Over 200 noted authors, including Salman Rushdie and Neel Mukherjee, have asked British Prime Minister David Cameron to raise the issue of "rising climate of fear" and "growing intolerance" in India during his talks with his counterpart Narendra Modi.
Amid bitterness in ties with ally Shiv Sena, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has fired a fresh salvo questioning the opposition to his decision to provide security to Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali when Sena Chief's family had hosted cricketer Javed Miandad from that country.
Perumal Murugan's Songs Of A Coward reminds Uttaran Das Gupta of Orwell's Animal Farm and Ionesco's The Rhinoceros. Both works, as well as Murugan's stark poetry, are poignant for our times, when political figures build personality cults around themselves and demand absolute loyalty.
'And if you think this is alarmist nonsense, you are helping it happen,' says Mitali Saran.
The 'Shatrughan Sinha of the South' plunges into politics.
Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the government on the issue of intolerance telling it not to learn the "wrong lessons" from the Pakistan.
'I stand by what I said. It is understandable that Rushdie got angry and called me names. But it also means it hurt him because there was some truth in what I said.'
The various meat bans across the country are an attempt to attack civil liberties, says civil rights activist Kavita Srivastava.
Bharadwaj claimed a number of human rights lawyers, activists and organisations were deliberately named to cast a stigma over them, obstruct their work and incite hatred against them.
Afzal Usmani, an accused in 2008 Ahmedabad and Surat blast cases, escaped from the MCOCA court in Mumbai on Friday.
Three eminent writers from Punjab announced that they were returning their Sahitya Akademi awards, while Kannada writer Aravind Malagatti resigned from the body's general council, joining the growing protest by litterateurs over "rising intolerance" and "communal" atmosphere.
Buoyed by government retreating on the land ordinance, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he has been "reduced to unedifying flip flops" and most of his poll promises were nothing more than "hawabaazi" (empty talk).
The Karnataka government decided to hand over to the Central Bureau of Investigation the probe into the murder of noted Kannada progressive thinker and scholar M M Kalburgi, even as his body was laid to rest with full state honours.
Four Pakistani rangers were killed in Border Security Force's strong retaliation after a jawan of the force lost his life in heavy firing from the other side on a patrol on Wednesday along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district.
Veteran scientist P M Bhargava will return the awards he received from the government of India to protest against "the government's attack on rationalism, reasoning and science."
Novelists are speaking for millions across India who are alarmed at where this country is headed.
The only thing more dangerous than a killer who thinks he is acting to protect his faith or community is the killer who knows he is acting with the sanction of his faith or community
Opposition parties ask the government to listen to the concern of the intellectuals returning awards.
MUST READ: The speech Nayantara Sahgal was not allowed to give.
'If, in the first 48 to 72 hours, they are just on a wild goose chase, then Gauri Lankesh's murder will not get solved.'
Though the list of superstitious beliefs is long, often dissolving distinctions of class, caste, religion and education, Karnataka's anti-superstition bill is seen as a big step ahead.
Can the country afford to have problems of such magnitude in the cities of Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad, which not only are the major growth drivers but are also the biggest revenue contributors in their respective states?
The mood turned somber at the 35th National Games after a young netball player lost his life in a freak accident.
'There is nothing traitorous about highlighting the poor record of your own government. If the Indian government does something wrong, we all have the right to point this out at any forum, international or national.'
On the eve of the budget session of Parliament, the government on Sunday reached out to the opposition
'In the 30 years since the Ayodhya movement began, the RSS has created a generation of Hindus who are the mirror image of those fanatic Muslims who take to the streets at the slightest, even imagined, 'insult to Islam,' argues Jyoti Punwani.
India's dominance went uncontested for the fifth successive day at the 12th South Asian Games, as its shooters, wushu players and track-and-field athletes annihilated competition to sweep most of the gold medals up for grabs, in Guwahati, on Wednesday.
Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday attacked the coalition partner on issues like Pakistan, beef, Ram temple and inflation but ruled out walking out of the Maharashtra government any time soon.
The prime minister, says Ram Kelkar, could do a lot to advance his stature as a national leader by speaking in strong and unequivocal terms on the subject of opposing intolerance and emphasizing the rule of law, thereby setting the tone for the nation and the party.
'Dadri was an extension of the cultural fascism that was happening in the country.' 'All the people in the country suffered under the Emergency, but now we see one community trying to crush the other community. Do they know what is brewing in the minds of the other side? What is happening today can lead to a very dangerous situation in the country.' 'We have lost religious tolerance in today's India.' Writer Sarah Joseph on why she returned her Sahitya Akademi Award.
'Communal tension and violent mobs have been part of our country, whichever government is in power. What has happened since the BJP came into power is that individuals or group activities asserting Hindutva have become louder, more aggressive.' 'Now we are finding ourselves in a country where reasoning and thinking have no place, the power lies with the goons.' 'I find any ban, whether on what we write, what we eat, how we dress etc, absolutely abominable. They have no place in a democracy.' Shashi Deshpande on why she joined the writers' protest against the growing intolerance in India.
