Saffron groups in Uttarakhand; remembering Asima Chatterjee; ancient tales from the Republic of Kashi; and more 

[View this email in your browser]( Top Story [Are Saffron Groups Bringing Mob Rule to One of India’s Last Peaceful States?]( Shankar Gopalakrishnan [On the night of September 8, police in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, picked up two boys and two girls from a central part in the city a little after midnight. The boys were Muslims, the girls Hindus. All four were from Kirtinagar, a town in the Tehri Garhwal district. At the station, the police were informed by the Kirtinagar police that the girls had been reported missing. The girls were returned to Kirtinagar and the boys arrested, though it isn’t clear what they were charged with. The next day, unnamed “Hindu organisations” attacked and broke the shops owned by the boys’ families in Kirtinagar. The report quotes local traders saying they had no involvement in the attack on the shops, and that those who did so were brought in “from outside.” The police are now deployed in the town and the circle officer has announced that he will be remaining there for the “near future”.]( [Asima Chatterjee, the Scientist Who Did So Much More in a Time of Less]( Nandita Jayaraj [Let us remember Asima Chatterjee as a world-class chemist in a time when science was a lot less comfortable to do and involved a lot more of getting your hands dirty than it does today.]( [Failed Kings, Naive Boatmen and Other Ancient Tales From the Republic of Kashi]( Mrinal Pande [Recalling the iconoclasm of Varanasi’s ordinary citizens, the wisdom of its scholars and the dreams of its failed kings who sought to make an empire of a republic.]( [Journalists Cry Foul After Police Summons in Fake Facebook Profile Investigation]( Sukanya Shantha [Those summoned allege they are being targeted for their political views but the Maharashtra police insists they have been called only as witnesses.]( [Under Garb of ‘Preservation’, Chhattisgarh Is Denying Vulnerable Groups Their Reproductive Rights]( Sonam Lavtepatil and Harendra Sijwali [As of May this year, people from Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups who want to be sterilised have to ask the sub-divisional magistrate for permission.]( [Mid-Way Through ‘Karwan-e-Mohabbat’, Harsh Mander Gets Income Tax Notice]( The Wire Staff [Days after a threat from an RSS ideologue, the IT department ‘rectifies’ its earlier assessment and orders a fresh ‘complete scrutiny’.]( [Rohingya in Kashmir Fear for Their Families Back Home While Worrying About Deportation]( Mudasir Ahmed [Rohingya families who were living in Jammu have moved to Khimber in Kashmir, fearing violence against them.]( [The Supreme Court was Right to Pierce the Jaypee Group’s Corporate Veil]( N.R. Mohanty [A recent and troubling editorial by The Economic Times shows how Jaypee’s defence against angry homebuyer looking for justice is often bought hook, line and sinker.]( [‘Pot-Pilgrims’ and Gods of Himalayan Things]( Manshi Asher and Sumit Mahar [With tourism to Parvati Valley on the rise, local communities struggle to cope with the pressures of the new consumerist society.]( [How Long Will India Run After Optics, Rather Than True Freedom For All Its People?]( Sachin Rao [The structures of power that surround the marginalised require them at every step to prove their legitimacy, self worth and even their right to exist.]( Copyright © 2017 The Wire, All rights reserved. You're getting this email because you recently subscribed to receive email digests from The Wire via our website. Our mailing address is: The Wire 13, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg Gole MarketNew Delhi 110001 India [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](