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What Vinay Sitapati Has Missed Out –The BJP-RSS’ View of India As seen in Fictional Writings by Deendayal Upadhyaya

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  There has been a lot of discussion about Vinay Sitapati’s book on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the pre-Modi era, especially the Jugalbandi of Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani. From the excerpts available online , one is wont to feel intrigued by the manner in which there has been a fresh take on the party and its activities, unlike the lazy trope of communalism, Hindu nationalism, cultural fascism that gets thrown around rather casually. The problems with these narratives, and where Sitapati differs distinctly from the face of it is the fact that there is an attempt to look at the moorings of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from their paradigm, giving space for a change for an emic viewpoint. Moreover, he has been prescient in pointing out, in not so many words, that the BJP and RSS can’t be called right-wing in the traditional European sense; rather, they would qualify better with a term ‘non-left’ for a variety of reasons. However, the excerpt

मिट्टी के दीए

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सरजू निराशा के बादलों से घिरा बैठा था। दीवाली की दोपहर हो गयी थी, और अभी भी सरजू के ठेले से सामान ज्यों का त्यों पड़ा हुआ था।  बड़ी आस से उसने इस साल सोचा था के मैं कुछ काम करूँगा, अपने पैरों पर खड़ा होकर दिखाऊंगा अपने माँ बाबा को। पर अब वो किस मूँह से वापिस घर जाता ये सब सामान लेकर? सुना था, दीवाली सबके घर सुख, रोशनी और समृद्धि लेकर आती है, लेकिन इस वर्ष उसके घर में तो बस अंधकार और दुःख छाने वाला था। मंदी के दौर में घर में रोटी के लिए कुछ पैसे भी नहीं बचे थे। सरजू नाकारा था, अपने आप को इस तरह घर पर बैठा देख के बारी उसे खुद से घृणा होने लगती थी। हठ के चलते पहले विद्यालय में कुछ मेहनत न करी, और फिर एक दिन बस घर बैठ गया यह कहकर के अब मेरा मन न लगता। माँ बाप दो जून की रोटी कमाने में इतने व्यस्त थे के उन्हें उसे समझाने का भी वक़्त न था। बस एक बार डाँट कर, एक बार फुसला कर हार मान लिए। और वैसे भी तो छोटी बहनें थी, जिनको पालने से उतरे अभी दिन ही कितने हुए थे - कमसकम वो घर पर उन्हीं का ध्यान रख लेगा। लेकिन मंदी ने उन्हें भी नाकारा बना दिया। अति तो तब हो गयी जब उस दिन घर में आटा भी ख़त्म हो गया। राश

The Vedantic-Advaitic Moorings of Swadeshi

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A Swadeshi Poster (Courtesy: Republic of Less ) Swadeshi is a thought, an ideal that arose across several countries and not just India. However, the roots in India arose from the 1905 movement whereby the extremist division of the Congress, led by the famous Lal-Bal-Pal trio (Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal) pushed for an aggressive movement towards home rule, furthered in 1916 by the Home Rule and later in the form of Gandhi’s spiritual form of disobedience. Across the three was a common thread running - creating an economic alternative to demonstrate that India was, just like many other Commonwealth nations or even the crown state of Britain, more than capable of being self-reliant, be it machinery, trade, textile, education or any other aspect. The act was not just political, but was driven by the sentiments related to Bharat Mata that was already whipping up – this was around the same time that the fiery intellectual revolutionary Aurobindo Ghosh through

A story about Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi's Impact

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 A man once boarded the wrong train and ended up in Tamil Nadu near Arunachala in Tamil Nadu, a holy pilgrim site that has moved many a seer and saint. He was told by a lot of people to go visit the site and meet a man named Ramana Maharshi.  The man, an avowed communist and atheist, had always baulked at the idea of religion. However, since he had heard so much by then, he decided to go and meet him.  The minute he stepped into the ashram of Bhagavan, he could not control his emotions. Something took over him. Meeting Maharshi he did not know what happened to him. Bhagavan said nothing, and yet he was impacted heavily by the meet. His whole outlook to spirituality and religion changed in a minute.  He took Bahgavan's blessing and returned home to Kerala. Took up Sannyas and started to work for society. That man later became famous as Swami Chinmayananda, the founder of the Chinmaya Mission.

India’s Pre-emptive moves at Pangong Tso and What Should Be Our Next Steps

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Indian Border troops and Chinese troops at Nathu La (Image Courtesy: Brookings ) For two days now, the news cycles have been abuzz about the happenings of the midnight of 31 Aug 2020, when unlike the pre-emptive move of two days back earlier to the chagrin of the Communist China’s People’s LIberation Army (PLA), Indian military pushed in battalions of Special Forces to take over strategic points on the southern bank of the Pangong Tso. This extremely erudite move has literally defanged the PLA’s capabilities to throw a surprise or even use their traditional swarming tactics which need an element of surprise to succeed. While this is not the first time that India has dared to stare back the PLA behemoth in its eye, there are reasons to be cautiously jubilant. Lessons Learnt from Operation Falcon Applied Truly Well While experts like Nitin Gokhale will certainly contribute much more to the discourse with their enriched and accurate ground reporting, it would be very important to point o

The Fraudulence of Intellectualism - Why Liberal Shenanigans on the Padmanabhaswamy Verdict Have No Basis

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Padmanabhaswamy Temple Verdict is a Starting Point (Courtest New Indian Express) Indian Express and Pratap Bhanu Mehta always seems to be obsessed with the moot point of why Hindu community even bothers to seek control or seek reform in any way, or asks the system that be to respect and uphold traditions of the Hindus at large. A new example has turned up in the master ‘commentary’ of Pratap Bhanu Mehta on the Padmanabhaswamy temple verdict of the Supreme Court that Mr Mehta finds distasteful. Anything related to Hindus has always been distasteful for the duo, and one cannot wish that away even if given the magical wand that could grant these wishes. However, his unwieldy language and contorted arguments have once again been thrown up to somehow not only make the waters muddy, but to also defend the institutionalized discrimination and call out the ‘hatred’ of the Hindus of anything that puts savages like them into their place by granting them the privilege of civilization and rule of

India's Space Program - An Honest Analysis

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GSLV MK3 (from ISRO ) Under the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat reform package, one important step of the Narendra Modi government was the opening up of the Indian space sector to private participants beyond the half open door that was available till then. Several people were very happy, and rightly so – private sector participation has importance in propelling space research in several countries which have significantly developed space programs. However, what it indirectly did was also put a spotlight on the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in particular and the Indian space program in general, of which an honest, sobering analysis has been long overdue. The Indian space program has been an evolution into itself, and has seen several important successes. However, it is also important to have a realistic assessment of where the program today stands compared to other nations in the game. The outlook of the space race is not just about the civilian aspect, but also includes military cons