Ambedkar

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia but grew up in Nairobi. The Somali community in which she lived was infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood who transformed Ali and her teenage friends from believers into Islamic activists. Yet in 1992 she claimed asylum in the Netherlands as she escaped a forced marriage Following the 11 September [...]

At 7:10am BBC Radio 4 broadcasts the religious affairs programme ‘Sunday’, appropriately named because that is the day on which it is aired. Now in this programme we have this delightful installment: “The National Council of Churches in India will hold a day of protest next week against the country’s discriminatory caste system. It follows [...]

Just two days ago the BBC put on its website the ominously entitled “What is India’s caste system?”. A rhetorical question indeed because anyone familiar with the BBC’s constant anti-Hindu bias would already know exactly where that sort of vitriol was headed; blame directly apportioned to Hinduism, Hindu beliefs, Hindu civilisation and especially Hindu texts. [...]

When Nina Davuluri of New York won Miss America 2013, she said in her first press conference after the victory:  “I’m so happy this organization has embraced diversity. I’m thankful there are children watching at home who can finally relate to a new Miss America.” However  this crowning of the first Miss America of Asian [...]

It is commonly believed that caste, i.e. the division of society in endogamous groups, is an exclusively Hindu institution. Thus, after briefly describing the system of the four varnas, Ambedkar writes: “This is called by the Hindus the Varna Vyavasthâ. It is the very soul of Hinduism. Without Varna Vyavasthâ there is nothing else in [...]

The enticing advertisements by the Department of Tourism by the administration of the Indian state of Kerala entice visitors with seductive images of natural beauty in the tropics, capping it all with the slogan “God’s Own Country”. However it is becoming increasingly apparent that this begs the question, exactly whose ‘god’ does this refer to? [...]