The 50-odd day Mandala Puja at Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple, climax of 41-day long austerities by devotees who piously trek barefoot through Pampa forest to reach the shrine, has currently become a spiritual obstacle course for the faithful who have to suffer shabby sabotage by the State government that has ruthlessly curtailed transport and civic facilities...
Two attacks in Pakistan, including a brazen assault on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, are likely to complicate prime minister Imran Khan’s efforts to renegotiate China’s massive, controversial Belt and Road investments as well as an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout and ensure that Pakistan is shielded from blacklisting by an international anti-mo...
The killers of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi may have gotten more than they bargained for. The killing has sparked multiple battles that are likely in coming months to shape relationships ranging from that between the United States and Saudi Arabia to those between US President Donald J. Trump, his Republican party, the US Congress, and the country’s inte...
Investigations into the murder of activist Gauri Lankesh have long dominated the media, with details of how the alleged killers planned it carefully, how saffron terrorism is growing and so-called free thinkers are in peril. The Karnataka Government invoked the most stringent criminal law in the State, The Karnataka Control of Organized Crime Act, against th...
Commenting on my own article ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burnt’, I observed, ‘I cannot say if the apex court judgment in the hands of Pinarayi-led Government can be compared to a bouquet of flowers in the hands of a monkey or a murderous weapon in the hands of a serial murderer. The fact remains that the fear of their rights related to their faith being violate...
Saudi sports diplomacy is proving to be a mirror image of the kingdom’s challenged domestic, regional and foreign policies. Overlorded by sports czar Turki al-Sheikh, Saudi sports diplomacy, like the kingdom’s broader policies, has produced at best mixed results, suggesting that financial muscle coupled with varying degrees of coercion does not guarantee...
During the US mid-term elections, voters were asked to pronounce themselves collectively for the renewal of all members of the Federal House of Representatives and one third of the members of the Federal Senate. Besides that, at the local level, they nominated 36 governors with numerous other local responsibilities, and answered 55 referendums. These...
Many Indian historians internalized the European view of India. The dada of colonial era Indian historians, R.C. Majumdar (1888-1980), even went to the extent of declaring the lack of historical sense one “of the gravest defects of Indian culture.” In Ancient India he wrote that the “the aversion of Indians to writing history” defied “rational explanation.” ...
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), a German theorist credited with the insights that led to the birth of Anthropology, asserted that Europeans were the only people with a sense of history. He saw societies in China, India and the Americas as experiencing change, but not possessed of the capacity to perceive it as cumulative development; their past was thus...
Alexis: You are a Solzhenitsyn scholar, and Solzhenitsyn is arguably one of the rarest minds and perceptive writers the twentieth century ever produced. Solzhenitsyn praised Putin for his tremendous work, and no one ever really challenged him on this.
Krasnov: First of all, thanks for focusing on a Russian writer who belongs as much to Russia as to the USA...
Indian secularism has always been at odds with the commonly accepted meaning of the word secularism. It made a new record when the Kerala government claimed in an affidavit submitted to the High Court that Sabarimala is a secular temple “where entry of devotees is not restricted on the ground of any caste or religion”. As justification, the importance of Vav...
Saudi Arabia is bracing itself for a potentially more strained relationship with the United States in the wake of Democrats gaining control of the House of Representatives in this week’s mid-term elections (Nov. 9] and mounting Turkish efforts to corner the kingdom in the Khashoggi crisis. To counter possible US pressure, the kingdom is exploring opportuniti...
Syria should soon be experiencing the end of armed hostilities on the whole of its territory, with the exception of the areas occupied by Turkey and the United States. The international Press is now focused on the return of the refugees, the reconstruction of the areas of devastation, and preventing the return of European jihadists. But these questions are s...
One of the more important consequences of the Trump Administration trade war against both China as well as Japan is the recent diplomatic and economic meeting between Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Not only was it the first such meeting by a Japanese PM in seven years since the chill in relations over a group o...
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s failure to renegotiate parts of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) during his visit to Beijing (Nov. 1-5) affirms President Xi Jinping’s inflexible commitment to making China a leading world power by 2049, the centenary of communist rule. The Border & Road Initiative (B&RI) and military power are keys to this...
Recent attempts by certain lobbies to link controversial archaeological sites of Keezhadi and Pattanam has raised questions on their agendas. Keezhadi is at Sivaganga district near Madurai in Tamil Nadu, while Pattanam is at Ernakulam in Kerala. There are neither ceramics nor other cultural remains reportedly unearthed at these sites to show the alleged...
I was hesitant to write on the subject while the Pittsburgh dead weren’t buried yet. I know, it is not a valid consideration for the militant pundits. The US Jews accused President Trump and the Israeli Jews blamed Palestinians for the shooting as on the cue before the victims were declared dead. However, you can’t talk sense before the dead are laid to rest...
On 12 June 1975, a judge of the Allahabad High Court found Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty of several minor counts of using government machinery to help her 1971 election campaign (such infractions as use of an official jeep to get to her rural constituency, and use of electricity from a government office by organisers of a rally). He voided her election...
The question is explosive in the current Indian socio-political context. Many factors are intertwined, emotionalism, religiosity, and what not. As a scientist, I look at the question with a rational mind. Let’s first discuss the current global food situation vis-à-vis that of India. According to the most recent data made available by the Food and Agriculture...
Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law is among the most brutal and discriminatory legislations in the modern world. On the face of it, the law prohibits blasphemy against any recognised religion and provides for punishment ranging from fine to death. In actuality, it is being used to suppress and brutalise the minorities in the country - Hindus, Christians, Ahmadis, etc....
The German philosopher Hegel observed that India existed for millennia as a wonderland in the European imagination due to its treasures, both intellectual and natural, which have lured people over the ages. Yet mainstream Indian historiography, especially of the Left, has adopted a policy of ‘outright rancor and omission’ towards our knowledge traditions...
If Saudi Arabia is under pressure to give chapter and verse on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its consulate in Istanbul, Iran risks straining relations with Europe at a time that it needs European support the most by targeting ethnic rights activists. Mr. Khashoggi’s murder has focused attention on Saudi harassment and intimidation of dissident...
Just before he fell ill and was admitted to hospital, never to return home again, Girilal Jain would often tell his close friends about how was working on a book in which he would grapple with the question of Hindu nationalism. This book had been in the making for the past many years – first in the depths of his mind later in the form of notes. Any other aut...
Remembering the above quip in the context of the events that have unfolded in Kerala post the Sabarimala verdict of the apex court on September 28, 2018 is not just coincidental. It was a 4:1 judgment of a bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, himself. The majority opted to rule in favour of a cosmetic notion, touted as gender equalit...
Khan’s insistence on a refocus of CPEC takes on added significance given that Pakistan is turning to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help it avert a financial crisis with a loan of up to US$ 12 billion and its agreements with Saudi Arabia involving US$ 6 billion in financial support and could produce some US$ 10 billion in investments that would be ...
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan lands in Beijing on November 3, the latest head of government to seek a renegotiation of commercial terms and/or focus of projects related to China’s infrastructure and energy-driven Belt and Road initiative. He follows in the footsteps of his Malaysian counterpart; Mahathir Mohamad has suspended US$ 26 billion in Chinese-...
In the fullness of its wisdom, the Congress has divided Hindus as Good and Bad depending on whether one supports building a temple at the sacred site in Ayodhya or not. At least that is how I, a Bad Hindu as my name indicates (RajaRam) view the statement of Congress leader Sashi Tharoor. By this logic, a Good Hindu opposes the Ram Temple. Let us next try to ...