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Reservation: Unmaking Of Constitution
This article is a response to those pro reservationists who have been claiming ad infinitum that reservation is their birthright and they shall have it! Popular media has not ever addressed the veracity of this claim and instead maintained this dogma as some axiomatic truth without any critical inquiries. The irony is that even an impartial international scholar like Thomas Weiskoff considers the framers of the Indian constitution be in favour of policies of affirmative action in stark contrast ...
| S Basu |
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Selling India Better Than Signing N-Deal
So, Manmohan Singh has finally cast the die which has stumped both the NDA and the left. The Samajwadi party which in 1998 refused to support the congress coalition has proved the old adage that in politics there are no permanent friends and enemies. Dwindling electoral returns in UP has forced it to commit compromise and retain its identity in Indian politics. The BJP which was expecting fresh polls will now have to go back to the drawing board and concentrate on assembly elections. Its gambit ...
| S Basu |
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Amir Khusro and myth of composite culture
Amir Khusro, has been eulogized ad nauseum as the shining example of Indias composite culture. Rajendra Prasad, Indias first president wrote: The beginning of Indias composite culture can be traced to Amir Khusros efforts.Our history bears testimony to the fact that it was the result of Amir Khusros preachings of other Sufis and saints that the basis and shape of the government of the Sultanate became broader in the 14th century and thereafter. It is not surprising, therefore, that we find among...
| S Basu |
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Lies - Gujarat: Blame the Middle Class
Ashis Nandy, the great Indian political psychologist has shown scant respect to the scholarship he demands, and the academic accolades he boasts in vituperating an entire generation of the Gujarati middle class in his article in the Times of India Gujarat: Blame the Middle Class.Nandy slanders the Gujarati middle class for being mired in its communalism and parochialism. The VHP and the Bajrang Dal supposedly set tone to Gujarat state politics. Nandys prescription for this vile Gujarat middle cl...
| S Basu |
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Farmer, BJP and the Secular Media
Barely 10 days, into governing its first state in South India, the BJP again finds itself in the backfoot over the reported police firing which killed a solitary farmer, and injured three others. The Times of India, in its edition of 10th June 2008 had already reported that twin cities of Dharwad and Hubli witnessed trouble on Monday.If we reconstruct the events according to the news report; a group of farmers were protesting against fertilizer shortage. I might remind the reader that the entire...
| S Basu |
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Aryan Invasion Theorys Racism - Part II
The Christian worldview of early Indologists: The beginning of Indological studies in India was out of British curiosity towards Indians, especially Hindus. The British had a fair idea of Islam, but they had never encountered Hindus and Hinduism (the non Islamic religions) from such close quarters before. The formation of the Asiatic Society of Bengal was the first step in that direction. William Jones through his profound study on the languages of India came to the conclusion that Greek, Latin,...
| S Basu |
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The Dark side of Quota: Gujjar Imbr..
The Gujjar demand for ST status threatens to take the tenuous lid off the Pandoras Box of caste politics across the country. We should remember that the Gujjars were responsible for the wanton destruction of Rs. 1100 crores of property in a single day in the Delhi-NCR region in the month of September. Colonel Bainsla, the self styled Gujjar leader, had then escaped censure by putting in a meek apology for the actions of his followers in their quest for a more lucrative ST quota rather than the O...
| S Basu |
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End for Aryan Invasion Theorys Racism - I
Summary: Critical analysis and implication of Aryans and British India by Thomas R TrautmannAryans And British India by Thomas R Trauttmann represents a remarkable and momentous occasion in Indological studies which deal with the vexed Aryan question.Trautmann has shown a dexterous historical approach and insight into the framing of those vital questions which mark the evolution of the colonial construct of the role of Aryanism in Indian History and also successfully argues that its evolution do...
| S Basu |
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