A TRIBUTE TO CULTURAL RECONSTRUCTION
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 …
BEGINNING OF THE ERA OF ASIANISM?
Prime Minister Modi’s trip to Japan could be more than a visit to a friendly nation. It has a potential to unlock civilisational synergies There is news that among his first visits abroad the Prime Minister of India has decided to include Japan. For those of us who wish …
TAKING A LEAF OUT OF OUR GRAND HISTORY
When a man who is our next Prime Minister espouses ideals that the Mahatma and C Rajagopalachari stood for and promoted, it is time to give him a chance Respected Shri Gopal Gandhiji, Though an ordinary and unknown Indian, I have gathered courage to address you an open letter primarily …
THE SYMBOLISM AND HISTORY OF VARANASI
In the consciousness of India, this city symbolises a seat of great civilisational churning which throws up new directions, leaders of new thought and of new epochs Varanasi has, in the last few days, assumed a certain centrality in the national political discourse. In the Indian civilisational experience Varanasi continues …
BHARATIYATA AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS
The spirit of Indianness finds expressions in many ways. But for the biased and the blinded, it has been reduced to symbolism and is exploitable When Mirra Alfassa (The Mother) of Pondicherry (now Puducherry) declared that India was her “true country, the country of my soul and spirit” and that …
INDIA MUST REALISE ITS DESTINY NOW
The country is yet to be comfortable with her culture and civilisation, and seriously engage in uplifting its people out of a long phase of deprivation and scarcity A few days ago, a motley group of activists and academics of the Left and extreme Left persuasion came together to issue …
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 …
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 …