Analysis/Insights

Pope Francis finally canonized the controversial Mother Teresa  made famous by BBC presenter Malcolm Muggeridge as a ‘Saint’ today –  September 4th  2016 . RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat back in 2015  claimed that Mother Teresa’s charity work was merely subterfuge to convert poor and vulnerable people to Christianity:“It’s good to work for a cause with [...]

“The Church claims the right to freedom of religion, by which it means its own right to convert others, and never the other way round (recall its strong condemnation of Ghar Wapsi). Christian evangelical efforts in the world today constitute nothing less than an open declaration of war on other religions. What it forgets is [...]

“The BJP, instead of trying to craft a secular face and hoping to regain the 8 per cent of the minority vote it lost in 2004, needs to consolidate its Hindu equity by 2014. Inclusive secularism is redundant. Obama won by polarising America. Narendra Modi is sure to polarise the Indian popular vote. Those who [...]

The BJP’s thundering defeat in Delhi was not due to any sudden merits of the Aam Aadmi Party, but to several problems inside the BJP itself. That much is not controversial. The debate is all about what exactly were the mistakes made. Campaign strategy – We need not spend many words on the poor campaign strategy, contrasting [...]

I know cricket is a passion in India, even amongst many of my fans. But not only has the  IPL scandal ( 2013 )shown that there is something rotten in cricket, but unless cricket goes down, other sports in India will never come-up. Here is a game which is a colonial legacy of the British. [...]

(Speech given at the Dharma Civilization Foundation’s Strategic Retreat, SVYASA, Jigani/Bengaluru, 5-7 February 2015) A knife is sharpened by shaving away all the superfluous material that makes it dull. A sharp knife is a live case of “less is more”: less material means more sharpness. At an action-oriented “strategic retreat”, our knife should be sharpened [...]

In this fourth in the series, we look at how France has politically and intellectually nurtured and fostered the forces of radical Islam. At first glance this may seem incongruous. It was France after all which pioneered a radical form of secularism, a total separation of religion and state. The source of this secularist dogma [...]

President Obama as with any national leader comes in for criticism and attack. The duties of office require the navigation of many conflicting and contradictory interests. However a large proportion of this has degenerated into conspiracy theories which bring out the worst in racial and cultural stereotypes. The recent massacres in France over the publication [...]

“In 1964-65, all shankaracharyas, mahants and saints of the religion met in Udupi in Karnataka and decided to allow re-conversion. This was the first public declaration made by the leaders of the Hindu society. Before that there was almost a social ban on conversion in the Hindu community.” – M. G. Vaidya In a surprising revelation, [...]

Many of my Hindu friends, intelligent, cultured people, whom I respect, have loved the film PK. This set me thinking: I know that most Hindus do not mind being made fun off and that their religion allows for near unlimited tolerance.But nevertheless, as a friend of the Hindus here are my arguments: 1) Obviously amir [...]