Father of the Nation is too Big a Crown for Him
One of the great ironies of India is that Mohandas Gandhi – rather than Gautama Buddha, Adi Shankaracharya or Chandragupta Vikramaditya – is the “Father of the Nation”. India’s history has a galaxy of great kings, warrior queens, nation builders and saints and yet we chose a politician who presided over the breakup of the country as our national More...
Selective Intellectualism of Ramchandra Guha
Introduced to the Upanishads by T.S. Eliot; and to Tagore by the early Pound; and to the Indian Tradition by Max Muller (late of the Bhavan); and to Indian dance by Bowers; and to Indian art by what’s-his-name; and More...
Indian Secularism is Colour Blind
People are angry at the murder of Muhammad Akhlaq in Dadri over allegations that he ate beef. Some say they are angry at Akhlaq’s murder, while others say they are angry at the murder of the cow. Some people More...
Selective Shock Over Dadri: A Reply to Sagarika Ghosh
Flowery writing using vocabulary heard only in spelling bee contests seems to be the only strength of the so-called liberal journalists educated at prestigious universities abroad. Equally, their competence also More...
The Spirit of Shambo (2007) Lives on: The Bull about Beef and a Metaphor for Dharmic Ethics
(Some events within this piece are a flashback – they occurred in July 2007. They are a TRUE dialogue based exclusively on an e-mail conversation between two friends, VC = a dear friend, Vijay a lifelong Vegetarian More...
Hinduphobia of The Caravan
[contextly_sidebar id=”JrAS1gDvVWpfp5COfpvAvbKhSLlmjBrm”] This is the third part of the series on anti-Hinduism as an industry written by Pankaj Saxena. As the previous essay in this series noted, the More...
Contours of Secular Fear Mongering
When was the last time you read or heard in the mainstream media that in many parts of India Hindus are attacked by Muslims with impunity? Do you know that entire villages in West Bengal and Kerala are burned down More...
Examining the Marxist Version of India’s Past
The 18 September 2015 print edition of the Marxist fortnightly Frontline cover story was a detailed interview of Marxist historian Romila Thapar conducted by Ranabir Chakravarti, Professor of Ancient History at More...
India’s Thought Cops are Angry with Modi
In the last week of September at Dadri not far from the Indian capital, an angry mob lynched to death Mohammad Akhlaq over allegations that a cow was slaughtered and he ate beef. In the 1970s and 1980s in Bihar More...
The Ideological Affiliations of The Caravan
[contextly_sidebar id=”YNvoNQhNb9qCIqwQPn7ekOc8wj1y3Xsn”] This is the third part of the series on anti-Hinduism as an industry written by Pankaj Saxena. The choice of the editorial team of The Caravan More...