Arun Vijay

The British like to point out, in moments of self-justifying exculpation, that they deserve credit for the political unity of India—that the very idea of ‘India’ as one entity (now three, but one during the British Raj) instead of multiple warring principalities and statelets, is the unchallengeable contribution of British imperial rule. Unfortunately for this argument, throughout the history of the subcontinent, there has existed an impulsion for unity. The idea of India is as old as the Vedas, the earliest Hindu scriptures, which describe “Bharatvarsha” as the land between the Himalayas and the seas. If this “sacred geography” is essentially a Hindu idea,  Maulana Azad  has written of how Indian Muslims, whether Pathans from the north-west or Tamils from the south, were all seen by Arabs as “Hindis”, hailing from a recognisable civilisational space. Numerous Indian rulers had sought to unite the territory, with the  Mauryas  (three centuries before Christ) and the...

Apologists for Empire point to a number of other benefits they say the British left India with: the railways, above all; the English language; the education system and even organized sport, especially cricket, the one sport at which, in recent years, Indians have twice been world champions. Let us examine these in turn.   The construction of the Indian Railways is often pointed to by apologists for Empire as one of the ways in which British colonialism benefited the subcontinent, ignoring the obvious fact that many countries also built railways without having to go to the trouble and expense of being colonized to do so. But the facts are even more damning. The railways were first conceived of by the East India Company, like everything else in that firm’s calculations, for its own benefit. Governor General Lord Hardinge argued in 1843 that the railways would be beneficial ‘to the commerce, government and military control of the country’. Ten years later, his successor Lord Dalh...

  Nothing, it seems, can be allowed to tarnish the national myth – as I found when hosting a Virtual Meetup With emerging  young Brit writers .  To those who don't know winston churcill , Winston Churchill is known for being an army officer and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, when he led the country to victory in the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955, if you read Western history.   He's the one who's hailed for bringing democracy and new political structure in the colonies of britian by Brits. He's as evil as the infamous racist hitler who was criticized heavily for his hate on jews . This scenario is a classic example of the quote                 " The History is written by the victors " In India, he's remembered as the person who caused the Bengal Famine of 1943, which resulted in an estimated death of 2.1–3 million people in modern-day West Bengal and Bangladesh.   In 1943, India...

  I   finally realized today why politics and religion yield such uniquely useless discussions. As a rule, any mention of religion on an online forum degenerates into a religious argument. Why? Why does this happen with religion and not with Javascript or baking or other topics people talk about on forums?  What's different about religion is that people don't feel they need to have any particular expertise to have opinions about it. All they need is strongly held beliefs, and anyone can have those. No thread about Javascript will grow as fast as one about religion, because people feel they have to be over some threshold of expertise to post comments about that. But on religion everyone's an expert.   Then it struck me: this is the problem with politics too. Politics, like religion, is a topic where there's no threshold of expertise for expressing an opinion. All you need is strong convictions.   Do religion and politics have something in common that explain...

 These are the list of the most influential persons of the world. How many of them do you think could have been government officials? Even if you don’t know about them all, you can be sure that there is hardly any chance of any government official who can become a great influencer in the world. Government services have many advantages like power, perks (legal and illegal), job security and an opportunity to do public service. However, all the advantages of the government services also becomes the greatest hindrance to discover yourself and achieve excellence. When you have hard power, your lose compassion When you have job security, you stop taking risk When you get seniority based promotion, you stop working hard When you lose freedom of speech, you lose creativity When you engage in corruption, you lose conscience In government services, your career moves in an auto-mode since you join the job and till you retire at the age of 60 years. After you retire at the age of 60 years, yo...

   There seems to be a new trend brewing, one which vilifies an entire movement for the wrongs committed by few. Feminism has suffered the utmost damage because of the same. The movement continues to face backlash as social media and popular narratives tarnish its underlying agenda and goals. A wife files a false dowry case against her husband. Accuse feminism. A prominent female figure makes a controversial statement against men. Feminism is the culprit. See a few girls publicly smoke or drink instead of contesting for UPSC examinations. Ah, feminism again. Feminism aims for gender equality in society by creating awareness about various forms of oppression and discrimination based on sexes, and addressing them. But there have been constant efforts to dilute its core ideology. The menace of women’s oppression is so deeply ingrained in our social conscience that feminism is seen as providing preferential treatment to women. Hence, an independent woman who doesn’t conform to ste...

  E V Ramasamy (1879-1973), popularly known as EVR, is hailed as ‘Periyar’ by his followers. He was a demagogue who used the social evils which were then prevalent, or perceived, as a capital for his propaganda. He was neither a rationalist nor a humanist. He was anti-Hindu and pro-British. By equating him to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, many are doing a great disservice to the memory of Ambedkar, who was a great nation builder and a patriot. Here are 10 facts which every Indian should know about EVR. 1.   EVR advocated Nazi-style anti-Brahminism. Many EVR apologists today indulge in the propaganda that EVR never advocated racial hatred against Brahmins. However, EVR was explicit in his agenda. The magazine he edited, published articles praising the ascendancy of Adolf Hitler and warned Brahmins in Tamil Nadu that they should learn from the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany and opt for course correction. Even after the fall of the Nazi regime, the approach of EVR, particularly when he...