On My Mind

Lights, Camera, Action! Except this time, it isn't actors performing. IPL is about to start and cricketers from across the globe will take the center stage of the discourse in India. The who's who among cricket giants will hit boundaries, and take wickets as cities fight it out for the glory. IPL has all components required to be a hit reality show - which some would say it is. But is it more than that? I wouldn't get into the cricketing part. That has been discussed and debated much. The Puritans hate the hybrid that is IPL, and the supporters have the list of all cricketers who rose to prominence through IPL ready. What I have in mind is all the other impact IPL has. The first three matches of the previous edition of IPL reached a staggering 185.7 million viewers!  [1]  In 2012, when Kolkata won IPL, they were given a rousing welcome by the crowd. The euphoria in West Bengal can be gauged from the fact that even the CM couldn't afford to skip the celebratory ...

In 2016, the international word of the year for the Oxford Dictionaries was " post-truth ". [1]   Trump's victory in US presidential elections had brought a certain amount of interest in the "post-truth politics" which is defined as 'relating to circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.' While the term generated an interest as late as 2016, it would be puerile to dismiss the existence of a "post-truth world" earlier. That humans are creatures of emotions has been the assumption behind the work of many scholars who have tried to identify the causes, consequences, and conflicts arising because of the same. Appeal to emotion is and has been routinely used by activists and others to further their cause. In Julius Caesar , a classic of Shakespeare, there comes a turning point. Caesar is murdered by his confidantes including Brutus. Brutus explains and just...

On Saturday, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) confirmed women will no longer escort male players to the stage after talks with broadcasters. [1] Formula 1 has announced that it will no longer use grid girls as the practice of having scantily clad women standing in front of cars before Grands Prix “does not resonate with our brand values and clearly is at odds with modern-day societal norms”. [2] The Women’s Sport Trust has called for the end of female models across the world of sport. The Women’s Sport Trust says its issue with the use of models in sport as “walk-on girls, grid girls, and ring girls is the message it gives about how women are valued in society”.  [3] Having checked on the present, let's take a trip to the past now.  It's the 1960s in the USA. Women can't serve on the jury. The main reason women are kept out of jury pools is that they are considered the center of the home, which is their primary responsibility as caregivers. The...

I n 2005, the Central Government constituted a committee headed by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Rajinder Sachar to study the social, economic and educational condition of Muslims in India. The Sachar Committee submitted its report in 2006. The report found a range of disabilities hampering the Muslim community in the country. It placed Indian Muslims below Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes with respect to backwardness. It especially highlighted the poor representation of the community in decision making positions like the IAS, IPS and in the police. [1] To understand the intricacies of the issue, we need to go back to the creation of the modern nation of India.  India was independent in 1947. At the very onset, attempts were made by the state to bring reforms in the Hindu (here it implies anyone who was not a Muslim, Parsi, Christian or Jew) personal laws. The first elected government came to power in 1952 and by 1956 it was able to g...

If you have read something about Gandhiji, you are likely to have come across the three monkeys. He had a small statue of them. One of them covered his eyes, the message being, "see no evil". The second monkey had his ears covered, urging to "hear no evil". The third monkey covered his mouth who "speaks no evil". I believe we have grasped the message well and are doing the same; the teeny tiny difference being our ignorance of diversity. The three monkey today signify the principle - see no diversity, hear no diversity, speak no diversity; else you're a racist, xenophobic, narrow-minded, et cetera. A simple google search tells that racism is "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." Pretty simple to understand, right? Apparently not! Homo Sapiens reside in different parts of the world. Owing to the geographical conditions and lack of...

"Nah, this isn't catchy enough.Add something to it. Be a little creative Manoj!" "Ma'am, she's Muslim. Should we draw the image of a Muslim woman beating conservative attitudes?" "Isn't good, besides, it looks communal. Make her an underdog. That sells 100 out of 100 times." "Ok! Consider it done." Next day, newspapers carried the headline of a poor girl succeeding in an examination -  the story which motivates, the story which inspires, the story which unfortunately killed the girl! [1] The story I am talking about is of a girl from Kannur. She scored 1180/1200 in her HSS exam. But she committed suicide. The media gave her the kind of publicity she didn't want. She had been hiding her background from her classmates by choice. Media didn't bother about respecting her privacy, spiced the story up a bit and served a headline which grabbed eyeballs. The girl felt humiliated and committed suicide. For those who ha...

