Analysis/Insights

The murder of three innocent Israeli teenagers has once again led to recriminations by Israel against the Hamas controlled Palestinian authority in Gaza. This adds more fuel to a combustible mix where you have the ultra-puritan jihad warriors of ISIS trying to create an orthodox Sunni Islamic state, centered on Iraq and Syria, but which [...]

India’s recent election – which brought Narendra Modi to power with a great majority – is clearly an important if not epoch-making event in the history of the country. It may be the most important shift in Indian politics and national thinking since the independence of the country in 1947. [...]

William Dalrymple is right on the Caliphate’s details, but his liberal framework is wrong. On 13 July 2014, The Guardian published an opinion article by the well-known historian of Moghul India, William Dalrymple: “The ISIS demand for a caliphate is about power, not religion.” We have heard this tune numerous times, literally and in so [...]

As per my typical “modern-Hindu” upbringing – I was taught to see all other religions in the best possible light, on par with my own. “All religions are a path to the same God” was an often repeated phrase when talking about religion. I remember a member of my family speaking in praise of Prophet [...]

Identifying the key challenges facing Sri Lankan Tamil youth in the Great White North I  GREW UP IN LONDON, ontario, canada, just west of Toronto. As the only Hindu in my elementary school, I was often asked to explain Hinduism and Hindu culture to other students. As I grew older, I did class presentations. This [...]

A national newspaper carried an article on July 1st that bemoaned (rightly so) the disparity in education between the haves and the have-nots, between the 20 per cent who study in English medium private schools and the 80 per cent who study in vernacular government schools. The author proposed an outlandish solution to bridge the [...]

Recently, the IB had come out with a report questioning the motives and agenda of the foreign funded NGOs operating in India.  It is alleged that they have an anti-development agenda, and has caused serious loss in terms of economic growth in India.  Analysts, including journalists, have used various stratagems to divert the attention from [...]

When you think of the places where you’re likely to encounter mindfulness meditation—like a yoga studio or a temple or a serene health retreat—British Parliament is probably the last place you would think of. With a highly charged atmosphere that sometimes even erupts in shouting matches on the debate floor, it’s hard to imagine any [...]

Quite frequently, my mailbox is hit by yet another product of the PN Oak-type imagination. This one refers to a web article  “Was the Christian Vatican Originally a Temple to Lord Shiva?” It claims that “Rome’s church compound is in the shape of [a] Shiva Lingam”. It also suggests, citing as its source the “famous [...]

Large parts of India’s economy were destroyed by British technology in the 1800s, and by deals that favoured British shareholders. Today, it’s China that holds that kind of power According to an editorial published in China‘s Global Times to coincide with this week’s London visit of premier Li Keqiang, the British live in “an old, [...]