Category Archives: Discussions

Quiz on Sedition

Concerning the materials of seditions. It is a thing well to be considered; for the surest way to prevent seditions (if the times do bear it) is to take away the matter of them. For if there be fuel prepared, it is hard to tell, whence the spark shall come, that shall set it on [...]

Mahabharata Question

For those of you who are generally pessimistic about the political scene in India, I have some good news. The state of India in the period described in the Mahabharata was to put it mildly, catastrophic.
Explain how/why.

Forum Post: The Best and the Worst

With highly-probable portends of an early election visible on the horizon, I’ve created a new category called Elections 2009.
Beginning with this post, I plan to record–very irregularly–a sort of a run-up of events, news, and other gossip–I’ll even create quizzes–leading up to the actual elections. It promises to be an interesting retrospect.

Dissecting Contextual Morality: Part 2

I had concluded the previous post with a note on AKR’s understanding of Hindu ethics and traditional expositions on Dharma. He notes that

Each addition is really a subtraction from any universal law. There is not much left of an absolute or common (sadharana) dharma which the texts speak of, if at all, as a last [...]

Dissecting Contextual Morality : Part 1

Preface
In an interesting article on Narendra Modi, TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan (link courtesy Nitin) concludes that contextual morality is the one magic explanation for all ills that have plagued India for more than 100 years. He says

…Narendra Modi is our own creation, of liberals, conservatives, fascists, communists and every other man jack of us. He is not [...]

What Does this Mean?

The BJP’s election victory is expectedly the hot subject of discussion on the streets, restaurants, darshinis, paan shops, and bus stops of Bangalore. Yesterday, I was an uninvited party to one such discussion. A BJP worker was extolling his stellar campaigning work. In the middle of explaining how the leader of his constituency made money, [...]

Asymmetry in Words and Practise

Many thanks to a reader who brought to my notice M.F. Hussain’s interview with Tehelka. Readers of this blog know my views on Hussain. The interview is interesting because this is the first piece I have read where Hussain gives us a bit of insight on his own understanding of his art. This is a [...]

The Devil in the Advocate

The award for Hate Speech of the Century goes to this piece. The self-styled swamis of secularism have transcended all boundaries of reason. The reason: F-E-A-R.
But this one is dangerous…
This blogger chanced upon a hush-hush Devil’s Advocate with the Devil’s Advocate himself. It unravelled the Devil in the advocate.

Redefining Fundamentals

Thanks to reader Kaanganeya for pointing me to this excellent interview where S.N. Balagangadhara (Baalu) shares his thoughts on certain fundamentals, which he says need heavy redefining. I’ll add my random bits here.

The current theoretical framework is firmly embedded within Western cultural history and proves inadequate when it comes to studying non-Western traditions. The framework [...]

Theatre of the Absurd

Our cops seem to be eager to perfectly fit the mould that Bollywood/Indian cinema has set for them.

The Hyderabad police have registered a case against controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who was recently attacked by workers of Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) in Hyderabad, for allegedly creating ill-feeling among communities.
The writer has been booked under IPC [...]

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