CHARVAKA DESK
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Attacking the Cross: Rise in Anti Christian Violence
Ram Puniyani Julio Ribeiro is one of the best known police officers in India. Recently (March 16, 2015) he wrote in his article that he is feeling like a stranger in this country. ‘I feel threatened, not wanted, reduced to a stranger in my own country’. This pain and anguish of a distinguished…
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Georg Lukács, Philosopher and Aesthetician
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Not a doctrine but a method Georg Lukács (1885-1971), philosopher and aesthetician, was one of the original philosophers of the twentieth century. A lifelong Marxist, he always believed that Marxism was not a doctrine but a method. In his seminal essay, ‘What is Orthodox Marxism?’ he insisted on this point as Engels had…
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Religion, Politics and Society: A Birds Eye view
Ram Puniyani What has religion to do with politics? What has violence to do with religion? And how does the expression of major political agenda shape itself in contemporary times? Roughly speaking it seems that the religion is being used as a cover for many a political phenomenon. This seems to be the observation more…
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Holy Cow-Beef and Indian Political Games
Ram Puniyani Can the dietary practices, the animal which is worshipped as a mother by section of population, be brought in on the political arena? While all this sounds surreal, its true as far as the role of cow is there in Indian political firmament. Recently Maharashtra Government got the Presidents assent to the bill…
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In Defence of Reason
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya In recent times all over the world there has been a revival of religious fundamentalism, bigotry and intolerance. In fact, the forces that sustain terrorism today are basically religious. Add to this the current crusade against reason that has been launched by some postmodernist thinkers. Reason is made to stand on the dock.…
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India Democracy at the Crossroads under Current Political Dispensation
Asghar Ali Engineer Memorial Lecture Ram Puniyani I begin this lecture paying tribute to my very dear friend, Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, with whom I had the rare privilege of working with for close to two decades. Dr. Engineer was a unique scholar-activist, totally committed to the dream and vision of a humane society that…
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Why Secularism and Socialism missing in BJP Government Ads
Attempt to Undermine Secularism: Testing Waters! Ram Puniyani Words are not mere words; they do indicate our values and the basis of our association when it comes to the books like Constitution of India. Recently the controversy was created by dropping the words Secular and Socialist from Indian Constitution’s preamble in the advertisement released by…
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Professor Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya as a Researcher
G. Ramakrishna A prolific author and a versatile researcher, Professor Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya is among those who gave a qualitative turn to the methods and content of research in more disciplines than one. Essentially a student of Philosophy – Indian and Western – he has authored quite a few authentic works in the area of…
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The Home of the So-called Pythagorean Theorem: Babylonia, Mesopotamia, China, India,… Vardhan’s and Tharoor’s Claims Refuted
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya In a recent speech delivered before the scientists attending the 102nd edition of the Indian Science Congress, Dr. Harsh Vardhan is reported to have said: “Our scientists discovered the Pythagoras theorem but we very sophisticatedly [!] gave its credit to the Greeks’ (The Times of India, 08 January 2015). Mr. Vardhan is not…
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Paris, Peshawar and Boko Haram – Religion, Politics and Violence
Ram Puniyani Massacre of hundreds of children in Peshawar by Pakistani Taliban, the atrocities, murders, kidnappings by Boko Haram, an Islamist group and the attack on Paris cartoon magazine Charlie Hadbo killing 16, have occurred in a short span of few months. The popular perception of relationship between violence and Islam got a further boost.…
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What’s in Store for Kashmiris if BJP is Part of the Government?
Ram Puniyani The recent (December 2015) verdict of Kashmir elections has been fractured, so to say. While PDP has emerged as the largest single party, the BJP is a close second with substantial percentage of votes. Interestingly BJP has secured most seats and major vote share from the Hindu majority Jammu region of Kashmir. Now…
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Resurgence of Godse Worship
Ram Puniyani Times are a changing; and changing fast. During last many decades most Hindu nationalists have kept the appreciation of their hero, Nathuram Godse under wraps. The programs appreciating his politics did use to make small news here and there some time; but as such it was a muted act not much publicized…
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How is Ghar Vapasi Different from Forcible Conversions?
