Film shows two worlds of Indian womenDocumentary recently released follows beauty pageant hopefuls and Hindu right-wing training camp for girls.Alys Francis: Al Jazeera 19 Jun 2014Excerpts: Hindutva ideologyThe conservative Hindu ideology, Hindutva, envisages India as a culturally Hindu state and its followers are known for going to great pains to defend their ideas.
Transnational Islamist terrorist groups have recently made sporadic attempts to lure India’s Muslim population towards global jihad, frequently urging them to fight the democratically elected secular government. India-specific incitements have issued from al-Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri and al-Qaeda ideologue Maulana Asim Umar through audio-visual messages that directly target Indian Muslims.
The fake currency trade has been haunting Indian security establishments as well as economic intelligence agencies for quite a long time. Most recently, in February 2014, the finance minister of India informed the Upper House of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) that counterfeit Indian currency notes worth INR 107.33 crores (approximately US $ 17 million) have been seized between January 2010 and June 2013. If the intelligence agencies are to be believed, the FICNs are printed in Pakistan and brought to India through couriers via Bangkok, Kathmandu and Dhaka airports.
Indian analysts said the report could damage India's hopes of buying uranium from foreign suppliers following its 2009 civil nuclear agreement with the United States. The deal was aimed at helping India ease its power generation crisis while assuring the international community of its responsible stewardship. It provides for inspection 14 of its 22 nuclear plants and calls for its civil and military programmes to be kept separate.
Al Qaeda has struggled in the past to gain the support of India’s vast Muslim population. But that’s gradually changing, warns Animesh Roul. Today, he outlines how the fragmented organization is trying to attract money and manpower from the third largest Muslim community on the planet.