As most of you know, the idea of “Identity” (and specifically an Indian identity) is something close to my heart and a topic on which I have been thinking and reading about for a very long time. One of my long-pending pet projects is a post/series/(book?) on “What is the Idea of India”? What does it mean to be an Indian? a Bharatiya भारतीय ?
Someday I will get around to writing the post/series. I am now a step closer. Later this week, thanks to my friend Amit Malviya, I am speaking on …

Yesterday, I mentioned how the language has been consistently disregarded and sometimes blatantly discriminated against by the powers that be – and promised to share some examples. Below are some instances of the step-motherly treatment towards Sanskrit.
The  first, from Andhra Pradesh (courtesy Dr T H Chowdary) where the Urdu Academy’s grant stands at Rs. 14.0 cr. (a continuous increase over the last five years) as against a paltry Rs 5 Lakhs for the Sanskrit Academy.
Second, an excerpt from a Washington Post article on Summer Camps Revive India’s Ancient Sanskrit by Rama Lakshmi which mentions how the central …

Yesterday, I shared with you some thoughts on why learning Sanskrit (& Devanagari) may actually have very significant benefits and why it should be part of the school curriculum. I concluded that part with a promise to look into the case for making Sanskrit India’s National Language. Thankfully, I did not have to struggle much on this. A few months back, I stumbled on an excellent and well-researched article on precisely this topic.
This was a paper by Prof Makarand Paranajpe, Professor of English at JNU and a prolific author. Below, …

This series of  posts related to “Sanskrit” संस्कृत have been pending for a *very* long time. Something that I read last month prompted me to dust this off and finally publish on the blog. That “something” was this excerpt from Koenraad Elst’s though-provoking article titled, Hindu Survival: What is to be done? (emphasis added, throughout this post):
..If you want Indian unity, you’d better aim for an Indian language that will set India apart from the Anglosphere.
That Indian language can only be Sanskrit..Sanskrit if chosen as the link language would have sent …

..in which the “Prince” reminds us that regardless of who we want to be known as – and what we achieve, we will always be known by our caste, language, religion etc etc.
Thanks to the “Prince”, I learnt yesterday that Sam Pitroda is from a “backward class”

This next generation leader and PM-in-making is supposed to represent the “Youth” and promises to lead India into the 21st century. Really?
Sad, embarrassed and ashamed of the crisis in leadership that plagues India.
As a friend remarked, we must be the “only nation in …

That the “Aryan Invasion” theory stands thoroughly discredited today is probably no news for most readers of this blog. But when I recently stumbled on this article by Jayasree, I realised there may be a lot more that is yet to be discovered and explored here – particularly with regards to the unifying strands between the Saraswati-Sindhu settlements, the Vedic age and the later day culture of Bharat/India (In this context, please also read excerpts from a speech by Dr Subramaniam Swamy on “Defalsify India’s History“). As Shri Krishen Kak …

I woke up this morning to this statement by David Cameron, Prime Minister of Great Britain. Speaking at a conference in Germany, he said (emphasis added):
Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism

He went on to say:
Let’s properly judge these organisations: Do they believe in universal human rights – including for women and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all before the law? Do they believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their …

In the context of recent happenings in the Kashmir valley and the debate in blogosphere on nationalism, identity and history, please read these extracts from “People are the Nation“ by Sh M G Vaidya (emphasis added):
…My question: what was newly created on 15August 1947? A new ‘State’ or a new ‘Nation’?…So, then, what is a ‘nation’?
I quote French thinker Ernest Renan: ‘It is not soil any more than the race which makes a nation…A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things which are really only one go to …

On the eve of Deepavali, please read and think about these excerpts from Radha Rajan’s thought-provoking article on Ayodhya and why its reclamation has a direct bearing on the Hindu identity (emphasis added):
From “Ayodhya – Deciding Battle for the Hindu Nation“:
Nations, nation-states, religions and civilizations in their entirety have been irretrievably wiped off the face of the earth by Islam and the Church; while there is no vestige of pre-Islamic and pre-Christian religions in Rome, Greece, America and Africa, the Hindu nation, even after the combined onslaught of Islam, the …

A thought-provoking excerpt for the week (emphasia added):
Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully. We find it difficult, indeed, in some places impossible, to provide instruction for all who want it. At the single town of Hoogly fourteen hundred boys are learning English.
The effect of this education on the Hindoos is prodigious.
No Hindoo, who has received an English education, ever remains sincerely attached to his religion. Some continue to profess it as matter of policy;but many profess themselves pure Deists, and some embrace Christianity.

It is my firm belief that, if our …