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Saa..

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  “Dada duta dangor gakhir saa diok …”, Abhijeet shouts out to Tushar da in Assamese even as he knows that both of them are Bengalis. He sits down at his favourite table in the University canteen to talk to Neha, who is from Bihar and is all curious as to what this protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act is all about. She is not able to understand how the anti-CAA movement in Assam is different from everywhere else in India. The melancholy of the breezy day quite matches the frame of mind Abhijeet is in. As he laments the opening up of long-buried wounds, he cannot but recollect his experience of growing up in Shillong. “Realities for me are different Neha, while I understand the just Assamese right to protect their cultural identity, my opinions are clouded by what I have seen.” It was Shillong of the 1990s when rock and roll meant rebellion and India was an accident. The locals would proudly exclaim – Khasi by blood, Indian by accident! Abhijeet had had his upbringing in a di
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Indian Farmer Protests from the Prism of Caste Politics in Northern India

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The debate of the 'Bourgeois' and 'Proletariat' in the context of India transcends 'class' and for many, it never goes beyond 'Caste'. The 'Bourgeois' is understandably mostly 'Savarna' [i] but the 'Proletariat' leadership too is primarily 'Savarna'.  It is through this frame that I intend to look at the nuances of Jat caste politics and the ongoing Farmer Protests primarily which seems to be restricted to the northern belt which is dominated by Jats. Historically, the Jats are a community who primarily indulge in agriculture but along with the Khatris, which is another sub-caste within the Jat community – they are considered to be the second-highest in the ‘varna’ [ii] order – the Kshatriyas, who are supposed to be the kings and the fighters. This debate of the ‘varna’ is a very old debate – while the system was put in place to organize society and was supposed to be based on one’s qualities and yet through time as it
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Location: Shillong, Meghalaya, India
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A Reading of Dr. Shashi Tharoor's The Battle of Belonging

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My initiation to Dr. Tharoor’s literary work was with ‘Pax Indica’ and while I have come quite a long way from those days, I still enjoy what he writes. It was his ‘Why I am a Hindu’ that shaped my critique of an essential part of my identity which I guess was again negated with Kancha Ilaiah’s ‘Why I am not a Hindu’ but I guess this is a tussle which every thinking human will always have in their life. Coming to the most recent addition to Dr. Tharoor’s endeavor to provide direction to the idea of India, I think ‘The Battle of Belonging’ is a worthwhile contribution. It’s not that I agree to all he has written but we exist in a state of evolving discourse and as such not making any contribution to that discourse would be more demeaning than producing something which is evidently intended to keep up the spirit of an old diminishing elite. There are certain arguments in the book though, that cannot be denied – the most important one being the transformation to the idea of India. I b
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Location: Shillong, Meghalaya, India
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A Reading of Dr. S. Jaishankar's The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World

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Dr. S. Jaishankar's 'The India Way' puts into perspective the evident anti-Globalisation and rising Nationalism(s) around the world. In doing this it highlights the growing multi-polarity that the world order is experiencing. The book, in my opinion, tries to position Indian Nationalism in the context of the globalization discourse by drawing on India's civilizational nature of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' and in it exploring the combination of Globalisation and Nationalism which would otherwise be an oxymoron, given the western understandings of the respective terms.  The incumbent Indian Foreign Minister goes on to explore Nationalism(s) and how the term could mean different things for different Nations - I believe our Minister's diplomatic career is to a great extent revealed in his assessment of Nationalism. Of the many thoughts that I have read on the idea of Nations and Nationalism(s), his is probably one of the least radical thoughts that I have come acros
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Location: Shillong, Meghalaya, India
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The Israel-UAE Deal: Implications for India

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Donald Trump, who has been quite infamous for his inherent and sometimes induced comic attributes has achieved something that will go down in history as one of the most important events of the current times. He has managed to broker peace in a 72-year-old dispute. The Arab world seems to have settled down with the reality of the existence of Israel and this, from the erstwhile position of Israelis being occupants of Palestinian land. Undoubtedly it is a major set-back for the Palestinian Intifada that had enjoyed major support from the Arab world. One of the most important factors that have contributed to this is the sharp disagreements between the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) and the more militant Hamas. This deal is indicative of frustration that gripped the Arab states, for whom the normalization of relations with Israel, the most robust and functional economy of the region has been on the cards for a long time. It is also very bad news for Iran. The primarily Sunni
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Location: Shillong, Meghalaya, India
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Nation, Nationalism and the Indic Ethos

