Jaishankar described the Tokyo Quad meet as ‘consultations’. It needs more than China to become a regional institution. It is important to recall the history of the Quad because alliances have to be formed on agendas, not emotions. From the outset, the US projected and China perceived the Quadrilateral security grouping of US, Japan, Australia and India as the ‘Asian NATO’. […]
War is considered not something to run away from, but to be waged in order to restore the glory of the righteous. War is back. Armenia and Azerbaijan are at war. There is talk of it on the Sino-Indian LAC. Elsewhere, the Chinese navy is wrathful at the American and Japanese naval vessels loitering on […]
On January 30, 1948, the flag of the United Nations Organisation was lowered to half-mast. For the first time, the UN had set aside a day’s session to honour the man just murdered in Delhi. “Not the head of a state, a general or a king, but a lone man who without an army, riches, […]
Making a ‘Moral Man’ has been the quest of the philosophers for centuries. Some believed that God and religion can achieve that; some believed in man’s ability for reason. In the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon finds man’s moral virtue to be just to “fear God and keep his commandments”. But the later […]
India has played its geo-strategic cards very effectively through the entire process The diligence, dexterity and determination that Prime Minister Narendra Modihas displayed in diplomacy in the last six years and the immense geo-strategic costs that he has inflicted on India’s traditional rivals, is an important chapter. India’s handling of the stand-off with China in the last few […]
The Gupkar leaders are resorting to that dangerous game once again, this time in the name of Islam Islamism, in the Kashmiri separatist movement, was largely a subtext in the past. Mainstream identity politics used to be, at least overtly, centered on an undefined idea of Kashmiriyat. The Chaks were the last Kashmiri dynasty who […]
It is an ambitious vision. But the path to it should be pragmatic. In today’s context the path should mean leaner government, ease of doing business, greater investments, massive employment generation and greater integration with the global economy, not just as a beneficiary, but as a contributor. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about Atmanirbhar […]
Part 1: On the night of August 14-15, 1947, when India was celebrating its independence, the architect of the independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi was not among the revellers. When his protégé Jawahar Lal Nehru was making that epochal speech about ‘India’s tryst with destiny’, and the ministers of his new cabinet were taking the oath […]
Damnatio Memoriae is a Latin phrase roughly meaning ‘erasing bad memory’. Although the phrase came into vogue much later, the practice dated back to the Greek and Roman periods in the European history. Erection of statues, not of men of God or of wisdom, but of power was a practice prevalent during those times. At […]
Ayodhya represents a shared sentiment of sacredness, not merely because of its association with Ram, but also because of the value system it represents. Every nation has its sacred spaces and every religion its sacred places. Culture determines the sacredness of physical and metaphysical spaces. Cultures are the soul of nations. Nations create their sacred […]
