Kangana Ranaut's Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi releases this week, a cinematic tribute to one of India's most courageous monarchs. In this fascinating excerpt from Moupia Basu's new book The Queen's Last Salute, the British conspire with Indian malcontents to bring Rani Lakshmibai's empire under the Englishman's yoke.
The top posts on social media from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
It has been a tortuous journey for France's Patrice Evra, once blamed for playing a dark role in the worst scandal in the history of the national team but now in the limelight as the wise old man of a team with high hopes.
'My wife was asked to get out of an autorickshaw because she was married to me. My children were targeted and branded a traitor's children. In spite of the Supreme Court and the NHRC having cleared my case, the state government is yet to close it. Local politicians are behind this. Why can't they close the case, give me compensation, accepting gracefully that they have wronged me?' Dr S Nambi Narayanan, the scientist who was accused and then exonerated in the 1994 ISRO spying case, speaks to Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier about his continuing travails and his recent meeting with Narendra Modi.
'Mulk questions the very principle, of good-Muslim exceptionalism.' 'That, of course, we adore Abdul Hamid, A P J Abdul Kalam and Bismillah Khan and if only more Muslims were like them.' 'Anubhav Sinha sticks his neck out to say that these are no exceptions.' 'Most Muslims are like them. It is the terrorists who are exceptions,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Whistleblower nearly aborted efforts to expose Russian doping
Siddaramaiah seems overwhelmed by problems coming at him from every direction, reports Aditi Phadnis.
The Rajasthan high court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu in a sexual assault case, saying the stage is not fit for granting him relief.
'Besides electoral opportunism, a sustained vilification of AMU on one or the other pretext helps them sustain their 'everyday communalism', the new strategy of the BJP of the Narendra Damodardas Modi-Amit Anilchandra Shah era,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
'The resignation has been more like a statement. Like an alarm bell that "Look, something is wrong".' 'I am saying that "Look, I rang the bell, but I am also going to provide solutions".'
'The BJP should avoid escalating every local issue and minor provocation into a national crisis and claiming a 'holier than thou' monopoly on patriotism.' 'And the Opposition should avoid paying the government back in the same coin by crying wolf about intolerance at the slightest provocation.'
Dhananjay Desai has been allowed to spread his poison to young men in Maharashtra and Goa over the last five years, by a 'secular' Congress-NCP government. The 23 cases pending against him have not stopped him. He and his supporters must have thought they were immune when they lynched a bearded Muslim at night. Neither Desai nor his followers, nor the police, nor their 'secular' political masters, must have expected the nationwide furore that followed, says Jyoti Punwani.
Bollywood actor Aamir Khan, whose "leaving India" comments linked to the "intolerance" debate had kicked up a huge controversy, on Monday said he never meant that he wanted to leave the country and asserted that India was intolerant.
Protesting against enforced disappearances in Balochistan, Abdul Qadeer Baloch, 72, has led a small group that has covered more than 2,000 kilometres on foot, breaking the 84-year-old record set by Mahatma Gandhi during his Dandi march. Hamid Mir reports from Islamabad.
PM Modi said the Centre was not consulted by the Jammu and Kashmir government.
The Naxal movement is today facing leadership issues, losing favour with the Tribals and is confused about its future agenda and course of action.
Mexico got just rewards for their attacking intent when Oribe Peralta's 61st minute strike gave them a 1-0 win over Cameroon in their World Cup opener at a rain-saturated Dunas arena on Friday.
JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested on sedition charges, has claimed that Delhi police personnel refused to arrest a person who had attacked him at the Patiala House Court premises on February 17 despite he identifying the assailant.
'It will be a fine day when we can claim to have institutions in civil society as influential and as popular as ACLU, which is a strong body only because millions of Americans support its values.' 'When Indians take offence at how other Indians are treated, when we take injustice to others personally, we will begin to make India great,' says Aakar Patel.
'We give them a lot of money and they turn that money around and that goes to the bad guys that kill not only folks in America and Afghanistan, but you in India,' says United States Congressman Ted Poe.
There is a section in the Muslim community in West Bengal that believes that the ruling TMC has not quite delivered on the promises it made.
'I have exited at least six WhatsApp groups because I am tired of your bhakts who impose their views on your behalf.' 'Why can't I have a healthy discussion about my nation's future without being called deshdrohi?' asks Divya Nair.
'Sasikala, already determined to keep both the party and CM's post for herself, might not be able to do it, if she were to wait any longer,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Much will depend on turnout, with younger Britons seen as more supportive of the European Union than their elders but less likely to vote.
'Terrorism is merely a symptom of a deeper disease in Pakistan's body politic,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'The death certificate which I once read even states the date, 6 August, but I know that already.' 'Every year, we observe paath at the local gurdwara for which we need to take leave from school. The leave form always says 'attending father's death anniversary'. 'I always dread this day -- the long walk from my desk to the teacher's table with my diary in hand and in it a handwritten note dripped with sadness despite its curt language.' 'What generally follows is pity on my teacher's face, a deep sigh of sympathy and a sad pat on the back.' A moving excerpt from Gurmehar Kaur's memoir Small Acts Of Freedom.
'Kanhaiya Kumar and others of his ilk are now out on bail. But what about the NIT 'anti-nationals'?' asks Amulya Ganguli.
Sinha, a former finance minister, hogged the limelight and started trending high on social media on Wednesday after he criticised his own government for sinking economy in an article.
'The educated, employed, and self-sufficient Dalit is being attracted towards the BJP. The middle-class that has rapidly emerged among Dalits in the last two decades has deviated from its path. It has become a traitor to its own class. It cannot distinguish between a friend and an enemy.'
It is important to track what is happening in the rest of the world to be able to develop in India the best possible protection for citizens' fundamental right to privacy -- becoming for a country which prides itself on being the largest functioning democracy in the world.
'If you put colour-coded internal security maps of India in May 2014 and now, the picture won't be flattering to Modi.' 'Failures on internal security are now piling up and can break Modi's momentum,' says Shekhar Gupta.
India isn't Israel, nor can it, or should be, says Shekhar Gupta.
We've got a national case of hitchyourwagonitis, a condition that causes people to believe that unless they shut down their brains and self-respect and concentrate on propping upsome ascendant star by smacking down dissent, they'll never get ahead, says Mitali Saran
Controversial Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Sakshi Maharaj's comments have once again put the Narendra Modi government in a jam. Though the party swiftly slapped a show cause notice on Maharaj, asking him to explain why action should not be initiated against him for his controversial remarks in the recent past, the man denied it, saying it was the 'BJP's internal matter.'
Kashmir was indeed in need of a messiah that summer; 70 per cent of its population aged below 31 were up in arms against the Indian State. Every nook and corner of the land brought forth stories of youngsters with crushed bodies and an unfaltering spirit.
In the words of a senior PDP leader, the party, in order to continue its alliance with the BJP, only needs 'a long spoon to sup with the devil.'
The prime minister sees himself as the "vikas purush". But realising his government's agenda for development requires not just a more efficient administration but also a credible implementation plan, says Nitin Desai.
The suspension of mobile communication for the past 12 days in Kashmir amid strict curfew has put citizens in a desperate situation, says Athar Parvaiz.
Edward Snowden, the American National Security Agency whistleblower whose unprecedented leak of top-secret documents led to a worldwide debate about the nature of surveillance, insisted on Monday that his actions had improved the national security of the United States rather than undermined it, and declared that he would do it all again despite the personal sacrifices he had endured, Guardian reported.
"Sushma Swaraj is a great asset to the nation. There is a no allegation at all. Still they want her to resign," he said.
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