Recent Posts
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A Tiger’s Tail and Cure-All Laws
Many old folktales of Bharat use delightful bits of dark humor to deliver subtle messages of great wisdom. I recount one such little story from Kerala. An old Namboodiri went to his neighboring village to attend a feast. For the benefit of my readers who don’t know what a Namboodiri...
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The Politics of Kamal Hassan
Kamal Hassan: An Honest yet Naive and Inferiority-Complex Ridden Self-loathing Soul? The first thing I read as soon as I woke up today was Prasanna’s pithy review of Kamal Hassan’s “Vishwaroopam”. So I decided to add my two pence to this line of thought. I haven’t watched the movie, so...
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Vishwaroopam
In popular narrative, ‘Rajni versus Kamal’ battle represented a long running fault line in Tamil filmdom that supposedly pits dichotomous category of filmgoers – ‘classes’ and ‘masses’- against each other. ‘Classes’ treat Rajni movies condescendingly. Rajni’s ridiculous comic scenes and ludicrous punch lines are largely seen as insult to their...
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Whose idea of India has failed?
We have been hearing it more frequently these days. The increase corresponds to the rise in popularity of Narendra Modi. The man apparently is a grave threat to the “idea of India”. Who says so? We all know that. Why do they say so? Well, after you distill the sophistry...
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The Cricket of our entertainment: Bollywood
The past few weeks have heard and seen much comment on the typecasting of women in commercial Indian cinema with discussion centring on the consequences of cinema’s commodification of women as symbols of sexual desire. It is not a sentiment I have had disagreement with. My experience and opinion of cinema is...
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Is BJP India’s enemy or Pakistan?
Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s outrageous allegation that “BJP and RSS conduct terror camps to spread terrorism” is not a shot in the dark. Made at Jaipur in the presence of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, it has not only not been disowned by them, but has actually been backed by External...
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Hindu terrorism, how to prevent it
The UPA Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, is but the umpteenth to repeat in public the notion of “Hindu terrorism” and to apply it to the RSS and BJP. Predictably, the RSS and BJP react furiously. They say they have nothing to do with Hindu terrorism, and that the lone...
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Andhra Pradesh Opinion Poll
The field work for the survey was carried in between 29th November to 9th December 2012. The sample size of the survey was 3115 voters with a cross section representation of people of various communities proportionate to their representation across the state. The survey was carried out in 51 rural...
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What is India’s Plutonium Story?
It was recently reported that the commissioning of the 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam has been further delayed, this time due to a shortage of plutonium. Touted as a one-of-a-kind reactor, the PFBR boasts of some of the latest safety mechanisms and will use a mixed oxide fuel of PuO2-UO2. India’s Atomic Energy...
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Swami Vivekananda: A Hindu Supremacist?
Outlook is at it again. It has unleashed a camapign of calumny against India’s most venerated spirtual icon Swami Vivekananda, exactly at the time when the nation is celebrating his 150th birth anniversary. In a conclusively titled cover story ‘Hindu Supremacist’, the magazine published excerpts from a book on Swami Vivekananda by...
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Understanding Manik Sarkar Phenomenon
Why Manik Sarkar looks set to come back to power for a 4th term Tripura is a state many would even struggle to accurately locate in map of India, leave alone remember or know there is an assembly election there this year. It falls on 14th Februray followed by declaration...
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Coming Transformation of the Battlefield 2014
Coming Transformation of the Battlefield 2014 The 2014 General Elections may be still one and a half years away, but to a conscientious ear, the war cries appear loud enough not to go unnoticed. The recently concluded Congress Chintan Shivir, for once, addressed the right issues. Elevating Rahul Gandhi, if...
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Milk Economy of India
The killing of entrepreneurial India and the story of the white economy A tortous journey from socialism to FDI in retail This white-paper is dedicated to one of the finest alternate economic philosophers of our time, Swaminathan...
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A Case for Universal Healthcare
(This CRI post is not a reflection of our editorial position but published as part of our continued commitment to provide intellectually diverse opinion to our readers) In health policy circles, the acronym with the buzz is UHC. It is used interchangeably for both Universal Health Coverage and Universal Health Care,...
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Proposing a simple process for selecting the BJP President
Proposing a simple process for selecting the BJP President One of the key issues that the BJP seems to be struggling with is whom to select as its next National President. While this has also got to do with the problems that Nitin Gadkari is facing in terms of allegations...