Photo by Malte Wingen on Unsplash
Stranger: “Hi, may I know what are those things hanging behind your ears?”
Me: “Oh sure! Thanks for asking though. They’re assistive hearing devices and they help me hear since I’m hearing-impaired.”
Stranger: “Oh I see! I’m so sorry for you!”
Me: “Hehe not a problem at all, really!”
That was a short conversation I had with a passer-by while I was in Dubai for holidaying last winter. But wait here, what do you think was wrong about that? (more…)
I suppose one must blame the Constitution. When it starts with – WE THE PEOPLE – is it any surprise then that people begin to believe that it is all about them?
We could start at the beginning, but let us go even before that to a time when barristers trained in Britain began to return home and found that they were getting no respect. They gathered around a table and demanded a piece of the cake because after all it was baked from ingredients grown in their backyard. This did not cut any cake until they entered the kitchen and talked to the staff and convinced them to join their demand for a slice of the cake since the staff had actually baked it. The squatters, who had occupied the house through trickery and deceit, were forced to vacate once the kitchen staff took away the salt. In the meanwhile, the kitchen staff had been emboldened and wanted a piece of the cake too. This brings us to the beginning. (more…)
Photo by Chitto Cancio on Unsplash.
The following article has been republished from here.
In his scathing critique of Gandhi in “What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables”, Ambedkar takes on Gandhi´s views on technology, arguing that Gandhism is suited to a society which does not believe in democracy, and hence will lead to a situation where human beings “must keep on toiling ceaselessly for a pittance and remain a brute”. For Ambedkar modern machinery is “indispensable for emancipating man from leading the life of a brute, and for providing him with leisure and for making a life of culture possible”. He goes on to conclude that the ¨ultimate goal of a brute’s life is reached once his physical appetites are satisfied, the ultimate goal of man’s existence is not reached unless and until he has fully cultivated his mind¨.
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The battle of Karbala was fought in the desert of Karbala in central Iraq in 61 AH (680 AD). During the Karbala battle, the Shia leader and Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Husayn, along with his family and troops, was tortured and killed by the troops of the Sunni leader, the Umayyid caliph, Yazid. The tragic climax of a long-drawn war of inheritance between the prophetic line and the caliphate, the martyrdom of Imam Husayn and his family is commemorated during the first month of the Hijri calendar, Muharram. The Karbala ritual, as this kind of commemoration has come to be called, was first institutionalised by the Buyid dynasty in tenth-century Iran. From there, the ritual has spread far and wide throughout the Islamicate world, including in Bengal, which before the Partition of 1947 was a Shia-minority region.
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Guided by the hands of Reason and Science, one would imagine the modern age has little place for endless epics, speculative reflections and metaphysical meanderings. While Mythology may have occupied centre stage in times of yore, one may well ask what place it has in today’s world. The answer is more complex than it appears.
One area where Mythology has wielded a heavy hand is during the Indian Freedom Movement. From influencing the methods and philosophy of leaders like Gandhi and Tilak, to providing a subject upon which artists built nationalist visions, Mythology became the guiding force of History.
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jñānānandamayaṁ devaṁ nirmalasphaṭikākr̥tim ।
ādhāraṁ sarvavidyānāṁ hayagrīvam upāsmahe ॥
This is a prayer that children, especially in a vaishnavaite home, are taught to recite before embarking on any learning activity. Knowledge is held on a high pedestal all across the globe. And the Indian tradition acknowledges this great value of knowledge by paying respects to the divinity associated with this facet of life by offering verses of praise and worshipping through rituals and festivals.
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Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru addresses the crowd in Delhi on the occasion of India’s 14th Independence Day on 17 August 1960. Above him flies the national flag of India. Image source: Link
A constitution is a political document, framing the aspirations of a people. Far from being a record of the already-achieved, it is effectively a charter of aims and desires, of what a nation strives to be. From 2016 to 2018, IIT Bombay had hosted a series of talks on the Indian Constitution by some of India’s most eminent jurists. Five talks have been chosen for this issue that reflects both general constitutional questions as well as specific concerns – an overview of constitutional issues, gender justice, constitutionality and the death penalty, critical judgments on fundamental and human rights and challenges posed to constitutional freedoms by new technologies. The original audio recordings of all the five talks can be accessed from this page.