Counterview

By Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ*  I am Malala: I was born on 12 July 1997 as Malala Yousafzai in the Swat District of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. My family was lower-middle-class. It was certainly not easy to make both ends meet. My father was an educationist and ran a girls' school in my village; my mother was a housewife. We are three children: I have two younger brothers. The fact is that my parents did not have enough money for a hospital birth for me, so my mother had to give birth to me at home with the help of neighbours. My name 'Malala' means 'grief-stricken', after Malalai of Maiwand, a famous Pashtun poet and warrior woman from southern Afghanistan.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  Recent reports indicate that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being worshipped at several locations across India, both within existing temples and at new sites. A "Modi Mandir" is reportedly under consideration in Patna, Bihar. These developments raise important questions about the intersection of political leadership and religious devotion in contemporary India, and they invite comparison with historical precedents in which political leaders have claimed divine sanction or encouraged veneration.

By Syed Ali Mujtaba   When the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) takes the stage at Madison Square Garden in New York, the world listens. The venue, the audience, the oratory—it is a production designed for a global audience. But when Mohan Bhagwat spoke on August 30, 2026, his message of "unity in diversity" rang hollow. At a time when the persecution of Muslims in India has become a global headline,

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  In today's times, there are certain issues that are constantly talked about and discussed, yet no visible impact seems to be made. Beyond water, soil, and pollution, one crisis that continues to be overlooked is waste. Like other life-threatening problems, waste too is gradually moving toward burying and obliterating us. After the Kanwar Yatra in Haridwar, approximately 8,000 tonnes of waste were left behind on the riverbanks, including bottles filled with urine. 

By Prof Mathew James  A new diplomatic storm is gathering between Washington and New Delhi — this time centered not on trade, defense, or geopolitics, but on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu nationalist organization widely seen as the ideological backbone of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan federal advisory body, has renewed its call for targeted sanctions against RSS members, timing its intervention to coincide with a high‑profile visit to the United States by the organization’s chief, Mohan Bhagwat.

By Syed Ali Mujtaba   An extraordinary event at the Press Club of India in New Delhi, where a cutout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was depicted as Lord Ram and worshipped, has raised serious questions about the sanctity and credibility of an institution that is expected to uphold the independence of the press.

By Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ   It is heartening that the Catholic Church in India will observe 23 August as "Justice Sunday" — a day dedicated to the biblical call to "learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow" (Isaiah 1:17). In a communique dated 22 July 2026, Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore, Chairman of the CBCI Office for Justice, Peace & Development, reminds us that true worship of God is inseparable from the practice of justice. The theme this year — "Justice Begins with Us" — is a challenge to every disciple of Christ to move beyond token piety and become an instrument of God's justice.

By Rajiv Shah   Following my blog , in which I cited renowned mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik , who mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Dimagi Naxal” remark by stating that the word “Naxal” refers to a “special river reed that grows in North Bengal (kash grass) with silvery flowers”, and that “Naxali” would be the name of Lord Shiva’s son Kartikeya, who was “born amongst these reeds”, I received an interesting rejoinder.

  By Rajiv Shah   Following the Prime Minister’s “Dimagi Naxal” remark, there appears to have been a huge backlash, especially from protagonists of the “Cockroach Janata Party.” The term is being variously interpreted as a move to “isolate” dissidents, following the claim of a successful campaign against Naxalite violence. Social media is full of “Dimagi Naxal Party” memes, making a joke of an expression used, perhaps for the first time in India.

By Kedar Anil Gadgil   A few minutes before midnight on 14 August 1947, as the calendar turned to the 15th, Jawaharlal Nehru rose to speak in the Constituent Assembly in New Delhi. He was addressing a state that did not yet exist, on behalf of a civilisation several thousand years older than the one being born at the stroke of the midnight hour. The speech ran to barely 1,100 words and took him about eight minutes to deliver. 

Counterview News     The arrest and remand to judicial custody of Arun Pannalal , president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum , has triggered concern among civil-liberties, religious-freedom and minority-rights activists, who have accused the Chhattisgarh government of using criminal law to suppress dissenting voices.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The hubris of the Hindutva government led by the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is entering its final phase. The youth and student movements emerging across the country, together with the mass support they have mobilised in their struggles against the Modi government, point to a deeper material crisis affecting broad sections of the Indian population. If current political trends continue, the Modi government could face a decisive electoral reckoning in the next general election, scheduled for 2029.

By A Representative   The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA), a national platform bringing together women, transgender and non-binary persons from democratic movements across the country, has issued an open letter to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat and general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, demanding institutional accountability for right-wing commentator T.G. Mohandas over his remarks calling for student protesters to be shot and making derogatory comments about women. Issued on Quit India Day, the letter gives the Sangh until August 14—a week before Independence Day—to act, warning that "silence is complicity."

By Dr. P.K. Gupta*  The tapestry of Hindu Dharma is not woven from a single thread but from countless strands of philosophical inquiry, spiritual seeking, and cultural exchange that have accumulated over millennia. Unlike many religious traditions that trace their origins to a single prophet or sacred text, Hinduism has evolved as a living civilization, continuously shaped by debate, reform, and the remarkable capacity to assimilate new ideas while preserving its essential character.

By Osman Sher*  The vast land of India contains a variety of communities, both in terms of race and religion. Its inter-communal relations through the ages have shown it to be a tolerant nation, and this feature has made its society a prominently pluralistic one. Keeping up with this tradition, the Constitution declared India a secular country to be governed through the instrument of democracy. This meant that equality would prevail amid the ocean of diversity, and that people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds would co-exist peacefully as one "Indian Nation."

By A Representative   The use of pellet guns to control protests in India has come under renewed scrutiny after the weapons were reportedly deployed against student demonstrators in New Delhi last week, marking a significant expansion of a tactic previously confined to Kashmir. John Dayal, a prominent human rights defender and secretary general of the All India Catholic Union, has strongly condemned the move, calling for full government accountability and a formal inquiry. 

By Dr P.K. Gupta*  ॐ अपवित्रः पवित्रो वा सर्वावस्थां गतोऽपि वा। यः स्मरेत् पुण्डरीकाक्षं स बाह्याभ्यन्तरः शुचिः।। ॐ पुण्डरीकाक्षः पुनातु, ॐ पुण्डरीकाक्षः पुनातु ॐ पुण्डरीकाक्षः पुनातु। (Whether impure or pure, or having passed through any and every condition, one who remembers Pundarikaksha, another name for Vishnu, becomes pure, both outwardly and inwardly.)

By Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ  The proverb “Old is gold” has stood the test of time—and for good reason. It speaks of enduring value, accumulated wisdom, and the irreplaceable quality of things that have weathered the years. Whether we think of cherished traditions, vintage treasures, or timeless music, there is an authenticity in the old that the new often cannot replicate.

By Ram Puniyani*  RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat often performs rhetorical acrobatics to defend the idea of a Hindu Rashtra. At times, he says that everyone living in India is a Hindu because we share a common ancestry. Earlier RSS ideologues, however, were more explicit in asserting that Islam and Christianity are foreign religions.

By Osman Sher*  Historian Arnold Toynbee, in his book "Mankind and Mother Earth," observes: "In most periods of the history of the Indian subcontinent the Indians have felt more concern about religion than about politics and economics." A survey of history, beginning in the mid-sixth century BC, when recorded history emerged in the Indian subcontinent with the establishment of Bimbisara's rule in southern Bihar, confirms the truth of this observation. This phenomenon continued through the eras of the Mauryas, Kushanas, Guptas, Vardhanas, Muslim rulers, the British, and into the present day.