| Kashmir jihad is disintegrating. And that’s mostly because of vanishing support from a crisis-mired Pakistan and loss of legitimacy among young people. The number of ethnic Kashmiris active in jihadist groups is down to 28, the lowest in a decade, wrote Praveen Swami. But this isn’t the first time Kashmiri jihadism has faced such a crisis. And on each of those occasions, it was rescued by missteps and misjudgments by New Delhi.
Two women whose soldier-husbands died in the Pulwama bomb attack are now protesting against the Rajasthan government. They want a job for their younger brothers-in-law. But the law in the state precludes anyone from availing of the opportunity but for the wife and a child, wrote Manvendra Singh. Both women have minor children who stand to benefit from assured employment once they attain adulthood. Giving in to pressure and offering those jobs to others will only accentuate the women’s exploitation in the families.
Punjab’s new radical Amritpal Singh claims to want for Sikhs what Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen to be granting to Hindus. Modi’s malicious Hindu nationalism does not sanctify Singh’s Sikh separatism. Modi’s reign has done profound damage to India—but, wrote Kapil Komireddi, not all who point their finger at it do so because they wish to repair it.
The recent rage and panic over Bihari migrants in Tamil Nadu overlook a more fundamental problem. Why are there so few factories and jobs in the northern states, asked author Nilakantan RS. Factories need human capital and are often set up in places where there is good governance, adherence to the rule of law and, above all, good educational and health outcomes.
How did Hindu gods and motifs such as dancing Shiva and elephant-riding gods end up in Sogdiana, the region in what is now Uzbekistan? The 7th century Sogdian may not have necessarily thought of these motifs as “Indian” or “foreign”, wrote public historian Anirudh Kanisetti. From their point of view, this was a product of the cosmopolitan world driven by diverse merchant elite that they inhabited. It is only with modern eyes, accustomed to linking one religion with one language with one people with one region, that the Sogdian pantheon seems particularly strange to us.
The Supreme Court dismissed the Centre’s curative petition to get Union Carbide-Dow Chemical to pay additional compensation to the Bhopal gas survivors. The Bench even advised the Centre to dig into its own kitty and pay up. I argued why this is a horrible idea.
The BJP’s outreach to Pasmanda Muslims is one of the most significant political developments in India in recent decades. Our features reporter Heena Fatima did deep ground reporting to bring out the prevailing mood in the Muslim community, and how it has fueled fears, concerns and that eternal desire for job quotas.
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