'More so, if it is their daughters wanting to marry someone of their own choosing.' 'Children are seen as property. That's why the problem is so messy.' For young Indians wanting to marry outside their religion, expressing their right to love and live as they choose is becoming increasingly hazardous.
The RSS realises that with a majority BJP government at the Centre and in several states, now was the best time to undermine and perhaps outdo the Congress-Left 'stranglehold' over campuses and young minds.
The Hindutva brigade's silence on the rape may possibly be explained that this incident is an intra-Hindu affair for them. What is even more intriguing is that vocal gender activists have preferred to almost ignore the incident. Why? Is it because homosexual rape does not involve the woman either as victim or as aggressor, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
'The BJP has lost 5 states and Lok Sabha elections are due in less than 90 days.' 'The reservation bill is a jhunjhuna (lollipop) for the upper castes.'
'The brazen politics, in this series of bullying of AMU by functionaries of the Union and provincial governments, utterly disregarding the fact that the matter is sub judice, is quite obvious.' 'One needs to see through the desperate politics of the BJP which governs both Uttar Pradesh and the Centre, especially its woes over its Dalit support base,' says AMU Professor Mohammad Sajjad.
The man behind Aligarh Muslim University 200 years on.
Garima Bharucha, 39, from Mumbai shares her inspiring fitness journey and the lessons she learned along the way.
'If the museum in his memory inspires and instils among Brahminical British Indians an attitude of equality towards Dalits, the edifice would be worth it,' reports Ashis Ray.
'My wife has done everything... She has had to give up a lot,' HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar tells Sahil Makkar.
Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi read out the Preamble to the Constitution of India as part of the 'Satyagraha of Unity' protest.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Bannerjee on Friday rubbished allegations of understanding between her and Bharatiya Janata Party, stating that she attended the IISCO programme along with Prime Minister Modi as it was related to the state's development.
Rarely have we seen such intoxication over power, which ignores the cries of those dying, notes Jyoti Punwani.
Pavan K Varma, diplomat, writer and politician, embarks on a quest about Hinduism's great thinker's stay in Varanasi.
A lowdown on what's happening in the Malayalam film industry.
'The reopening of the petition shows that there was something that was flawed in (the earlier) Supreme Court judgment, and this means another step forward.'
Mohammad Sajjad profiles Professor Riazur Rahman Sherwani, 94, versatile mind, intrepid intellectual.
More than 25 years after the Babri Masjid was destroyed, another generation proclaims its commitment to building a Ram temple.
Riya Shah, a New York teenager, who had been to Baroda to volunteer with an NGO that works for upliftment of orphans and delinquents, shares her learnings with Chaya Babu.
The way Dilip came to the porch to receive Lata, you would never have guessed something was amiss between the two. Raju Bharatan's many wonderful insights into Dilip Kumar's life.
'I went away from the industry because all the people I enjoyed working with, like Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra, are no more.' 'They left this world and went away, so I lost interest in my work.'
Mohammad Sajjad salutes the memory of Mushirul Hasan -- historian, thinker, academic, institution builder, -- who passed into the ages this week.
During the hearing, which went for over two hours, the woman said she wanted to go with her husband Shafin Jahan.
US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, newly elected co-chair of the influential Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, discusses her vision for US-India ties with Rediff.com's Monali Sarkar.
'It looked as if India had been a major player in science at that time, raising the question when and why things changed,' says distinguished aerospace scientist Professor Roddam Narasimha.
On Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's 124th birth anniversary we take a look at his inspiring life journey.
'I've seen the craze for English education even among the poorest. But that is only for their sons. Parents feel thrilled when they see their sons going to school wearing a tie. They don't mind paying for their sons' private tuitions too.' 'But daughters are sent to municipal schools, madarsas, small schools where teachers with no teaching skills are paid Rs 2,000 or Rs 4,000. That's why more girls come to my class.' Syed Feroze Ashraf, who has sent 500-odd girls (and a few boys) -- all first generation learners, children of grave-diggers, hawkers, rickshaw-drivers, tailors and watchmen -- to college, speaks to Jyoti Punwani. A Rediff.com Special.
Shubham Kumar Gautam, son of a farmer and a Super 30 student, recounts how, in a journey laced with perseverance, grit and determination, he achieved what seemed impossible.
'The people of India have not only challenged the ruling dispensation with the constitution, they have also opened the eyes of the leadership that sits in the Opposition.'
Twenty-eight years ago almost to the day, 37 unarmed Muslims were killed in cold blood, an act of wanton violence for which no one has so far been held guilty. Jyoti Punwani and photographer Uttam Ghosh visited the Meerut locality after the trial court recently acquitted the security personnel charged with the killings, and found a town untouched by its grim past.
"They call me the Class 10 vice-chancellor," he says as his thin lips flirt with a smile. You almost feel that the tall man of spare build is being facetious. And then you see that his deep set eyes are not twinkling. There is a sense of the combative in them.
Only on Wednesday, in his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Modi said he wants to resolve the Kashmir issue through Vajpayee's doctrine of "Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat, Jamhooriyat" - a testimony to the former PM's lasting legacy.
'The darkest days of Indian democracy were (during) the Emergency when basic democratic rights were suspended. For a time it seemed as though India would move along the East Asian model -- everybody works hard, nobody asks questions, certainly not of the government.' 'There are people who say we are headed that way, but I am not persuaded by the evidence,' says Mahesh Rangarajan who recently resigned as director of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi.
'It smells like a case to silence my voice at this important time in the #metoo movement but in the larger context it could be a ploy to muddy the waters and sabotage the entire movement altogether.'
Naipaul wrote more than 30 books of fiction and nonfiction during his career with a sharp critique of established religion and politicians characterising much of his work.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
'It is very hard to get the police to file a report against someone from an upper caste.' 'Things are so bad that sometimes we have to sit on a dharna with the body of a Dalit victim to get the police to file a complaint.'
'I am ecstatic as I believe this is not my victory but it is a win for the people of the country who have a right to freely express themselves. It is the victory for everyone who uses the internet and social media.' 'I think the internet is all about self regulation, and as long it is about people expressing themselves and not causing any criminal harm to anyone, it should be allowed.' Shreya Singhal, whose PIL resulted in Section 66A of the IT Act being struck down by the Supreme Court, speaks to Upasna Pandey.
'Indian democracy has become an oxymoron.I am hopeful that more people will boycott this politics of perversion and hatred and realise that this isn't sustainable for our great nation to prosper.
Meet 28 year-old Dusyant Sridhar who is a techie by day and an Upanyasakar after work, giving discourses on ancient scriptures.
Sukanya Verma looks back at the trend's most memorable incarnations in recent times.
