The revolutionary nationalist’s action defined that key phase of our freedom struggle which seeded the Indian psyche with an urge for independence Jatindranath Mukherjee or ‘Bagha Jatin’ (1879-1915), was unarguably one of the most astute, dynamic and fearless leaders of the pre-Gandhian revolutionary nationalist phase in India. A household name …

For academics, intellectuals and activists of this section, of which the eminent columnist-scholar is a leading member, the Gita was always better approached by trying to decipher and dissect – in a dialectical spirit – whether Lord Krishna actually existed, or whether the battle of Mahabharat was rather more of …

Teachers’ Day, being observed this year, perhaps for the first time, as a festival, is a great tribute not only to the philosopher-statesman in whose memory and educational contribution the occasion is commemorated but also points to a deeper civilisational dimension in India where education itself, in the days of …

A re-imagined and re-awakened new Asian Order is in the making with Prime Minister Modi reaching out to the East and South East countries It augurs well that over the past few months India has begun to look and act East with renewed vigour and commitment. India’s recent reaching out …

Professor Sankari Prasad Basu had devoted his life to an unrivalled research into the life and times of Swami Vivekananda. He has left behind a rich legacy One of Swami Vivekananda’s foremost biographers, Professor Sankari Prasad Basu, recently passed away. The prolific Prof Basu chose to silently fade away, having …

Most of those revolutionary nationalists who died or suffered extreme deprivation because they dared to challenge the might of the British empire, would indeed find this debate on the singing of Vande Mataram absurd and incomprehensible. If only they had been around to witness the imposing discourse which takes a …

The year 2014 marks the 1,000th anniversary of the mighty Hindu monarch Rajendra Chola I’s ascension to the throne. The occasion calls for greater national and international commemoration. Rajendra I, described by Georges Coedès as “prince audacieux”, and by R C Majumdar as the “greater son of a greater father”, …

The Modi regime should seriously look into salvaging the National Mission for Manuscripts. An autonomous status will be welcome. It’s a civilisational imperative In 2007 it was largely because of the efforts of the New Delhi-based National Mission for Manuscripts that the collection of Rigveda manuscripts in the possession of the Bhandarkar …

The Buddhist tourism project taps into the country’s civilisational repositories and can re-create bridges with regions that once fell within its cultural ambit The concept of cultural-religious circuits has been given a fillip by the Union Budget for 2014-2015. In a welcome move an amount of Rs 500 crore has …

The past few weeks have seen some avid India watchers and academics based in the West come up with a rather confusing nomenclature—‘secular nationalist’. It is striking that these self-professed secularists have at least accepted the appellation ‘nationalist’, not as pejorative or reductionist, but worthy of appropriation, however anachronistic such …

The intrinsic message of the Hindu Service and Spiritual Fair is that Hindu society must address contemporary challenges through a definite civilisational approach Melas or fairs have, in the near past, played a pivotal role in India, especially in support of movements for national regeneration. The celebrated Hindu Mela in …

Syama Prasad Mookerjee never bowed to Nehruvian pressures when it came to the larger good of the country Making an assessment of Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s life and personality, sometime in 1959, S Radhakrishnan, then Vice President of India, had perhaps come nearest to describing the essential and defining character trait …

Syama Prasad Mookerjee never bowed to Nehruvian pressures when it came to the larger good of the country Making an assessment of Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s life and personality, sometime in 1959, S Radhakrishnan, then Vice President of India, had perhaps come nearest to describing the essential and defining character trait …

The so-called intellectual mainstream relegated SP Mookerjee to an ideological corner and suppressed his versatility, his national acceptance and his vision for national progress Sixty one years after he was consigned to a confined and lonely death by free India’s first democratically elected Government on June 23, 1953, Syama Prasad …