The Republic of Hurt Sentiments

"The protest-readings from Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses must force a rethink of our religious hate speech laws and what they mean for freedom of expression."

The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : The Republic of Hurt Sentiments: If the ‘Rushdie readings' trigger a much larger rethink about our religious hate speech laws and what they mean for freedom of expression, then the controversy would have been well worth the making.

Not playing at a theatre near you

"First Rushdie, then the cancellation of a seminar and film screening on Kashmir at a Pune college, now Taslima Nasreen. It seems there is no end to India's capacity for easy surrender when it comes to the freedom of expression."

All this is clearly unheeding of several Supreme Court verdicts, that public authorities must protect the freedom of expression, and cannot resort to bans in the name of upholding law and order. The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Not playing at a theatre near you

Such pusillanimity has come to the fore during elections in important States where political parties are seeking votes on communal platforms — despite all the evidence that minority voters do not want to be treated in this way — is a sad reflection on the condition of the world's largest democracy and its leaders.

Growing irrelevance of the Indian ayatollah

"Helped by the government, Deoband's clerics won the battle to silence Salman Rushdie — but their armies are in inglorious retreat."

Last month's silencing of Salman Rushdie, preceded and followed by a succession of faith-inspired attacks on free speech. Had it not been for the helping hand of the Indian government, it is improbable the clerics of Deoband would have succeeded in Jaipur. This fate and Deoband's contrasting success in Pakistan help illuminate the prospects of communal politics in India. The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : Growing irrelevance of the Indian ayatollah.

Deoband is dying because the social classes and conditions from which it drew its strength have changed. Deoband's clerics aren't the only faith-based political order to be facing this crisis: organised Hinduism has haemorrhaged followers to new-age gurus; Sikhism to a range of eclectic cults. Faiths, as a whole, exercise less of a hold on lives than political struggles for equity.

Even though communalism remains a depressing part of India's political landscape, its lethality is diminishing. In India, faith and the new civilisation of Capitalism are pitted against each other in an epic battle - and god's armies are losing!