Recent Posts
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The Bhagavad Gita , Dharma and Freedom of Choice
The style of the present piece is completely and deliberately Bharatiya (Indic).It adopts the question answer method between the Guru (the teacher – the expounder) and the Shishya ( the disciple – the question raiser ) which has been consistently used in Indic treatises , from that of Bhagwan Sri...
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Django Unchained – A Political Perspective
Note: The use of politically incorrect epithets/words in the below note is merely to respect the film-maker’s political incorrectness. No other agenda regarding race should be construed otherwise. Quentin Tarantino is like an irresistible bar-tender; one that you wish to go to anytime you want, without a second thought, so...
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The Novartis Decision – A Primer
On April 1, 2012, the Supreme Court of India delivered its first ever much-awaited decision involving a pharmaceutical product/drug, namely beta crystalline form of Imatinib Mesylate (let’s call it BCIM in short), sold by Novartis AG. The drug is used to treat chronic forms of cancer such as myeloid leukemia. In this...
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The Unaffiliated Youth : A New Political Force?
Philip Altbach, in 1968, published his study of students’ movements in various parts of the world. His study was based on a limited approach to study various students’ movements in Latin America, the United States and India. What is evident is that students, as a political entity, have always focused...
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Punctuations, Episode 3: Madhu Kishwar
CRI is pleased to present Episode 3 of its podcast, Punctuations, in which Sandeep Balakrishna and Jaideep Prabhu converse with Madhu Kishwar. A leading figure for women’s rights in India, she nevertheless rejects the label of feminist. Kishwar remains a controversial figure in the mainstream press, and we find out...
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When laws are unequal
Modern day criminal justice systems are supposed to operate under the assumption that everyone is equal before law. And there is a good reason to say so. One of the earliest texts that codified a way of life and regulated social behavior is the manusmriti. The book approached all aspects...
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The Indian “Deep State”
The concept of a “deep state” is an old one, but of Turkish origin (see here). However, it is nobody’s case, that “if” the deep state exists, then it exists only in Turkey! Conspiracy theorists have long argued that a “very deep state” exists not only in the US, UK,...
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The Prodigal State: India’s New Nuclear Clothes
E debbasi considerare come non è cosa più difficile a trattare, né più dubia a riuscire, né più pericolosa a maneggiare, che farsi capo ad introdurre nuovi ordini – Niccolò Machiavelli1 …when these matters are discussed by practical people, the standard of justice depends on the equality of power to...
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Is the Congress Govt. Legitimizing Illegal Immigration Through the UID?
I am sure the title of the post sounds breathless and alarmist to a few, but based on what I have written in the last two posts, no reasonable person can help thinking on these lines. The proponents of the UID project could probably fall over each other to correct...
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The false symmetries of Hey Ram
The film ‘Hey Ram’ was released in 2000. Written and directed by Kamal Hassan, he also played the protagonist – Saket Ram. The film speaks of Saket Ram’s own odyssey that involves descend into hatred propelled by the rape and death of his wife at the hands of Muslims during...
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Full meals from Andhra Pradesh!
We’ve seen food lovers write about important items from various cuisines all this week. Every item had a rejoinder though – “the cuisine is vast, and cannot be restricted to this one item”. We totally agree – to restrict a cuisine to one or two items is very difficult. And...
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Aaloo ke Gutke
Garhwal and Kumaun are the two main regions of Uttarakhand. Garhwal is a trekker’s paradise and home to famous Hindu shrines Badrinath and Kedarnath, awe-inspiring Himalayan peaks (including Nanda Devi and Trishul), and the Ganges. Kumaun is a bird watcher’s retreat. A stay in its remote Forest Rest Houses reminds...
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Kalkuti
You know you are in Goa when you can smell the Mandavior when you are mesmerized by a skyline made up entirely of coconut trees dancing in the cool breeze of the Arabian Sea. Yes, Goa is the coastal heaven of India. But there’s much much more to this tiny...
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Why is the Mainstream Media Silent on the (il)legality of the UID Project?
Why is the Mainstream Media Silent on the (il)legality of the UID Project?- II In my last post on the UID project of the UPA government, I had raised a few issues about the manner in which the UPA went about implementing the project by circumventing constitutional protocol. In this...
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Dum Aaloo – The Kashmiri Flavor
Kashmiri Pandit cuisine is one of the least known cuisines in India. Most people think of ‘Wazwan’ when they think of Kashmiri cuisine, but that is primarily cuisine of Kashmiri Muslims. Pandit cuisine is quite different from Wazwan and also distinct from Dogra cuisine of Jammu which tends to be...