OR how the politics of subsidies kills the spirit of entrepreneurship…
From NextBillion, comes this story by Rishabh Kaul of an extra-ordinary innovation that is being threatened by the politics of subsidies.
…Last month, the Indian Newspapers were all ablaze with stories of Indian Government rolling out a massive national scheme under which they will provide the women in rural areas with sanitary napkins. While the exact details are unclear, women below the poverty line will be provided with the napkins free of charge where as the rest of the rural women …

The final part of  “What is Dharma” by Harapriya. Today, can one fight a dharma yudh against adharma?
*** What is “Dharma”? – Concluding Part by K Harapriya ***

Can one fight a dharma yudh against adharma?
The Mahabharata gives a pretty clear answer —-yes, we can fight a dharmic war mostly although some acts of adharma will be committed.
This will seem like equivocation to most people because we tend to believe two prevailing myths:   one, that dharmic people should be held to much higher standards than the totally adharmic;   and two,  that …

Continuing from Part-I that appeared earlier this week. Today, lessons from the MahaBharata.
*** What is “Dharma”? – Part II by K Harapriya ***

Lessons of the Mahabharata
One epic which still holds profound lessons for us,  is the Mahabharata.  Here is an epic where a central character, Duryodhana, is an ambitious king who seeks wealth and power.  These desires, in themselves,   are the hallmark of a kshatriya and therefore befitting a king.  He, as the first born son of the first born Dhritarashtra ,  considers himself the rightful heir to Hastinapura.  Leaving …

Dear All: It is my pleasure to publish this guest post on “Dharma” by K Harapriya. I will be posting this in three parts. At the outset, I am grateful to her for a very well articulated exposition of a difficult concept. Please read and share widely. Today, a definition of “Dharma” and the role of Itihaasa in the Hindu value system (formatting and emphasis is mine).
*** What is “Dharma”? by K Harapriya ***

In the last great battle of the Kurukshetra war, Bhima is engaged in a fight to death …

The first post of 2010 – a brief excerpt from Chapter 3,  The Way of Action (emphasis mine):
Arjuna asked:
Hey God, if you feel that, wisdom is superior to action,
Why are you pushing me to do this savage war? 1
You seem to enchant my brain by your conflicting words,
Please tell me decisively that, by which I will get fame. 2

Lord said:
Oh sinless one, in the times ancient, I had taught
Two distinct ways of paths to follow,
The path of wisdom for the discriminatory and
The path of action to those performers of action. …

A few weeks ago, I came across Sanjeev Sabhlok’s article on how (and why) the ideas of liberty – so celebrated in the western world today – may actually have had their origins in India.
Sanjeev has lucidly argued for the case and there is really nothing much I can add – except to say that this aspect is certainly worthy of further research and will help us shape the pieces defining the extraordinary civilisation and culture that flourished milleniums ago in this ancient land.
Below, excerpts from Sanjeev’s article on …

This post on Raj-Dharma should be read as a sequel to my recent post on Dharma. Like the previous one, this too is a collection of excerpts and notes on the subject from a variety of sources. I am currently reading a long and thought-provoking article on Raj-Dharma by Dr V Nagarajan. I will post excerpts from that too – perhaps as Part III.
My first note is from a site curiously called Indian Officer. The excerpt below is a precis of Chapter XIX, “The Duties of a King” in …

To all my readers I owe a big apology. I have long been promising a definition of the word “Dharma” – a word that crops up every now and then in many discussions on this blog – and is also the part of my blog’s sub-title. But as I started to write this post, I realised that this should actually have been one of my first posts, if not the first. Anyways, better late than never.
As I began to do some background reading on this subject, I realised that it …

Dear All: Thank you for a very engaging and educative discussion on the earlier post on Marayada Purushottam, Sita Mata, Agni Pariksha and Vaali Vadh. I have been unusually busy for the past few days and have barely had a chance to read all the comments properly. I will try and respond to them in due course.
This post was prompted specifically by Patriot’s question at comment #8 to the earlier post. In that comment, Patriot wrote:
I have not said Ram is all good or all bad – in fact, it …

.
It is neither the horse nor the elephant
and never – ever – the tiger
It is the goat that is offered in sacrifice
Even the gods slain the weak
.
Can readers please help me find the correct source/reference for this quote? It has been attributed to Chanakya on at least one site but it would be good to have other references and a confirmation.
Thanks.
Related Posts
Clearing the dust off Macaulay’s “famous quote”
(an earlier) Quote of the week
and Quote of the Day
UPDATE:  The quote in Sanskrit:
|| अश्वं नैव गजं नैव
व्याघ्रं नैव च नैव च
अजापुत्रो बलिम …

