The march of the majoritarian state

More than three months after the reading down of Article 377, the Kashmir valley is frozen, now literally as well as figuratively

With every passing day, in actions large and small, the push and thrust of the majoritarian state becomes apparent. Defining who is an Indian precisely, or what constitutes “Indianness”, has always been a problematic issue for rulers down the ages. The ambiguities surrounding the question today are evaporating as divisions sharpen in the soil of janmabhoomi. 

If you are an Indian-born Hindu, you are relatively safe, whatever the degree of dissent you might profess; being a Muslim, however, could cast you in a wider penumbra of being “The Other” for doing the same. It carries the risk of being sidelined,