Former screen idol turned animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot was fined 20,000 euros by a court on France’s Indian Ocean island of La Reunion over a 2019 diatribe where she described its inhabitants as “savages”. “The natives have kept their savage genes,” the animal rights campaigner wrote in an open letter attacking the islanders for [...]
The construction of Ram Janmabhoomi temple at Shri Ram’s birthplace of Ayodhya has led to universal condemnation from press within India and abroad. Normally media outlets which are right-wing and left-wing, conservative and liberal, secular and religious, white supremacists and anti-racist, Christian and Islamic, free market and socialist, would be polar opposites and antagonistic. But [...]
In this era of supposedly free news and information we find that certain ‘dissident’ voices are ostracised and placed beyond the pale. Hence we have the case of Julian Assange.
He is not alone in facing the wrath of those who would rather that the public be kept in ignorance.
Then there is Tulsi Gabbard, Despite running [...]
Back in 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India condemned animal rights activist who have sought to protect cows from the butcher’s knife: “I feel really angry at the way some people have opened shops in the name of cow protection. I have seen that some people commit anti-social activities through the night, but act as cow [...]
India is a target market for many commercial organisations and of course the media is no exception. From being one of Britain’s most well established newspapers, the Daily Mail has pioneered online journalism. Indeed it has a special section for India, and it is here that we encounter the latest offering by that country’s journalist [...]
November 25, 2014
Ranbir Singh
Hinduphobia, World Focus
The anti-Hindu bias in western media outlets such as the BBC, CNN and Sky have been well-known. The situation was hardly likely to change for the better with Fox News and Al-Jazeera. Indeed it can be hard to differentiate between them. The BBC is regarded as establishment fodder, and with its ideological moorings to the [...]
The Hindu tradition emphasises Dharma and Rta; to live in harmony with cosmic order by being aware of one’s karma. It is ideas like this which the western mind cannot grasp, denouncing it as nebulous and illusory. One of the common criticisms is that Indian spiritual traditions denounce this world as Maya or illusion. But [...]
September 8, 2014
Ranbir Singh
Analysis/Insights
A national newspaper carried an article on July 1st that bemoaned (rightly so) the disparity in education between the haves and the have-nots, between the 20 per cent who study in English medium private schools and the 80 per cent who study in vernacular government schools. The author proposed an outlandish solution to bridge the [...]
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 [...]
January 18, 2014
Ranbir Singh
Atheist Irrationalism
In the classic children’s story Goldilocks went into someone else’s house to eat and sleep uninvited. To her horror she was confronted by the owners, which happened to be three bears. Discovered she fled. At no point were negotiations on the agenda. It was after all pretty indefensible. This is a bit like the manner [...]
October 20, 2013
Ranbir Singh
Analysis/Insights