THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- November 17, 2016- Topic 1
A day after Class 12 students turned up in large
numbers for their school-leaving
examinations in the Kashmir Valley, attendance for the Class 10 tests too
crossed the 95 per cent mark. Successful conduct of these tests is crucial not
just as a signal that normalcy
could be returning to Jammu and Kashmir after the months-long unrest, but equally importantly, to secure the school
year for students. In the event, given that classes had been disrupted since
the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen ‘commander’ Burhan Wani, the syllabus
had been reduced by half for students opting to appear for the examinations
now. But their successful start, amid demands that they be summarily postponed,
should also allay fears caused by a series of arson attacks on school buildings
across the Valley. More than 30 schools have been attacked in recent months —
in fact, on Monday teachers managed to prevent serious damage when a school in
Baramulla district was set ablaze. The attacks are a clear signal of the
determined plan by miscreants, their identity yet to be established, to hold classes
hostage. It is critical that, going forward, the State government rally
teachers and parents sufficiently to build a constituency to firewall the
school calendar from disruptions imposed on the Valley.
After a long summer when too many children were caught in the crossfire,
with some killed or blinded due to the security forces’ unconscionable
persistence with pellet guns, a curtailed syllabus for examinations must serve
as a reminder of the risks to the aspirations of yet another generation. To bring
back calm, more needs to be done to use the tenuous calm on the street to
normalise the daily transactions among local communities. If anger spilled over
on to the streets in unexpected and disturbing ways after Wani’s death, as the
weeks and months passed it led to maximalist rhetoric on the part of the
separatists, expectedly, and the government, unnecessarily. It is bewildering,
for instance, why Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar would choose to commend the
demonetisation measure by linking it to a decline in protests in Kashmir. A
larger-hearted acknowledgement by New Delhi of the distress in the Valley is
essential. Getting past the protests and shutdowns of 2016 will require far
more than was done in 2010. In this fractious Parliament session, the government
needs to foster an all-party initiative to reach out to the people of Jammu and
Kashmir. Taking careful note of their inordinate hardships this year would be a
good beginning.
Vocabulary
Arson: the criminal act of deliberately setting fire to
property.
Example: Police are treating the fire as arson
Synonyms: pyromania, incendiarism, torching
Ablaze: burning fiercely.
Example: His clothes were ablaze
Synonyms: on fire, alight, aflame, in flames, flaming, burning, fiery, blazing
Miscreants: a person who behaves badly or
in a way that breaks the law.
Example: Four hundred years ago today, in 1605, the Gunpowder Plot was averted,
miscreants brought to the fearsome justice of the age and a massive disruption
to English history avoided.
Synonyms: criminal, culprit, wrongdoer, malefactor, offender, villain, lawbreaker
Unconscionable: not right or reasonable.
Example: The unconscionable conduct of his son
Synonyms: unethical, amoral, immoral, unprincipled, indefensible, unforgivable
Persistence: firm or obstinate continuance
in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.
Example: Companies must have patience and persistence, but the rewards are there
Curtailed: reduce in extent or quantity; impose a restriction on.
Example: Civil liberties were further curtailed
Synonyms: reduce, cut, cut down, decrease, lessen, pare
down, trim
Maximalist: of or denoting an extreme
opinion.
Example: If we demand only maximalist ends, we will get nothing
Rhetoric: the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing,
especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.
Example: Born into a rich provincial family, he studied philosophy as well as
rhetoric and law.
Synonyms: oratory, eloquence, command of language, way with
words