The Right Perspective

(From DailyO ) The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on November 13 has released its yearly  Hate Crime Statistics  for the year 2017. With a total of 7,175 hate crimes reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program database by the law enforcement agencies across the country, the data shows an uptick of 17 per cent from a year before. There were 6,121 hate crimes reported in the year 2016.   As unfortunate and abhorrent this statics is, the data also shows a rise in hate crimes against Hindus. There were a total of 1,749 religion-based hate crime victims in 2017. Out of those, there were 15 Hindu victims compared to just 5 two years ago in 2015.  While the bulk of the victims of these religion-based hate crimes were the Jews alone (58.1 per cent), there were a total of 53 combined victims belonging to Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist faiths. Many blame President Trump’s rhetoric and policies squarely for this rise. (Photo: Reuters) The data is alar...

(From DailyO ) Human beings have perhaps been building statues and monuments since the beginning of history itself. From the Pyramids to the Eiffel Tower, from Discobolus of Greece to the Buddha of Bamiyan and Cristo Redentor of Rio de Janeiro, human societies have undertaken the construction of such massive projects from time to time. Human beings have been building statues and monuments since time immemorial. (Source: Reuters) And the Indic civilisation is the only surviving major pagan culture where idols (or statues) have played a significant role in people’s everyday lives. Notwithstanding the plunder, destruction, desecration and theft of its heritage, India is a land of statues. So, when India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation this new statue of Sardar Patel on October 31, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Yet, it will be disingenuous to overlook the huge significance of the Statue of Unity. This Statue of Unity now stands as the t...

(From DailyO ) “What’s in a name?...” It is an oft-quoted question. Taken from Shakespeare’s famous play Romeo and Juliet , this quote suggests, at least as far as the great bard himself is concerned, that a name means very little in the grand scheme of things. It is the character of an individual or an object, believes Shakespeare, that counts the most. A rose, as the next lines from the play explain, if called something entirely different, would still smell as sweet as it does with the name ‘rose'. But as we know, a name isn’t such a trivial concept at all. A name defines the character, is the other side of the argument. A rose is called such because of its smell. We cannot call a chameli a rose — and expect it to smell like a rose. No other flower can potentially smell like a rose. Names matter. Each flower is distinct, down to its own iconic fragrance (Photo: India Today) Names are very important across all cultures. Naming is one of the most ancient thi...

(From DailyO ) "Tragic” is how Nina Totenberg, the legendary NPR legal affairs correspondent, summed up Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate hearing spectacle during one of the live radio coverage shows. The confirmation process of Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court, and then the subsequent allegations of sexual assault against him, has not only raised the interest levels of Americans in this very important process, but has also further divided an already deeply divided polity and public discourse of the nation. Kavanaugh, 53, has been nominated by President Donald Trump to the US Supreme Court, to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. The US Supreme Court justices hold the office for life unless they are impeached and convicted by Congress, resign or retire. The last word: Judge Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump to the US Supreme Court, to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. (Credit: AP Photo) Kavanaugh's nomination became a politica...

(From DailyO ) Hindi and Hindi Divas are not exclusively a BJP-RSS agenda, as many would have us believe. The Constituent Assembly of India, on September 14, 1949, adopted the Hindi language — written in Devanagari script — as the Official Language of the Republic of India. Since 1949, September 14, has been commemorated as Hindi Divas (Hindi Day). Hindi’s status, later on, was enshrined in the Constitution of India under Article 343. Additionally, several other languages were mentioned in Schedule 8 of the Indian Constitution. That number of the 8th Schedule languages currently stands at 22. Despite Hindi’s Constitutional status in India, there is plenty of loathing towards Hindi and its speaker. Hardly a day goes by when one doesn’t encounter someone ranting and outraging against Hindi. In the last few days, two eminent journalists used the might of ...

(From DailyO ) The recently concluded elections of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) ensured yet again that this institution of eminence would remain Leftist for at least one more year in its orientation as far as its student politics is concerned. The Left Unity candidates won all major union posts in a highly charged election that saw allegations and counter allegations of violence and other misconduct. However, the fact that all Leftist organisations — AISA, AISF and SFI — had to form an alliance to counter the growing rise of the anti-Left Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is a worrying sign for the Left ideologues, both within and outside the friendly confines of this beautiful campus. No matter how insignificant this election may be at any level, the Left would not like to lose one of its truly last forts in India. Jawaharlal Nehru University — the Left's last bastion. (Photo: PTI) If the recent national electoral scenes ar...

(This article originally appeared in the DailyO ) “It was like a mini Kumbh,” is how one of the 3,000 participants of the recently concluded World Hindu Congress (WHC) in Chicago described her experience. As the delegates and speakers shuttled hurriedly among the seven parallel tracks, it was as if they were moving between the 'ghats' (banks) for a 'Ganga snan' (dip in river Ganga). The ideas came from all directions and streams at the confluence of Chicago — the 'sangam'. Of course, the deliberations in those panel discussions were thought-provoking and enlightening at the same time. The World Hindu Congress, about which there was very little known just a few months ago, turned out to be a major rallying point for Hindus from across the world . The follower count of its Twitter handle swelled from a meagre 3,000 or so in late August to 15,000 by the end of its concluding session. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat addresses the World Hindu Congress in Ch...

(This article originally appeared in the DailyO ) It was in the summer of 1893, July 30, to be precise, that this “learned Brahman Hindoo ,” according to the Chicago Record (September 11, 1893) report, with a “fleshy face… an orange turban and a robe of the same colour” arrived in Chicago. This “bright and intelligent” looking man with “very good” English was none other than Swami Vivekananda. He had sailed from India on May 31, 1893, on a long journey to America, to be at the Parliament of Religions representing Hindus. When Swamiji arrived in Chicago, India was a British colony — destitute, battered and demoralised. Years of loot, plunder and destruction at the hands of foreign invaders and then, the shackles of colonialism following that, had brought a once prosperous and affluent nation with strong scientific temperament — the nation of the Vedas, of Panini, Aryabhatta and Patanjali — to its knees. Desperate and distraught, India was looking for a spark. Swamiji...