Three major partitions happened in the world in the second half of the 1940s. Germany was partitioned into the Eastern and Western blocs in 1945, followed by India into Hindustan and Pakistan in 1947. Finally, Israel was created by partitioning Palestine in 1948. Germany’s partition was temporary. The Berlin Wall, constructed in the early 1960s […]
Ram Madhav
Beware Zombie Democracy
India needs to be wary of the new authoritarianism creeping across the world DISASTERS, NATURAL OR MANMADE, have consequences. A hundred years ago, a pandemic came riding on the devastation caused by World War I, leading to the destabilisation of the world order of the new nation-states. The Great Depression of the 1930s had added […]
India – South Korea: Aspects of Public Diplomacy
Text of Shri Ram Madhav’s Address at a webinar organised by India Foundation in collaboration with Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre, Embassy of India in Seoul; Department of Indian Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies; and College of Buddhism, Dongguk University, Seoul on “India-Republic of Korea: Aspects of Public Diplomacy” on August 11, 2021 India’s proactive Ambassador […]
Abrogation of Article 370 was the end of ‘Kashmiri exceptionalism’
Several years ago, when we were initiating dialogue with the PDP to explore the possibility of forming a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, I had the occasion to talk with a senior leader of that party. In response to my statement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was keen on the progress and development of […]
Feminine Journeys of the Mahabharata – Hindu Women in History, Text, and Practice
Most of the important leaders have exhorted that the measure of a society’s progress can be gauged from the way it treats its women. Swami Vivekananda was pained looking at the discrimination women faced in India when “the Vedanta declares that one and the same conscious self is present in all beings”. Gandhi took serious […]
The Taipei Takeover?
China now has teeth to fulfill its longstanding desire to reunify Taiwan Authoritarians have a common trait—legacy-seeking. The reunification of Taiwan is one such legacy successive leaders of China since Mao have been seeking. “If we can’t reunify China the right away, we will do it in a century; if not in a century, then […]
True Worship is ‘Samarpan’ – Dissolving into the Eternal
“If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power, and beauty that nature can bestow—in some parts a very paradise on earth—I should point to India. If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of […]
Red Flags in US-India Defense Cooperation
The US-India defense ties have acquired critical momentum. Given India’s geo-strategic surroundings and the downward slide in its relations with China in the recent years, this relationship is bound to move in the upward trajectory only. China and the Indo-Pacific will be the defining features of this relationship in the short and long term. Weapon […]
Quad Economics: Australia and India Perspectives in the COVID Era
Text of Shri Ram Madhav’s Address at a webinar organised by Wired Global Australia and India Foundation on “Quad Economics: Australia and India Perspectives in the COVID Era” on July 21, 2021 Senator Canavan, Amb Vohra, Mr Varghese and colleagues from the India Foundation and Wired Global – Akashika, Alok Bansal, Shristi and others. My […]
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
The story of Communist China is the story of three leaders – Mao Tse Tung, Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping. Mao was the supreme leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) from 1935 until his death in 1976. Deng worked in important positions under him, during the liberation struggle until 1949 and subsequently during […]