Analysis/Insights

“When Germany is Christian, is India Hindu?”  got amazingly good response with thousands of facebook likes. However, some readers felt I made a mistake by not distinguishing between good, tolerant Hinduism, which is a private belief, and bad, intolerant Hindutva, which stands for the ‘communal agenda of an extreme right Hindu party’ that wants to [...]

Gunga Din is a character from a classic Rudyard Kipling poem, and was adapted into a film of the same name in 1939. In that production, Gunda Din is a simple water bearer who sacrifices his life in order to save the white British soldiers from rebel forces of the Thugee. The film is now [...]

The controversy about Penguin India’s decision to withdraw and pulp Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History brings to the surface issues likely to trouble scholars of India for years to come. First, the obvious: the banning of any book violates academic or intellectual freedom. Rightly so, this leads to moral indignation among the intelligentsia of India [...]

Numerous Hindus come across as jubilant and triumphant now that they, or some of them, have managed to pressure Penguin books into agreeing to withdraw Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus: an Alternative History and destroy its stock. I am not that happy about it. And I agree with Wendy that the real villain of the [...]

The recent withdrawal from Penguin Publishing of ‘The Hindus’ by veteran anti-Hindu academic and rabble rouser Wendy Doniger has brought out the usual useful idiots who clamour for freedom of speech. What these ardent democrat so conveniently forget is that it is demagogues like Doniger who have used their positions of influence to crush that [...]

Even after demonstrating physical, mental and spiritual fierce resistance for a thousand years,  while all other ancient civilisations ended up in a museum, today’s Hindu seems to be apologetic over his or her own existence, and desperately begs for acceptance by others especially the very people that attempted to destroy them in the first place. [...]

Judging from media reports, India has a BIG problem with rape. No other country seems to come even close. All over the globe “another rape in India” is reported ever so often.  On my last visit to Germany, I jolted when on 27. December 2013 the most popular TV news ended with “another gang rape [...]

In the ongoing campaign to throw at Narendra Modi(NaMo) whatever dirt one can find, Ramachandra Guha (“Degradation of Discourse”, Times of India, 6 Jan. 2014) accuses him of yet another flaw: the use of foul language against political opponents. His article is illustrated with a photograph of Modi chatting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Now, [...]

”Why do you worship an idol?” is a question frequently encountered by some Hindu’s. Another common question is, “Why do you worship a rock?” This is an excellent opportunity for a Hindu, or follower of Sanatana Dharma, to educate their momentary student of spirituality or religion. [...]

Hindus are inclined to accept anything that calls itself calls itself religion, particularly if it is also mystical. They would like to believe that all mystical states are valid and that all religions are true. This exposes them to manipulation by groups who use a religious or mystical appearance to promote their own agendas that [...]