As I bought a bottle of water from the concession stand in a Northern California theater on 19 March 2022, the staffer asked me, “What movie are you seeing?” “‘Kashmir Files’,” I said. “Oh,” he responded. “It must be good. It’s almost sold out.” Indeed it was. Not good, rather, but sold out. Popularity, however,…
“India is subsumed in a momentous political crisis, the most daunting since 1950,” warned Dr. Angana Chatterji of the University of California, Berkeley on March 12. “The practice of illiberal democracy today is accompanied by the call to fascism and the extermination of Muslims.” Chatterji (who joined via Zoom) was speaking at a San Diego,…
Since 1947, when the Republic of India gained its independence, it has gone through many rough patches. Yet with all the ups and downs, the young country gradually grew into its own as a generally stable, secular democracy. Bold and courageous Indians debated, and toiled, and not only worked — or began working — through…
