India Archive

Under heavy security and police escort, a cold quiet hung over Ahilyanagar as the mortal remains of Dheeraj Pardeshi were brought home. What began as a routine maintenance call on a Friday evening in a quiet municipal ward rapidly turned into a tragedy that halted a city’s administration, brought thousands of demonstrators onto a national highway, and required intervention from the highest levels of Maharashtra’s state government.

On August 7, 2026, twenty-four hours after the Bombay High Court delivered a historic conviction against Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal for the 2013 rape of a junior colleague, one of India’s most prominent documentary filmmakers stepped forward not to applaud the judicial triumph of a workplace survivor, but to publicly defend her rapist.

On August 10th, thousands of students joined a massive "Vidhan Sabha Gherao" march, heading toward the Jharkhand state assembly in Ranchi. Their primary grievance revolves around widespread irregularities and administrative failures across several key recruitment examinations. As these student-led demonstrations continue to gain momentum throughout Jharkhand, the Ranchi Police officially announced that they are prepared to deploy pellet guns against the student marchers in the event of an "emergency."

An Indian-origin transgender and non-binary Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) representing the Edinburgh and Lothians East region, Q Manivannan, is facing severe public backlash following controversial remarks in which he described a crime as horrific as rape as “existing on a spectrum.” Manivannan, who was elected to the Scottish Parliament in May, made these statements during an episode of the podcast The Subjective Space, hosted by Dr Sindhu Rajasekaran.

On the 7th of August, the leftist media portal The Wire reshared a video clip featuring Archbishop Joseph D’Souza, who serves as the president of the All India Christian Council (AICC) and primate of the Good Shepherd Church of India. In the shared segment, D’Souza labeled the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 (FCRA Bill 2026) as "loot and theft of Christian institutions" and asserted that it represents "a Sangh Parivar agenda."

In a significant national security and administrative development, the Government of India has taken a decisive step to reinforce its territorial integrity and state sovereignty. Following detailed consultations with the Government of Arunachal Pradesh and under the direct supervision of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, the country's principal mapping agency, the Survey of India, has formally incorporated 27 critical and strategic locations of Arunachal Pradesh into the official national map of India.

The Election Commission of India has removed more than 1.5 crore names from electoral rolls during the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), in a continuous effort to keep voter lists accurate and ensure that only eligible voters remain listed. According to data shared by the authority and analysed by news reports, exactly 1,58,59,834 names have been taken off the draft electoral rolls published across 12 States and Union Territories.

On the tree-lined thoroughfare of Jawaharlal Nehru Marg in Jaipur, where the pink sandstone corridors of Rajasthan’s institutional sector usually hum with political discourse, an unusual protest unfolded. More than one hundred children stood outside the wrought-iron gates of the Government Seth Anandilal Poddar Senior Secondary School for the Deaf. They did not chant slogans, nor did they block traffic with loudspeakers.

Mugdha Pradhan, the CEO and founder of the Pune-based health firm iThrive, has found herself at the center of a massive public backlash, though not for reasons one would expect from a wellness entrepreneur. A video featuring Pradhan unleashing an abusive rant aimed directly at Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone viral across social media platforms. While political criticism remains a fundamental part of public discourse, Pradhan’s remarks have crossed the boundaries of acceptable debate, drawing heavy criticism for their vulgarity and aggressive tone.

While women across diverse regions, religions, races, and social classes face daunting challenges when seeking justice for sexual abuse and harassment, allegations within Left-Liberal and self-identified progressive circles often rank lower in the hierarchy of victimhood when the accused perpetrator is ideologically aligned or politically useful. A classic example of this long-running pattern is the sexual assault case involving Tehelka Magazine’s former founding editor-in-chief, Tarun Tejpal.