“These children[converts]….Their hatred for idolatry is marvelous….whenever their own parents practise it, they reproach them and come off to tell me at once….Whenever I hear of any act of idolatrous worship, I go to the place with a large band of these children…The children run at the idols, upset them, dash them down, break them … Continue reading Inquisition, Reconquista and (World Cup) Football
1905: Maharaja Pratap Singh approved a rail line between Jammu and Srinagar via Reasi through Moghul road….involved a 2 ft (610 mm) gauge railway climbing all the way to the Moghul road pass at 11,000 feet (3,353 m) over the Pir Panjal Range….present day Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel (Banihal Rail Tunnel)’s average elevation 1,760 m…. The best way … Continue reading India by train (Udhampur-Katra)
The appointment of Y Sudershan Rao to the ICHR is only the first of more appointments to follow.….ICSSR, NIAS, UGC, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), National Book Trust, NCERT, Films Development Corporation, Censor Board, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Lalit Kala Akademi… … Happy days are here again when we can (again) get a … Continue reading The RSS is back in (cultural) business
The partitioned state of Andhra Pradesh is looking for a new capital (Hyderabad is capital of Telengana). Amaravati situated on the banks of the Krishna river (see map below) and located near the commercial nodes of Guntur and Vijayawada is the old spiritual capital of the Andhra dynasty. When the Maurya dynasty fell (post Emperor … Continue reading Amaravati: ancient spiritual capital, renewed
…as recorded by outsiders. To put it briefly (if unfairly) it is Sunnis against Sunnis (as in Egypt) and Sunnis against Shias (as in Iraq and Syria). Everyone is playing to win by annihilating the other. And in doing so, the hapless minorities (mostly Christians) will be crushed as well. What is interesting to know … Continue reading History of Iraq (and Middle East)
Most Countries around the world have a single consolidated written document as their Constitution (UK, New Zealand, Israel and Canada being notable exceptions here) and among these, a great many also have a preamble- a brief introductory text, preceding the main body of the written constitution. Preamble is essentially a polemic/set of guiding principles/visionary statement … Continue reading From Buddha’s 3 Gems to Allah’s Universal Sovereignty: South Asian Preambles
“by winning 32.4 percent of the votes cast, the BJP has effectively become the single largest political party in J&K in terms of popular votes” Response: Naveen makes the excellent point that the BJP performance (and perception of performance) is exaggerated by the fact that the Valley Muslims do not vote either out of fear … Continue reading If Amartya Sen was a Pandit, how would he vote?
Written by Hamid Hussain on this 30th anniversary of the operation: Operation Blue Star Hamid Hussain June 05 is the thirty year anniversary of the Indian army operation to clear militants from the Sikh religion’s holiest temple in Amritsar. This was the culmination of chain of events simmering for several years. In late 1970s, conflict … Continue reading Operation Bluestar
As we peruse this report on Operation Bluestar by Hartosh Singh Bal we find even more reasons why religion should stay out of South Asian politics (but then as a liberal atheist we are expected to believe that). At the minimum what is required right now are decent politicians who will not exploit heavenly matters … Continue reading The Golden Temple
Narendra Modi is supposedly very much Israeli like in character- this is vouched for by the Israelis themselves. Also it is inevitable that the enemy of your enemy is your friend. To update the Two Nation Theory: their maximum villain-enemies are our maximum hero-friends and vice versa. …… To his Israeli partners, Modi’s profile as … Continue reading The Hin-Jew conspiracy begins to take shape
