Better Sorry Than Shave: In India, the Moustache Is Serious Business
Moustaches are an enduring symbol of maleness on which hang pride and social standing. In India, however, they also dictate caste equations, employment and how we see law enforcement. Moustaches are not just a fashion statement in India, but an integral part of tradition and folklore. They are closely associated with respect, privilege, honour and […]Read More
India and Pakistan Must Let Their People Meet – Before it’s Too Late
When strategic analysts dismiss the utility of people-to-people contacts, they forget the role of such linkages in blunting the narrative of countering misconceptions and hate. The past few months have seen several instances of tearful reunions with members of divided families from either side of Punjab in Pakistan and India meeting, after years of enforced […]Read More
Why Guru Tegh Bahadur Is Not the Anti-Muslim Icon BJP-RSS Claims He Is
Sikh scholars have expressed misgivings with the BJP government’s efforts to portray the Sikh Guru as a symbol against Muslims, with several of them insisting he died protecting the ethos of religious freedom. Jalandhar: Hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on the 400th birth anniversary of Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth guru […]Read More
Remembering Mangoo Ram Mugowalia, the Revolutionary Leader Who Challenged Caste
In a political career spanning 65 years, Mangoo Ram made remarkable contributions. Most notably, he was a member of the Ghadar Party and shaped the Ad-Dharm movement in Punjab. Can religion play a revolutionary role in society? Philosophers, people of letters and social scientists since the dawn of ‘Enlightenment’ in Western Europe have struggled to […]Read More
Explained: What Haryana plans to celebrate Guru Tegh Bahadur’s birth anniversary
Haryana is scheduled to go to Assembly polls in October 2024. However, the government has said that it has no political agenda, and that its aim is only to spread awareness. The BJP-JJP coalition government in Haryana has planned a series of events to mark the 401st birth anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh […]Read More
Amritsar Calling: Let us marry the old with the new in the Holy City
Enough has already happened considering that the harmonium, for one, is such a basic bajaa adopted from European traditions and brought in by the British in the 19th century, which has become an anchor instrument in the gurudwara and mandir musicology forgetting the richer nodes of our better native strings. The world in this quaint […]Read More
Birdwatch: Crested bunting, the ‘Yuvaraaj’ found in lower foothills
The male birds have a striking glossy black plumage with long pointed crests and chestnut wings and tail. The females are paler and browner, have a shorter crest and have less chestnut patches on the tail and wings. The crested bunting, locally called the Yuvaraaj, is a bird of the lower foothills and is not […]Read More
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre: Remembering the dark day 103 years later
Udham Singh, who was a member of the revolutionist Ghadar party, shot Colonel Reginald Dyer on March 13, 1940 to avenge the massacre. HIGHLIGHTS Shots were fired on the orders of Colonel Reginald Dyer, who was the acting Brigadier He had asked his troops to shoot indiscriminately without asking the crowd to disperse The site […]Read More
The Travelling Pillar
The ancient iron pillar standing in Delhi’s Qutb Minar complex is popularly described as a ‘trophy of conquest’. In fact, it marked the cultural continuity of a royal practice in ancient and medieval north India, of re-using and re-inscribing pillars erected by predecessors. When a historical artefact travels across space and time, it often creates […]Read More
Bhagavad Gita in Schools: Rote Learning of Illiberal Theological Text Will Trump Rational Inquiry
The book is full of obscurantist themes and ideas which require critical engagement of the kind school teachers will not be willing or able to provide. Earlier this week, the Gujarat government announced that the Bhagavad Gita will be part of the school syllabus for classes VI to XII across the state from the academic year 2022-23. The Karnataka […]Read More
