Tag: Indian culture

Nakul Krishna on A. K. Ramanujan: The literary legacy of an Indian modernist / The essay censored by DU’s Academic Council

First posted August 15, 2013 “Yes, I know all that. I should be modern” – begins Ramanujan’s ‘Conventions of Despair’. Others in India have felt this impulse, and it has pulled them in different directions. In politics, it has drawn them towards nationalism, socialism and fascism. In religion, it has had similarly contradictory effects: either… Read More Nakul Krishna on A. K. Ramanujan: The literary legacy of an Indian modernist / The essay censored by DU’s Academic Council

Dilip

‘Baba’ – A Personal Tribute to Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, by A. L. Basham

NB: D. D. Kosambi (1907-1966) was one of India’s most accomplished intellectuals. Hailing from Goa, he was a polyglot familiar with Konkani, Marathi, Hindi, Sanskrit, Pali, English, French, Italian and German (I may have missed some languages). He was a mathematician, statistician, geneticist, philologist, physicist, numismatist, archaeologist, historian and public intellectual (find a biography here). He… Read More ‘Baba’ – A Personal Tribute to Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, by A. L. Basham

Dilip

Ramachandra Guha on the Chief Justice, Mahatma Gandhi and Saffron Robes

‘What would (Gandhi) have thought of a serving Chief Justice making public visits to temples and getting himself photographed and giving interviews about it in the process?’ Ramachandra Guha Ramachandra Guha, the well-known biographer of Mahatma Gandhi and one of India’s leading political commentators, discusses his articles criticising Chief Justice Chandrachud both for wrongly understanding… Read More Ramachandra Guha on the Chief Justice, Mahatma Gandhi and Saffron Robes

Dilip

Heritage, freedom struggle, practical solutions: What NDMC’s Sunehri Masjid plan has overlooked

Fahad Zuberi The New Delhi Municipal Council’s plan to demolish Delhi’s Sunehri Bagh Masjid has triggered an uproar. While the Delhi High Court is hearing another petition challenging the status quo, a section of the media has already begun linking objections – especially those by political leaders such as AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi – to an… Read More Heritage, freedom struggle, practical solutions: What NDMC’s Sunehri Masjid plan has overlooked

Dilip

Sikhs are the proverbial bone stuck in the RSS’s gullet

HARTOSH SINGH BAL The transformation of the relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Sikhs embodies the problems the community faces in a climate where the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s worldview prevails in the country. The story begins with a photo the Bharatiya Janata Party would once display with great pride, of a turbaned Modi disguised as… Read More Sikhs are the proverbial bone stuck in the RSS’s gullet

Dilip

How a father’s love for his daughter challenged India’s ‘rape culture’

When his 13-year-old daughter stumbled home six years ago and told her father that she had been gang-raped, Ranjit embarked on a mission to get justice in a manner that is almost unheard of in rural India. Going against the wishes of the entire village in the eastern state of Jharkhand, and challenging India’s highly patriarchal culture,… Read More How a father’s love for his daughter challenged India’s ‘rape culture’

Dilip

Pratap Bhanu Mehta: The current talk of decolonisation is about an exclusionary political agenda

Current decolonisation project drips with resentment. It conflates modernity merely with colonialism. To see the insidiousness of this project, just ask this question: What should be the terms on which citizens relate to each other? “Decolonise!” This imperative seems to be the ideological flavour of the moment. It is behind the calls to restructure education,… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta: The current talk of decolonisation is about an exclusionary political agenda

Dilip