Niven Charvet tells his Indian friends why he prefers China to India:
My belief in humanism, my love of my own language, a certain libertarian cast of mind – none of these could really explain why I am more comfortable in China than in India.
To me India is a land of separation, China a land of [...]
Archive for the 'Religion' Category
‘Despicable Separation’
Published by May 10th, 2008 in Democracy, India, Patriarchy, Religion, Society and Women. 1 CommentThe gold rush on Akshaya Tritiya
Published by May 7th, 2008 in India, Religion and Society. 5 CommentsUntil now, I had no clue as to why we celebrated ‘Akshaya Tritiya’. I still think its a commercial scam to make people buy gold. Here’s what a few bloggers had to say about the festival;
Vijayan Krishan writes;
Akshaya Tritiya, is a very auspicious day. The significance of the day is attributed to the event of [...]
Yoginder Sikand examines the efforts of the Jamaat-e-Islami of India to spread madrasa reforms:
To counter widespread misconceptions about madrasas, Ahmad suggests that madrasas interact with people of other faiths who live in their vicinity and even to invite them inside. ‘Much misunderstanding about Islam and Muslims owes simply to lack of interaction between the communities’, [...]
Old Gangajal in a new bottle
Published by May 3rd, 2008 in Art, Books, Culture, Fiction, India and Religion. 0 CommentsNayan has discovered the newer version of the Ramayana, set in 3392 A.D. and has his opinions:
I wonder what Swami Valmiki thought while writing down this legend. I pray to God to give his soul peace, I am quite sure he would have not been happy to see Rama and Dashratha talking in fundax English, [...]
An Antidote for Extremism
Published by April 13th, 2008 in Democracy, Politics, Religion and Secularism. 0 CommentsManas attempts to craft an antidote for extremism, a crisis that has plagued our country;
Hinduism as it is, is a diverse range of cultures and ways of living. That, unless forced into one single mold, will not lend itself to a common identity. We need to solve this identity crisis from a wholly different angle. [...]
‘A world of crashing cultural plates’
Published by April 8th, 2008 in Globalisation, India, Language, Religion and Society. 0 CommentsTwo posts on languages, religion and identities. Razib foresees more intense conflict, in a globalizing world, among civilizations:
Though language is emotionally salient for many, that is really not what I had in mind. In The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order Samuel Huntington presented a thesis which used religion as the major [...]
Jahan Bakshi says it starts out with a ‘powerful premise’ but fails to live upto its potential:
Khuda Kay Liyealmost seems like a Pakistani ambassador to India- and that too with a message for peace- and it is with a broken heart and a weird sense of guilt (I almost feel as if I am being [...]
Poverty is a political issue
Published by March 27th, 2008 in Adivasi, Caste, Dalit, Development, Economy, Human Rights, Policy, Politics, Poverty and Religion. 0 CommentsAnalysing a paper published in the Economic and Political Weekly, John Samuel suggests poverty isn’t just about incomes, it is also about identities :
The notion of impoverisation (or the process of the active creation of poverty with in society or economy) needs to be seen in the context of social, economic and political inequality. Such [...]
Hirak discusses and more than agrees with an article from the The Economist, that goes on to show the advantages of being a “religious” person, economically speaking:
Atheism can be intellectually and scientifically more honest, but can lead to impoverishment and even alienation in other ways.
So, anybody planning to switch or argue?
Why is Modern India Vegetarian?
Published by March 24th, 2008 in Adivasi, Caste, Dalit, Economy, Food, Government, Policy, Poverty and Religion. 0 Comments41.9% of adults belonging to the ST and 38.4 % belonging to SCs have Chronic Energy Deficiency, while the pooled average of the nation is 34.8 %. Further, 62.7 % of the children born to Scheduled Caste parents are under-weight, 57.6 % are stunted, while among the other castes it the numbers are 53.1 % [...]
‘Saala ek machhar aadmi ko hijra bana deta hai’
Published by March 23rd, 2008 in Art, Books, Democracy, Feminism, Government, Human Rights, Literature, Patriarchy, Personal, Politics, Religion, Secularism, South Asia and public space. 2 CommentsThat line from a Nana Patekar film, says, Aman Kumar, captures his ‘rage and frustration’ over the Taslima Nasreen episode:
So has mine! Sadly, I no longer consider India a secular country after watching and analyzing the political developments in last 15-20 years. Right from Shah Bano case to Babri demolition, and from Gujrat massacre to [...]
Shariah in the West
Published by March 21st, 2008 in Human Rights, Justice, Patriarchy, Policy, Religion, Secularism and Women. 0 CommentsAsghar Ali Engineer foresees conflict between conservative ‘ulama and progressive Muslims if Shariah laws are applied in the West:
I have met many ‘ulama in UK. They are as conservative as in Islamic countries, perhaps even more in the alien environment of UK and other Western countries. If any attempt is made to apply Islamic [...]
Talking around Tibet
Published by March 20th, 2008 in Culture, Democracy, Geopolitics, Human Rights, India, Justice, Media, Politics and Religion. 0 CommentsKaran ponders on what India should do:
The Tibet issue is bound to remain in the headlines given the scrutiny the world has thrown on every aspect of Chinese existence. From levels of pollution, to dealing with dictators in Africa, to poisoned toys being exported, the lack of free speech and media and their crackdown on [...]
