Reaching There

Nadav Lapid called the movie 'The Kashmir Files' a propaganda movie while making his comments at the International Film Festival of India 2022 held in Goa last month. I'm not going to talk about the resulting controversy and eventual apology by Mr. Lapid. He was not only disrespectful of the freedom of speech of director Vivek Agnihotri but conducted his jury duty unprofessionally by taking a political stance. I'm only interested in the accusation of propaganda that Mr. Lapid so casually hurled at 'The Kashmir Files'.  The Kashmir Files What is propaganda?  The best definition that I could find is available on a website called  https://disinformation-nation.org/how-propaganda-works/ where it defines propaganda as 'an agenda' to promote a specific cause or ideology to a 'targeted audience' and a 'massaged message' which may alter or omit the facts. Propaganda can take various forms of communication to propagate the agenda.  And especially...

The debate on Times Now Summit 2022 between Salman Khurshid, Dr. Vikram Sampath, Sai Deepak, and Pavan K Varma showed how disconnected the left, right, and the middle are from each other.  We all know these 'luminaries',  as Rahul Shivshankar, Editorial Director & Editor-in-Chief  @TimesNow introduces them.  How left and right  do not apply to Indian political viewpoints  is a matter for another time, therefore pardon my use of the western paradigm of left and right for the rest of this blog post. Times Now Debate, 2022 We all know Sai Deepak through his YouTube debate with  Asaduddin Owaisi  (Sai Deepak in fact moderated the debate) a few years back. And since then he has authored a couple of books on the historical context that surrounded the drafting of the constitution of India between 1946 to 1950. His first book on India, that is Bharat forced us to rethink colonialism and introduced an entirely distinct scholarly way to look at middle-e...

 As I thought about writing this post, I wondered what might be the objective of this blog post. I wanted to write about history. So should it be about the reverence of cows in Hindu culture? Or, is the fact that partisan idealogue historians like Audrey Truschke are biased and intentionally omit (and sometimes convolute) the facts in their works? Or, how are Indian readers far too subjugated by the translations of Indian scriptures by colonial translators? Or, in our own way, we are too ignorant of our own history?  All of the above is controversial, to say the least. But it is time we relook at our heritage with a Dharmic viewpoint, especially as the world is shedding the colonial lens. Many such above points are  important and require a deep understanding of a scholar and an expert for a more substantial discussion. However, as I'm neither, I can only raise pertinent questions that will provide superficial answers that are sufficient to investigate further.  Audre...

Introduction A few days ago I wrote on how a contemporary Dharmic mind is enslaved with various narratives meant to degrade the tradition of Dharmic spiritualism (or Hinduism) and relegate the spiritual path as non-sensical, patriarchal, and regressive (i.e. against modernity). I've three examples below that show the eagerness in contemporary conversations to push this narrative. Since free speech and vaad (Sanskrit: वाद, discussion) are two-way streets so it's well within my right to share my opinion based on sound reasoning and well-established examples. And my opinion doesn't rely on the play of words (Sanskrit: सामान्य छल, quibble)) or a mere attack on the opposition (Sanskrit: वितंडा, cavil/sophistry). Just a side note, these categorizations are based on the ancient  Nyaya philosophy composed by Akṣapāda Gautama between the 6th century BCE and the 2nd century CE. Example 1 -  वितंडा / Sophistry Buddhism and Sanatana Dharma have a long history of coexistence and assim...

Introduction A disclaimer first, I used to be a fan of John Oliver and his show Last Week Tonight. This was when he was bashing Fox News Channel, Republicans, and other conservative opinions as part of his blanket bashing of 'right wing. I was frankly unaware of conservative opinions in the United States. As an immigrant, I had picked up the American political context from whatever limited exposure I had; which was primarily driven by left-liberal ideologues. And it was fun to watch continuously streamed videos of Jon Stewart where he will poke fun at Fox News with cleverly presented arguments. So my opinions were incomplete and unknowingly prejudiced. However, a world cannot function on such broad and incomplete opinions. Was I left liberal who had a reckoning? I don't think I can say that, as I don't even know if I was or still am a left-liberal or right-wing. As personalities cannot be broad-brushed by placing them in a convenient basked of left, center, or right.  For e...

Mind alone is the cause of both bondage and liberation. - Amritabindu Upanishad, Verse 2 Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang) in his "journey to the west" between 629 CE and 645 CE referred to India as ' Yin-tu ' which  means moon (in Sanskrit). Dharampal in his book 'A Beautiful Tree' describes various British territories like Bengal, Bihar, Madras, Punjab, and others that "there is hardly a village, great or small, throughout our territories, in which there is not at least one school, and in larger villages more." And the 1830s, the British began the survey of India to implement policies that "established some affinity of outlook and belief between the rules and the rule" whether it was introducing a new "Christian" education policy or opening up India to evangelical missionaries for extending Christian 'light' and 'knowledge' (Page 16, The Beautiful Tree, Dharampal)   Since ancient times travelers, monks, seers, and seekers ...

I'm what you may call a 'recently awakened Hindu' (or as someone may use a derogative stereotype 'Bhakt'). A bit of sarcasm at the beginning always helps! Yet, it's not the Modi or the BJP I'm re-discovering but the cultural and spiritual heritage that has been ingrained in the ethos of 'Bhartiya Sanskriti' that I'm re-discovering. On a side note, if you want to re-discover Narendra Modi, I highly recommend the book Modi, Muslims and Media  by Madhu Kishwar. And if you really want to understand the data science driving the rise of the BJP I'll recommend The New BJP by Nalin Mehta. Today I'm talking about the aspect of Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) that venerates and celebrates different aspects of one's life. This help to keep the civilizational memory alive in its own unique way.  Worship of Nature Indians (Hindus) love to venerate the surroundings. Some may argue that if such was the case then India's public hygiene and civic sens...