There is reluctance, even hostility, among those who consider themselves to be Nehru’s heirs, to evaluate the country’s first Prime Minister dispassionately It was unfortunate, but perhaps not all that unexpected, to see Jawaharlal Nehru’s self-proclaimed political heirs display a very boorish non-Nehruvian spirit on the occasion of the launch …

One defining characteristic of Indian civilisation has been its capacity to reach out to the rest of the world and develop multi-dimensional linkages In terms of civilisational continuity, India is perhaps the only civilisation that has not only had continuity up to the present, but was also one that had …

India’s struggle for independence had been witness to some of the most interesting thoughts on education being articulated and experimented with, vigorously Perhaps no other country’s struggle for independence saw such a robust and rich parallel education movement as did India’s from the 1890s to the late 1930s. Throughout this …

It’s a cause for concern when Tagore’s institution, once a window for global minds to read India’s timeless civilisational message, loiters from its founding ideals In the last week of March 1936, an ailing Rabindranath Tagore, having toured the “big towns” of North India with his dance troupe performing the …

The present initiative to bring about a larger awareness and determination to achieve national cleanliness is a welcome return to our values and traditions A high state of order, sublimity and well-functioning local institution has usually been expressive of an advance civilisational stage. To a number of observers, India appeared …

One of the most articulate voices of Eastern education philosophy, Kireet Joshi was futuristic yet traditional With the passing away of Kireet Joshi, pre-eminent education philosopher and administrator, the curtains have been drawn on a creative and vibrant era of Indian education which had derived direct inspiration from the National …

The revolutionary nationalist’s action defined that key phase of our freedom struggle which seeded the Indian psyche with an urge for independence Jatindranath Mukherjee or ‘Bagha Jatin’ (1879-1915), was unarguably one of the most astute, dynamic and fearless leaders of the pre-Gandhian revolutionary nationalist phase in India. A household name …

A re-imagined and re-awakened new Asian Order is in the making with Prime Minister Modi reaching out to the East and South East countries It augurs well that over the past few months India has begun to look and act East with renewed vigour and commitment. India’s recent reaching out …

Professor Sankari Prasad Basu had devoted his life to an unrivalled research into the life and times of Swami Vivekananda. He has left behind a rich legacy One of Swami Vivekananda’s foremost biographers, Professor Sankari Prasad Basu, recently passed away. The prolific Prof Basu chose to silently fade away, having …

The Modi regime should seriously look into salvaging the National Mission for Manuscripts. An autonomous status will be welcome. It’s a civilisational imperative In 2007 it was largely because of the efforts of the New Delhi-based National Mission for Manuscripts that the collection of Rigveda manuscripts in the possession of the Bhandarkar …

The Buddhist tourism project taps into the country’s civilisational repositories and can re-create bridges with regions that once fell within its cultural ambit The concept of cultural-religious circuits has been given a fillip by the Union Budget for 2014-2015. In a welcome move an amount of Rs 500 crore has …

The intrinsic message of the Hindu Service and Spiritual Fair is that Hindu society must address contemporary challenges through a definite civilisational approach Melas or fairs have, in the near past, played a pivotal role in India, especially in support of movements for national regeneration. The celebrated Hindu Mela in …

Syama Prasad Mookerjee never bowed to Nehruvian pressures when it came to the larger good of the country Making an assessment of Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s life and personality, sometime in 1959, S Radhakrishnan, then Vice President of India, had perhaps come nearest to describing the essential and defining character trait …

The so-called intellectual mainstream relegated SP Mookerjee to an ideological corner and suppressed his versatility, his national acceptance and his vision for national progress Sixty one years after he was consigned to a confined and lonely death by free India’s first democratically elected Government on June 23, 1953, Syama Prasad …