Photoshoped Nationalism

Is our county becoming intolerant? Some of us cannot tolerate this soul searching question.  But the good old adage that enjoins us to trace the poof of the pudding in its eating illumines the obvious.  The way dissent and disagreement is silenced through state-sponsored mobs often chanting Bharat Mata ki Jai exhibits that there is a growing tendency to...

Being a Goan at a Time of Hindutva

It is heartening to see that most socio-political and economic issues in Goa have become Goa-centric. This welcome change is a Goa-centric modus vivendi on the horizon. A vigorous Goa-centrism that we can notice around is indeed a fresh breath of life in our society. Several Goans have recognized the wounds inflicted on Goa by our own politicians, industrialists,...

Is the Emperor Wearing No Clothes?

The third round of the election is over. This effectively sealed votes of Goans and other Indians in the EVMs. As the EVMs and the poll bugles go silent, it is time to reflect on the great elections in our country. The wheels of our democracy were on our fingertips. Now that we have done our job, democracy will...

The Rising Totalitarian Nationalism in India

No nationalism is complete. In several ways, one can trace different hues of nationalism in India. But in recent days, the nation seems to be challenged with a totalitarian form of nationalism. Notions of nationalism and anti-nationalism have become a discourse in media, with some drawing clear lines between people, separating those who are with the nation and those...

Democracy, Citizenship and Nationalism in India

The students in India are agitated and are on the roads. Several campuses of higher education have witnessed explosive protests of the students. Along the growing unrest, one can trace high handed state repression of the same. Are there any lessons emerging from this student unrest? What do these protests and resistance movements tell us about Democracy and citizenship...

(Un)democratising Democracy

The eruption of the binary of national/anti-national into the public sphere of our country appears to be a way of (un)democratising our democracy. We as a nation are passing through narcissistic crises that trigger most of us to view everything that afflicts us through the prism of nationalism which itself is not national enough. We seem to have steadily...

GREETINGS

Attention is a generous gift we can give others.

Attention is love.

- Fr Victor Ferrao