News Archive

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was a versatile personality who has been a source of inspiration for generations of Indians. He was a committed revolutionary, renowned freedom fighter, eminent political thinker, devoted social and religious reformer, prolific writer and poet, and a rationalist philosopher. He was, as the epithet aptly describes, a brave and die-hard patriot. His love for the Motherland runs through all facets of his personality - from a valiant freedom fighter, to enthusiastic social reformer, to prolific writer, to fiery orator.

Lakhbir Singh, a 35-year-old man was found hanging with a chopped left hand to an inverted police barricade at the Haryana-Delhi Singhu border outside of Delhi on Friday morning. The incident sent shockwaves across the country. Hours later, Nihang Sikhs claimed responsibility for the assault, which brought the spotlight back on the group. 

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, its first deputy prime minister were two towering figures of India’s anti-colonial freedom movement. Both were Mahatma Gandhi’s closest associates and wielded enormous influence within the Congress Party. But their worldviews differed widely, which reflected in their contrasting attempts to shape the trajectory of the freedom movement, the Indian constitution, issues related to integration of the reluctant princely states, and matters relating to combating communal violence.

History, it is said, is written by the victor. What is to be inferred, is that history is written by the loyalists of the victor. By court jesters and poets who write ballads in praise of the emperor. Unfortunately, our politicians and their voguish history is no better.

The demographic imbalance in Uttarakhand has become a cause of concern for the government and the administration of the state. Security agencies are concerned over the fact that there has been an unprecedented increase in the Muslim population in specific areas of the state bordering Nepal, which is seen as problematic.

Within his homeland, Winston Churchill’s colossal contribution to saving his people from Hitler eclipses all else, and he is widely regarded as the greatest Briton of all time. But, could a man applauded for his courage in standing up to Adolf Hitler have had such contempt for another race that he did not change policies that led to starvation and death of at least three million? The man was Sir Winston Churchill and the famine that killed millions was in India in 1943.

The road to India's independence was horribly a tough one; every stride you make is an adventure. It was not that India got her freedom without blood-shed and violence. Though Gandhiji chose non-violence and civil disobedience as a means to free the fetters on India, it did not yield the desired results as we all know. Then and there, in the early 18th and 19th century, violence against the British misrule did raise its ugly head whenever there were lapses in the administration.

Secularism seems to require separation between religion and State. Regarding India, itwould be better to speak of ‘equidistance’ between State and religious denominations. Nonetheless a ‘balanced treatment’ towards the religions leaves the question open as to what form that equidistance should take. This is the reason of some contradictions in today’s Indian social and political life. It is likely that without the Moghul and British domination Hinduism would not have acquired a militant identity. It was the ‘epiphany’ of well-armed, powerful ‘Others’ (Muslim, Christian or secular) which gen...

On 16th August 1946, Kolkata (then Calcutta) experienced its most violent convulsions. The infamous ‘week of long knives’ – an unprecedented orgy of loot, murder, rapes and molestation let loose on the city’s unsuspecting Hindus by Muslim League strongmen and goons that left 7,000 people dead, tens of thousands maimed and an estimated 1.2 lakh homeless – started with the call for ‘direct action day’ by League supremo Muhammad Ali Jinnah.