Black Review
Posted on Jul 5 2005Very disappointing!
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The Colours of Mind
Posted on Aug 27 2005The old and the unfamiliar is often incorrectly interpreted by writers. For example, European writers a hundred years ago, latching on to a children's story in the Puranas, declared that Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are Gods of Creation, Preservation, and Destruction, respectively. Indians who learn about Hinduism from secondary sources and school texts have internalized this “meaning”, no matter how stupid it is to believe that people in the past, any more than people now, would want to worship God of Destruction. It is somewhat like being taught in a serious book that Santa Claus visits Earth from the North Pole on Christmas day.
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North by Southeast
Posted on May 25 2005The new findings turn on its head the previous view of the origin of Indians. The earlier view, popular in Indian history books, was that the Indian population came in two waves from the northwest around four or five thousand years ago, displacing the earlier aboriginals, descendents of regional archaic groups.
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Hinduism and the Contest of Religions
Posted on Feb 11 2005Hinduism is very unfavorably placed because it has few institutions to protect it, and those who claim to speak for it in the universities are often non-Hindu and antagonistic to it. The Jews have their yeshivas, the Christians their seminaries, and the Muslims their madrasas; Hindus have no religious schools or universities. Hindus in India don't even have control of the most important of their shrines and temples, which are being administered by the government. Many temple properties have simply been expropriated by the government.
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Colonizing Body and Mind
Posted on Jan 25 2005Asura is a Sanskrit term for a material power. Asuric systems strive for increasing control over the outer and internal environments of man. For the dominated, it leads to a state of emptiness and worthlessness. When things have gone too far, there is revolt and the system collapses. Both communism and radical capitalism are asuric and oppressive systems...
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The Assault on Tradition
Posted on Jan 6 2005Anything 'Hindu' is quickly denigrated in many ways, not only by many followers of the monotheistic religions, but also those who imagine and assert that a modern world, by which is often meant a Western-inspired world, can do without so-called primitive religion and cultural traditions. Lawyers (as well as more recently whole cohorts of diasporic Indian scholars)... have had specific reasons to argue for modernity.
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On Recursionism
Posted on Sep 18 2004Science has brought us the discovery of laws related to the macro and micro worlds. But between the domains of classical physics and quantum mechanics lies metaphysics that can only be addressed by philosophy --
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A Shining City Upon a Hill
Posted on Jun 28 2004The hallmarks of the public architecture of contemporary India are dreariness and ugliness. The Development Authorities of the various cities have used wretched designs, which, repeated thousand-fold without the slightest imagination, have turned housing projects into slums. Worse than mere eye-sores, they will assault the spirit for generations to come.
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Visions of the End of the World
Posted on May 29 2004After the Antichrist has been vanquished and everyone on earth has accepted Christianity (which is why it is very urgent to convert the idol-worshipers in Asia now), Christ will begin his thousand-year reign on Earth. When this millennial reign comes to a close, history will end and there will be a new heaven and a new earth...
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Bound Feet And Pie In The Sky!
Posted on Apr 1 2004The custom was outlawed in 1911. My Chinese colleague who grew up in the 50s remembers that his grandmother had had her feet bound. Foot binding must not be seen as a unique aberration. Even now high heels and cosmetic surgery (such as breast enhancement) cause equally serious injury. Other customs that have been followed for centuries without questioning include male and female circumcision. In the
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How Old Is Indian Writing?
Posted on Dec 15 2003The traditional date for the Rigveda is about 3000 BC, with the later Vedic texts and the Brahmanas coming a few centuries later. The Aranyakas, Upanishads and the Sutras are, in this view, dated to the 2nd and early 1st millennia. The astronomical evidence in the texts is in accord with this view. Furthermore, the currently accepted
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India In The Balance
Posted on Nov 14 2003Britain maintained its vice-like grip over the Indian economy even during the Second World War. India, during that period, had a trade surplus, but its trade with other nations was restricted by the control over its “sterling balance.
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Smallpox, Germs and Memories
Posted on Oct 15 2003It was much later that I learned from British accounts of the 18th century that the story is more complicated and interesting. Edward Jenner was indeed the first to use vaccination based on cowpox, but there was a much older method of vaccination
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Saving Indian Universities
Posted on Aug 15 2003Although development is measured through the index of economic prosperity, it means the capacity of people to make reasoned, independent choices and corresponding action. It means a development of the spirit out of which emerges material development and this requires an excellent system of education.
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The Indian Religion In Ancient Iran And Zarathushtra
Posted on Jul 22 2003The Parsi religion is popularly called Zoroastrian after the Greek version of the name of the prophet Zarathushtra (zarat, like Sanskrit harit, golden; ushtra, Sanskrit or Old Persian for camel) who has been variously estimated to have lived either around the time 1200 BC or perhaps half a millennium later. A Greek tradition assigns him to an age 258 years prior to Alexander, that is the 6th century BC. (Ernst Herzfeld in
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The Date Of The Mahabharata War
Posted on Jun 28 2003One may question the reliability of the earlier parts of this list since the average span of reign for the pre-Nanda kings is more than twice as much for the post-Nanda ones. The explanation appears to be that it was during the imperial Maurya age that comprehensive king-lists were made and, consequently, only the better-known names of the earlier period were included. The centennial counting system, named after the
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Letter to the <i>Pradhan Mantri</i>
Posted on May 9 2003Let me first congratulate you on completing five years as Prime Minister. In spite of the unceasing campaign of the terrorists in some parts of the country, this has been a period of much accomplishment. India has progressed on many fronts. It is now the world's fourth largest economy and a powerhouse in information and biotechnology. Even in manufacturing it has become a major player.
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Pakistan's Moment Of Truth
Posted on Mar 13 2003If Pakistan is not able to get on track, other powers may be compelled to step in. This is the moment Pakistan needs a sagacious and strong leader. I don't think Musharraf is the man, given the errors of his past ways and how he is still betting on both sides in the War on Terror. He has great flaws of character, he lies by habit (as in Kargil or the Daniel Pearl murder), and his policy of pushing the jihadis into Kashmir make his hands
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Yahvah and Yahweh
Posted on Feb 14 2003It would be foolish to deduce that if Yahvah and Yahweh are identical names then the Vedas become the source of the Abrahamic traditions or Christianity the fulfillment of the Vedas. The Indic gloss on the matter is that names in themselves are mere sequence of syllables and they mean nothing; it is not names but the way of seeing reality that matters. The Western and Indian spiritual traditions as they exist now are
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Some Things Don’t Square Up
Posted on Jan 12 2003Amongst other things we are told that a toy horse is called ashvaka. (This means that the queen who lay down with the ashvaka in the Ashvamedha did not sleep with the dead horse.) Deity images for sale were called Shivaka etc, but an archa of Shiva (Rudra of the earlier times) was just called Shiva. Patanjali mentions Shiva and Skanda deities. There is also mention of the worship ...
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