Eminent sociologist Professor M.N. Srinivas coined the term "Sanskritization" to describe the cultural mobility in the traditional caste structure of Indian society. To raise their status in the traditional hierarchy of society, lower castes imitated the ways of the upper castes and in the process, quit some of their "impure" ways to assimilate well. This assimilation continued throughout. During the British rule, several reform movements took place. When the reigns of these movements fell into the hands of the lower caste leaders, they questioned the need for the lower castes to imitate the ways of upper castes and rightly so. By blindly aping the ways of the upper rungs of the society, you also acknowledge their justification for being the upper class in the first place. I believe readers would agree with me here for the most part. Now that we have these ideas on the table, let's move to what's called westernization. With the advent of Europeans in ...

"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." This quote is the focal point of liberalism which is based on the ideas of equality and liberty. There are different variants and schools of liberalism but the forementioned two ideas are more or less common to all, though to different degrees. Not anymore. Liberalism has taken a turn where ideas have to stick to the conformity of the boundaries laid by the upper echelons of liberals. The central ideas which seem to be approved are open world, no boundaries, no discrimination, appeasing minorities (religious, linguistic, sexual, racial amongst others). There is no room left for discussion, nor is any allowed. Take this for example. A recent incident in India involving Ms. Gurmehar Kaur stormed the nation. There were two sets of people, one presumably liberals who supported her call for peace and end of warmongering, and the other set which opposed her ideas. Both sides...

" It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer " - William Blackstone In his seminal work "Commentaries on the Laws of England", William Blackstone expressed this idea which though not new, was then cemented and became a profound principle in criminal law. I find this quote rather under-celebrated. To confine it to the brim of law and judiciary seems unjustified. For me, this summarises the differences between every ideology with a tinge of liberalism and those inclined towards radicalism. The focus on the rights of an individual associated with the quote has served as the baseline for Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the stepping stone of liberalism. Having journeyed through different ideologies and philosophies, it seemed we were converging to Liberalism. The year 2016, however, has seen a lot of diversions. Brexit could possibly be marked as the first event this year to reflect the shifting ideologies. People of Britain i...

Much has been discussed and debated recently about Uniform Civil Code with Central Government being asked by the apex court of its response on Shayara Bano's petition. Petitioner Bano challenged the constitutionality of Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, in so far as it seeks to recognise and validate polygamy, triple talaq and 'nikah halala'. The Union government told the Supreme Court that 'triple talaq', 'nikaah halaal' and polygamy, as practised by the Muslims in India, were not "integral to the practices of Islam or essential religious practices". This has brought the topic of Uniform Civil Code into foreground again. While a large majority approves of UCC, the critics of UCC come mainly from Islamist groups who claim this would be a violation of their Right to practice their religion. Interestingly, apart from the aforementioned fundamental right, Constitution also says that "The State shall endeav...

Internet is an abode to a large variety of people, people of every kind, from every nook and corner of the world. The latest fad among the Internet users is Feminism, something which is rarely used in the sense it is meant to be. Go out on Facebook or Quora or any other social network for that matter, worshipped are people who call themselves feminists, feminists who shout their heart out to give this world to women.  Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the "EQUALITY" of the sexes. See that word in CAPS, yes that word which is spelled as e-q-u-a-l-i-t-y; well, this is what feminism is supposed to be. Indian society has been patriarchal since forever and it is due to this primarily, that feminism finds its relevance. Yes, women are not treated on equal footing with men. Yes, women still lack the same treatment as men and this is what feminists should strive for, same treatment as men! Expecting respect for just being a woman and advocat...

Mr. Narendra Modi, the person whose name needs no introduction, is in the centre of the dais now. No more debates over AAP vs BJP, no more discussions over the Gujarat development model, all we are looking forward to, is for him to deliver, to rise to the occasion and fulfil all his promises. The elections have given "him" a clean majority, the people of India gave their mandate solely on the merits of Narendra Modi. The general elections 2014, might in fact be arguably remembered as the elections when a person rose above everyone to garner the popular support. To date, it has been almost 30 days for Modi ji since he took in charge of the Prime Minister Office. This period has seen a lot of hustle and bustle in the PMO. Many decisions have been taken, some of which received a positive response while some have been criticized heavily. Modi sarkar received a warm welcome from the market which showed tremendous growth as soon as the results were out. People could see th...

I hail from India, the land with the world’s largest democracy . Despite that, I am not a big fan of democracy. This post might irk a lot of people but I can’t help sharing my views. The whole concept of allowing each and every one to have a say in every common decision, without considering whether or not they are fit enough to take decisions, is sort of an exaggeration of the concept of rights. Democracy, in its purest form, is something that looks good and promising in theory but in practical, its repercussions can easily be seen. Let’s go through them one by one. ·         1 ) Universal Adult Franchise: The present criteria of allowing every person older than 18 years, to vote is not the best way to judge a person’s eligibility to cast his/her vote. This allows so many people who simply don’t care about the ideals of democracy, to cast vote. I have personally seen people selling their votes for a bottle of liquor in broad daylig...