December 2017
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Public Sector Banking and the Unmet Expectations of Rural India

As public sector banks fall short of meeting rural India's credit requirements, the money lender, often usurious, has re-emerged as a key financial pl

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"Prosecution miserably failed to prove any charge": 2G Spectrum Case Judgment [PDF]

"There is no evidence on the record produced before the Court indicating any criminality in the acts allegedly committed by the accused persons r

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The Babri Masjid Demolition Case: The Will to Delay and Deflect

On December 6, 1992 a frenzied mob of kar sevaks pulled down the Babri Masjid in the presence of Lal Krishna Advani and other top Sangh Parivar leade

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A Winter of Anguish: On Ayodhya from Bradford

For a young anthropologist living in the U.K.’s largely Pakistani neighbourhood, Bradford, news of the demolition of Babri Masjid was a bombshell.

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Demolishing History; Constructing an Imagined Past

The demolition of Babri Masjid 25 years ago, was the culmination of a long process of Hinduisation which had its roots in the revivalist–reformist mov

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Ayodhya and India's Descent to a Divided Democracy

The story of India’s democracy since the Ayodhya demolition has been one of the withering away of foundational values. Sukumar Muralidharan, Associ

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'Sarkari media said Babri Masjid was damaged; but it was gone'

Reporting fast-paced breaking news is always an interesting challenge. On December 6, 1992, when the Babri Masjid was being demolished, Qurban Ali,

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The Terrible Bequest of December 6, 1992

Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Senior Associate Editor, Frontline, has covered the Ayodhya issue since 1986 when the locks of the makeshift temple

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"The days have grown more difficult but I haven’t lost hope"

"For the first time in my life I felt I was a Muslim, a defeated and humiliated Muslim. It was not the India of my dreams and my beliefs. I grew

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You can't posit Ram against Lakshmi to those without jobs: Pavan K. Varma

Pawan K. Varma, the national spokesperson of the Janata Dal (United), and until recently advisor to the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar,

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"Counterfeit politics has communalised all aspects of our lives": An Open Letter from Lalu Prasad Yadav to Fellow Citizens

"This was no demolition of a mere mosque. It was, in its effect, a beginning of the era in India when politics of deception and trickery of the Sangh

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"When the Last Dome Fell"

On December 6, 1992, when the Babri Masjid was razed to a rubble by a frenzied group of kar sevaks, a young journalist, Sajeda Momin, who was a

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A year after Jayalalithaa: Tamil Nadu’s Fuzzy Politics

The AIADMK government has moved away from the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and party supremo, Jayalalithaa’s fundamental doctrine of dealing with th

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India has not taken education seriously since independence: Prof. Krishna Kumar

India's education system has remained a much-discussed, but less understood social issue. Its linkages with development are complex, and so are the ec