I am grateful to Sh Krishen Kak for giving me permission to publish his article titled, “MOTHER INDIA and MODERN INDIA – The Mother Tongues or a National Language?”. The article first appeared in Eternal India (India First Foundation), June 2010:77-90. This is a slightly revised version.  Please read on and share widely (emphasis mine).
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MOTHER INDIA and MODERN INDIA: the Mother Tongues or English? by Krishen Kak

Each and every window in the house of language opens to a different …

Start your weekend with these excerpts from a conversation between Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and an IAS probationer, Shri Yuvaraj Karan in 1950, reproduced from the print edition of the monthly magazine “Secularism Combat” (thanks Jiggs).
…Shri Yuvaraj Karan, a former IAS Officer, who is also one of the escapees from Pakistan has written a book “Understanding Partition” published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. When he was at the IAS training institute in Dehradun, in the first batch IAS trainees, Jawaharlal Nehru was invited to address them. At the end of Shri …

…the ones who ought to be remembered today.
*** 79 years ago on this date ***
BHAGAT SINGH, RAJGURU AND SUKHDEV EXECUTED
NO “LAST INTERVIEW” WITH RELATIONS
DEAD BODIES SECRETLY DISPOSED OF

Front Page of the Lahore Tribue, March 1931 (Thanks Amitabh).

All photographs courtesy (and copyright) ShahidBhagatSingh.org
Oh, today also happens to be the 70th anniversary of the infamous Lahore Declaration that put paid to any hopes of a united independent India. 16 years after that resolution, Pakistan declared itself the world’s first Islamic Republic. Some of you may know that Lahore traces its name …

Excerpts from a thought-provoking essay, “Ambedkar’s Desiderata” by Ramachandra Guha (emphasis mine):
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…In his last speech to the Constituent Assembly—delivered on November 25, 1949—Ambedkar issued three warnings that are compellingly relevant to the predicament that the nation finds itself in today. First, he urged his compatriots to “abandon the bloody methods of revolution”. In the circumstances of colonial rule, there were grounds for taking to the streets to protest, and even perhaps to use violence. But with the coming of a free, sovereign and democratic republic, wrote …

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 …

Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote a post titled, As the Government sleeps, dark clouds gather on the horizon… In that post, I had carried excerpts from an article by Tarun Vijay that was prompted by continued trespassing and stealth incursions by Chinese into the Ladakh area.
Two years on…and a general election later, nothing seems to have changed.
Inch by inch, the Chinese are encroaching into Indian territory…while the government acts “ignorant” or “supremely confident” depending on the mood of the moment. Sometimes, it simply brushes things under the carpet. …

Start your weekend with this ruling by Judge William Young while sentencing Richard C. Reid, the “Shoe Bomber” (Thanks to Sh Krishen-ji for alerting me to this)…
Next read, They Killed My Lawyer – a horrifying story from Russia by William Browder
Move on to Aroon Raman’s sketch of Subramania Bharati…
and finally dwell on Tavleen Singh’s tutorial for Rahul baba.
Excerpts from all the four links below, as always.
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*** Excerpts from “Ruling by Judge William Young: Sentencing of Richard C. Reid” ***
…We are not afraid of you or your terrorist conspirators, Mr. Reid. …