As Diwali approaches and Hindus prepare to celebrate the triumphant return of Lord Ram to his Kingdom (and the spanking new temple that is ...
As Diwali approaches and Hindus prepare to celebrate the triumphant return of Lord Ram to his Kingdom (and the spanking new temple that is being built for him in Ayodhya), the rest of us must be content to celebrate this season of serial triumphs for Indian Democracy. Between the breaking news of a disturbing cremation, the laying to rest of one great conspiracy and the inauguration of another, how can we not be proud of ourselves, our cultural and civilisational values, both ancient and modern?
In mid-September, reports came in of a 19-year old Dalit girl who was gang-raped, mutilated and left for dead by dominant caste men in her village in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. Her family was one of 15 Dalit families in a village where a majority of the 600 households were Brahmin and Thakur – the same caste as Ajay Singh Bisht, the saffron-robed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister who calls himself Yogi Adityanath. (He is, by all accounts, being groomed to replace Narendra Modi as Prime Minister in the near future.)
The girl had been stalked and terrorised by her assailants for a while. She had nobody to turn to for help. Nobody to protect her. So, she stayed at...
