The Indologia Newsletter
Every Tuesday I share One book excerpt, two thought provoking quotes, and three interesting articles that I think you'll enjoy.
Examples
Ed. 9 - Politicians And Lawyers
Welcome to The Indologia Digest. This newsletter aims to reclaim authentic Indic discourse through carefully readings.
One Excerpt
From The Commissioner For Lost Causes by Arun Shourie
Ram Jethmalani was, of course, one of the foremost lawyers of the country. In addition, he would take up public issues fearlessly. He had stood by the Sikhs through the darkest days in Punjab. He had argued against the execution of Mrs Gandhi's killers. And he was a very close friend of Ramnathji, of the paper (Indian Express), of all of us: he had defended the Express time and again.
Because of a combination of factors -his incompetence; his inability to manage the Congress seniors- Rajiv Gandhi had begun to flounder. Bofors had stuck. One day, reporters asked him for an answer to a point that Ram had raised. 'I don't answer dogs that bark,' Rajiv had said. A suicidal response. Ram said, 'Yes, I am a watchdog. I bark when I see a thief.'
He vowed to ask ten questions a day. We began printing these. The series became a huge success, and Ram gained even greater prominence. He began feeling that he was better suited to be Prime Minister than others. For this, he had to become the focus of public attention as an alternative. And the Indian Express, a paper and institution that he had defended, was to be the platform.
Two Thoughts
"Pandit Nehru had been in the habit of threatening to resign, every now and then. It was his patent method of making the people protest that he was indispensable, and that the country would face ruin without him at the helm. He had succeeded every time in raising a storm in his favour, and discrediting whomsoever he chose to hound out of public- from How I Became a Hindu by Sitaram Goel
In 1977, BJS leader Atal Behari Vajpayee became Foreign Minister in the Janata government. Before he met Soviet Prime Minister Andrei Kosygin, there was great concern in Leftist circles that Vajpayee, as a member of an "anti-Communist" party, might do serious harm to Indo-Soviet friendship. Afterwards, however, Kosygin said that Vajpayee was more progressive than his own Communist comrades back home, and Indo-Soviet relations flourished. When Vajpayee presided over the founding of the BJP, he made the party adopt "Gandhian socialism" as its official ideology. - from Decolonizing the Hindu Mind by Koenraad Elst
Three Worth Reading
India's Permission Slip Problem
Arun Shourie: Intellectual warrior or an intellectual hit-man? – Aravindan Neelakandan
Just one question...
How do backroom deals and flip-flops keep flipping the script in India's political arena
Until next time, stay rooted.
- Editor
E. 10 - Secularism
Welcome to The Indologia Digest. This newsletter aims to reclaim authentic Indic discourse through carefully readings.
One Excerpt
From 70 years of secularism by Sandeep Balakrishna
One of the sad consequences of this western dominance is that the values and concepts of India’s great dharmic civilization were translated and recast into western ideas and judgments that brought in many misinterpretations and distortions.
Hindu thought was often dumbed down into western terms, in an intentional way to make it appear inferior, compared to Western ideas of religion or humanism, though colonial Britain was busy exploiting India and
allowing its people to suffer genocide by famine under British rule.
Secularism was one of these supposedly progressive ideas from Europe. Modern European nation states such as Britain and France arose in reaction to the medieval period in which the Catholic Church dominated politics, culture and religion, such as was prominent in the period of the crusades and under kings that ruled by religious right and along with priestly guidance or control.
Protestant Britain developed a notable anti-papal and anti-church discourse, which was passed on to democratic America that was dominated by Protestant thought.
Yet these secular western states were not necessarily against Christianity or
tolerant of other religions. They often looked back to the Bible for their
guidance and inspiration, extending to a Christian manifest destiny to rule the
world. What they were against was church interference in politics,
particularly at a decision-making or executive level, as with state subordination to the church, particularly the Catholic Church.
Two Thoughts
Westerners have difficulty with dharma because the static, isolated categories of Western essentialism are inadequate for ‘capturing’ the dynamic, intertwined character of Indian thought. The Western mind prefers everything to be fixed, separated and in its ‘proper place’.- from Indra's Net by Rajiv Malhotra
The Christians created massive poverty in what was a most prosperous country; the Muslims created a terrorized civilization out of what was the most creative culture that ever existed. India was wrecked and looted, not once but repeatedly by invaders with strong religious ideas, with a hatred of the religion of the people they were conquering. - V.S. Naipaul
Three Worth Reading
https://www.indologia.com/you-are-your-own-worst-enemy/
Just one question...
Does India need to redefine secularism ?
Until next time, stay rooted.
- Editor
Ed. 17 - Men & Masses
Welcome to The Indologia Digest. This newsletter aims to reclaim authentic discourse through carefully curated readings.
One Excerpt
From Before the Law by Franz Kafka
Before the law sits a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from
the country who asks to gain entry into the law. But the gatekeeper says
that he cannot grant him entry at the moment. The man thinks about it
and then asks if he will be allowed to come in sometime later on. “It is
possible,” says the gatekeeper, “but not now.” … The gatekeeper gives
him a stool and allows him to sit down at the side in front of the gate.
There he sits for days and years. He makes many attempts to be let in,
and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests. The gatekeeper often
interrogates him briefl y, questioning him about his homeland and many
other things, but they are indifferent questions, the kind great men put,
and at the end he always tells him once more that he cannot let him
inside yet. The man, who has equipped himself with many things for
his journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the
gatekeeper. The latter takes it all but, as he does so, says, “I am taking
this only so that you do not think you have failed to do anything” …
Two Thoughts
During the last few centuries, our Western society has been intruding
upon the other civilizations of the world with greater insistence. First it
has drawn them all into the meshes of its economic system; next it has
enlarged the borders of its political ascendency almost as far as the borders
of its trade; and latterly it has been invading the life of its neighbours on
the most intimate plane – the plane of social institutions and of spiritual
emotions and ideas. - Arnold Toynbee , Turkey
Fooling the masses is a trick as old as mankind itself. From Pharaohs to Ayatollas, from Andropovs to Trudeaus to 'councils on foreign relations' to the U.N.O. - across the continents and through the ages - rulers, politicians and 'leaders' (as we call them today) often indulge in the art of, to put it mildly, MISLEADING the people. - Yuri Bezmenov