The Supreme Court today upheld service rules and provisions that impose ‘clean shaven’ rules for the Indian Air Force. Dismissing a petition by a Muslim person, the court said the Air Force was well within its authority to lay down the rule prohibiting the sporting of a beard for its personnel. Many organizations, including the […]
Womens’ rights and equality activists have welcomed the observations of the Allahabad High Court on the institution of Triple Talaq among Muslims in India. The observations, made while disposing of the petition of a 23-year-old woman and her 53-year-old husband, have also been hailed by the BJP, several Muslim organizations and many other social and […]
A man from God’s own country has come under social media fire for preventing his wife from feeding their newborn child over religious reasons. The incident took place on Wednesday around 2 PM, at the EMS co-operative hospital in Mukkam in Kozhikode district, Kerala, where 24-year-old Hafsath refused to breastfeed her newborn baby, when the […]
It is customary for politicians to wish people on festivities. Doing so is supposed to give the audience a feeling that the politician connects with them and shares in their joy. However, it is also possible for this to have unintended consequences in a different cultural context. BJP President Amit Shah wished his followers ‘Vaman Jayanti’ (Brahmin […]
Online shopping site Myntra.com distanced itself from a controversial poster of Lord Krishna showing him ordering clothes from the retailer as Draupadi was being disrobed. Taking off from the Mahabharata epic, the poster depcits Krishna searching for ‘extra long sarees’ as Dushasana peels off Draupadi’s clothes. According to the epic, Draupadi was pawned by her husbands […]
The administration panel of Kerala’s biggest anti-superstition and rationalist Facebook groups has come under death threats for prompting believers to desert the Islamic faith. The blog, named Mujahir 2015, is written in Malayalam, the language spoken in Kerala. “Those who insult the Prophet must be killed,” the blog said. “To carry out (such an act), […]
Dinkoism, India’s largest parody religion, is holding its first ‘mega congregation’ this Sunday at Calicut in the southern state of Kerala. The religion was floated after rationalists and science activists — tired of holding ‘logical’ arguments with religious fanatics about everything from evolution to abortion to women’s rights — decided exaggeration and caricature was the […]
A Christian man who married a Hindu woman ten years ago has now received a notice from a ‘Special Administrative Tribunal’ of the Catholic Church seeking an explanation. The letter dated six days ago “requests” the man to appear before the ‘tribunal’ to discuss how he ended up getting married and living in a fashion […]
Mathrubhumi, Kerala’s second largest newspaper and one of the top ten in the country, was forced to issue an unconditional apology after religious and political organizations held widespread protests outside its offices for publishing ‘blasphemous’ content about Prophet Mohammed. The newspaper had, on Wednesday, printed audience feedback sourced from social media on another of its […]
The Supreme Court today sent notice to the central government in a case based on a complaint by a Muslim woman that the divorce laws applied to her in India are not in conformity with the concept of gender equality promised by the Indian constitution. The court today sought the Union Government’s reply on questions […]
The government of India clarified that it had no plans to forcibly take gold from religious or other institutions under its recently launched monetization scheme. It came up with the clarification in the wake of media reports to the contrary. “Some sections of the media have reported that Government will directly intervene to monetize the […]
Taslima Nasreen, who was forced to leave Bangladesh after religious fundamentalists there objected to her writings, has accused ‘pseudo secular’ liberals in her host country India of being complacent about the threat of Islamist fundamentalist in India. “ISIS has planned to take over India by 2020. Pseudo-secular Indians might say, Atithi Devo Bhava,” Nasreen tweeted […]
The Maharashtra government may likely to generate over Rs. 10,000 crores (approx) revenues in its coffers due to Kumbh Mela, scheduled after 12 years in Nashik, reveals an ASSOCHAM latest assessment. The Maha Kumbh, starting from 14 July in Nasikh will generate additional employment opportunities for over 4.5 lakhs workforce in sectors such as airlines […]
Swaraj Abhiyan, the new outfit floated by Aam Aadmi Party leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, said it is planning to establish ‘Aman’ or peace committees across India to counter religious polarization. The move is a response to attempts by fundamentalist religious and political forces to increase divisions within the Indian society, Prashant Bhushan said. […]
A number of students and young people were arrested by the police for holding Kiss of Love protests in Calicut even as they were opposed by splinter right wing groups. On the face of it, there seemed to be 200 protesters in favor of Kiss of Love in Calicut, more than in Kochi. A smaller […]
Kerala is the only state in which the population of scheduled caste sections has fallen in India between 2001 and 2011, according to the latest census numbers. In Kerala, which has arguably the highest living standard in India, scheduled caste population fell by 2.7% in the ten years to 30.4 lakh from 31.2 lakh in […]
A preliminary enquiry by the Kerala Forest Department has found that widespread forest fires in Kerala’s ecologically sensitive Wayanad region were likely to be man-made rather than natural. Fires were detected across the district on Sunday at the almost the same time. The area has been the hotbed of anti-environmentalist protests over the last three […]
