K. K. Kailash: ‘One Nation’, New India and the Hollowing Out of the Federal Idea

By Dilip -

Since 2014, when “New India” was apparently inaugurated, we are in a remarkably similar phase of federalism as in the 1970s and early 1980s when the centre called the shots and state autonomy was constrained. With the "One Nation, One India" rhetoric now in the limelight, the era of "federalism without a centre" (Sáez 2002), when the states show initiative and pluck, now appears distant. Yet, this New India is also different. There is a concerted push to inaugurate a new project and reimagine the "idea of India" (Khilnani 1997). 

The One Nation, One India thesis, which is one motif of the Narendra Modi government, takes a sharp turn away from the pluralist-democratic ethos. Couched in administrative language, the oneness thesis covertly pushes a narrow homogenising cultural and political agenda. It goes beyond routine centralisation, negates the benefits of a federal setup, reduces state autonomy, and strikes at the heart of the federal idea….

https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/one-nation-new-india-and-hollowing-out-federal-idea

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Subir Sinha: COVID has blurred the lines between waged, coerced and trafficked labour in India

Shobhit Mahajan: Incredible Indians

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Ramachandra Guha: Gandhi said RSS was ‘communal with a totalitarian outlook’ – and that’s still true

RSS backs Supreme Court order on gay sex // Vikram Seth slams Supreme Court order on Section 377

Fahad Hashmi: Homophobia & Islamophobia – The Jamaat e Islami Hind & the SC’s Decision on Section 377

A mother and a judge speaks out on section 377

Lakshmi Chaudhry - SC verdict on 377: Why Indians, gay and straight, must all despair

Patriotic hooligans on the rampage: Shiv Sena, MNS workers thrash North Indian migrants in Kolhapur // VHP vandalizes art gallery in Ahmedabad

What is to be Undone

Suhas Palshikar - Disenfranchising The ‘Other’ // Ajaz Ashraf interviews Ashis Nandy on the future of India

The Supreme Court, Gandhi and the RSS

The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Inquiry Commission Report (1969)

The Abolition of truth

The emperor's masks: 'apolitical' RSS calls the shots in Modi sarkar

A whiff of evil

एक बात हमेशा ज़हन में सवाल खड़े करती है A question that stays with me... / Ravish Kumar's Speech at Berkeley (2019)

Mukul Kesavan: Against forgetting

Pratap Bhanu Mehta: In post-mortem of secularism, we are hand wringing over religion, missing the real crisis // Ashutosh Bhardwaj - Don’t blame only English elite. Indian secularism failed in Hindi heartland first



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