Whenever the Indian elections are underway the western media is even more panicked than usual about the impending doom faced by the world’s largest democracy as it falls into the abyss of Hindu fascism, fundamentalism, nationalism, and other assorted ‘reactionary’ forces. The parrot-fashion use of such worn-out phrases and the lazy reliance on the chattering [...]
April 22, 2014
Ranbir Singh
Analysis/Insights, Archives
Modi and the media The international media are predictably on an anti-Modi crusade. They blame him for killing more than 700 Muslims in 2002 (not for the death of over 200 Hindus in the same riots, nor for the death of 58 Hindus in the Muslim attack triggering the riots), shortly after his accession to [...]
April 21, 2014
Dr Koenraad Elst
Analysis/Insights, Archives
I was an intern back then. Having done my diploma in journalism and mass communication, i was working with a senior journalist to learn the tricks of on-ground reporting and developing contacts.My mentor was a veteran journalist, aged about 52 years. Everyone used to call him Haji sahab. He had gone on Haj with family [...]
April 20, 2014
HHR
Articles, India
Recently we came across this article which talks about the growing assertiveness of Shintoists in Japanese politics which is quiet significant for Hindus though our people don’t realize it and we hope to rectify that here. Roots of State Shinto The roots of what is called “state Shinto” go back to the Meiji era (1868-1912) [...]
April 19, 2014
HHR
Analysis/Insights
Whenever news about India make it to the local Nuremberg newspaper, my mother reads them out to me on phone. Usually, those news portray India in a poor light, like ‘people died from cold on the streets of Delhi’ or, especially in the past year ever so often, ‘another gang rape’, conveniently ignoring the gang [...]
When the Indian elections were looming back in 2014 the western media was full of hysteria and paranoia reminiscent out of some science fiction novel depicting a dystopian future where human civilisation has all but collapsed. Led by the anti-Hindu rag known as the Guardian, we were repeatedly fed a constant feed of dire warnings [...]
April 16, 2014
Ranbir Singh
Analysis/Insights, Archives
India, the world’s largest democracy, is in the midst of a marathon five-week election that will result in the selection of its next prime minister. Although Nate Silver has yet to make it official, most pundits and prognosticators predict that Narendra Modi will be India’s next leader. Modi bears striking similarities to a celebrated American [...]
In Pakistan’s stormy social currents, where the tide of sectarianism has chased out many Ahmadis and Shiites, life for minorities such as Hindus is becoming difficult. According to a recent report issued by the Movement for Solidarity and Peace in Pakistan, (MSP), 700 Christian and 300 Hindu women are being forced to convert and marry [...]
The secularists are bad losers. They are the kind of pupil who tampers with his school report before showing it to dad. For fifteen years, I have seen them bluffing to obscure the fact of their defeat in the Ayodhya evidence debate. Now, their thesis of a Hindutva fascism had not been confirmed on any [...]
April 9, 2014
Dr Koenraad Elst
Analysis/Insights
As an American of Indian descent, I have always been fascinated by the arcane depths of the Hindu culture to which I belong. I have been practicing Yoga and writing about Indian metaphysics, Buddhism and South Asian Art and Culture for a long time, and am fairly sensitive to how my native traditions are represented [...]
April 9, 2014
HHR
Analysis/Insights