India

Tirupati: In a major development, Chittoor District Collector K Ramgopal has ordered demolition of unauthorised constructions by the controversial Heera International Islamic College, coming up near Chandragiri. The Collector in his order dated November 17 directed the Secretary of  Thondavada Grama Panchayat, under which the area where the multi-layer Islamic university is located, to immediately [...]

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall tonight took part in a solemn ceremony of thanks with Hindus on the banks of the River Ganga. In the holy Hindu city of Rishikesh, the prince led his wife by the hand to the banks of the sacred river where they joined Hindu worshippers conducting the Aarti [...]

  “Several Hindu organisations have taken up the issue and are protesting the setting up of this university. Interestingly, they have been receiving a lot of support from the local Muslims who say that this university is bad news. The Muslims who pray at the Tirupati temple feel that the town was peaceful and now [...]

One not uncommonly comes across the opinion today that India was never really a nation but that its nationhood was only recently invented by the British through their definition of the region as part of their empire. Similarly we are told that Hinduism was up to recently not a religion at all but merely various [...]

Christian missionaries have become increasingly visible and controversial in India. As I grew up as a Christian, I would like to share my observations from a personal angle. When it comes to religion, I noticed that Indians tread cautiously. Care is taken ‘not to offend the sensibilities’ of the followers of other religions. Well, I [...]

The Crime Branch-CID has told the court of Judicial Magistrate (JM)-3, Vellore, that Fakruddin alias ‘Police’ Fakruddin has confessed that he and his two associates Bilal Malik and Panna Ismail were involved in five murders, including those of four leaders of Hindu outfits, in different parts of the State in the last two years. The [...]

CHITTOOR: Two suspected terrorists were taken into custody while two others escaped and a police inspector succumbed to stab wounds during a 12-hour joint operation by police teams from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the sleepy town of Puttur in Chittoor district on Saturday. The police teams were assisted in Operation Puttur by the [...]

BHUBANESWAR: A court in Odisha Monday held seven people guilty of the murder of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and four of his aides in Kandhamal district of Odisha in 2008, a lawyer said Monday.  Special additional district session Judge R.K. Tose pronounced the verdict in his court at Phulbani, the headquarters of Kandhamal district, about 200 [...]

Nathuram Verma has been a highly sought-after Dalit priest in Kota, Rajasthan for 10 years, providing much needed spiritual leadership in a community shunned by high-caste Hindu priests.  In Hindu culture, priests perform numerous community rituals. But Brahmin priests often refuse to do so in parts of India where Dalits live in marginalised society.As a [...]

 Over a century ago, the great sage Sri Aurobindo wrote an article called “The UnHindu Spirit of Caste Rigidity” (available here). His ideas for striking at the very root of the caste problem are valid even today, and need to be taken up with more urgency that in the past. To secure its future, Hindu [...]