Interestingly in 2007, when the self-proclaimed proletarian government of West Bengal fired on farmers who were just trying to protect their lands against seizure in Nandigram and killed more than a dozen—though the report was that many more were killed—most intellectuals in the state remained silent and did not write …

Deendayal Upadhyaya’s political commentaries are as relevant today as they were in his days. His sharp observations on the Congress, the Left movement and the aspirations of a nation that boasts of a rich cultural civilisation, should be a guide to modern-day India In the introduction to his The Jana Sangh: …

Over the decades after independence, the Left-ideologues dominated the narrative in the educational sphere as well as reigned over various cultural and literary organisations. They deliberately downplayed Sardar Patel’s enormous contribution to nation-building On January 31, 1948,  P Sundarayya, the legendary ‘Comrade PS’, who, as Marxist ideologues and pamphleteers falsely …

As we inch towards Sister Nivedita’s 150th birth anniversary, one would do well to recognise, re-evaluate her life and work and to rekindle a deeper and wider interest in her. That would, in a sense, be a tribute of gratefulness to her as Lokmata The Sahitya Akademi award for literary …

The political leader, whom the Congress party led by Indira Gandhi decided to throw in prison 40 years ago simply because he dared to oppose fascism and the growth of political intolerance and who at an advanced age took the lead in protecting India’s democratic experiment, was also a profound …

Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya established and spread the Bharatiya Jana Sangh across the country. In shaping post-independent India’s political evolution and in imparting it a distinct direction, his contribution has, perhaps, been unparalleled and epochal September this year announces the centenary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, the one leader who, after Syama …

Over 21 countries represented by leading scholars, teachers of spirituality and religion, venerable bhikkus, political leaders and former heads of state converged for the Global Hindu Buddhist Initiative on Conflict Avoidance and Environmental Consciousness in New Delhi early this month. Pointing to a deep civilisational challenge or crisis, the initiator …

The renaming of Aurangzeb Road is a tribute to the syncretism that Dara Shikoh symbolised and the path that he perhaps aspired to chalk out, when destiny cruelly snuffed him out. Abdul Kalam, signified, a Dara Shikoh of our times, an example to be emulated and celebrated  An interesting document …

Indian revolutionary nationalist Jatindranath Mukherjee shaped a united revolutionary zeal and nearly succeeded in evolving a pan-Indian and international revolutionary network that challenged the British empire, and would have changed India’s destiny had it not failed Among the early Indian revolutionary nationalists Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin (1879-1915) was perhaps …

It would be interesting to avoid adding to the surfeit of reference to Machiavelli and to Sun Tzu, and peer instead into our Bharatiya texts whose articulations of civilisational goals of India’s polity and aims of its rulers retain a vibrant breath of life and contemporary energy It would be …

In the preface to his three-volume classic, History of the Freedom Movement in India, RC Majumdar (1888-1980), one of India’s most distinguished 20th century historian, made a very telling remark, especially relevant to teaching the history of the Indian freedom  movement to young learners. “I have not hesitated”, wrote Majumdar, …

A recollection of the totalitarian and violent regime of Communists in Bengal. Communist paradises of proletarians have essentially been backwaters of violence and victimization with stagnating waters of cultural, educational and ethical degeneration. While the story of Communist violence in the state of Kerala is now being told – with …

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was right on the exploitative nature of British rule, only he is not the first Indian to say so or to study it. Indeed, a large corpus of work exists, written by forgotten thinkers and scholars, on the adversities of colonial rule The exploitative nature of …

For a public intellectual, who professes to have internalised Rabindranath Tagore’s worldview, Amartya Sen’s refusal to accept that he has miserably failed in shaping and nurturing the one project entrusted to him, shows his own diminishing capacities of rational judgement Upon approaching a certain age, the Bharatiya civilisational philosophy stipulates …