Cultural strategist, sustainability advocate, Kathak dancer & historian blending heritage, tourism and community knowledge for resilient futures.
New Delhi, India
Joined October 2009
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Checkout my new article :
The demolition of Bismillah Khan's house exposes the clash between tourism development and heritage preservation.
thequint.com/opinion/demolit…
The demolition of Bismillah Khan’s home is not simply a private property dispute or the loss of a celebrated musician’s residence. It exposes a larger failure to reconcile investment, urban development and heritage conservation. @navinajafa writes.
Read: thequint.com/opinion/demolit…
My unfiltered tribute to Dr Salim Ali, author of “Stopping by the Woods on a Sunday Morning”. Honouring India’s national bird while habitat destruction and climate change threaten the world it depends on. @BNHSIndia @birdcountindia @ncfindia @incognito9 @OrnithophileI @BittuSahgal @prernabindra
My Passion for Birding started during COVID Time & I’m still pursuing it😊 Gratitude & Fondly Remembering Dr. Salim Ali, the legendary “Birdman of India,” on his birth anniversary.🙏 Sharing Birds Visiting My Garden ☘️
Rufous Treepie, Indian Grey Hornbill, Laughing Dove, Brown Headed Barbet.
#NationalBirdWatchingDay #SalimAli #Birds #IndiAves #BirdsSeenIn2026 #birdwatching
BJP nationalism salutes the border while axing its forests, offering saplings 1,700 km away as though Arunachal could forward its rivers, roots and ancestral memory to a new address. @katonmoyong @Ebo_Mili_Linggi @Parineeta_River @PravinSawhney @GretaThunberg @billmckibben @Warriormomsin @BhavreenMK
#ArunachalPradesh activist Katon Moyong has reiterated his opposition to the proposed #Siang dam, calling out Chief Minister #PemaKhandu. He clarified that people are not against dams but want projects to be built on tributaries rather than the main river. Moyong said generations have opposed the proposed dam, delivering a clear message: “No Siang Dam.”
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Navina Jafa retweeted
Mohenjo-daro’s Dancing Girl: Public Heritage Behind Closed Doors
Navina Jafa writes
thewire.in/history/mohenjo-d…
Navina Jafa retweeted
Mohenjo-daro’s Dancing Girl: Public Heritage Behind Closed Doors
The reported removal of a 4,500-year-old masterpiece from India’s National Museum raises unsettling questions about public access, cultural stewardship and the modern impulse to control an ancient body, writes @navinajafa
m.thewire.in/article/history…
Bunker Roy Sir, a hero I never met, but whose messages I treasure. To honour you is to carry forward the work of a more humane world. May your soul fly free. substack.com/@navinajafa/not…
@Ramu_Damodaran @Ram_Guha @kavita_krishnan @AnandWrites @BhavreenMK @billmckibben
Deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Sanjit "Bunker" Roy, a Stephanian senior I had the privilege of meeting a few times.
A visionary social activist, pioneer, and educator (and also national squash champion), Bunker Roy dedicated his life to empowering rural India through self-reliance, sustainable development, and grassroots innovation. By founding the @BarefootCollege in Tilonia, Rajasthan, he transcended conventional notions of formal education, proving that illiterate and semi-literate villagers, especially women, possessed the wisdom, skill, and capability to build, innovate, and lead. His extraordinary vision of training rural grandmothers into "Barefoot Solar Engineers" illuminated thousands of off-grid homes across India and the developing world, leaving behind an indelible legacy of dignity, community empowerment, and environmental stewardship.
My heartfelt condolences to Aruna Roy, his family, colleagues, friends, admirers and the vast global community of changemakers inspired by his life's work. 🕉️ शांति 🙏🏼.
South Delhi homes, facing a huge park full of trees, yet AQI display reads 999. Rekha Gupta’s BJP government calls the crackers “green”, but our black lungs seem to have missed the rebranding.
@gupta_rekha @mssirsa @MohdNad91388381 @Warriormomsin @LetMeBreathe_In
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Bernie Sanders. Thunder for “We the People”, not “We the Wealthy”. Defending democracy at home, dignity beyond borders. May a democratic reckoning for POTUS echo in a political reckoning for the Lotus. People over plutocrats. @TheDeshBhakt @ppbajpai @ravish_journo @VinodSharmaView
Bernie Sanders just announced that the Democrats will initiate legislation to impose a 5% wealth tax and used the revenue to give direct cash benefits of $12,000 to every family of four members. This is the exact same direct cash benefit scheme called Nyunatam Ayay Yojana or Nyaya Scheme announced by @RahulGandhi in 2019 elections manifesto. The figure was also similar, 12k in respective currency.
Clearly, what Rahul Gandhi thinks today, the world thinks tomorrow.
