our weeks after Amnesty International was forced to halt is operations in India in September 2020, citing the Indian government’s crackdown on civil society, the UK-based human rights organization published a report warning of a coordinated effort to target journalists and activists in India and Kashmir, specifically those critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
or India’s religious minorities, 2021 has been described a “year of fear” and “annus horribilis,” after the country experienced an unprecedented level of communal violence, but what makes the previous year stand out from others during the Narendra Modi era is the way in which Christians have come under increasing pressure and attack.
n November 12, thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Maldivian capital Male, calling for and an end to the Indian military presence and interference in domestic affairs, while chanting, “Indian Military Out,” making it one of the largest ever political protests on the archipelagic country, and igniting similar protests elsewhere, including Fuvahmulah city, where thousands gathered on Sunday, November 14, 2021.
On Sunday evening, however, Pakistan shocked the world by upstaging its perennial foe and tournament favourite – India– in a match played before a packed Dubai International Cricket Stadium and a television audience surpassing one billion people.
or much of the past seven years, the international community has stood on the sidelines as a passive onlooker as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) he leads, ratches up telegraphed efforts to eradicate and annihilate the country’s 200 million Muslims.
ndia’s ruling party - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – has not only been chipping away at the rights of religious minorities in the courts since taking power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, but also in the streets, where Muslims are faced with escalating threats from roaming Hindutva radicalized gangs.
hen Israeli warplanes, artillery positions and armed drones rained missiles and bombs upon Gaza for 11 consecutive days last month, killing 253 Palestinians, 66 of whom were children, the Israeli Government received predictable support from the United States, but the words of solidarity it received from India has raised eyebrows around the world.
he Indian government’s criminally negligent mishandling of the Coronavirus pandemic has made the country a dystopic COVID19 hell, as mass cremations and burials, along with scenes of COVID19 distressed patients choking to death in the streets washing over our social media timelines like a gigantic tidal wave.
n March 23, when Pakistan annually commemorates Pakistan Resolution Day, also known as Lahore Resolution Day, Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, sent a letter to his counterpart Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, in which he greeted Pakistani people and stated, "India, as a neighboring country, desires cordial relations with the people of Pakistan.
uring the Cold War era, the Soviet Union was a staunch ally of India, with Moscow viewing the sub-continent nation as a bulwark against China and a cornerstone to expanding its empire into the Asia Pacific region, where the U.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, visiting India last month, predictably raised the issue of India’s purchase of the Russian S-400 system with his interlocuters.
n the space of a mere three decades hateful and divisive Hindu nationalist slogans have propelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from a fringe political party to a national party to India’s ruling party, a result that has inflicted great harm on the country’s democratic institutions, bilateral relationships, global reputation and religious minorities.
hree new farm laws – The Farmers Produce, Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation Act), 2020; Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Service Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 – were hurriedly enacted by the Indian Parliament during the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020 following an earlier ordinance in June of the same year.
Read: Communal India: Past, Present and FutureMadrasas in Pakistan, including those associated with Fazal-ur-Rehman – of which there are thousands – have the reputation of heavily relying on charity from the Gulf states.
In one sense a red line was crossed when news came out of Delhi that at least one Mosque had been set on fire (February 25th, 2020), however, crossing lines concerning the huge Muslim 'minority' has been the history of post-independence India.
It is said that the first documented Muslim to step onto Indian soil was Malik bin Dinar, a shaykh from Basra who also established India’s first mosque in Kodungallur, Kerala in 629 AD, just seven years after the Prophet Muhammad’s migration to Medina.