The leader: 12 December is the 143rd birth anniversary of Hindutva ideologue BS Moonje. He was the mentor of KB Hedgewar and helped him shape the RSS.
The outfit: Moonje founded the Central Hindu Miltary Education Society which runs the Bhonsala Military School in Nashik. The School was named in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blasts.
More in the story: What is the BJP's view of Moonje? Why associating with Moonje's outfit can harm the BJP? What was Moonje's association with Benito Mussolini?
Universities are thought to be just, equal and free spaces. However the history of access to universities for certain sections of the society is not very old. Discrimination has been institutionalized and structurally carried out on the basis of caste, race, gender, religion and sexual identity even in the space of the university. However, over time there has been an increase in assertion from the marginalized groups in university spaces that has caused some disquiet among administrators.
"The RSS’ current fascist rhetoric is not surprising given its historical links to fascism in the 1930s, which have been established convincingly using authentic archival material. It is a legacy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as a pracharak for most of his life, identifies with and believes in.
"The Shiv Sena Monday warned that “it will not tolerate” the ghar wapsi planned by RSS-affiliate Dharm Jagran Samiti in Aligarh on December 25 as any such reconversion of Muslims “will lead to genetic abnormalities in the Hindu community”. The Uttar Pradesh unit of the party said the actual ghar wapasi would be by sending Muslims to Pakistan. “The Hindu and Muslim cultures do not match at all and those who consider this a homecoming, they should take lessons from the history.
'A 31-year-old employee of a digital media company was abused and assaulted on Friday because his girlfriend, a South African, did not rise to her feet when the national anthem was piped from speakers at PVR Phoenix in Lower Parel. The young man, Mahek Vyas, and his partner, Nicole Sobotker, were at the theatre to watch the 10.50 pm show of Michael Cuesta's Kill the Messenger when the incident occurred...
"This essay is dedicated to the memories of Sheikh Abdul Rawoof and Nirmal Kumar Chandra, the former, a Maoist revolutionary, who passed away on 9 February 2014, the latter, one of India’s finest radical economists, who died on 19 March 2014. Their respective aspirations lay beyond the narrow limits of “acceptable politics”/“adequate scholarship”. I am grateful to John Mage and Paresh Chattopadhyay, and to my colleagues at EPW, for their helpful comments on an earlier draft.
'On Tuesday (October 7) Bollywood actor Preity Zinta became talk of the Twitter after her self-appreciatory tweet on how she threw a young man out of the theatre because he didn't stand up for the National Anthem. The actor, who was last seen in Ishq in Paris, tweeted on Tuesday: "#bangbang be4 Bang Bang ! Had2 throw a guy out of the Theater as he refused 2stand up4 our National Anthem! Can u believe it?Now movie time.” Preity zinta (@realpreityzinta) October 7, 2014."
"A 25-year-old philosophy student in Kerala is facing life imprisonment after he refused to stand up during the national anthem at a theatre. The student, Salman M, 25, has been charged with sedition as well as under section 66A under the Information Technology Act for allegedly publishing abusive social media posts about Independence Day on August 15. Salman, who was arrested on August 20 in Thiruvananthapuram, was denied bail by a court for the second time on September 6. He has been accused of sedition for allegedly "sitting and hooting" when the anthem was played at the theatre.
'“Marxist, Muslim and Western historians” were in the line of fire on Sunday at a seminar organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-backed Akhil Bharatiya Itihaas Sankalan Yojana (ABISY) to offer tribute to ‘A Forgotten Hindu Emperor, Maharaja Hemchandra Vikramaditya’ with Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy calling for burning of their books. The complaint of ABISY — the history wing of the RSS — and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad against these historians was that they had ignored many Hindu historical figures by design.
"...Viewed in totality, there is little that can distinguish this Hindu Rashtra paradigm from the Islamic Caliphate one. They are both inspired by a misplaced sense of superiority, bitter xenophobic animosity and a justification of means that are not only aggressive but also violent. They are both founded on lies and by whipping a sense of redefined and flawed history. Interestingly, such unjustifiable demands, especially invoked in plural societies, not only run parallel to each other but also complement each other and find a rationale for expansion based on competitive ‘othering’.
