india

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 [...]

For most Indians the word Wahhabi means Saudi Arabian fundamentalism. When told that Wahhabism has deep roots in the Indian sub-continent, the first response is usually denial often followed by claims that Indian Wahhabism was a British invention. Those who think that way would do well to visit a small cemetery hidden away in a [...]

Mathura: The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is doing the ground breaking ceremony at Mathura, the birth place of Lord Krishna, to build the world’s tallest temple. It will be a 700 feet high skyscraper spread over an area of 5.5 acres and also have 70 floors. The ISKCON is hoping to complete the [...]

MUZAFFARNAGAR: BSP MP Kadir Rana, two party MLAs and former UP minister Saeed-uz-Zama of Congress are among 10 persons charged by the SIT probing the Muzaffarnagar riots for provoking communal tension with inflammatory speeches during a Muslim community panchayat. The charge sheet was filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Narender Kumar by the [...]

“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 [...]

6 days 100kms, freezing sub zero temperatures with uncertainty of life…and you thought you had a tough time going back to school- A  Father needs to get his two children to school but the only way to get there is a dangerous six-day trek – The Chadar – down the frozen Zanskar river in the [...]

ITANAGAR, Arunachal Pradesh — Though the event they advertised had passed a month earlier, the neon-colored posters remained, clinging to the state capital’s walls, lampposts and storefronts. On them were invitations to Indigenous Faith Day celebrations on Dec. 1, with slogans like “Culture without faith is body without soul,” and, more pointedly, “Imitation of alien [...]

Mother Teresa: Anything but a Saint… Researchers dispell the myth of altruism and generosity surrounding Mother Teresa The myth of altruism and generosity surrounding Mother Teresa is dispelled in a paper by Serge Larivée and Genevieve Chenard of University of Montreal’s Department of Psychoeducation and Carole Sénéchal of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Education. [...]

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. [...]