To Mahatma Gandhi, the man who harnessed the power of the fast better than any Indian, going without food was fundamentally an act of internal awakening. The modern-day fast, in contrast, is hungry for an audience and is coercive in intent.

The murder of Dalit rights activist Kedar Singh Jindan in Himachal’s Sirmaur district, is a sign that the state has callously looked over its casteism for decades. It’s a problem that gets subsumed by a narrative of glittery mountains and wonderment.

It might be tempting to dismiss terms like “Urban Naxal” and “anti-national” as empty rhetoric, but their domination of our news cycle demands a closer look. It all comes down to a nationwide difference of opinion on one question: What is the purpose of the country, and for whom?

The 2014 mandate was a landmark, most significantly for the support the BJP received from Dalit and adivasi voters. But after the recent crackdown on human rights activists and Dalit voices, it seems unlikely that the party can turn it into a template ahead of 2019.

Yesterday, Sudha Bhardwaj, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Gautam Navlakha and Vernon Gonsalves were arrested in relation to the Bhima-Koregaon violence. All of them were charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. But what exactly does this law entail?

Atishi Marlena is at the centre of a controversy once again, over the dropping of her “Christian”-sounding last name. The last time AAP’s Lok Sabha Candidate made news, it was for being dismissed from her special post as Delhi’s education advisor, when she was credited for turning around the course of the Capital’s public schools.

The Centre has declined all foreign offers of aid for disaster-struck Kerala, including UAE’s donation of ₹700 crores. The government is acting in line with policy, but it is imperative to remember that the UAE has been built on the back of a workforce from Kerala.

In a religious tinderbox like India, where copies of books like The Hindus are burned in the street, and makers of films like Padmaavat are threatened with violence by frothing fundamentalists, is life imprisonment for offending religious sentiments really what we need?

The 1952 film by Karunanidhi, Parasakthi, democratised the DMK’s message of Dravidian ideology. But it was more than a propaganda film. Revolving around a divided Tamil family left broken and destitute by World War II, it was a scathing critique of a sexist, casteist society.

With Karunanidhi gone, it’s the end of an era in Tamil Nadu politics. The state’s civic life now faces a huge void and is likely to see the emergence of a new political order. Will we see the rise of a leader from within the two big TN parties – DMK and AIADMK? Or will the next chieftains come from newer fronts?