Back in 1918, India was hit by a pandemic – the Spanish Flu. Through newspaper reports from the time, this article shows how despite a century passing, many things have not changed.
Tag Archives: india
How the whims of a few judges threw Delhi into a decade of chaos
A wild and scary story about how a judge can just wake up one day and throw a whole city upside-down.
PILs promised justice for the powerless. They turned judges into kings instead
Unlike in traditional cases where the powers of judges are restricted by rules of procedure, PIL cases sometimes lead to dangerous situations.
How and why lower caste Muslims tried to stop partition
While Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League were campaigning for partition, the Momins of Bihar opposed the idea of Pakistan, arguing that it was a creation of the same upper caste Muslims who were their oppressors.
Who is the General Category reserved for?
There is a constant debate about reservations in upper caste circles. People keep talking about if they work, when they will be stopped, etc. But the framing of reservations as something that the “casteless” majority give to those who suffered because of their caste hides the truth.
How Tam-Brams went from being scared of Coffee to owning it
When the use of coffee first spread across India under British rule, many Tamil Brahmins strongly opposed it. But by the time India became independent, they had wholeheartedly embraced coffee, infused it with their own characteristics, and had begun to wield it as a marker of their social superiority.
Sati was abolished to protect religious tradition, not women
In the early decades of the 19th century, British India witnessed a heated debate over the question of whether the practice of sati should be legally permitted. The debate had little to do with modern concepts such as human rights. Its real point was discovering and restoring “true Hindu tradition.”