A civilisational continuum binds India and Iran, nurtured by long centuries of commerce and diplomacy that even the en masse change of religion in one country has been unable to snap. History is witness that political stability in our part of the world requires a strong Iran and a strong … Read More
The current explosion of violence, politics, and religious sentiment over the allotment and subsequent cancellation of land for civic amenities to Hindu pilgrims to Amarnath in Jammu & Kashmir should convincingly establish that religion is here to stay in the nation’s public life. Religion and its associated culture and civilizational … Read More
Kashmir’s miniscule Hindu community, victim of severe religious persecution and ethnic cleansing over the past two decades, once again lost hope of an improvement in the political climate that might facilitate a return home with the quiet closure of one of the worst massacres of the past decade. Last month, … Read More
Deoband’s 31 May 2008 fatwa against terrorism marks official Islam’s most significant departure from the phase of unproductive violence adopted by this beleaguered faith since the advent of western colonialism, particularly in the last two centuries. Though slow in coming, the decision by Indian Islam’s leading seminary to repudiate terrorism … Read More
India’s eastern coastline and regions east of India have been suffering serious environmental degradation without any sincere efforts at mitigation. The Orissa super-cyclone of 1999 smashed through huge tracts of land, taking countless lives and wrecking incalculable damage to crops, cattle, and property. The thirteen coastal districts along Tamil Nadu’s … Read More
The sharp disappointment in the Hindu community over the Delhi High Court’s decision to quash three cases against painter Maqbool Fida Hussain provides an ideal opportunity to all communities to debate the issue of mutual religious respect and the Vedic concept of sarv dharm sambhav. To my mind, there are … Read More
The US-NATO forces are making the same blunders the Soviet occupation forces once made in Afghanistan, in addition to new mistakes, all of which will cumulatively cost Washington dearly, says Mr. Zamir Kabulov, Russian envoy in Kabul. And given the close parallels with the deteriorating situation in Baghdad, it is … Read More
Archaeology, long given the step-sisterly treatment by Marxist historians, now finds itself at the high table of history, as it alone can deliver a credible verdict on whether the Ram Setu shows evidence of human intervention in the hoary past. The Supreme Court’s direction to the Central Government in this … Read More
Former Congress MP Akhilesh Das and the superintendent of the Vellore Jail have, in their own ways, drawn national attention to the ‘non-accountability’ of the party’s so-called first family. As the Gandhi siblings’ style of functioning has a direct bearing on the polity, it is time to subject them to … Read More
The current controversy over Ram Setu presents an ideal opportunity to probe the reality of a god whose human incarnation is central to Hindu faith. The deity who inspired a footbridge wide enough for an army to cross the Palk Straits poses a powerful challenge to historians who hold that … Read More
