The Right Perspective

Social distancing and its impact on kids The initial reaction to stay-at-home orders among most middle/high school kids I know was of absolute jubilation. After all, who doesn’t like to sleep in an extra hour or two? And all students have a school period or two they would love to skip. I know this, as I have a high school senior of my own. But when the initial two weeks turned into 4 with a potential of rest of the academic year spent under stay-at-home orders, that jubilation suddenly turned into despair. While a future look at this COVID-19 inflicted online stay-at-home school instructions may provide a deeper understanding of its effects on students as well as society overall, there are already some trends visible. Most kids I talked to have concerns mostly around socializing. They miss hanging out with their school friends, peers, and classmates. Technology no doubt makes it easier to stay connected with friends and family, yearning for in-person contact is quite natural. ...

PM Modi’s Navagraha and Janata Curfew Prime Miniter Narendra Modi’s call for a dawn to dusk ‘Janata Curfew’ on Sunday, March 22 is a call for ‘Svadharma’. It was a part of his ‘address to the nation’ he delivered on Thursday, March 19. The address was in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic wrecking havoc around the world. In his address, PM Modi appealed to his Navagrah, his insistence on holding on firmly to his nine (“nav”) requests relating mainly to cleanliness, service, gratitude, and commonsense. This Navagraha, in part, appears to be borrowed from Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha and partly related to the celebration of the festival of Sri Ram Navami. Satyagraha (satya: “truth”, agraha: “holding firmly to”) is a way to live Truthfully and constructively. Satyagraha is a “truth-force” that is generated through adherence to Truth. PM Modi is an outstanding orator. He has a way of presenting his ideas and connecting to masses in the most simplistic and efficient...

Hindu Nationalism and Hindu Rashtra Nationalism, in today’s world, is a much-maligned concept. Albert Einstein called it “an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.” If that description alone isn’t enough to inspire countless angry op-eds and PhD dissertations, put Hindu next to it and one can send the entire Left-Liberal world into a tizzy. Similarly, the notion of Rashtra gets maligned in much of the Leftist-Marxist ideology dominated media and academia. Lack of intellectual honesty and a lack of deeper understanding accounts for much of the negativity that has come to define these concepts.  Einstein, arguably one of the most famous and influential scientists of the modern time, was a product of an extremely tumultuous time in the history of mankind. As such, his idea of Nationalism was shaped by the events of that era. Much of the bad rap to Nationalism, however, is a result of selective cherry-picking. In addition, when it is applied in Indian contexts, it sp...

Trump’s India visit and changing paradigm of Indian-American politics Amidst the roller-coaster ride and the usual bumps and bruises that have come to define the bilateral trade policy of the Trump administration, the Indian-American politics too is undergoing a tectonic shift in the US. It is in this realm of this paradigm shift that President Trump’s upcoming India trip assumes significance. A lot has happened since there was a talk of US President Donald J Trump visiting India last time. As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won his second term in office with an overwhelming majority, the UK just handed the Labor Party its worst defeat in almost a century paving for a smooth Brexit. President Trump himself was impeached by the US House but was acquitted of all charges by the US Senate. It was rumored in the Social Media that President Trump was to go to India. On August 2, 2018 the then White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders had confirmed that “the invitation has ...

The Sky Is Falling. Can Dharma Save It? Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya Glanirbhavati Bharata Abhyutthanan Dharmasya Tadatmanam Srijamyaham ~ The Bhagwadgita (4.7) (Whenever  dharma , the Law, languishes, and lawlessness flourishes, O’ Bharata, I Myself come forth.) Pic Source: Times Of India Reading modern day commentary in the media may present us with a stark, despondent, and disconsolate situation of the world we live in. Widespread socio-economic inequality, social and political strife, shrinking democratic space & freedom of expression, global warming, etc., they all give us a sense of loss in our institutions. If this all sounds like a trite tautology, is it really true? Is our world really on the verge of extinction? Is the world order showing signs of strain? Can our world be saved? As we look around the world it is easy not to feel depressed. The picture presented to us may make us conclude that the ‘universal order’ that sustains the world has deteriorate...

Sri Aurobindo and Swaraj By early 1900, the idea of ‘Swaraj’ as the end purpose of India’s struggle against British dominion was taking foothold in colonial India. In 1906, The Indian National Congress, the ancestor of the current Indian National Congress that has undergone numerous splits, and mutations since Independence in 1947, officially adopted Swaraj as its goal. It was in its Kolkata session in December with Dadabhai Nauroji as its president. When we talk of Swaraj, we mostly think of Tilak and Gandhi. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the Lokmanya (acceptable to the masses), was one of the staunchest proponents of Swaraj. For Tilak, Swaraj was the philosophy of both life and politics. To quote him, “It is a life centered in self and dependent upon self. There is Swaraj in this world as well as in the world hereafter.” For Gandhi, the Mahatma, political Swaraj was the stepping stone of a much bigger and wider Swaraj. His idea of Swaraj also included economic and social Swaraj. It...

Here I attempt to share some of my disagreements with a recent article published in The Deccan Herald. The esteemed daily had publish an oped a few days ago titled Secularism in the age of coronavirus . The author of this piece is Najmul Hoda, an IPS officer and a friend from JNU. He often writes on issues related to Muslims. The author appears to be obsessed with, at least in his piece, with identity politics. The common refrain of his piece is minority-majority, and Hindu-Muslim. In his above-mentioned obsession, he  ignores the fact that at about 12% of indian population and 200 million strong, Muslims in India are not a minority by any stretch of imagination. In his entire discourse Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Bahais, etc. do not appear even once. These religious groups comprise roughly less than 10% of the Indian population combined. The premise that India is a 'Hindu Rashtra' because it is 80% Hindu is oversimplification of a thousands of years old...