Christopher Hitchens brings out a great point in this brief excerpt from A Test of Tolerance (emphasis added):
Emboldened by the crass nature of the opposition to the center, its (the Ground Zero Mosque’s) defenders have started to talk as if it represented no problem at all and as if the question were solely one of religious tolerance. It would be nice if this were true.
But tolerance is one of the first and most awkward questions raised by any examination of Islamism. We are wrong to talk as if …

Continued from Part-I. Dear All: I am opening this thread to avoid overload of comments on the previous thread. The last few comments have been reproduced here.
Please continue the discussion on this new thread. Thank you.
***
Comment by Sid:

Just to add some discussion here:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100730/jsp/frontpage/story_12749135.jsp Note the last para:
“Attacking Hindu terror works fine for us. But taking on Muslim extremism is a very sensitive issue and so we should be careful. Achuthanandan is sounding like the Bajrang Dal and the central party is backing him,” said a senior …

There is a new kid on the block. (S)he is called “Hindutva Terror” (aka “Hindu Terror”).  Chances are you have heard the word before; Chances are you have got annoyed, perhaps just a little bit angry and moved on. Chances are you have never paused to think who – and what – is this “Hindutva Terror”? Until a few days ago, I was in the group of people who – when they heard the word – would get a little annoyed, perhaps a little angry and then move on.
हिंदी अनुवाद …

Some thought-provoking excerpts from Separate truths by Stephen Prothero…OR why is it misleading — and dangerous — to think that religions are different paths to the same wisdom. Pl read on (Note: emphasis is mine).
*** Excerpts from “Separate Truths” by Stephan Prothero ***
…At least since…the 1960s, it has been fashionable to affirm that all religions are beautiful and all are true. This claim…is as odd as it is intriguing. No one argues that different economic systems or political regimes are one and the same. …The same goes for democracy …

…Or Part II of Should foreign funding for religious institutions be banned?
In my earlier post on the subject of foreign funding for religious institutions in India, I posited that these funds and proselytization is affecting communities and slowly turning the liberal, tolerant and welcoming ethos of India into a rigid, intolerant culture.
In this post, I will examine the influx of Saudi petro-dollars in India and its influence on propagation of a particularly …

This post was triggered by Sanjeev’s remarks on one of the FTI forums*.  In his note, Sanjeev wrote (emphasis mine):
I believe that India must ban all foreign funding of religious organisations.
Religion is as powerful (or more) than political parties, and if political parties can’t get foreign funding under FRCA (which they should not) so should religious organisations be prohibited from receiving foreign funds. That would stem the flow of the crores of …

Pl continue the discussion on Offstumped Live here via the comments section…
Image courtesy: Wikipedia
*** Excerpts from the Transcript of the Online Discussion: Long, but fascinating post ***
Don’t miss the four online polls and their results (inline)
Ashwin Kumaraswamy:  Youth can be broadly be defined as one who has uncluttered throught process, may be between the age group of 16 – 40
Dipinder Sekhon: There are two ways of thinking about it: based on age … say 18/20 to 35/40 could be called “youth” … the other (better in my opinion) …

Don’t miss this (courtesy the Offstumped community):
We are happy to organise a town hall with folks who have been actively trying to engage youth of India and making them more informed about the political process and choices to make.
The format of the debate would be 1 hour of panel discussion followed by half an hour of audience discussion and the last 30 minutes Q & A with the panelists.
All rules of civility expected. Please login with your twitter or facebook email ids to login to participate in the townhall.

*** …

Based upon the euphoric outpourings of the Indian media, all Indian women are supposedly thrilled about the Women’s Reservation Bill. It provides a historic opportunity to the women of India etc etc.
I am truly puzzled as to where the Delhi media has drawn these conclusions from. My female friends circle does not reflect these views and neither do the rural/poor women we have interacted with.
By way of background, I am of the female gender. I went to some of the elite educational institutions in India “not on quota” and have …

Adarniya BalaSaheb, Pranaam.
I would have written this letter in Marathi but most of my blog readers are Indians.
I have never done a survey to find out how many of them are Maharashtrians – nor made any attempt to block non-Maharashtrians from reading what I write. Indeed most of my writing is in English. This is not because I am ashamed or embarrassed about my mother tongue. On the contrary, I am grateful to my parents for cultivating in me a love of languages and for helping me learn a language …

