Toxic mix of religion, welfare and politics that is the Dera; Children’s uprising in Bhojpur against Bihar’s failing education System; and more

[View this email in your browser]( Top Story [The Toxic Mix of Religion, Welfare and Politics That is Ram Rahim Singh’s Dera]( Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta [The deras offered a non-sectarian space to its followers in contrast to organised Sikh and Hindu religions. They have become important sites of social inclusion as a majority of their followers come from marginalised sections of the society, especially the Dalits and other landless poor. Punjab, with a population of around 32% scheduled castes according to the 2011 census, has the highest number of Dalits in the country. Many of them flock to the deras located in different regions of the state.]( [Psychology Could Be Key to Solving the India-China Conundrum]( Ravi Bhoothalingam [We should apply our knowledge of psychological science to geopolitical events and observe how perceptions, emotions, memories and linguistic quirks might have distorted them.]( [Sadak Par School: A Children’s Uprising in Bhojpur Against Bihar’s Failing Education System]( Javed Iqbal [The students are protesting the lack of school facilities, shortage of textbooks and teachers, quality of teaching, casteism, lack of toilets in schools and police violence.]( [Is Climate Change Killing the Indian Farmer?]( Nandini Majumdar [We have an agrarian crisis today because we have failed to think through what kind of agriculture we need.]( [What the Crisis in Venezuela Tells Us About Populism in Today’s Time]( Ranabir Samaddar [There is an intense similarity between the Venezuelan crisis and what we find in some other democracies – the same populist response to crisis and the same hesitation of the Left to take note of the class basis of this response.]( [Indian Regulators Have Cleared the Way for Uterus Transplants Without Sufficient Research]( Sarojini Nadimpally and Aswathi Raveendran [Concerned authorities have been lackadaisical about drafting regulatory guidelines for this new and controversial transplant procedure.]( [Is Domestic Work Inherently Hers to Do?]( Joyeeta Dey [Altering the ‘opportunity cost’ of women working outside the home must begin with dropping the assumption that domestic work is the woman’s to do.]( [Game of Thrones’ No Longer Does the Impossible]( Nehmat Kaur [There seem to be no surprises left in Westeros, with the just-concluded season appearing to play fast and loose with time and plot.]( 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](