Long Reads News - Page 18

The Hashimpura massacre: A short oral history, told by survivors

Thirty years after the 1987 massacre in Hashimpura not much has changed for the survivors and the relatives of the people killed.

Who shot the parrot? How the Asthana-Verma war broke out in the CBI

A caged parrot, is how Justice AK Patnaik, now supervising the investigation into the charges Verma and Asthana have levelled at each other, had once described the CBI

Dalit shahirs of Maharashtra: Vilas Ghogare sang of Ambedkar with his iktara

Vilas Ghogare portrayed the dreadful life of the workers that he observed up close, since he was a worker himself in Mumbai. He also spoke of his life as a Dalit — a life that he had inherited.

Finding Durga: As Pujo ends, a Kolkata photographer seeks the goddess in the everyday

Sourodip Ghosh searches for the goddess Durga amid the bustle of North Kolkata in his photo essay

At Delhi's Yashwant Place Market — the fur and leather goods haven for Russian shoppers

For the last 50 years, the Yashwant Place Market (also known as the Russian Market), has been catering to the shopping needs of a mainly Russian-speaking clientele.

The elephant in the room: A graphic narrative on coal mining in the Hasdeo forest

Can the Hasdeo forest be saved from the consequences of indiscriminate coal mining? | Satwick Gade travels to Chhattisgarh

Monsoon Music: Maharashtra sings of farmers and fruitful harvests

Maharashtra's folk music is deeply inspired by the monsoon and agriculture, and the songs speak of sowing, harvest and the farmers' plight and prayers

Kargil: Beyond the war, a look at the region, its culture, and people

Kargil has a lot more to offer than war tourism.

Monsoon Music: In Assam, prayers for the arrival of rain — and its departure

The genres of folk music created by tribes in Assam address the monsoon in varied ways, depending on their relationship with this destructive and nourishing season

Chandrashekhar Azad: The politics of a non-politician in Uttar Pradesh

Chandrashekhar Azad, the 'great Dalit hope', says that he will not contest polls. But he continues to be seen as a threat by political parties

Monsoon Music: Uttar Pradesh and Bihar's Kajri — an ode to dark clouds

The most popular forms of the Kajri can be found in the Bhojpuri language, but it is also sung in Awadhi and Maithili. The prominent motifs in this genre are Radha-Krishna, looming clouds and peacocks

Dalit shahirs of Maharashtra: Arjun Hari Bhalerao's perseverance amid adversity

Despite creating a body of influential work and being one of the Dalit shahirs who took Ambedkar and his ideas to some of the most marginalised people in villages, Arjun Hari Bhalerao's work is still not known to many today

Revisiting Manto's Bombay, in words and pictures

In an attempt to place Saadat Hasan Manto's words in the Bombay he left about 70 odd years ago, lyricist Kausar Munir reads an excerpt from 'Do Gaddhay' while photographer Hashim Badani captures the city through a retrospective lens.

Makers of God: Scenes from Kolkata's artisan colony Kumortuli, before Durga Puja

The bylanes of Kumortuli — Kolkata's famed artisans' colony, located in the north part of the city — may seem dark, narrow and tacky to the casual observer. Come September, however, thousands throng these very alleys, looking for god (and goddesses).

Drag Queens of Delhi: These fierce, flamboyant performers challenge gender constructs

It’s a Thursday night at Kitty Su, Delhi’s upscale queer-friendly nightclub. Three drag queens take to the stage — fierce, flamboyant, flawless — and they soon have the crowd hooting and cheering for them.

A dammed history of the Kosi

A decade after the catastrophic Kosi embankment breach, a look at the history of embankments in Nepal and northern India

Ghoramara Island: Living on the edge of a rising sea

The story of Ghoramara shows how climate change is changing the way people live

The Ganga Treaty: Ainun Nishat on how India, Bangladesh signed a historic deal

More than 20 years after the signing of the historic India-Bangladesh Ganga Water Sharing Treaty, one of its architects speaks about its past, present and future

Kolkata wetlands: Real estate chokes a unique ecosystem

The rapidly disappearing east Kolkata wetlands is a unique ecosystem that serves as the megacity’s waste disposal and sewage treatment mechanism

Ganga: At Kanpur, an unholy mess

Government initiatives to clean up the Ganga have failed to stop the dumping of toxic effluents and untreated sewage into the river at the industrial hub of Kanpur

Ganga: The nowhere river

The revered Ganga has now become a river that is coming from nowhere and going nowhere

Dalit shahirs of Maharashtra: Bhimrao Kardak's jalsa against caste

The year was 1937. At Kasarwadi Dadar (in then Bombay), a meeting was held to discuss the upcoming Indian provincial elections. Bhimrao Kardak and his troupe of <em>shahirs</em> were part of this meeting, as was Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar

Dalit shahirs of Maharashtra: How Vithhal Umap strove to keep the art form alive

Vitthal Umap almost rescued some of the old genres in the Shahiri tradition and tirelessly performed them to keep them alive

Queer Verse: Two poets introspect on love, loss, and identity

Aditi Angiras and Akhil Katyal are poets and editors of an upcoming anthology of South Asian queer poetry

Haryana's slave brides: For trafficked women, a life lived on the margins

‘Paro’ is a derogatory term used for women trafficked and sold as brides to men in Haryana

Monsoon music: From Manipur, mystical songs for the rain

The Meitei people of Manipur have songs for every aspect of the rains. There are songs for when the rain does fall, and songs for when it doesn’t. Songs to appease the rain gods, and songs that embrace all manner of flora and fauna.

At London's Notting Hill Carnival, a street festival unlike any other

The Notting Hill Carnival is one of the largest street festivals in the world and is viewed as a significant calendar event for Black British culture in London

Palestine in photos: On the Segregation Wall, messages of solidarity

Israel’s imposing Segregation Wall has become a canvas for open air art where anonymous artists have painted messages of peace, love and solidarity for Palestinians

Monsoon music: In Rajasthan, the Manganiars dedicate ragas to the rain

The earth has a deeply symbiotic relationship with the rain, but few places anticipate the monsoon with as much anxiety, or welcome it with as much joy, as the desert

Palestine in photos: In Hebron, a microcosm of the Israeli occupation

Hebron, with a population of 200,000, is the most troubled city in the West Bank