Recently, I came across this piece in the International Herald Tribune (i) mentioning that the United Nation Commission on Human Rights has recently appointed two special rapporteurs to examine the caste system and to specify a set of guidelines for policy and governance purposes.
The article by respected columnist, Sunanda Datta-Ray made the same error that Indian social commentators (particularly those writing in English) commonly make i.e. a literal interpretation of the Sanskrit term �varna� to mean �colour�. To quote, the UN will examine the �abominations of what has been called …

Re-posting this for the benefit of all the *new* readers of this blog..From the archives, a post on the Hindu contribution to development of Mathematics..Read on and share…
Whenever I read about the great “Arabic” contribution to Mathematics and Science (often in an apologetic tone of “how could these great people come to such a pass?”) the thing that really upsets me is the complete omission of any reference to the Hindu contribution to mathematics and numbers.
Slightly more than a year ago (Aug ’04), in an article in the Sunday Times, …