In an interesting essay in the New York Times*, Stanley Fish, Professor of Law at Florida International University, discusses whether religion (and specifically Bible) can ever be taught without taking into account the “truth” claims of various religions (or pretending that they don’t exist)….
Interestingly, he does not mention Hinduism in his critique (could it be because it cannot be accused of things that he accuses other religions of?)
Some excerpts:
…On the one side, knowledge of the Bible “is essential to being a full-fledged, well-rounded citizen”; also, if you get into a …

Chidanand Rajghatta wrote in The Times of India two days ago about how US may be using Pakistan  in efforts to destabilise the current regime in Iran (“US using Pakistan to destabilise Iran“). As Shri Rajghatta observed in conclusion:
“If the report of Pakistan’s role in this US-backed venture is correct, then Islamabad would stand accused of using terrorism against three of its four neighbours Iran, Afghanistan and India with only China the only exception.” 
Some excerpts:
“…A Pakistani tribal militant group called Jundullah, which has claimed responsibility for deadly guerrilla attacks …

From a front page story in “The Economic Times” today (Apr 5, ’07) titled, “Hindu, Muslim equal in income”*:
“Forget all half-baked opinions you may have heard on the economic state of religious communities in India. Truth be told, at the national level, Hindus and Muslims are closer than you thought as far as average household income, expenditure, savings..go. In fact the gap between the two communities narrows appreciably, even reverses in some cases in favour of Muslims, in rural India”.
The report is based on a recent NCAER survey. For the …

A few days ago, I chanced upon this article by Vanni Cappelli (freelance journalist; co-founder and president of the Afghanistan Foreign Press Association) titled “Containing Pakistan: Engaging the Raja-Mandala in South-Central Asia”
Vanni starts by detailing ”the extent to which the Pakistani state itself fostered transnational networks of Islamist terrorists from the 1970s on in service of its own ideology of political Islam.” As he writes,
“Pakistan in fact suffers from abiding structural pathologies: its status as the first ideological Islamic state of modern times, its all-dominating military, its influential extremist religious establishment, its …

After a failed earlier attempt at getting to speak with representatives of some of the newly formed political parties (Lok Paritran, Bharat Punarnirman Dal and Bharat Yuva Mission), I am very pleased that yesterday, I did manage to speak with Ravi Kishore, Vice President and Acting Spokesperson for Bharat Punarnirman Dal.
Ravi was straight and frank in his responses and I am in the process of transcribing my notes from the call…Also hoping to speak with the others fairly soon. Mahesh* from Bharat Uday Mission has also got in touch via email…
So, …

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