India’s Civilisational State Identity Must be Recovered
It has been our national misfortune in academic terms that those thinkers and scholars who have written and spoken of the achievements of Indian civilisations in positive terms are the ones who’ve faced marginalisation or segregation—they have been victims of a well-calculated academic apartheid. Since these interpreters essentially challenged the …
Ancient Knowledge Society Must Inspire India of Today
Teachers’ Day, being observed this year, perhaps for the first time, as a festival, is a great tribute not only to the philosopher-statesman in whose memory and educational contribution the occasion is commemorated but also points to a deeper civilisational dimension in India where education itself, in the days of …
Revisit Dimensions of Past in Spirit of Present Exigencies
The year 2014 marks the 1,000th anniversary of the mighty Hindu monarch Rajendra Chola I’s ascension to the throne. The occasion calls for greater national and international commemoration. Rajendra I, described by Georges Coedès as “prince audacieux”, and by R C Majumdar as the “greater son of a greater father”, …
‘Secular Nationalist’ is Nothing But Oxymoron
The past few weeks have seen some avid India watchers and academics based in the West come up with a rather confusing nomenclature—‘secular nationalist’. It is striking that these self-professed secularists have at least accepted the appellation ‘nationalist’, not as pejorative or reductionist, but worthy of appropriation, however anachronistic such …