Agriculture seems like a textbook case-study of the successful operation of free markets. But the specific realities of the sector and the forms of power embedded in India’s historical context demand that this textbook be rewritten, writes Mihir Shah.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/mere-paas-sarkaar-hai
As advertising collapses and digitisation picks up, Covid-19 is hastening the transformation of India’s newspapers, writes Sevanti Ninan.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/covid-hastens-transformation-india-s-newspapers-advertising-collapses-and-digitisation-picks
Analysing @[email protected]’s argument against a statutory MSP and for opening up markets to the private trade, MS Sriram writes about the fundamental imbalance between farmers and private buyers in agricultural marketing.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/letters/strengthening-msp-system
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“As rural India has seen distress for some time now, the solution proposed is: get the state out of the way, give farmers their freedom & everyone will live happily ever after!” Mihir Shah’s case for greater & continued state intervention in agriculture.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/mere-paas-sarkaar-hai
India’s newspapers relied on advertising, that began to unravel even before the pandemic struck. Dailies have shut down & journalists have lost jobs. To revive their fortunes, they are now, belatedly, trying to build incomes from digital. @[email protected] writes
https://bit.ly/3igKCgv
In contract farming, the buyer has disproportionate power. Post-harvest, the farmer is usually a price taker, while the buyer has deep pockets, time, & stocks in godowns. MS Sriram on strengthening the MSP system to reduce vulnerabilities of farmers.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/letters/strengthening-msp-system
Unlike in Uttarakhand & Himachal, the UP CM’s stand on interfaith marriages has been clear for long. An undated video that surfaced in 2014 has Adityanath declaring at a rally that if Muslims converted one Hindu girl, Hindus would convert 100 Muslim girls.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/letters/law-inter-faith-marraige
Today in @[email protected]: Sevanti Ninan on the transformation of India’s newspaper industry; Mihir Shah on state intervention in Indian agriculture & MS Sriram on strengthening the MSP system. Join our mailing list & get these delivered to your inbox.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/?newsltter
The iconography in ‘love jihad’ propaganda conjoins two figures: the ‘bestial’ Muslim male & the ‘victimised’ & ‘foolish’ Hindu woman. As in the law, the ‘enemy’ within and without is reconfigured and rendered visible as actor and subject.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/love-laws-making-hindu-muslim-romances-illegitimate
There has to be a greater willingness on all sides to give & take in the larger interest of sustainable farming, sustainable soil & water use & healthy production for consumers & safe & profitable working conditions for farmers. @[email protected] reframes the debate
https://www.theindiaforum.in/letters/looking-beyond-msp
Despite the cultural diversity, we chawl-dwellers shared the socio-economic label of “marginalized” or “underprivileged” Indians. We experienced liberalization alright, but indirectly through the lives of other Indians, writes @[email protected]
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/why-i-m-losing-hope-india
Donald Trump has legitimized far-right groups with his own dog -whistling; these will continue to grow as a movement. The dangers of a far-right & right-wing coalition highlight the urgency of strengthening the multiracial-working class coalition.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/has-us-dodged-rise-far-right-politics
By lamenting against conversion, even a demographic & dominant majority can portray itself as an ‘endangered’ minority. The fictive fear of Hindus being outnumbered by ‘others’ is central to Hindutva politics and to false claims of ‘love jihad’.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/love-laws-making-hindu-muslim-romances-illegitimate
Unlike in Uttarakhand & Himachal, the UP CM’s stand on interfaith marriages has been clear for long. An undated video that surfaced in 2014 has Adityanath declaring at a rally that if Muslims converted one Hindu girl, Hindus would convert 100 Muslim girls.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/letters/law-inter-faith-marraige
“A nation coded as Hindu is deciding the rules of love & desire. Couched in the language of ‘protection’ is a grim coercive power & disciplinary regime, that views women who desire & who chose their own partners as an enemy & as a menace to Hindutva.”
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/love-laws-making-hindu-muslim-romances-illegitimate
The resultant #HinduRashtra will be neither China-like nor Israel-like. It will simply be, as we are beginning to see in some ways even today, a monochromatic mongrel of Gorakhpur and Antilia.
@[email protected] on why he is losing hope in India.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/why-i-m-losing-hope-india
Amidst taboos on faith & love, the lived lives & everyday realties of interfaith couples offer powerful competing narratives. Many have come forward to share stories of intimacy across religious divides on @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/love-laws-making-hindu-muslim-romances-illegitimate
The reason why UP’s law on interfaith marriages is creating turmoil is because it criminalises 'conversion for the sole purpose of marriage'; it gives the police full freedom to act on its own; and because of the state’s chief minister. By @[email protected]
https://www.theindiaforum.in/letters/law-inter-faith-marraige
Anxieties over who is bedding & wedding Hindu women are embedded in a distinct Hindu nationalism, along with a simultaneous rewriting of morality & patriarchal norms.” Charu Gupta on the decades-old campaign to make Hindu-Muslim romances illegitimate.
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/love-laws-making-hindu-muslim-romances-illegitimate
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