In the last few decades, ?secularism? has become the subject of caustic debate in the Indian media. The dispute about the value of this idea to contemporary India is no longer confined to the academic circles. Politicians, journalists and others have strong views on the topic. Secularism regularly surfaces in newspaper articles, speeches and public meetings. The critics of the idea, however, are not often taken seriously at the theoretical level. The proponents of secularism dismiss all objections against their pet idea as misguided. Critics are either considered to be naive obscurantists, who dream of a return to a romantic image of Indian traditional society; or they are condemned as Hindu fundamentalists, who resist modern secular values and strive for a Hindu religious state.
Even as the nation celebrates its 57th Independence Day, with the usual accolades being showered upon the father of the Nation, who wielded the remarkable weapon of Satyagraha against the might of the British Empire, it may also be worth remembering some of the other unsung heroes of the Freedom Struggle, whose intentions, aspirations, and sacrifices were equally noble, though their means of execution often violent....
Mleccha, Meluhha (Language, dictionary, writing)
The two pdf documents (listed above for download) link two related, significant events in cultural history: bronze age trade and writing system as necessary inventions about 5000 years ago in Sarasvati civilization area. ...
A clash of civilisations was predicted by V. S. Naipaul and later given some sort of quasi academic respectability by Harvard?s Samuel Huntingdon. Some Indians were exercised by this new intellectual oeuvre, either hating it or self-satisfyingly sensing confirmation of their supposed superior understanding of Islam. But Naipaul was clearly on to something. Even hard-nosed Western bankers pronounced him a prophet when his casual observations about an impending crisis in Southeast Asia came to pass suddenly in 1997, halting its ostensibly irresistible economic advance. ...
