SUCCESS STORIES OF ANCIENT INDIA
It is good that the political discourse has at last gradually begun to move us nearer to our true and essential political and cultural self On a visit to southern India last week, I crossed the small town of Utthiramerur in the district of Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu. A nondescript …
NOSTALGIA MUSTN’T DEFINE NALANDA
The study of the evolution of Indic civilisation, and how it influenced a number of spiritual movements across the world, is what a university of this kind must advance The governing idea behind the revival of Nalanda University should not merely be to promote ‘international understanding’, which in any case …
Lessons In Indian History For Rahul Gandhi
I am not in the habit of rebutting every ill-informed position taken on crucial episodes of Indian history, more so if they happen to be articulated by half-baked intellectuals and public personalities with quarter degrees, awarded under aliases from foreign universities. But at times even some ignorant comments made by …
DIFFUSING NATURE OF CULTURAL BOMBS
India’s cultural icons must be effectively reached out to and rediscovered in the present struggle to narrate the new story of a changing India Kenyan thinker, author and a leading voice of Africa’s cultural struggle, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, in his celebrated book, Decolonising the Mind (1981), has talked about the ‘cultural …
TOXIC RESIDUES OF MACAULAYISM
The sharp protests against Wendy Doniger’s convoluted and confused reading of the history of Hindu religion are justified Writing on October 12, 1836, Thomas Babington Macaulay gleefully informed his father that their schools were “flourishing wonderfully” and that the “effect of this education on Hindoos is prodigious” because “no Hindoo …
NEITHER HONOURABLE NOR GOOD FOR SOCIETY
To offer the crutch of minority status to the Jain community which has excelled in most fields of human action, is to belittle its achievements The Eastern phalanx at the World’s Parliament of Religion at Chicago in September 1893 was a formidable one. Against every Western and missionary onslaught on …
MANY FALSE DAWNS IN OUR CIVILIZATION
By demonstrating its callous attitude towards the promotion of Sanskrit, the Government is insulting our rich cultural heritage The recent forming and dumping of the Sanskrit Commission by the present dispensation displays the latter’s suppressive spirit when it comes to nurturing the traditions, languages and culture of India. In short, …
THEY FACED BULLETS TOO FOR THE COUNTRY
Freedom-fighters of the pre-Gandhian phase have largely received a raw deal in history. It is time for us to remember their sacrifices As the West prepares to mark the centenary of World War I in 2014, we would do well in India to observe the centenary of other efforts undertaken …
THE REDISCOVERY OF A NATIONAL ICON
Had Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel lived longer, he would have resolved many issues that continue to trouble the country even decades after independence Like October, this December too saw a renewed debate and discussion on the life and legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Such a debate augurs well for our public …
Sardar Patel: Other Facets – SPMRF Monograph
In the words of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was “the most valiant champion of India’s freedom and the strongest unifying force in our national life.” It is to commemorate him as the architect of India’s unity that Hon’ble Shri Narendra Modiji has given a galvanizing call for …
HE WAS A MAN WITH A MIND OF HIS OWN
RC Majumdar’s work of history had a genre of its own. It was varied, continental and epochal, all at the same time. He refused to toe the official line What Arnold Toynbee and Will Durant have been to the study of civilisation and history in the West, Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, …
ANTI-SEMITISM ON A RISE IN THE WEST
The great United States Commission for International Religious Freedom, which rants against violations of religious freedom in India, should mind its backyard Describing the reason for penning down his hellish experiences at Auschwitz, legendary and prolific chronicler of the holocaust, Elie Wiesel, movingly wrote, “Did I write it so as …
NOT JUST POLISHING UP OF THE OUTSIDE
The civilisational goals of education cannot be met unless India rediscovers its ancient ‘science of the interior’ or adhyatmavidya Later this week 300 odd heads of educational institutions from across the country shall converge upon the national capital to deliberate upon the goal, the vision and the status of Indian education. …
AROUSE, MOTHER OF ALL CIVILISATIONS!
It requires great mettle and vision to create anew a cultural dream that earns world recognition. The Chinese have formulated theirs. We must too The late Huh Shih, nationalist scholar, diplomat and one of the legendary leaders of Chinese thought, in a paper presented at the Harvard Tercentenary Conference of …