Justice

Published on 4th September, 2022, in Mid-Day. What is the opposite of freedom of speech? It is the right to get offended. Recently, Nupur Sharma commented about the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage on national television. She stated it in a debate and it was not meant to flatter. The Arab elite, otherwise mute spectators to global Muslim misery, took exception. The Indian government had to calm frayed nerves. Here, speech was the problem. Long ago, Salman Rushdie wrote a work of fiction called Satanic Verses inspired by a story of the Prophet Muhammad. It offended some Muslims who demanded his death. A fatwa was issued, and ..

Published on 4th June, 2022, in Times of India. Though dharma is often translated as justice in modern translation, there is a fundamental error in such an understanding. Dharma presupposes karma, hence rebirth. Justice does not. In the dharma discourse, we are born with karmic debt that we have to either repay or reclaim. That is why there is diversity and inequality in the world. We work with this reality. In the justice discourse, we are born with a clean slate, as an equal to other beings. That we experience inequality around us is because some people have cornered all wealth and power, and that ..

Published on 4th December, 2021, in The Hindu. In a crime, the victim accuses the villain. But when the villain counter-accuses the victim, and insists the victim is villain too, we call it ‘whataboutery.’ This word is a neologism, first used in the 1970s in the context of violence in Northern Ireland. Whataboutery creates a moral ambiguity as to who is right and who is wrong. Those at the receiving end see it as the devil’s strategy. Those deploying it insist it is an act of wisdom, to replace a narrow revolutionary focus with a wider social and historical perspective. Whataboutery is most evident during ..

Who is a Hindu? Published on 4th August, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror Once upon a time, there were two friends in a school. They were the best of friends and they promised to share everything with each other. After they graduated, one became rich and one remained poor. The poor friend went to the rich friend and asked for help. The way the friend behaved led to two endings. In one retelling of this story, the poor friend reminds the rich friend of their childhood friendship and demands help, in the name of this friendship. The rich friend mocks his poor friend and says that ..

Published on 23rd September, 2015, on www.dailyo.in. So I am confused. According to newspaper reports, Delhi High Court allegedly steps in to protect the rights of a male-to-female transgender. Simultaneously, the Supreme Court supposedly declares homosexuality a social evil while it shelves a film that speaks of the suffering of a gay Indian prince, even after the Censor Board passed it. What’s going on? Is the media confusing us? Or is the judicial system confused? Is it simply doing the ubiquitous Indian headshake on queer issues? Must I write this article? Will I be charged for sedition for doing what columnists are supposed to do? ..