In search of Ramrajya - Part III
Published by March 17th, 2008 in India, Politics, Religion, Secularism and Spotlight Series. 0 Comments[ This is Essay # 26 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
In search of Ramrajya [Continued from here - First part, Second part]
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V Ramaswamy
(7)
A tolerant society must be built through large-scale, effective public action by citizens and civic organizations. This must build upon past and existing initiatives. A peace / conflict-resolution [...]
In search of Ramrajya - Part II
Published by March 14th, 2008 in India, Politics, Religion, Secularism, Society and Spotlight Series. 1 Comment[ This is Essay # 26 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
In search of Ramrajya [Continued from here]
———
V Ramaswamy
(4)
In his poem Yahaan Sey Sheher Ko Dekho, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the great Urdu poet of the subcontinent, talks about the ugly underbelly of the city, of exploitation, suffering, injustice. He says that once [...]
Dr.Babu Paul muses on redemption, from Shivratri to the New Testament
In the Old Testament event the child asks the father about the sacrificial goat. Where is the lamb? And in the New we find that as John the Baptist watches Jesus he proclaims that Jesus was the Lamb of God that would bear the sins [...]
In search of Ramrajya - Part I
Published by March 12th, 2008 in India, Politics, Religion, Secularism and Spotlight Series. 1 Comment[ This is Essay # 26 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
In search of Ramrajya
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V Ramaswamy
“Let no one commit the mistake of thinking that Ramrajya means a rule of the Hindus. My Ram is another name for Khuda or God. I want Khuda Raj, which is the same thing as the Kingdom [...]
God doesn’t understand Tamil?
Published by March 9th, 2008 in Caste, Language, Prejudice and Religion. 1 CommentHarini welcomes the singing of Tamil hymns in the Nataraj temple in Chidambaram:
And, this is 2008. Devotees still face the kind of threat that Tulsidas faced when he rewrote the Ramayan in Brij Bhasa and Jyaneshwar translated the Bhagwad Gita into Marathi … thereby making them accessible to all. People of all types arent’ allowed [...]
Letter to a Young American Hindu
Published by March 5th, 2008 in Caste, Culture, Democracy, Indiaspora, Politics, Religion and Secularism. 2 CommentsYou might find this letter on other blogs and sites. As I am not sure about where it was orginally published I am linking to the blog where I first found it. One of the more memorable arguments Vijay Prashad, Professor and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, makes in the letter is [...]
The lonely Mr.Paswan
Published by March 2nd, 2008 in Caste, Dalit, Politics, Religion and Secularism. 0 CommentsAdnan remembers Ram Vilas Paswan’s more assertive days:
In the 80s when anti-Muslim rhetoric was at its peak, Paswan was the only politician who countered rustic rabble-rousers like Uma Bharti, Mahant Awaidyanath, Kalyan Singh and their comparatively more ’suave’ hate-preachers like Lal Kishenchand Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, both on ground-level and in the parliament [...]
‘When it hits somewhere near home…’
Published by March 2nd, 2008 in Culture, Democracy, Economy, India, Language, Politics, Religion, Secularism and Society. 0 CommentsBVN muses on diversity, language, religion and politics:
…in Mumbai we are comfortably silent when the Shiv Sainiks take on the valentines or muslims or the touring Pakistan cricket team or M.F Hussein. They are like that, we know they are crazy. But when the Sena turns to North Indians, there is news value, and perceivable [...]
Buddha, the Taliban and Pakistan
Published by February 15th, 2008 in Art, History, India, Religion, South Asia and Spotlight Series. 7 Comments[ This is Essay # !5 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
Buddha, the Taliban and Pakistan
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Raza Rumi
I have been working on this composition for quite a while. I was angered, rather revolted by what the Taliban were doing in the pristine Swat valley that has recently undergone full scale war. What has [...]
On Taslima Nasreen and Free Speech
Published by February 13th, 2008 in Announcement, Democracy, Government, Human Rights, Literature, Religion and Women. 1 CommentA public statement by Mahashweta Devi, Arundhati Roy, Ashish Nandy, Girish Karnad, (amongst others) on Taslima Nasreen that I found here:
At a time when India is projecting itself on the world’s stage as a modern democracy, while it hosts international literary festivals and book fairs, the Government of India, most mainstream political parties and their [...]
Bauls
Published by February 12th, 2008 in Art, Culture, History, India, Language, Music and Religion. 1 CommentKalyan sheds some light on the world of the Bauls:
The word ‘Baul’ refers to three terms- betul meaning ‘out of rhythm’, vayu meaning ‘air’ or the inner flow of energy which gives life and harmony to all living beings ; and auliya, a term of Arabic origin, which means ’saint’ or ‘holy man’. This is [...]
Abuse of corporate email and abusive email
Published by February 11th, 2008 in Business, Caste, Culture, Dalit, Economy, Education, India, Policy, Prejudice, Religion and Society. 1 CommentArzan notices a ‘disturbing trend’ emerging in India: he’s convinced forwarded chain emails constitute abuse of corporate mail. He also thinks the MNCs which allow employees to abuse corporate email in this fashion can be sued for hurting the feelings of some sections:
The email contents are generally
A list of 12 reasons why men are better [...]
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