Author: Subhasish Ray

I am an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the National University of Singapore. My research and teaching interests are in comparative politics, with an empirical focus on Asia. When I am not consumed by professional political science, I like to write about popular music and politics in India.

August 12, 2016 /

When Narendra Modi described Gau Rakshak vigilantes as anti-socials at a town hall-type gathering at the Indira Gandhi Stadium Complex in New Delhi, centrism-minded Indians breathed a sigh of relief. He followed that up with an overture to Kashmiris, this time at a rally in Madhya Pradesh. Finally, the silence, that silence, had been broken. What they were referring to was the Prime Minister’s insistence on maintaining a mauna vrat in the midst of a series of atrocities against ethnic minorities that had unfolded across the length and breadth of the country.