I am grateful to Sh Krishen Kak for allowing me to publish this essay by him (in full), first published as THE IDEA OF INDIA by India First Foundation, Nov 2008:127-138.  I would encourage everyone to please read it in full. It is superbly thought-provoking, richly referenced and well researched. Without further ado (CAUTION: Long Post),
*** THE IDEA OF INDIA ***
KRISHEN KAK
The idea of India is a conception often credited by our English-speaking “secular” elite to Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru or Sunil Khilnani, not necessarily in that order.
Our British colonizers …

Some links for weekend reading:
1. From the Telegraph, an excellent article by Ambassador K Sibal on why borders are (still) relevant.
2. A revealing interview with Govindacharya: Jaitley is BJP’s best, Rajnath saboteur
3. Why Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam may not mean what you think it does and finally,
4. Why India..while enjoying all the characteristics of great power, is unlikely to become one (a 2005 article but still relevant, in my view).
Excerpts from all the three articles are below.  Enjoy the weekend.

Great piece of reporting from The Hindu on an extraordinary archeological find from Tamil Nadu about politics and governance in ancient India.
*** Excerpts ***
It may be hard to believe that nearly 1,100 years ago, a village had a perfect electoral system and a written Constitution prescribing the mode of elections.� It was inscribed on the walls of the village assembly (grama sabha mandapa)…�This inscription, dated around 920 A.D. in the reign of Parantaka Chola, is an outstanding document in the history of India,� says Dr. R. Nagaswamy, former Director, Tamil …

I have never been an�avid�reader of Panchjanya but started admiring Shri Tarun Vijay�after reading some of his articles in the last few months (e.g. see here).
As some of you may know, he has recently resigned as editor of the weekly to head up BJP’s think tank…Here are excerpts on how he felt making the transition…It makes some important points about dialogue, ideology and the need to separate personalities from “issues” (Anirban: Thanks for alerting me to this)
Excerpts from “The blessed path” by Tarun Vijay
…Atal Bihari Vajpayee was not only my …

I came across this in an email from�Prem Sabhlok. It is illuminating.
It mentions some specific�hymns/riks from the RigVeda on the causes of corruption and how to eliminate them. Here are some excerpts:
***
Sama Veda 179 and 913 describes “corruption” as hydra headed, having nine heads (nine kinds) and it enters the human body through ninety nine sources i.e. nine kind of corruption enters through five senses, five sense organs and outward looking mind (9X11==99).
Later Ramayana described this evil through nine corrupt heads of Ravana. We burn his nine corrupt heads every …

In the middle of some idle web-surfing a few days ago, I hit upon the source of “Satyameva Jayate”
From Nila-Kantha-Chandra’s blog:
“…as I was rapidly scanning the Sanskrit verses of the Mundaka, I came upon “satyameva jayate” (3.1.6). Extraordinary! This was a great chance discovery!
…as I now discovered…the national credo was from the Mundaka Upanishad. A concluding verse of this Upanishad declares that its aim is to make man attain Self-Knowledge. “Munda” means head; hence the name indicates that this Upanishad is the Head of all Upanishads…”
सत्यमेव जयते नानृतं
सत्येन पन्था …

I recently came across a post titled “The Real Problem is not Islam” on this blog to which I added the comment posted below.
The reason for posting my comment here is to highlight the need to counter some basic mis-conceptions about Hinduism such as [a] it is no different from any other religion in promoting violence [b] the very nature of religion makes it intolerant of non-believers (certainly not true of Hinduism) [c] �A Hindu state or the Christian state would treat its minorities the same way as the Islamic …

Just came across S Gurumurthy’s brilliant critique on the recent BusinessWeek article on Karma Capitalism
As he says, “If the Indian management gurus did something similar in India it would attract the abuse of the seculars that they are toxifying even business and economics with saffron concepts! It (secular India) may even charge that the corporate America is becoming addicted to toxic saffron. That is the measure of its hate for thoughts and things Indian.”
Some excerpts:
“Just a century ago, Max Weber, declared that the Hindus and Buddhists remain backward because …

Utterly fascinating and extensively researched…
*********************************
Democracy in Ancient India
by Steve Muhlberger
Associate Professor of History, Nipissing University.
http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/MUHLBERGER/HISTDEM/INDIADEM.HTM

Note on this article. I must state right out front that I read no Indian languages, which may lead some readers to dismiss entirely my work in this difficult field. For the more tolerant, let me explain that an earlier version of this article has been read and commented on by several academic readers, whose comments and corrections have been taken into account. The editors of the Journal of World History liked it well enough to …