This article is about Islam. I am a Hindu and a Brahmin but I have read some books and know a bit about the subject. Not a lot but a bit. The reason for this article is that I have been exposed to the Muslims getting a lot of bad press. Plus we have the […]
Category Archives: Politics
A Doctrine of Hatred
Indian society and culture have been shaped by the communal violence that accompanied the partition in 1947 into India, East and West Pakistan. Thankfully all these events occurred well before I was born and have not been repeated on the same scale as happened then. But it scarred the psyche of the country and much […]
In Defence of being Offensive
I shared a link from the Quora website on WhatsApp and created a bit of a stir. Here is the link. Read it before you proceed further: https://qr.ae/pr9xrM A couple of my associates messaged saying that they supported free speech and talked about how free speech was being affected by the present dispensation. I took […]
The Appropriate Response to Fanaticism
This is going to be a short article as whatever I have to say has, I think, been said by two of the greatest philosophers of history. The question is – Should fanaticism be opposed with fanaticism or should it be opposed through democratic means? In India, in the decades past, there was a tit […]
Why the Adani Crisis is a Storm in a Teacup
Actually the crisis is a storm in a teacup for me because I am not invested in Stocks or Mutual Funds. If you have holdings in Adani then grit your teeth and hold on. I’ll start with a disclaimer: I have not researched the Adani group and have absolutely no idea if the stocks of […]
On Being Militant – Some Comments
I am almost 60 years old and I have lived through the times when many supposedly creative ways were mooted to deal with the fact that the criminal justice system in India does not work properly. For example there was the example of the (then) Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray exhorting Hindus in general and […]
Dealing with Corruption – Some Comments
My aim in this article is to appeal to the self interest of people in power (whether in politics, administration, police or the armed forces) and convince them that it is in their own best interest to reduce corruption and keep it to a minimum. I’ll start by saying that if the criminal justice system […]
Dealing with Terror Outfits
The best way to deal with drug barons, terror outfits and professional criminals (by that I mean persons who commit crimes for a living) generally speaking is to lock them up. However, if the criminal justice system is unable to do that then the following may be useful. There is a famous sentence in Edward […]
The Debt we owe to the British
It is the common narrative in India to blame the British for much, if not all, of our present ills. I remember going to my bank and striking up a conversation with a lady officer. She said plaintively that the British had exploited us for decades and owe their present wealth to what they had […]
On Nation Building – Some Comments
Here are some remarks related to nation building that may give food for thought: For starters you might wish to go through an earlier blog of mine. Link is below. You can ignore most of the article and only read the last few paragraphs. Confucius’ succinct thoughts were implemented by the Chinese and this created […]