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Check out my new post,
6 years jailed without trial, a scholar’s banned book, & global prize expose how democracies weaponise fear, turning dissent into a crime and minorities into scapegoats._
substack.com/@navinajafa/not… @TimothyDSnyder @ruthbenghiat @HC_Richardson @AnandWrites @RBReich
Thank you, @zoo_bear, for taking the time to read and share Umar Khalid’s Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Power.
Get your copy from trusted bookstores or Amazon.
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Anything to dodge citizens, until power forgets who lent it. At Jantar Mantar, even the stones keep time. The dictator mistakes an art show for an alibi. But no canvas can paint over the writing on the wall: time to pack. The clock is not his courtier.
@TheDeshBhakt @seemay @ravish_journo @bismil_prasad @PoMoGandhi
Within days of denotifying the area around Jantar Mantar as a protest site, the Centre has quickly moved in to select the 18th-century protected monument as one of the prime venues that will showcase exhibitions and programmes curated across over a dozen monuments and other prominent locations at “India Biennale 2026” that starts on Dec 4 and will be on till March 21.
More details 🔗 toi.in/u8SGsY
Catch every update on the TOI App 👉 timesofindia.sng.link/Cqhd4/…
#IndiaBiennale2026 #JantarMantar #IndiaArtBiennale
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So grateful, Kabir Bedi ji. My production Sair-e-Motorcar used Kathak classical dance and Dastangoi storytelling to bring vintage cars and their owners to life: one city, its old garages, its stories. Let classic cars and their tales dance worldwide. @nmacc_india @NCPAMumbai @FestSerendipity @TeamworkArts @AsiaSocietyAus @AsiaSociety
Navina Jafa’s Kathak solo in “Sair-e-Motorcar” in Mumbai was one of the most brilliant Kathak performances I’ve ever seen. It was amazingly nuanced, expressive, inventive and bold, all at once.
Hats off, Navina! You are an extraordinary dancer. You gave us all an unforgettable evening at the NMACC.
K 🙏🙏🙏 👏👏👏
@navinajafa
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Flowers for the Goddess. Barricades for women who dissent. Her departure on horseback predicts no government’s fall; it exposes the illusion that power lasts forever. Worship is not accountability. #Navratri2026 #Shakti
@kavita_krishnan @nilanjanaroy @saliltripathi @prempanicker @vrindagrover @karunanundy @MasalaBai
Durga Puja is here. We worship Maa Durga as Shakti, yet women continue to face sexual violence—even in places of worship.
The hypocrisy is unreal. 🤡
We bow before goddesses but fail to respect and protect real women. What kind of devotion is this? 💔🔥
#WomensSafety
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Navina Jafa retweeted
#Update | Our lawyers have met Neha at the R.K. Puram station. It is mid night and police is not giving any clarity about her release, AISA has said.
LIVE | Where Are Neha Bora, Abhijeet Dipke?
CJP, AISA, Supporters Demand Their Post-detention Locations From Delhi Police
Live updates: thewire.in/rights/live-updat…
Navina Jafa retweeted
When you delete 15-20% of voters from voter list, and you call this "democracy", it is clear who is spreading anarchy. We don't need lessons from RSS people, whose love for Hitler and Mussolini is well documented. Gaming the system to win at any cost is not democracy. Bakwaas!
Burn a cockroach. Spare the rot. BJP-led Ramlila plans a 30-ft effigy. Democracy demands answers, not pest control.
#Democracy #RightToProtest
@harsh_mander @kavita_krishnan @ravishndtv @dhruv_rathee @TheDeshBhakt
The Shri Keshav Ramlila Committee will burn a 30-foot-tall #cockroach effigy alongside those of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghnad during #Dussehra celebrations in #Delhi this year, with the insect symbolising "filth and unhygienic" conditions.
Know more 🔗toi.in/GqOk2Y
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Navina Jafa retweeted
Ankita Bhandari's mother could not hold back her tears during the press conference.
There is no greater burden that the weight of losing a child. Then, in circumstances like this.
Delhi can move protests from Jantar Mantar, but not democracy from its citizens. Give dissent new ground and it may grow deeper roots. The strongest government is not one that silences voices, but one that listens. #JantarMantar
navinajafa.substack.com/p/mo…
@saurabhtop @AbhayDubey_ @ravish_journo @voicesofyouth @Apoorvanand__
Civilian protests across India have been increasingly met with police intervention — and allegations of excessive force have taken center stage. Reuters examined the guidelines and recent protest data to explore where these possible excesses against demonstrators are happening and why reut.rs/47jBORq
Delhi can move protests from Jantar Mantar, but not democracy from its citizens. Give dissent new ground and it may grow deeper roots. The strongest government is not one that silences voices, but one that listens. #JantarMantar @TheDeshBhakt
@ravishndtv @fayedsouza
@saurabhtop @vrindagrover
@bismil_prasad
thequint.com/opinion/from-ja…
Designating new sites aims to weaken the revolt while slyly preserving its outward form, giving citizens a venue for their questions, and power breathing room to leave them unanswered, writes Navina Jafa.
Read: thequint.com/opinion/from-ja…
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