Stirred by a foreign hand?
How states relate to dissent is a litmus test for how they relate to civil society writes Swarna Rajagopalan. At Koodankulam, the state targeted NGOs, raised the old bogey of the ‘foreign hand’, and securitised the issue, taking it beyond the realm of debate
Diaspora, citizenship and the right to vote
If there is an emerging consensus to enfranchise the diaspora, then it must result in some substantive discussion about exactly who gets to vote, how they get to vote and what they get to vote for, writes Swarna Rajagopalan
The pursuit of happiness
To many policymakers Gross National Happiness doesn't sound like a serious framework to measure progress by, says Swarna Rajagopalan. But isn’t it the welfare state alone which has the capacity to attempt the scale of intervention and programming required to assure each Indian’s welfare?
Women, conflict, rights
International conventions are easy to sign but hard to implement, writes Swarna Rajagopalan on the 11th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, taking a close look at two recent reports which point to the mismatch between what is needed and what exists on paper
The road from 11 to 21
Just days before 9/11 the UN had resolved that every September 21 would be observed as International Day of Peace. The distance from 9/11 to the International Day of Peace is best traversed by the kind of people-to-people contact made possible by international education, says Swarna Rajagopalan
Becoming Indian
The Indian is no longer defined by those living within the borders of India but also those who are between and beyond borders; India is no longer governed by its own laws but also by international conventions and principles, writes Swarna Rajagopalan in the first of her new column on India and the world, and the tensions between
