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Sacred groves are small patches of primeval forest or stands of trees that are reserved exclusively for a deity, a critical indigenous ecological tradition in the realm of environmentalism. They hold  special religious and spiritual significance to the people and […]

Adarneeya Shri. B.L. Santhosh avaru, Namaskara. We, the Indic Collective Trust, are a group of ordinary Hindus who are committed to the protection and advancement of Indic civil liberties and civilizational interests through a research-based approach. As an organisation working […]

The previous piece briefly discussed the resistance that the Gadgil report had faced then and that it continues to even now, from various quarters. Continuing from there, in this piece we discuss the politics around the Western Ghats (WG) reports, […]

October 18, 2021   To Shri Narendra Damodardas Modi, The Hon’ble Prime Minister of Bharat   Sub: Regarding the Ongoing Attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh   Namaste Adarneeya Pradhan Mantri ji, We are a group of individuals, activists and advocates […]

Older than the Himalayas, the Western Ghats covers an area of around 140,000 km² in a 1600 kms stretch that runs parallel to the west coast of India traversing magnificently through six states from Gujarat to southern Kerala, creating some […]

In the previous piece we had discussed the Constituent Assembly’s intention behind a carefully crafted Article 355 to enshrine a duty of the Union to protect the states and the constitutional machinery therein. Continuing from that discussion, here we elaborate […]

Article 355 of the Constitution states that “It shall be the duty of the Union to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the government of every State is carried on in accordance with […]

The passing away of Sunderlal Bahuguna is the departure of one of the last remaining stalwarts battling for environment conservation employing Indic knowledge and practices. Born in 1927, in a small village on the banks of the River Bhagirathi in […]

The previous piece had discussed the lack of novelty in Union Government’s approach in constituting a new Super-Commission meant to tackle Delhi-NCR’s air pollution issues, namely the ‘Commission for Air Quality Management’ (CAQM). Now add to that, the serious lack […]

The previous piece pointed out mainly two issues that plague the minority education system in India. The first being a broader issue of determination of minority status on a central basis and the second specific issue being, the dispute relating […]

Delhi NCR is infamous for its winter season owing to the ominous presence of the worst smog globally. The conditions do not seem to improve despite the critical festival season and the stubble burning season having passed. This has been […]

The previous piece of this article series ended discussing certain schemes and scholarships that support and promote education for minority (mainly religious) communities as listed by a central notification of 1993 (and as amended in 2014). Such schemes are funded […]

As discussed in the previous piece, lynching is nowadays characterised as an act of mob violence having a communal element to it. However, the crime isn’t inherently religion specific and is mostly a case of mob-vigilantism. There is no comparative […]

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on 9th November passed an order directing a ban on the sale and use of firecrackers in the NCR as well as in other districts where air quality ranges from ‘poor to severe’ until 30th […]

In a bid at reforms in the field of education, the Education Minister of Assam in September announced that starting November 2020, the government-run madrasas and ‘tols’ (Sanskrit schools) would begin a 6-month transition to becoming regular schools under the […]

Last week, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court asked Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to consider as representation, the pleas before the court seeking ban on bursting of firecrackers and burning of effigies during Dussehra […]

In 1994 in Vaishali district of Bihar an IAS officer G Krishnaiah, who was serving as the district magistrate of Gopalganj in Bihar was dragged out of his car and killed by a politically motivated mob. More recently in 2007, ten […]

The Supreme Court on September 8, directed the Union Government of India to conform with the March 2018 circular of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) while hearing a petition against the  ‘Char Dham Highway Project’ (CDP) – […]

Law Commission’s Report in the Parliament In the last two parts of the series, while discussing the features of the 175th Law Commission of India’s report on “illegal migration”, the author discussed how the Law Commission’s Report proposed several important […]

As the author pointed out in the previous piece, the magnitude of illegal immigration in India has been highlighted by various governmental and non-governmental bodies from time to time but a very few attempts have been made at balancing all […]

With the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December last year that was erroneously coupled with an anticipated nation-wide National Register of Citizens (NRC), massive protests erupted across India. This ought to have stirred a much-needed discussion in […]

Honourable Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray State of Maharashtra Mumbai April 27, 2020 Dear Mr. Chief Minister: We are a group of individuals, activists, and advocates representing The Indic Collective Trust, an organization founded in 2017 with the objective of advocating, […]

This article discusses the nexus between Indic faith systems and environmental ethics, in particular the models of pre-historic Indic environmentalism categorised on the basis of adherence to and practice of Indic scriptures. It also sheds light briefly on the marginalisation […]

