A dangerous silence in India’s north-east

Unlike the 2012 Delhi gang rape, the violence meted out against women in India’s north-east has not elicited widespread calls on the government to act. The silence is proving costly. In early October 2014, the body of a young tribal girl was found facedown in Meghalaya’s East Garo Hills. Her body had been decapitated, charred,…

The 21 Century bystander effect

For a very long time, we have been guilty of something in our online lives. It isn’t trolling as a blatant exercise to establish power over another’s presence in the same space, but trolling because everyone else is doing it. Sociologist Erving Goffman called it ‘backstage behaviour’ — a presentation of one’s self to a…

Foresters slap trespass case on rights activists

Many people are not aware of the perils involved in entering the protected forests, say officials The Forest Department has slapped trespass case on the human rights activists who visited the spot of alleged encounter, located deep inside the Seshachalam forest on Saturday. A team of activists from Hyderabad, which landed at the spot on…

Freedom For Dr. Mohammed al-Roken

The Arab dictatorial regimes suppress criticism against anybody who dears to speak out against their authoritarian rule or uses his right of freedom of speech. In Saudi Arabia Raif Badawi and Waleed Abu al-Khair have been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. In the Saudi dungeons hundreds of prisons are left to rot. Over 90…