The Caravan Magazine

23/11/2025

Archives | On 3 August 2020, the government issued an order imposing a curfew in the Kashmir valley, until the next day. The curfew marked a year since the Indian government read down the Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution.

When this new chapter in the political and geographical mapping of Jammu and Kashmir began, Kashmiris were trapped inside their homes like mice. Spools of razor wires and barricades had appeared, and soldiers stationed outside buildings multiplied, turning homes into prison cells.

Read the entire report by Anuradha Bhasin: https://caravanmagazine.in/conflict/one-year-kashmir-370-revoked-india-anuradha-bhasin-jamwal

23/11/2025

Archives | On 20 October 2019, the Estates Department in Kashmir sealed the office of Kashmir Times in Srinagar. The Press Club of India released a statement demanding that the authorities in Kashmir restore the earlier status of the Srinagar office of Kashmir Times.

Read the statement here: https://caravanmagazine.in/noticeboard/end-your-show-of-small-mindedness-open-kashmir-times-office-press-council-of-india

The Press Council of India released a statement demanding that the authorities in Kashmir restore the earlier status of the Srinagar office of Kashmir Times.

23/11/2025

In this third episode of The Caravan Long View, Hartosh Singh Bal and Sushant Singh critically examine the role of the Election Commission of India. Once regarded as a trustworthy institution capable of safeguarding one of democracy’s most important facets–the ability to conduct free and fair elections–the ECI’s workings, since 2014, raise serious concerns about its independence and credibility.

Watch now for a critical exploration of how the ECI’s recent actions are reshaping India’s democratic process: https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/eci-misconduct-caravan-long-view-bihar-sir

23/11/2025

Archives | Even if we overlook Tharoor’s uncomfortable silences on Congress history, his embrace of Nehruvian secularism side by side with his Hinduism is not convincing. The major sources of Tharoor’s Hinduism—the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and Smritis, the views of Adi Shankara, Ramanuja, Vivekananda and even Gandhi—are also major sources for Hindutva.

Read the full essay here:

In "Why I Am a Hindu," Tharoor admits that he does not write as a scholar of Hinduism, but it is obvious that he does not even write as a sincere autobiographer. That leaves him writing as a politician.

23/11/2025

Open Access | Five days after she had declared the Emergency, Indira Gandhi took to the airwaves again. The Emergency, she said, gave her government “a new opportunity to go ahead with our economic tasks.” She proceeded to unveil a lengthy list of policies that was soon dubbed the “20-point programme.” This spaghetti bowl of ideas was hastily concocted and seasoned with suggestions from diverse sources, including old advisors like PN Haksar and political allies such as the CPI.

Read the entire excerpt from Srinath Raghavan’s Indira Gandhi and the Years That Transformed India: https://caravanmagazine.in/excerpt/indira-gandhi-emergency-policies

23/11/2025

Zohran’s success also undermines the core Hindutva narrative that Muslims are backward, violent and incompatible with modernity. He represents an alternative political legacy, one rooted in Nehruvian secularism and socialist ideals, that Modi has spent a decade trying to dismantle.

Read the entire essay by Sushant Singh at the link in comments.

22/11/2025

Archives | Indian television channels, the loyal lap-dogs of government, dutifully and enthusiastically churned out narratives claiming “normalcy” and “calm” among “happy” Kashmiris. The extent of the despair and sufferings have been hovering like a ghost, invisible to the naked eye.

A journal from Kashmir, a year after losing autonomy. Anuradha Bhasin writes: https://caravanmagazine.in/conflict/one-year-kashmir-370-revoked-india-anuradha-bhasin-jamwal

22/11/2025

Corrupt practices in India’s defence sector have persisted, revealing a pattern as entrenched as it is alarming. Over the decades, the intermediaries have systematically embedded themselves in the procurement procedure, with political access, manipulation manoeuvres and the general lack of accountability. This entrenched nexus raises serious questions about the reasons for the institutional inaction despite the numerous pieces of evidence. Or is it a calculated cover-up?

Nilina M S explains through her two investigative reports of the major corruption cases in India, the role of big businessmen in hollowing out the security structure of India. Watch the 38th episode of the Caravan Baatcheet: https://youtu.be/UUlQsdbpvm4

22/11/2025

The government policy asymmetry is directly injurious to our democracy. The asymmetry is that the people are naked before the government but the government, which should be transparent to the people, the actual sovereign of this country, is opaque to them.

Ajeet Mahale, an assistant editor at The Caravan, spoke to Teltumbde about his recent writing, ideas of the caste census, recollections of time in prison and life afterwards, the criminalisation of dissent and more: https://caravanmagazine.in/caste/anand-teltumbde-interview-on-prison-memoir-and-caste-census

20/11/2025

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20/11/2025

In this third episode of The Caravan Long View, Hartosh Singh Bal and Sushant Singh critically examine the role of the Election Commission of India. Once regarded as a trustworthy institution capable of safeguarding one of democracy’s most important facets–the ability to conduct free and fair elections–the ECI’s workings, since 2014, raise serious concerns about its independence and credibility. From Vote Chori allegations by Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition to the fallacies of the Special Intensive Revision in Bihar, the commission appears to have subverted its constitutional duties to assist and shield the Bharatiya Janata Party.

This troubling tilt raises serious questions about the integrity of the institution, as what should have been an impartial guardian of democracy now appears compromised—forcing us to ask whether democracy can retain its meaning when its protector becomes complicit in its erosion? Watch now for a critical exploration of how the ECI’s recent actions are reshaping India’s democratic process.

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