The Chief Priest of Shri Jagannath Temple, Puri with assistance from the legal team of Indic Collective Trust had filed an impleadment application and an application for recall of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s order dated 18 June 2020 in the […]

This is the last part of the article series analysing the changes proposed by the Redraft EIA notification 2020 to the existing Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regime.   Compromised Public Consultations The 2006 EIA notification exempts only six major project […]

In continuation to Part I, this part analyses a few more provisions of the proposed Re-Draft EIA notification 2020 (‘the Draft notification’) contrasting them with the 2006 notification which is the current law on EIA. New categories and diluted procedures […]

Environmental laws, like any area of law, require constant iteration to stay relevant and meaningful. In recent years, this area of law has attained great importance owing to the increased awareness in relation to climate change and its impact on […]

On March 31, 2020, the Union Home Ministry notified the promulgation of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Order 2020 (“the First Order”) for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The said Order, which was passed […]

President of Indic Collective Trust, Mr. T.R. Ramesh issued two notices dated 27th January and 25th February, 2020 to the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department and the Tourism, Culture and Religious Endowment Department of Tamil Nadu. First notice was […]

The controversy around Halal vs non-Halal/Jhatka meat is gaining momentum in recent times. While a few may prefer to look at it as some kind of Islamophobia, the need for non-halal meat to gain major portion of market has multiple […]

To Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Chairman, The Committee for Draft National Education Policy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Dear Dr. Kasturirangan, We write on behalf of the Indic Collective Trust, a Chennai-based trust registered in 2017 under the […]

Continued from Part I The recent crisis of Rohingya community migrating from Myanmar’s Rakhine state and illegally crossing over borders of India and neighbouring nations calls into play the obligations of ‘non-refoulement’. Of the countries to which Rohingya migrants have […]

The World Migration Report 2018 states that 3.3% of world’s population comprises of international migrants i.e. 244 million people approximately. The report published by the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) also estimates that 6% of those 244 million are […]

Seven decades after the coming into force of the Constitution of India, on June 21, 2019, finally an enlightened Indian lawmaker presented in the Parliament a long-standing Indic position on Article 26 of the Constitution. Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi, an Advocate […]

It is widely known that the Constitution of India adopted on 26th January 1950 seeks to secure justice, liberty, equality and fraternity for all its people. Part III of the Constitution grants and guarantees fundamental rights to all. It is only in Article 30 that […]

On 2 May 2018, the online magazine Swatantra published the article “P.I.E. or LIE: Why Linguistics Is Not A Science” by surgeon Dr. Shivsankar Sastry. I have nothing against people publishing about another discipline than their own, provided they submit to the same rules […]

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the world: the two Koreas are finally talking peace, the United States hopes to talk Pyongyang into at least curtailing, if not abandoning, its nuclear programme, US president Donald Trump has […]

Ravilochanan Aiyangar of the Indic Collective speaks with Ravish Ratnam about the proceedings of the Padmanabhaswamy temple case in Kerala HC while also addressing the broader aspects of state interference in the management of Hindu temples.

Ravish Ratnam speaks with J. Sai Deepak, lawyer of the Indic Collective Trust (ICT), about the history of and latest developments in the Ayodhya Ram Temple case, perhaps the most high-profile and politically consequential case being heard by the Supreme […]

A Tunisian court has just banned Israeli taekwondokas from participating in the World Taekwondo Junior Championships being held presently in Hammamet. The decision came as a local group, The National Commission for Supporting Arab Resistance and Opposing Normalization and Zionism, sued the […]

Dear Hamid Ansari, Jai Ram ji ki. We hope this greeting does not pose an existential threat to the “cultural diversity and the resultant composite culture” you seem to care so much about, going by your lecture at the India International Centre last month. […]

So, what do we intend to do with the #YearofTemples campaign? Here’s our broad statement of purpose: Our first goal has three facets: 1. Awareness of the effects of State Control of Temples. 2. Advocacy, through examples, that Hindus can and must […]

ICT is engaged in multiple legal battles concerning temples, from wresting them free from state control to arguing for the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. On the auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti / Pongal / Lohri, we reaffirmed our commitment to […]

Empathy, the capacity to feel another being’s pain, is a highly valued emotion in most cultures. We are encouraged to nurture this trait from a very early age and are so deeply conditioned to act on empathetic impulses that it […]

First Published on Swarajya, Oct 18, 2017, 2:58 pm What is it that has sounded the death knell for the ‘Indic way’ of life in the land of its origin? Ask this question and a recently formed group of individuals who […]