EDITORIAL and Word Meanings

First it was the writers, now it is the turn of television channels to be assaulted in Tamil Nadu. Freedom of speech and expression has seldom been under so much threat. The bomb attack on the office of Tamil TV channel Puthiya Thalaimurai in the early hours of Thursday takes the growing intolerance in our society to new heights. The channel showed trailers last week of a programme it intended to telecast on the relevance of the thali or mangalsutra in contemporary India. It began to receive threatening calls, with callers turning abusive when women answered the phone. The channel decided to call off the show. Even after this, parties such as the Hindu Makkal Katchi and the Hindu Munnani held protests outside its office. A cameraperson recording the protest was assaulted. The State BJP too issued unedifying statements justifying the protests. All this culminated in the bomb attack, which might not have injured anyone but has done great harm to the country’s liberal fabric. The fringe groups behind this have thrown a challenge to the secular and tolerant ethos, and sought to use violence to intimidate liberal sections of society from debating or questioning cultural mores. While the ideological challenge will have to be met politically, the full force of the law should be used to rein in elements out to intimidate media and society.

The thali is a neck ornament worn by Hindu women as a symbol of marriage and a living husband. The show, it appears, would have debated whether battered or abandoned wives still need to wear it. Whether women choose to wear a cultural symbol such as a thali — or, for that matter, a burqa, a veil or a wedding ring — is entirely a matter of personal choice. As a religion, Hinduism has always shown a philosophical indifference to forcing rituals and symbols on its adherents. This incident is one more in a growing list of attempts by fundamentalists to appropriate the personal into the political. Secondly, the targeted show was to be in the nature of a debate, which is by definition a platform for two opposing viewpoints to be aired. Debates that allow a topic to be robustly analysed are an essential part of the public discourse in a democracy. Some years ago, Tamil Nadu saw disgraceful attacks on the film star Khushboo for her remarks on premarital sex. Tamil writers Perumal Murugan and Puliyur Murugesan have been threatened, even as a BBC documentary on the Delhi rape victim was banned nationally. In all these cases, protesters claimed that India’s cultural fabric was under threat. What is really under threat is its millennia-long history of tolerance, broad-mindedness and acceptance of a diverse, multilayered ethos.

Article Source - The HINDU

S.No	WORD	MEANING	SYNONYMS	ANTONYMS	USAGE
1	Seldom	i. rarely ii. infrequently iii. not often	i. Scarce ii. Rare iii. Sporadic	i. Frequent ii. Regular iii. Often	He seldom wears a mask in metro. This type of turtle seldom grows over four inches in length.
2	Fringe groups	i. a group who is in a larger organization because its views are more extreme than the majority	i. Radical group ii. Notorious group	i. Mainstream groups	Pro-Hindu Fringe Group Claims Responsibility for Attack on News Channel in Chennai
3	Intimidate	i. to make timid ii. fill with fear	i. scare ii. subdue iii. terrify iv. terrorize	i. assure ii. calm iii. comfort iv. courage	Extra security is needed to prevent  notorious group, who will seek to intimidate voters to stay at home.
4	Battered	i. to damage by beating ii. to beat persistently or hard	i. Destroy ii. Hurt iii. Injure iv. Discourage	i. Cure ii. Heal iii. encourage	The coastal regions around Orrisa were battered by the storm.
5	Adherents	i. supporters ii. followers	i. believer ii. devotee iii. disciple	i. antagonist	i. I hear the same thing from adherents of all religions. ii. Slowly, we are gaining adherents to our cause.
6	Fundamental-ist	strict adherence/support  to any set of basic ideas or principles	i. fanatic ii. zealot iii. extremist		We still have fundamentalist iconoclasm; for example, the Taliban.
7	Robustly	i. strong and healthy ii. strongly or stoutly built	i. actively ii. energetically iii. firmly	i. delicately ii. feebly iii. badly	Business volumes with private individuals continued to grow robustly, in line with expectations.
8	Discourse	communication of thought by wordsor by  talk or by  conversation	i. communication ii. Sermon iii.conversation iv. discussion	i. Silence ii. Quiet	I would hope we can then return to more rational discourse on the subject.
9	Philosophical	Person or thought of the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct.	i. Profound ii. Rational iii. Thoughtful	i. emotional ii. non philosophical iii. agitate	Lord Buddha was a philosophical figure.
10	Ethos	i. the spirit of a culture ii. the character of a community, group, person	i. Ideology ii. Spirit iii. Mindset		The match will come down to which team has the stronger team ethos on the day.