Hello and welcome to ‘The Wire Talks’, I am Sidharth Bhatia. There is an upsurge in violence against minorities, especially Muslims, in different parts of India. Much of it is happening in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, where the police and the state administration remain mute spectators. In Jahangirpuri, in Delhi, a procession to celebrate Ram Navami had menacing overtones with the participants wielding revolvers and swords as they pass near a mosque shouting provocative slogans loudly. Police in Delhi is controlled by the Union home ministry.
Is there a pattern to this? And what does this sudden burst of incidents signify?
We’ll try to understand that with our guest today Professor Ashutosh Varshney, who is now in Brown University and has studied India for decades. He has written several books on this subject and he is a familiar name in India since he publishes in local newspapers.
Ashutosh Varshney, academic and author of books such as Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India, and Battles Half Won: India’s Improbable Democracy – and that was true at one time but it’s of more ‘improbable’ and less ‘democracy’ at the moment. Winner of several academic awards, Professor Varshney
— source thewire.in | Sidharth Bhatia | 16/May/2022