Clad in a black T-shirt and sporting slightly unkempt hair, Abhijeet Dipke conducted the massive crowd in front of him. As they waved a sea of Indian flags to the beat of the music, he stood over them waving one back. The song they were all singing, “Maa Tujhe Salaam,” is one of India’s most patriotic, released by A.R. Rahman in 1997 to mark the country’s 50th year of independence.
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In this holiday special, we speak to the acclaimed Indian writer Arundhati Roy on her new memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me. The book focuses on her mother Mary Roy and how Arundhati was shaped by her, both as a source of terror and of inspiration. We also talk to Arundhati about Gaza and the rise of authoritarianism from India to the United States. This is a rush transcript.
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The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India’s largest Hindu far-right organization, initiated a well-funded lobbying effort in the U.S. earlier this year, a Prism investigation has found. Prism is the first news outlet to report that Squire Patton Boggs, one of the top lobbying firms in the U.S., registered as a lobbyist on Jan. 16 for the RSS, according to lobbying disclosures.
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