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I have been a critic of the populist version of Hindutva and that is my position but even so, I understand the necessity of the same for the larger dialectic. They are the antithesis of populist liberal thought. In fact, all such thought cannot be categorized as 'good' but then again 'good' is a very ambiguous term which is determined by way too many factors. It would be safer to consider acceptability - all liberal thought is not acceptable to all and it is very wrong on the part of a select few to decide what is progressive and what is not. So, my position does not give me the right to assert what is right and what is wrong but my opinion and my position are as important. This is an entitlement the Constitution of India gives me and as a citizen, I am entitled to it. Likewise, an individual who holds even the most extreme right-wing opinions has this same entitlement.   On Hinduism, Dharma and Indian Civilization While there is an ensuing debate about Hinduism being a
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Location: Shillong, Meghalaya, India
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A Shillong Thing: Why saying 'Dkhar is not okay?

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Our identities are invariably multi-faceted with varied loci and even though we would like to believe that a lot of our actions are influenced by a strong locus of control yet it is only a naive expression to deny the existence of an external locus of identity. I am no exception, I do need a similar recognition and acceptance of my existence. I grew up in a sleepy ‘90s Shillong that was at the time basking in its newly found neo-liberal prosperity yet drowned in its colonial hangover. My neighborhood is one that has Marwari families, a Manipuri family, a Garo family, and a Naga family among others. While one of my next-door neighbors’ is an Assamese, the other a Khasi. The 1990s was an interesting time when the transition from the analog to the digital was only beginning to take place. The complaints of kids being occupied with the virtual world were not as prominent as kids trespassing every property in the area were. It is probably this multi-cultural setup that has enabled me to inc
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Location: Tezpur, Assam, India
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A Day in a Reang Village

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My story today is from the Bomra Chara Reang village in the Gomati District in Tripura, India. The Reangs are one of the 19 tribal communities in Tripura and is the only tribe that is categorized as primitive. They are still dependent on 'jhum' cultivation or shifting cultivation and prefer staying on hilltops. The Reangs are also spread across Assam and Mizoram, where they are known as Brus. My friend had time and again mentioned the perils he would undertake in order to reach his village which is atop a hill but he had also spoken of the adventures in his village. Being from the city such kind of a village adventure seemed to have an enchanting and euphoric effect on the mind and hence was my decision to visit his village. To start off, I had to take a local bus from Agartala which is the capital of the state of Tripura in India. This bus took me to Udaipur which is in the Gomati district, again in Tripura. It is not to be confused with Udaipur in Rajasthan. Udaipur w
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Location: Agartala, Tripura, India
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No means no! Or does it?

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So, I just came across this post in a random group that I follow on my social media and it is just when it struck me - don't we have such confusions all the time? Why do we fail to say what we mean to say? Is such a response conditioned in women? Is it cultural? Most importantly though, does it promote activities of stalking or for that matter other forms of harassment? It is at this point that I am inclined to think about our very own Bollywood cinema or for that matter commercial cinema from most other parts of India. A stereotypical Indian commercial film will have a male lead who in his romantic endeavor will keep insisting on a relationship, even after a consistent 'NO' from the female character, until she actually gives in. Interestingly, after all those 'Nooooo(s)' and 'Naaaaaa(s)', she gives in and the male lead becomes her soulmate which she is convinced, were destined to be together throughout their seven lives.  While we all have t
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Location: Tezpur, Assam, India
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Denmark's very own Indian Expedition

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While many of my friends in South India probably know about this small settlement but I am very sure my friends up North and elsewhere are not familiar with the existence of it. It is quite fascinating to note that even the Danes were not far behind in the European quest for new markets and colonies. Unfortunately, it has been a very long time since I visited this small settlement but going through my archive of old photographs, I genuinely feel my friends in other parts of the country and elsewhere ought to know about this intriguing piece of history.     Tranquebar is a small settlement about 300 km south of Chennai and local public transport is easily available. The Danes settled here in the early part of the 17 th century. The settlement does not really have much to offer and with very few people it infact felt like a ghost town. Of some of the attractions that the settlement has to offer is the fort Dansborg, build in 1620 which boasts of being the second-largest D
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Location: Tezpur, Assam, India
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