court. Caught on camera is BJP MLA OP Sharma chasing and hitting an activist as policemen watch…

I have five questions in the wake of the national outrage following the death of Shaktiman the police horse: 1. Would we have given a damn had politicians not been involved? Forget for a second that last month’s protest near the Dehradun Assembly was led by BJP legislator Ganesh Joshi. What if it had been just an average guy nobody knew? Would there have been this level of national outrage? Instead this is how the script played out. Opposition politicians have expressed their anguish and mourned the ‘sacrifice’ of the Kathiawari mare. The Congress compared the death of the horse…

Animal welfare activists at a candle light vigil at New Delhi in honour of Shaktiman , April 21, 2016(Saumya Khandelwal/HT Photo) I have five questions in the wake of the national outrage following the death of Shaktiman the police horse: 1. Would we have given a damn had politicians not been involved? Forget for a second that last month’s protest near the Dehradun Assembly was led by BJP legislator Ganesh Joshi. What if it had been just an average guy nobody knew? Would there have been this level of national outrage? Instead this is how the script played out. Opposition…

The injection of religious symbolism into the idea of India is deliberate, and dangerous. The sons of Bharat Mata have put their love on public display and it is not a pretty sight. At the Patiala House district court, men in black shout Bharat Mata Ki Jai as they assault journalists, students, teachers and even a panel of senior lawyers sent by the Supreme Court. Caught on camera is BJP MLA OP Sharma chasing and hitting an activist as policemen watch quietly. A day later, the mob assaults Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, arrested on…

The Hanumanthappa story plays out at a time when few ideas unite us as a nation. It reminded us of our better selves, of how some things are worth fighting for and how some things must remain inviolate. We have lost a soldier up on the glacier, but also perhaps who we once were as a nation, united in optimism and idealism Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik pays tribute to Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad at Puri sea beach. The Siachen tragedy united India, otherwise broken by political controversies, caste barriers and ideologies.(PTI) For a brief moment this week, a natural disaster…

The Hanumanthappa story plays out at a time when few ideas unite us as a nation. It reminded us of our better selves, of how some things are worth fighting for and how some things must remain inviolate. We have lost a soldier up on the glacier, but also perhaps who we once were as a nation, united in optimism and idealism. For a brief moment this week, a natural disaster on the world’s highest battleground achieved the seemingly impossible: It united an otherwise fractious country. Five days after an avalanche buried an army post at 19,600 feet at the…

Rohith Vemula was not just any son. He was a Dalit son, and to ignore his caste is to ignore the significance of his life and death. Rohith Vemula allegedly hanged himself in his hostel room.(HT Photo) We did not flinch at the news that an eight-year-old Dalit boy had his arm amputated after he was thrown into a sugarcane crusher for ‘not working properly’ in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. We were not repelled when a seven-year-old Dalit child was hospitalised for six days after his teacher thrashed him for picking up a plate reserved for upper-caste kids for his midday…

Rohith Vemula was not just any son. He was a Dalit son, and to ignore his caste is to ignore the significance of his life and death. We did not flinch at the news that an eight-year-old Dalit boy had his arm amputated after he was thrown into a sugarcane crusher for ‘not working properly’ in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. We were not repelled when a seven-year-old Dalit child was hospitalised for six days after his teacher thrashed him for picking up a plate reserved for upper-caste kids for his midday meal at a government school in Osian, near Jodhpur. When…

The arrest of a comedian sends a clear message: Religion is out of bounds. Given the volatility of mob sentiment, perhaps a place to start would be for the Supreme Court to draw a line between religion and politics. We might make a tentative beginning with simply scrapping sections in law that today have become convenient tools to ban and intimidate inconvenient voices. Comedian Kiku Sharda after being produced in a Kaithal court on Wednesday.(HT Photo) Late in December, actor/comedian Kiku Sharda did the unthinkable. He made fun of the head of the Dera Sachcha Sauda (DSS) sect. In the…

The arrest of a comedian sends a clear message: Religion is out of bounds. Given the volatility of mob sentiment, perhaps a place to start would be for the Supreme Court to draw a line between religion and politics. We might make a tentative beginning with simply scrapping sections in law that today have become convenient tools to ban and intimidate inconvenient voices. Late in December, actor/comedian Kiku Sharda did the unthinkable. He made fun of the head of the Dera Sachcha Sauda (DSS) sect. In the clip I have seen, Sharda emerges on stage in a shimmery costume astride…

Who decides what is nationalism and how best it is to be displayed? For some, standing up for the national anthem is tokenism; for others it is a sacred duty. For some, our flag and national anthem are the glues of nationhood; for others, nationalism is best expressed through being good citizens. In 2009, months after the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai, Ram Gopal Varma made a film called Rann. A critique of media’s insatiable appetite for TRPs, the movie’s title track was a remix of the national anthem, with the added word rann (or war). Jana Gana Mana rann…