An act of magnanimity by his long-time associate, Lal Krishna Advani, set Atal Bihari Vajpayee on a journey of accomplishment that he had been convinc
The Narendra Modi Government has mounted an assault on public institutions and people’s fundamental rights and one such act is the set of amendments p
It was common knowledge that the Supreme Court would deliver its judgment in the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit before the Chief Justice of In
Much of the adulatory media coverage of the performance of the Modi Government in its first 100 days overlooked significant gaps between intent and ac
Academic freedom has gained a sense of urgency in India over the past decade. While there were fleeting attempts in the past, the current rightward sh
The increasing corporatisation of the media—with business houses, politicians, political parties and individuals with political affiliations owning an
A high-voltage political battle has broken out on the Telangana statehood issue in Andhra Pradesh in the run-up to the 2014 general elections. M.R.
Senior political journalist M.R. Venkatesh, who has joined The Hindu Centre as Chief Political Coordinator, casts a fresh eye on the inherent possibil
India’s plural tradition, safeguarded by a constitutional commitment to a secular democracy, is going through challenging times. The founding ideals o
Prof M.K. Sridhar , Member of the committee to draft the National Education Policy 2019 has been an educationist all through and has also ser
For long a pocket borough of the Congress party Karnataka appears headed for a waveless election. The southern State, which goes to the polls in two p
B.V. Acharya, Senior Advocate and one of Karnataka’s eminent lawyers for several decades and five times Advocate General of the State is of the
The early years of the Indian republic saw an emphasis on nation building, accomplished through a top-down policy paradigm driven by the Centre and fl
On September 21st, 2013, The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy organised a consultation in Hyderabad, "Dealing with the Costs of Divisi
As India steps into its 77thyear of Independence, it has moved a considerable distance from its lofty founding vision of ushering in a new
In many countries across the world, the active omnipresence of conflicting ideologies is nowhere as apparent as when it comes to official textbooks. G
The 34th C.D. Deshmukh Memorial Lecture was delivered by Jairam Ramesh, former Union Minister and Senior Visiting Fellow, The Hindu Cent
Senior Advocate, B.V. Acharya, who as Special Public Prosecutor relentlessly led the prosecution for over a decade in the well-known disproport
Always volatile, the situation in the Kashmir Valley has taken a turn for the worse in the year since Burhan Wani, the Hizbul Mujahideen commander, wa
Sedition laws sit at the crossroads of politics and society, and law and justice. The political nature of this “offence against the state” tests the l
A history of fragile governments, even a Chief Minister selected by the toss of a coin, and the search for identity by tribal groups forms the backdro
As Nagaland heads for the polls to the State Assembly on February 27, 2018, an enduring solution to its decades-long crisis remains elusive despite a
Tripura appears set to witness an electoral battle between the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI (M)], which has been re-elected for 25 years to
The story of India’s democracy since the Ayodhya demolition has been one of the withering away of foundational values. Sukumar Muralidharan, Associ
Independent India was conceived as a celebration of indigenous diversity. Making the case for progressing from diversity to pluralism, M.A. Kalam
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
Reporting fast-paced breaking news is always an interesting challenge. On December 6, 1992, when the Babri Masjid was being demolished, Qurban Ali,
"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
Pawan K. Varma, the national spokesperson of the Janata Dal (United), and until recently advisor to the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar,
"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
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
The AIADMK government has moved away from the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and party supremo, Jayalalithaa’s fundamental doctrine of dealing with th
For a young anthropologist living in the U.K.’s largely Pakistani neighbourhood, Bradford, news of the demolition of Babri Masjid was a bombshell.
With elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly scheduled on May 12, 2018, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government has endorsed a long-standing
India under the Bharatiya Janata Party is facing a new hegemony of the Right, which is attempting to replace a Left-leaning dominant narrative. What i
Tamil Nadu's politics today is a startling opposite of what it was nearly a year ago, since the death of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on December 5,
The Karnataka unit of the Congress party is upbeat that it will be successful in the elections to the State Legislative Assembly due in another few mo
Renewed efforts are on to unite the Indian Opposition against the ruling dispensation led by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. But the Opposition is up aga
The standoff at the Doklam Plateau and the ongoing violent movement for Statehood in Darjeeling present a clear threat to India's 'Chicken’s Neck', a
In this interview with S. Rajendran, Karnataka Representative of The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, the State's Minister for Ener
On February 14, 2017, the Supreme Court of India delivered its verdict on one of India's most high-profile corruption cases in which it held that the
Contrary to popular perception, caste politics in Punjab has not been fully and adequately resolved either through the dominant influence of Sikhism,
The 2013 violence in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh was unique in that the so-called secular forces were not averse to fanning the fires started by Hi
The rise of Hindutva-related organisations in India, especially since the late 1980s, has witnessed frequent attacks by them on the pre-freedom Congre
The Karnataka government's refusal to release water to Tamil Nadu despite a Supreme Court ruling has added a new and crucial angle to the Cauvery wate
The Kashmir conflict, already an inextricable part of international politics, is getting more complicated now with attempts to cast conflict resoluti
The surge of Kashmiri nationalism in the Valley could have been harnessed as social capital. But the recent orgy of violence has put paid to that hope
Narendra Modi’s exit from Gujarat’s State politics has brought into the open fissures and vulnerabilities within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that
India's relationship with its neighbours is often a point of passionate discussion. In this article, The Hindu Centre's Public Policy Scholar, Maa
On June 11, 2016, former Union Minister, Jairam Ramesh was elected to the Rajya Sabha, India’s upper house, for a third term representing the Indian N
Notwithstanding the fact that the BJP/NDA appear to be on a strong wicket in national politics after the elections to five States, these poll results
A mix of local issues and competing ideologies have made the Assam Assembly elections a difficult one to call. In this article, journalist Subir Bh
The institutionalisation of hyper-nationalism through sport is reflected in the oft-successful attempts by states to claim identities based on sportin
West Bengal Chief Minister and All India Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is going it alone in the State Assembly election in 2016 and that ma
The election manifesto of the Paataali Makkal Katchi (PMK) for the general elections to the 15th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, released by the PMK
The 2016 Assembly election is crucial for the three fronts in Kerala. While the United Democratic Front (UDF) is making all efforts to continue in pow
The election manifesto of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for the general elections to the 15th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, released by the p
Much of the tax-payer angst against JNU is not grounded in rational argument but appears to be a reaction – both against the University’s changing ca
Kashmir remains India’s unsolved puzzle even after six decades. Its history has thrown up strange paradoxes and challenges for policy makers in New De
The right to vote and the right to contest are central to the concept of citizenship in an electoral democracy. Individuals can be disqualified from
The fragile peace process in strife-torn Assam appears likely to get a fresh impetus after the return of Anup Chetia, the northeastern State’s most ta
It is over two decades since the historic Babri Masjid was demolished to construct of a Ram temple in Ayodhya. While the leaders and workers of the BJ
The recent verdict by the Supreme Court of India, upholding an amendment by the Haryana government to prescribe minimum educational qualifications to
The rise of religious nationalism owes its origin to the tacit legitimacy given to groups that defined India in religious terms. Despite this, an ind
The demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 by kar sevaks led by Hindu right-wing organisations reset India’s political discourse. In this essay, Mu
In 2013, Nitish Kumar parted ways from an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Narendra Modi, arguing that Modi’s politics was at odds w
As Bihar enters the final phases of polling in the Assembly Elections, Sarthak Bagchi reflects on the competitive campaigns launched by the Bha
Who will win in Bihar? As the spotlight moves to the upcoming hotly contested Bihar elections, Sarthak Bagchi provides a primer to the three po
One year after it delivered him an electoral bounty, Uttar Pradesh is deeply disappointed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi
According to studies, the 2014 general election is likely to be the most expensive election in Indian history, with a massive Rs. 30,000 crores being
Despite the huge potential of India’s soft power, it has not been optimally used thus far. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, through his high visilibity a
Back in May 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to reboot Union-State relations with new initiatives aimed at supporting the aspirations of th
The Naga resistance, which is as old as Indian independence, has consistently fought for a homeland. South Asia's longest running political conflict h
Punjab’s Lok Sabha results have not always been in sync with national results.
The ongoing Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir is marked by a decline in the fortunes of the Indian National Congress. Kaustav Chakrabarti,
Former national spokesperson of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Ram Madhav, recently inducted into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a genera
With the Special Court in Bengaluru pronouncing AIADMK general secretary, Jayalalithaa, guilty in the disproportionate assets case, she becomes the fi
Not for the first time is the polluted holy river the focus of attention
Transformational leaders will be judged not merely by the style of their speeches but more by the substance of their actions.
The Naga Hoho, the apex civil society body of the Nagas, while striving for a unified Naga identity, has been fighting a losing battle to bring about
Despite a lack of resources and party structure, the Aam Aadmi Party’s impressive entry into Punjab politics was because they raised issues that are o
Developments in the political arena in Punjab since the 2012 assembly election, when the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) was formed, and the recent ent
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which rode to power on the back of popular disenchantment, has a lot to deliver to keep up its poll promise
The Report of the Law Commission of India on the Abolition of Death Penalty may appear to have shaped popular thinking in favour of doing away with c
Behind the recent violence in Manipur, sparked by fears over loss of tribal land through legislation, lies deep rooted rivalries between the insurgent
Will the new framework agreement between the Indian government and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) in Nagaland bring lasting p
Political movements involving students have raised ciritical issues at crucial moments of a country's history. The student protests in June 2015 at th
What does the recent attack on the Indian army by the newly formed United National Liberation Front of Western South East Asia (UNLFW) led by SS Khapl