Some of you may have already read the story of a recent, extraordinary judgement by the Kolkata High Court that involved the religious conversion of a minor:
Calcutta High Court on Wednesday (16th Dec) granted the anticipatory bail plea of a 26-year-old youth from Murshidabad who had been accused of kidnapping and marrying a 15-year-old girl.
Sairul Sheikh, a resident of Bakultala in Behrampore, had been accused of kidnapping and forcibly marrying Anita Roy.
A division bench of Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Justice S P Talukdar allowed Sheikh’s plea after his lawyers …

Most readers of this blog would be aware of “Friends of BJP” and the dedicated team that conceived this group last year. One of the stated aims of “Friends of BJP” is to get “Middle India” more engaged with politics, public policy and governance – something that resonates strongly with me.
I was therefore very pleased to receive an email from Rajesh a few days ago asking me for my thoughts/views on issues that the group and the party (BJP) must focus on in the coming decade.
As most of you know, …

Dear All: I am opening this thread to provide a place to discuss all aspects related to Conversions, Christianity, Islam etc.
Please be sensitive in your comments. No personal abuse please. I will be deleting and editing comments that I feel have crossed the line. If you feel I have overlooked something, please alert me by leaving a comment here. Have a good discussion.
For those of you who may be new here, please have a look at my comments policy (and a shorter version here). If you do not wish to …

Please use this thread to share thoughts, comments and ideas on re-organisation of states in India.
To kick-start the discussion, excerpts from a few thought-provoking posts and articles below. The first excerpt from To reform UP, trifurcate it by Pratap Bhanu Mehta:
…But neither political party (Congress or BJP) is willing to be politically imaginative and ask a more fundamental question: what are the reforms needed to bring about the kind of radical change that politics in UP requires?
The answer to this question is complex. But most observers would agree that …

Dear All: I’m opening a new thread on “Why are Christian Missionaries Targeting India” – Part V (Part IV is overloaded with 100+ comments).
Pl. discuss all aspects related to conversions, missionary activity, distortions and mis-interpretations of scriptures and sacred stories by Christian media on this thread.
To kick off the discussion, here is an observation that I posted on twitter just now:
Here’s how you include Jesus & avoid ShriRam in a news-story on Diwali.
I wonder if this inspired the image & shloka (note the words “Sanskrit” instead of “Vedic”?
Is this another …

Dear All: I am opening this second thread to continue the discussion over from On Religious Freedoms and Secularism. I am reproducing the last few comments to maintain continuity in the discussion. I believe the comments have been reproduced accurately but if some of them look misplaced, pl. let me know.
Please continue to share your thoughts below.
Thank you.

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 …

This post has been pending for a while. A few months ago, the Freedom Team of India (of which I am a member) released its draft policy on Religious Freedom and Tolerance for public comment. I was reminded of this when I read Atanu Dey’s recent article in Pragati. I believe this matter is worthy of serious debate and at the heart of some critical challenges that we face in our polity today.
I am therefore reproducing excerpts from the FTI policy and Atanu’s article below to prompt a discussion. Pl. …

I am not a big fan of Ashis Nandy but I found this article thought-provoking. Excerpts from “Unclaimed Baggage Part I and Part II” (emphasis mine):
*** “Unclaimed Baggage” Excerpts Begin ***
…Today, we seem to be back to square one. There are some remarkable similarities between the Partition massacres of 1946-48 and the Gujarat riots. This is a wrong context in which to examine the vicissitudes of the Indian experiment with secularism.
…First of all, I must nervously proclaim that I have nothing to do with the decline of Indian secularism. I …

My wife asked this question yesterday while we were discussing history.
I pondered for a moment but could not come up with a good answer. I also realised that I was not aware of the background to the naming of streets/roads in Lutyens Delhi.
I know at least one fellow blogger (perhaps two) who may have a view and/or some information on this.
In the meantime, I would be interested in your views and also if any of you has any additional information to share.
Based on my (limited) understanding of history, Aurangzeb …