2024 | ২০২৪

For someone who had boarded the ‘Deluxe’ train from an overwhelmingly large and forever busy Howrah station, the railway station of Delhi appeared so small and so very provincial. It was during the biting winter of 1967, and I had been told by panicky relatives back home to wrap my muffler tightly around my neck and over my ears.

One of the heavy costs that Narendra Modi is paying for staying in power is disowning the strongest of biases of his parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – to which he swore everlasting loyalty when he joined it in his teens. He also retracts, ever so stealthily, from the principle of his political guru, V.D. Savarkar of the Hindu Mahasabha, even as he never misses a photo opportunity to worship him publicly.

William Dalrymple’s sweeping statement that WhatsApp history has gripped Indians because our historians did not write for the general public has, as expected, set the cat among pigeons. For the author, such ruffled feathers mean greater interest in his new book The Golden Road, and surely, better sales.

Diwali is one festival that every corner of India celebrates, in some form or the other. As there is no central model or standard protocol, the diverse local-level celebrations are not really regional variations, but represent the cultural tradition of that part of India. Each region, sub-region, cult or sect has evolved its mode of celebration, based on its history and ancient beliefs, but each is definitely connected to the main festival of Diwali.

Of all the regional festivals that Hindi movies have popularised throughout India the most, Mumbai’s Ganesh Chaturthi and Karwa Chauth are the very top. Bollywood selected Karwa Chauth as it perfectly fitted into the image of blissful, society-sanctioned, post-marital love and devotion.

Valmiki Jayanti is a government holiday and many institutions are shut down, but very few people know why. Some say, quite vaguely, that it celebrates the great composer of the Ramayan, Maharshi Valmiki and they are officially correct.

আদি নবরাত্রি উৎসব ছিল বসন্তকালে, চৈত্র মাসে। কিন্তু নিঃসন্দেহে, শারদীয় নবরাত্রি বা অকালবোধনকে (রবিবার থেকে মহানবমী অব্দি) ভারতে প্রায় প্রতিটি অঞ্চলে অনেক বেশি গুরুত্ব সহকারে পালন করা হয়।

On August 9, the day Mahatma Gandhi had launched the ‘Quit India’ movement in 1942 (opposed by the Hindu Right), the entire opposition walked out of the Rajya Sabha in protest against the chairman’s ruling that disallowed the Leader of Opposition to speak about the chair’s jibe at Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan, who’s in her 20th year in the Rajya Sabha.

Many have often wondered how the ancient Indic religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism (Sikhism is not that ‘ancient’), survived and prospered for millennia — without a designated holy book like the Bible or the Koran and with no Mecca, Vatican or Jerusalem to guide. With a little introspection, we come to realise that it is actually this absence of a ‘central command’ and non-uniform format that account for this.

On the 8th of September this year, Jains observed Michchhāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्) and 10 days later the Digambar Jains end this period with Kshamavani. This period of Paryushan is for daily fasting, inner reflection and confession — when they greet all saying: “Please forgive me with your full affection.

On the 8th of September this year, Jains observed Michchhāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्) and 10 days later the Digambar Jains end this period with Kshamavani. This period of Paryushan is for daily fasting, inner reflection and confession — when they greet all saying: “Please forgive me with your full affection".

Thiruvonam represents the peak of the ten-day celebrations of Onam in Kerala and by Malayalis of all communities, all over the world. It is more than a festival of joy for it represents the core of the great reconciliatory heart of India wherein all religions have pooled in.

What started as a protest against a heinous rape and murder of a junior lady doctor in a government hospital in Kolkata attached to the famous RG Kar Medical College has snowballed into an unprecedented movement for justice and the safety of women. 

Of all the Hindu deities, Shiva may be the most complex but Lakshmi is certainly one of the most amorphous — when one attempts to capture her within a definitive framework. She is undoubtedly one of the oldest deities and one can claim, quite confidently, that she has survived for three full millennia,

Though Narendra Modi and his cohorts swore before the elections that they would surely cross 400 seats, it was clear during the different phases of polling that the INDIA bloc parties would certainly do well. The new-found unity among the opposition parties had evoked enthusiastic popular support.

There is no doubt that today, the 24th of August, is a landmark day when the modern colonial city of Calcutta or Kolkata came up. True, there were human settlements in this area that were part of a zemindari possession of the famous family of Sabarna Roy Choudhury— but the great metropolis of Calcutta surely owes its founding to Job Charnock — who set up camp here.

During the UPA years, 2004 to 2014, Narendra Modi, CM of Gujarat, led the brigade of States on each and every issue that he felt militated against the federal structure of the Constitution. Thus, when he was elected prime minister of India in 2014, we had naturally expected him to strengthen the rights of states and were certain that he would take away several controversially acquired powers of the Centre.

In 1967, when I was just 15 years old, I was attracted to Ram Manohar Lohia’s brand of desi socialism that targeted the nexus between caste and class in India. The Congress had been in power for 20 years and appeared quite invincible. But socialist leaders such as George Fernandes, Madhu Limaye, Rabi Ray and Kishen Pattanayak believed that the mighty Congress could be dislodged.

Narendra Modi has begun his third term in 2024 with the inglorious distinction of leading the “least productive parliament session” – the just-concluded monsoon-cum-budget session. Conversely, his first session after his second innings in 2019 was proudly declared by the Speaker as the “most productive” one since 1952. Along with the Rajya Sabha, it had passed a record 36 bills – demonstrating, in no uncertain terms, the cocky spirit of that phase.

I remember the tremendous tension that I went through as SDO nd Magistrate in charge of “Muharram” at Loha Gate in Agarpara in 1978 — as oceans of frenzied humans went all around me, lashing and bleeding themselves with whips, chains and fighting dangerously swords — crying "Ya Hasan, Ya Husain"! It continued through the evening and night. Though there were grievous and other (self-inflicted) injuries, I could report early in the morning, that it was “peaceful” and “law and order under control”.