Chai Chalk Chatter

My initiation to Dr. Tharoor’s literary work was with ‘Pax Indica’ and while I have come quite a long way from those days, I still enjoy what he writes. It was his ‘Why I am a Hindu’ that shaped my critique of an essential part of my identity which I guess was again negated with Kancha Ilaiah’s ‘Why I am not a Hindu’ but I guess this is a tussle which every thinking human will always have in their life. Coming to the most recent addition to Dr. Tharoor’s endeavor to provide direction to the idea of India, I think ‘The Battle of Belonging’ is a worthwhile contribution. It’s not that I agree to all he has written but we exist in a state of evolving discourse and as such not making any contribution to that discourse would be more demeaning than producing something which is evidently intended to keep up the spirit of an old diminishing elite. There are certain arguments in the book though, that cannot be denied – the most important one being the transformation to the idea of India. I b...

Dr. S. Jaishankar's 'The India Way' puts into perspective the evident anti-Globalisation and rising Nationalism(s) around the world. In doing this it highlights the growing multi-polarity that the world order is experiencing. The book, in my opinion, tries to position Indian Nationalism in the context of the globalization discourse by drawing on India's civilizational nature of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' and in it exploring the combination of Globalisation and Nationalism which would otherwise be an oxymoron, given the western understandings of the respective terms.  The incumbent Indian Foreign Minister goes on to explore Nationalism(s) and how the term could mean different things for different Nations - I believe our Minister's diplomatic career is to a great extent revealed in his assessment of Nationalism. Of the many thoughts that I have read on the idea of Nations and Nationalism(s), his is probably one of the least radical thoughts that I have come acros...

I have been a critic of the populist version of Hindutva and that is my position but even so, I understand the necessity of the same for the larger dialectic. They are the antithesis of populist liberal thought. In fact, all such thought cannot be categorized as 'good' but then again 'good' is a very ambiguous term which is determined by way too many factors. It would be safer to consider acceptability - all liberal thought is not acceptable to all and it is very wrong on the part of a select few to decide what is progressive and what is not. So, my position does not give me the right to assert what is right and what is wrong but my opinion and my position are as important. This is an entitlement the Constitution of India gives me and as a citizen, I am entitled to it. Likewise, an individual who holds even the most extreme right-wing opinions has this same entitlement.   On Hinduism, Dharma and Indian Civilization While there is an ensuing debate about Hinduism being a...