Word: indianness
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...Partition of 1947 that left a million people dead in fratricidal massacres and caused the largest-ever cross-migration in human history. Six decades after that bloody split which doomed India to seemingly eternal enmity with its conjoined twin, the state of Pakistan, Partition still defines the contours of Indian politics and some of its biggest challenges, from the festering dispute in Kashmir to Islamist and Hindu right-wing terrorism...
...Hindu nationalist bloc that leads the opposition in Parliament, expelled Jaswant Singh, a former foreign minister in a BJP government and party stalwart. His crime? To have published a revisionist book on the history of Partition and, in particular, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Muslim Pakistan who Indians of all political stripes have often blamed for the violent sundering of the Subcontinent. Singh's Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence portrays Jinnah as a secularist and a great statesman, an image that would make members of India's ruling, secularist Congress party squirm, as well as Islamists in Pakistan...
...Indeed, the spat over Jinnah has highlighted the profound crisis facing India's most prominent opposition party. Its rise less than two decades ago as a dominant force in Indian national politics coincided with the opening up of the country's economy and the emergence of a more confident, muscular middle-class. Its leaders were in power until a little over five years back, when the party lost the elections then by a thin margin. But those days seem long gone. The humbled BJP is now faced with serious questions over its leadership, seen to be out of sync with...
...Ravana) that motivated frenzied crowds of Hindus to demolish an ancient mosque in December 1992, sparking months of Hindu-Muslim carnage. When in power from 1998 to 2004, the BJP renamed popular cities with names they deemed more "native" and changed school syllabi to ingrain a "Hindu" version of Indian history among students, moving away from the greater complexities of India's diverse religious past...
...elections this year, Indian voters seem to have rejected the politics of religious polarization in favor of stability and economic growth. "Hindu nationalism worked in the 1990s, but today, it is on the margins. It goes against the popular mood," says New Delhi-based political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan. In terms of economic reforms, the BJP seems to have placed itself against a growing consensus. When in opposition, it has been an outspoken critic of the Congress party-led government's liberalization policies, seeking to speak for workers and small businesses perceived to have been disadvantaged by reforms. This marks...