Society, Culture, Religion and History

I was in Rasina, my ancestral village. It was a solemn occasion - the death of my eldest paternal uncle, and it was only the second death in our extended family after almost 18 years of my grandfather’s passing. A lot has changed in the village over time thanks to its premier location on the busy Karnal-Kaithal highway.

Not unlike most villages that make up rural India, Seema in Rajgir block of Nalanda district showed little interest in structured sanitation. Open defecation was rampant and a sizeable chunk of the village’s earnings was spent on tending to the ill and diseased. Little did the villagers know that a change in tradition was imminent.

Kanhar, 1976; Polavaram 1941. These are just two of the several dam projects that were proposed decades ago but are yet to see the light of day.

India prepares to fight the impacts of El Nino

The last month has been one of great activity around the illegal construction of the Kanhar dam in Sonebhadra district of Uttar Pradesh.

When Satya was asked by the Sarpanch to opt for the position of a worksite supervisor as a Mate, she was thrilled at the prospect of a better life. Brought up in Murayur village in Sivagangai district, Tamil Nadu, she knew how tough agricultural wage labour work was. While her mother left her with grandparents, her father also took on menial jobs and errands from big farmers.

Sixty eight percent of India's population lives in rural areas but when it comes to facilities -- including the availability of safe drinking water -- cities and towns corner most of them.

After Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand also bids goodbye to Coca Cola

If Babasaheb Ambedkar had been alive today -- April 14, 2015 -- he would have been 125 years old. In the predominantly tribal and dalit district of Sonbhadra, it was natural that Gambhira Prasad, President of the Kanhar Bandh Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti (KBVSS), decided to mark the day.

The Niyamagiri hills in the Eastern Ghats is peopled by indigenous groups such as the Dongria and Kutia Kondhs -- or 'primitive tribal groups’ in official phrasing. For them, these hills which spread over 300 sq kms in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts in southwestern Orissa, is the sacred abode of Niyamraja, their God.