Search results for "western media"

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 [...]

Washington (AFP) – Several US lawmakers voiced concern Friday for the future of religious minorities in India in a hearing critics denounced as an attempt to influence upcoming elections. With polls starting Monday in the world’s largest democracy, several activists testifying before the US Congress’ human rights commission expressed fear for the treatment of Muslims [...]

A landmark effort by the Indian state of Karnataka to connect isolated protected forests could lead to the building of Asia’s largest unbroken forest, writes Jay Mazoomdaar.It’s been all about connecting the green dots. Since 2012, the southern state of Karnataka has declared nearly 2,600 sq km (1,000 sq miles) of forests as protected areas, [...]

India, a secular democracy or a theocracy? In a secular democracy, as is professed by India, the state should not interfere in the personal beliefs of its citizens. The freedom of faith or religion is the right of an individual. So, it follows, in a truly secular state, all its citizens ought to be perceived [...]

Three of the world‘s top religious leaders – Pope Francis of the Vatican, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Grand Imam of Al Azhar Dr Mahmoud Azab have joined hands in the biggest ever push to eradicate modern day slavery and human trafficking in India by 2020. On the surface this may look laudable. But [...]

A possibly good side to the Wendy Doniger affair At first sight, the withdrawal of Prof. Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus, an Alternative History by her publisher Penguin is an all-round disaster for the Hindus. The nit-picking by some Hindu activists that the book wasn’t really banned by a Court but only withdrawn by the [...]

This article has been generated assuming that majority of the readers are familiar with the background of Arya Samaj, how it got started, its initial association with Brahmo Samaj and the later break off, its founder (Dayananda Saraswati), etc. The focus of this article is more on the situation of the Arya Samaj today and [...]

“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 [...]

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 [...]

While atheism and Christianity may seem at polar opposites in mainstream discourse, the reality is that they are actually singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to Hindus. The denigration of Hindu civilisation and culture to which the western world owes so much is enacted with the standard neocolonialist and racist mindset which [...]