The Siddique Kappan case and the assault on India’s Constitution

Police accusations against the journalist, if accepted by the courts, will push the boundaries of what is legally credible and rewrite free-speech guarantees.

Samar Halarnkar

· Oct 02, 2021 · 09:00 am

The lights begin to wink out in India’s democracy

Too many Indians are happy to dismiss news of the gathering darkness, shrug at falsehood and bigotry, and be narcoticised into believing all is well.

Samar Halarnkar

· Jul 24, 2021 · 06:30 am

Suraj Pal Amu and the New Hindutva

Protected and emboldened, Hindus who support a more virulent Islamophobia keep Modi going but now find him too moderate.

Samar Halarnkar

· Jun 12, 2021 · 06:30 am

Turning India over to the mob, video by video

The latest recorded atrocities against India’s minorities are the natural consequences of ceding the state to the mob.

Samar Halarnkar

· Mar 27, 2021 · 06:30 am

The mass radicalisation that India does not acknowledge

The persecution of Muslims is rooted in growing bigotry within Hindu society and its normalisation in politics, judiciary and police.

Samar Halarnkar

· Jan 24, 2021 · 06:30 am

India accelerates its age of ecological annihilation

By destroying its last wild areas, India is endangering the future of its people, forests and water sources to deliver questionable, short-term gains to a few.

Samar Halarnkar

· Dec 03, 2020 · 09:00 am

The widening war against India’s women journalists

As the Opposition withers away during the pandemic, online attacks intensify against journalists from trolls linked to India’s ruling party.

Samar Halarnkar

· Oct 24, 2020 · 06:30 am

The twilight of Indian democracy

Protest and journalism are criminal acts, Parliament is irrelevant, duties supersede rights,and profanity flows from the ordinary.

Samar Halarnkar

· Oct 12, 2020 · 06:30 am

FIR 59/20 and the dark contours of India’s emerging, new republic

The Hindu-Rashtra strategy is leery of reason, hostile to minorities, benevolent to misinformation, manipulative of law and derisive of science.

Samar Halarnkar

· Sep 17, 2020 · 06:30 am

Narendra Modi is adopting the wrong lessons of history

All leaders lie and make mistakes. Great leaders use lies to build consensus, they learn from mistakes and they learn to compromise. Modi should too.

Samar Halarnkar

· Jun 07, 2020 · 06:30 am

Smoke, mirrors and Modi: A grand illusion of governance

Emotion and grand political statements may normally distract and attract voters. In a crisis, they are poor substitutes for governance.

Samar Halarnkar

· May 09, 2020 · 06:30 am

Why the slow drip of anti-Muslim poison in India is now a flood

For vast swathes of Hindu society, the pandemic is a convenient staging point on the route to the marginalisation of Muslim India.

Samar Halarnkar

· Apr 10, 2020 · 06:30 am