I face questions about data collection in India, how do we know if problems with intolerance have increased, etc. from undergraduate students with some regularity. One of my go-to sources is USCIRF reports, which provide a concise overview of the escalation of attacks against religious minorities in India and the key players involved. See the most recent one here:I'll also note that it is not hard to find criticisms of the USCIRF. Especially after the 2015 report on India came out, there was a flurry of op-eds in the Indian press, several of which I find very valuable for teaching purposes.AudreyOn Thu, Oct 8, 2015 at 12:26 AM, Nityanand Misra <nmisra@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Similarly, Tufail ignores what Sonia Faleiro (see her Op-Ed in the New York Times) and others have been pointing out for some time: that the frequency of attacks on scholars, writers, and religious minorities has increased observably since the installment of the current BJP government,Dear Tyler,
While we may differ in our views, I would like to know if the statement that the frequency of attacks has observably increased since May 2014 is based on a direct source, e.g. statistics on incidents charged with corresponding sections in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as reported by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of India? Or is it based on indirect sources like proportion of news coverage or number of editorials written on certain specific events?
If the former, I would be interested in seeing the data myself. If the latter, there is a possibility the conclusion may be different when we look at the actual data.
I am reminded of similar news coverage late last year and earlier this year, when there was a spate of news articles and editorials suggesting that incidents targeting churches in Delhi were a part of a pattern of rising intolerance under the new government. Most news sources did not report comparative statistics from previous years or statistics of incidents targeting other religious places. One weekly source, The Sunday Standard (published by the New Indian Express Group), did; and here is the article in which data showed a different picture:
http://www.newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/Stealing-Communal-Advantage-Leaves-Cops-Fuming/2015/02/15/article2668964.eceThis article was referred by Rupa Subrahmanya in her article Crying wolf: The narrative of the ‘Delhi church attacks’ flies in the face of facts published in February 2015 by Firstpost:
http://www.firstpost.com/india/crying-wolf-the-narrative-of-the-delhi-church-attacks-flies-in-the-face-of-facts-2101105.htmlKind regards, Nityanand
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