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Credit to the NT Bureau in Chennai for this story: “Gita and Ramayana will be burnt, says Veeramani“
“Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) president K Veeramani has warned that the sacred book of the Hindus, the Bhagawad Gita and the Indian epic Ramayana, would be burnt as part of a demonstration to be organised soon.�
Participating in the Maniammayar birth anniversary day celebrated by the party’s women’s wing as Women liberation day, Veeramani…alleged that Ramayana, one of the oldest and well known epics of the world, besmirched women.
…The DK leader also said that the …

I agonized for a long time before deciding to go ahead with posting the story on destruction and vandalism at temples in South India, “Was this a cover-up or blind omission?”.
Why?
Largely because I wanted to be sure to hear the “other side” of the story and if possible, present it side-by-side to this report so that readers were able to make an informed judgement about the circumstances and what actually happened in those few weeks late last year..
Although that would have been ideal, the reality was that I did …

In “If you want my opinion” (The Economist, Pg 72, issue dated Mar 10, ’07) – a study of Muslim attitudes and their views on various things like democracy, terrorism etc. I came across a few�worrying�facts and a little�display of breathtaking (and possibly naive) optimism:
Worrying Fact # 1: A recent survey of 28,000 people in 27 countries for the BBC world Service revealed that 51% of Indonesians – that is about 100million people (in Indonesia alone) expect a “clash of civilization” a la Samuel Huntington. Note that Indonesia is not …

Came across this on Varnam’s blog: “Chess originated in Kannauj?”
Varnam quotes from a recent Times of India report:�
“The Maukhari ruler Sharva Varman had gifted the game of ‘chaturanga’ to his contemporary Persian ruler Khushrau-II in lieu of saltpetre (a variety of gunpowder).
A recent book ‘Kannauj, The Maukhari And Chaturanga � The origin of chess and its way from India to Persia,’ authored by Ranate, laid the foundation for further research. The Maukhari rulers used to play ‘chaturanga’ with 16 cabinet terracotta before venturing into military campaigns, said Eder. Even Banbhatta …

This is another (truly shocking) example of a “blind” media…
I first read about this�shortly after RC put it on his blog�last December, “A statue story from the south”� (must read)
As he wrote (at that time), “Due to the absence of coverage in the mainstream english media (CNN-IBN is running yet another headline about who is greater King Khan or Big Bee). Here is a compilation from the vernacular print media about the recent events in the state of Tamilnadu.� This time it has nothing to do with Dalits like in …

Came across two separate posts recently that share one thing in common – both�were stories that were largely missed by mainstream media…and�that is probably the single most important reason�why they deserve wider publicity.
Remembering Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru:
In his post, “Remembering Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru“,�Apollo writes,
“Today, is the 76th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. They were hanged on March 23, 1931 on flimsy, cooked up charges by the British colonial rulers. While they were interred in Lahore Jail during the period of their sham …

A few days ago, I came across this interview of Daniel Pipes on the newly launched Lokmanch�by Amitabh Tripathi. It is his�first-ever interview�with any Indian journalist.
Some excerpts: “…Q: Several apologists and leftists across the world had their argument that Arab-Israel conflict is pivotal to phenomenon of Islamic terrorism; once this conflict is resolved there would be no terrorism? How do you take this argument?
DP: Its solution would marginally reduce the problem, but it is silly to imagine that. Settlement of the Palestinian issue would end the beheadings in …

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how my hopes had been raised�(see “Silver lining to dark clouds…?“) by some of the new political groupings/parties that have been formed recently � Paritran, Bharat Punarnirman Dal, Loksatta, Bharat Uday Mission amongst others.
I also wrote how I was going to make an attempt at contacting them to get their views on some of the more pressing issues facing India today.
Well I did just that and unfortunately I have to re-assess my initial optimism�
My first attempt was to contact the representatives via the …

I picked up this story on intellibrief.
Addressing the audience during his recent visit to Deoband, Shri Rahul Gandhi said:�
�I only see every individual here as an individual. They are all Hindustanis. Who is a Muslim, who is a Brahmin, who is a Thakur?…”
How many of you noticed the missing “H-word”*?
Thank you Rahul, for telling us that there are really no Hindus – only Dalits, Thakurs and Brahmins…
***
…and while on Deoband, this is what Salman Rushdie wrote about Dar-ul-Uloom almost two years ago in the Sunday Times in London (July …