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December 27 - December 29, 2019
Many Hindus draw inspiration from the idea of Ram Rajya as a period of prosperity and rule of law, but it is not vision for a return to the Iron Age.
The lack of uniformity may seem like a disadvantage in the short-run, but is a big advantage when dealing with an unpredictable long-term future. This is analogous to a species maintaining genetic diversity as a bulwark against epidemics and other shocks.
For instance, it may be time to revive the tradition of writing new Smriti texts, a practice that went into decline in the medieval times.
Malacca was also encouraged to convert to Islam. Although Zheng was a Muslim, this was primarily viewed as a geostrategic move to create a permanent opposition to the Hindus of Java.
How China has dabbled in global politics historically, must be a lesson to Indian leadership
This was the origin of the steady Islamisation of Southeast Asia. The Javanese princes who refused to convert, eventually withdrew to Bali, where their culture is alive to this day.
Sadly, this spirit withered away in the thirteenth century as Hindus turned inward and imposed rules on themselves against crossing the seas.
True in hindsight, but then, hindsight is always so
publishing is increasingly limited to literary novels aimed at winning government awards rather than engaging readers.
The bane of today’s books, please ur masters
After hundreds of years of dominating the Indian Ocean and the broader region, the West is gradually withdrawing.
The last embers of Sasanian culture now survive as the tiny Parsi community in
He was later sent back as part of a plan to ensure Chinese influence over the island. Zheng He similarly intervened in a war of succession in Sumatra.
regret over the Kalinga war looks suspiciously like propaganda given that none of the inscriptions in Odisha mention it.
Indian history textbooks need to be rewritten. Opponents will argue that the current government will use this opportunity to insert ‘Right-wing biases’, but this is no excuse for perpetuating outdated scholarship and the biases of colonial and Marxist historians.
These are often the same global networks used in recent years by the Islamic State (IS) to sell artifacts stolen from sites in Syria and Iraq.
For instance, we routinely term Chanakya as ‘Machiavellian’ and Samudra Gupta as the ‘Napoleon of India’.
On whom should we spend our diplomatic energy?
unlike that won by the Greeks against the Persians at Salamis. Thus, it was the Assamese—and not the Marathas or Bundelas as is often assumed—who inflicted the first major defeat on the Mughal empire.
it was not known till the late nineteenth century that the Tsangpo and the Brahmaputra were the same river.
the last Zoroastrians fled persecution in Iran for India. Their descendants, the tiny Parsi community, still live there. Today, who will give refuge to the last pagans of Iraq?
In November 1970, a tropical cyclone named ‘Bhola’ struck East Pakistan, killing between 300,000–500,000 people. Bhola is still considered one of the worst natural disasters on record,
But we may also see an unpredictable turn, with a new political leader or movement suddenly capturing the popular imagination and sweeping aside the old arrangements.
extraction, but it settled in Varanasi in the mid-eighteenth century. We continued to live there till the British colonial government confiscated our ancestral homes and drove us out in 1929 for participating in the freedom struggle.
Thus, a successful city is one that encourages human interaction, has accessible public spaces, conserves historical heritage, is conducive to walking, creates human capital/diversity and, horror of horrors, mixes commercial and residential uses.
the solution is not better ‘planning’, but better ‘management’. There is a big difference between these two approaches.
be left in place for emergencies and for bringing in supplies; but a clean, safe walking network would transform the feel of the city,
Why does Vedanta need 6,000 acres in Odisha and IIT Jodhpur 700 acres in Rajasthan for teaching a few thousand students?
addition, Jodhpur city has a problem with rising water tables and
civilisation, ‘Indians’ continued to explore the Indian Ocean. By the sixth century BC, merchants from Odisha were sailing along the eastern coast of India and were settling in Sri Lanka in large numbers.
This is why the Sinhalese majority of Sri Lanka is of Odiya–Bengali origin and speaks a related language.
third largest metropolitan region after Mumbai and Delhi, but in terms of economic importance it lags behind Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai
actively discouraged innovation and risk-taking of any kind. The impact of aggressive trade unionism on Kolkata’s commercial sector is well known.
safe city is visible governance.
it overlooks the fact that cities are ultimately about people, not buildings.
we need to distinguish between urban decay and slums.
Cities last for centuries and their success depend on the ability to constantly adapt to new economic, social and technological contexts.
ownership and access to public spaces and infrastructure, should be a key element of ‘smartness’. Sadly, it is not even a part of the debate.
but the backbone of any such infrastructure is walking.
it is not an important part of the smart city discussion.
In short, the government’s smart city project must not get hijacked by technological derring-do. Smart cities are really about bringing together smart human capital and institutions.
walked. This is commonly ignored by Indian urban planners. New metro stations and bus stops are created but without any way for the commuter to then walk to her final destination.
network. Note that a well-functioning taxi system is critical. People will take to walking only if they know that there is a reliable alternative whenever the situation demands it.
managing such systems is less about pre-planning and more about constant monitoring, feedback and flexible adjustment.
Instead, we have ended up with a weak but all-pervasive State that does not have a clear set of priorities. Since it does not have a clear set of priorities, we cannot judge its performance and hold it accountable. What is worse is that unscrupulous individuals have been able to subvert the powers of the State to serve their own ends.
the maintenance of law and order and the dispensation of justice is the science of government.
Kurukshetra War teaches us is that there will always be individuals like Duryodhana and society needs to curb them with force, if necessary. Being ‘good’ like Yudhishthir, is not the State’s first mandate.
Indian State must be strong and it must restore its monopoly over the use of force.
‘Progress in this world depends on governance and on the maintenance of order.’
the rights of the people need not be defended against a benign State. Thus, the ‘benign’ State is allowed to interfere with all aspects of the nation’s life and individuals are expected to fall in line for the greater good.
Virtually no Indian trusts the country’s politicians and civil servants.
carried forward a top-down mindset that a tiny group of ‘wise men’ knew what was best for the rest of the population.
A small clique of intellectuals and editors, supported by State-controlled media and academia, could tell people what to think.
