The long-suppressed soul of the Indian nation finds utterance in the form of these two historical symbols of Hindu faith. It was a struggle of five centuries. Hindus never accepted Babur’s commander Mir Baqi’s vandalism of the temple at the sacred site in Ayodhya, considered the birthplace of Bhagwan Ram. As happened in parts of […]
The people of J&K do not want violence. Terror is down. A nationalist, pro-development leadership is emerging Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi visited Srinagar in May 2018. It was Ramzan and the Union home ministry had announced a unilateral ceasefire in the state. The prime minister was there to inaugurate several development projects. “My appeal to […]
With rising authoritarianism and a crisis of democracy, the world needs new ideas. Can India show the way? Weak minds discuss people; average minds discuss events; strong minds discuss ideas,” said Greek philosopher Socrates. People and events dominate public discourse because they matter to the bread and butter issues of the people. But then, as […]
It has been almost one year since Jammu and Kashmir lost the special status granted to it by Articles 370 and 35A. National general secretary of BJP Ram Madhav tells Bhavna Vij-Aurora that the abrogation of Article 370 has led to “strengthening of the voices of India” in the youngest Union territory. It has also exposed local political leaders […]
In the last four years, the Donald Trump administration in America has witnessed abrupt end of the careers of many high ranking officials. They either quit their coveted posts in the middle of their tenure, or dismissed uncermoneously, eitherway mostly under controversial circumstances. There were dozens of them, but some names stand out – like […]
Statues, Church, Mosque and a Temple – How underlying cultural tensions are leading to liberal dilemmas and geo-political conflicts. Joseph Nye, the American liberal political scientist, proposed his soft power theory in the 1980s believing that culture would be a non-coercive power to influence nations. Coming ten years after him, Samuel Huntington, a conservative political […]
Proactive diplomacy together with greater attention to soft developmental needs of the neighbours like connectivity, education, finance and healthcare is the need of the hour for India’s foreign policy mandarins. There is a possibility of the immediate neighbours being inimical, while the neighbour of the neighbour, in the second circle, could be a friend. (File) […]
Just completed this 9-week short-lecture course being offered by the National University Higher School of Economics in Moscow. It is an easy and interesting course for those who want to understand the religious history of China and how the atheist China government and the CCP deal with religion in contemporary China. One thing that strikes […]
The challenge to global governance comes today from the decay of the very institutions created for that purpose some 75 years ago. This is the 75th year of the creation of the United Nations Organisation or UNO. The UN was the brainchild of American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who first shared the idea with Winston […]
The many hurdles that His Holiness overcame to make India his home The tiny village of Shaoshan in the Hunan province of China is an important centrepiece of ‘Red Tourism’.Busloads of people flock to this birthplace of Mao Zedong to pay their respects to the ‘Great Helmsman’, whose 36-metrehigh statue adorns the village square. There […]
