Dheeraj Kalgutkar

  “ A 25-year-old Hindu man was allegedly strangled to death in Rajasthan’s Dausa district for trying to stop three men from applying colour on him during Holi celebration”. Every year on Holi, we hear news reports of molestation and non-consensual touches. Year after year these stories have become so widespread and familiar that now we have got subconsciously wired to simply ignore them and move on with our lives. “Holi hai!” (It’s Holi!) is a cry that is shouted, and like clockwork, anyone would come, apply colour to you and proceed further to the next person. Implicit in that cry is, all is well, or all goes on Holi. But in recent years, incidents of communal nature have added themselves to the long list of Holi complaints. Protecting law and order is the job of the police. A murder by a murderer can be stopped in two ways: either you control the situation such that the murderer does not get the opportunity to commit the crime, or you do the murder yourself, leaving the...

  It took the British around 100 years to fully conquer India. And by India, I mean British India consisting of Myanmar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and present-day India. And in this, they were helped and aided by all sorts of Indian kingdoms and people. Rajputs and Marathas were major forces that helped the British conquer the most difficult of kingdoms. For instance, Tipu Sultan who defeated the British in two battles was defeated and killed by the British army in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war with the help of Marathas and Nizam of Hyderabad. Otherwise, the British couldn't defeat Tipu who had by then defeated their general who had defeated Napoleon in battle. The last battle was full of ironies, I mean, ironical considering the politics of today. For instance, Maratha Peshwas, in whom today’s Hindutva-nationalists take pride were collaborating with the British, Scindias of Gwalior too supported the British while a Mughal fought against the British. This is not to say one is...

  Image courtesy: The Hindu       From what I know and can remember Muslim girls in school (not all but some of them) have been wearing hijab (or headscarf) for ages now. It was just another piece of clothing that never bothered us, to the point that we never even noticed its existence. I even know of girls and even teachers who would arrive at school in niqab (or burqa, black outer clothing like a rain-or-sun-coat) and then they would remove it before entering a classroom. Again, this wasn’t a point of conversation or of difference. The only time I have been thinking of these clothing choices and the faces of friends that wore them is now. Now when many schools in Karnataka (and even in Madhya Pradesh, another BJP ruled state) have banned young girls (and even teachers) from covering their hair with a cloth also referred to as wearing hijab . It all started with Hindu kids sloganeering and hooting – all of a sudden – as Muslim kids passed before them. O...

The long-awaited, more than twenty years, Ayodhya Judgement is here. Before we dwell on the same, ever wondered why people go to the courts? Why they spend on lawyers, on their travels to court? After all, all they do is present arguments from each side which they could do before a sarpanch in a village or that old man in Khaap panchayat or a mutual friend — just anyone but the judge in a court. Why walk to a court? What is it that you expect from a court that you do not expect from other avenues. Why do we say we have to respect the decisions of the court? After all, the people giving verdicts are people like us too. They go through similar lives as we do. They breathe the same air, drink the same water, eat the same food. Why then do we expect them to deliver judgements on our problems and also respect their pronouncements? Is it because we believe that they are impartial, that they rely on facts and facts alone and not on emotions and beliefs and pressures of the society? ...

  India is a strange country but more stranger are its people. The old towns and villages have their own gods and those gods have their own homes aka temples in this country. It’s an established order. The temples have their annual anniversaries, gods go to jungle tours, river bathing, to meet other gods in other temples; all on the decorated vehicles pulled by the ever-growing tribe of humans. But that’s in old towns and villages. What happens in newly built cities? The old temples I have visited have their own stories, how they came into being. The stories with myths and magic. If the building isn’t very old then there would be someone with a mystic dream in which certain god comes into their dream and throws in his/her wish (or rather a command) to have an abode of his own in that village. And in most cases, these stories are highly unverifiable (of course, what did you expect? — peer-reviewed theories?). It’s not my desire to find the god himself (or herself!) but ...

I don’t use Whatsapp much for my own personal reasons. Most of the times it’s uninstalled and when it’s installed I check it few times of the day when I have absolutely nothing else to do; that is, after a round of Twitter, Instagram, Reddit etc. Today as it was Eid, early morning when I got up, I sent Eid wishes to all of my contacts who celebrate it via of course Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram, FB messenger and few SMSes (two of my friends are still not technologically connected). Late afternoon, as I was browsing through few replies and other messages, I stumbled upon a text in a family Whatsapp group. Now, I usually stay away from Whatsapp groups but this particular text just plain annoyed me. Message which was written in local language roughly translated to, “Nobody celebrates it here… Don’t post such wishes…” I opened the group to check who had posted what. I personally feel these groups are a den of bigotry and hate. That’s one of the reasons I have stopped readin...

Tipu Sultan, the 18th century ruler is back from the grave to haunt the land he once so ferociously ruled. In the protests against Karnataka government for deciding to celebrate the birth anniversary of the Tiger of Mysore, one person has lost his life while others continue to boil their blood amidst winter’s chill. Karnataka government on the other-hand is acting all passive as if it’s a storm in the tea-cup, terming it as another political game to communalise the society. It’s one of the sad irony of our times how one person has lost his life over a ruler who lost his life more than 200 years back in a war fighting against the British! Tipu was a patriot or ‘bigot’ is debatable. Those who are protesting claim he was a tyrant, an intolerant ruler while the other fraction claims he promoted communal harmony. Whose point are we supposed to buy? This is where history comes to our rescue. The then king of Mysore introduced number of innovations during his rule, including lunis...