Ram Puniyani Propaganda around conversions has been one of the major political tools during last few decades. It was Niyogi Commission report which investigated the conversions in Adivasi areas in 1950s, then the Meenaxipuram conversions of Dalits into Islam, the and then the gruesome murder of Pastor Graham Stewart Stains on the charges that he…
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Skepticism: Ancient ‘East’ and Modern ‘West’ – PART I & II
Bina Gupta A careful examination of the Cārvāka School of ancient Indian materialism reveals a number of interesting parallels to a relatively modern school of western thought, the type of skepticism first formulated by David Hume, to mention only one example. The purpose of this paper is to examine and contrast the respective epistemologies which…
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The Wolf’s Footprints: Indian Materialism in Perspective – PART II
An Annotated Conversation with Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Krishna Del Toso Krishna Del Toso: Indeed, we meet with materialistic perspectives in texts belonging to quite different fields: Āyurveda, Mahābhārata, Upaniṣads… I would also add Ṛgveda and Atharvaveda just to stress antiquity of Indian Materialism in general. In this respect, one of the aspects that first impressed me…
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Are all Indians Sons of Ram?
Ram Puniyani During the anti colonial movement, Mahatma Gandhi emerged as the tallest of leaders and was called, ‘Father of the nation’ Rashtrapita. This term was first used by Subhash Chandra Bose in a Radio address in 1944 and later approved, accepted and upheld by majority of Indians. Of course he was not accepted…
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Social and Economic Aspects of the Bhagavad Gita – PART I
DD Kosambi The Bhagavad-Gita, “Song of the Blessed One”, forms part of the great Indian epic Mahabharata. Its 18 adhyaya chapters contain the report by Sanjaya of a dialogue between the Pandava hero Arjuna and his Yadu Charioteer Krsna, the eighth incarnation of Visnu. The actual fighting is about to begin when Arjuna feels revulsion…
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The Wolf’s Footprints: Indian Materialism in Perspective – PART I
An Annotated Conversation with Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Krishna Del Toso It was the 2009 when by chance I ran into a book just issued, whose author I already knew by name and reputation, since few years before – while I was studying the chapter devoted to the exposition of the Cārvāka/Lokāyata philosophy in Sayāṇa-Mādhava’s Sarvadarśanasaṃgraha –…
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Supreme Court Judgment on Banning of EVR’s Booklet on Ramayana
In 1970 the Government of Uttar Pradesh passed an order, under Section 99-A of the Cr.P.C, forfeiting the book “Ramayana: A True Reading” (and its Hindi translation) authored by EVR, the legendary rationalist thinker and social activist from Tamil Nadu. The High Court of Allahabad quashed the Government Order. The Government of Uttar Pradesh filed…
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Indian Philosophy – Melody and Millstone: PART III
G Ramakrishna The murky record of idealism as a vicious weapon on the one hand and philosophical obscurantism on the other has a shining contrast in materialism. Once again the historical limitations of the ancient Indian materialist philosophers cannot be overlooked. The rudiments of materialism are quite clear in many anti-idealist schools of though and…
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Aligarh Muslim University, Raja Mahendra Pratap and Attempts of Polarization
Ram Puniyani Those resorting to communal politics have not only perfected their techniques of polarizing the communities along religious lines, but have been constantly resorting to new methods for dividing the society. On the backdrop of Muzzafar nagar, where ‘Love Jihad’ propaganda was used to enhance the divisive agenda, now in Aligarh an icon…
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Men and Godmen
G Ramakrishna India, like many other countries, has produced luminaries of great repute. They have blazed the path of their successors. The illumination that they have provided has been a beacon of light for many a pathfinder. Every age has its own ‘prophets’ who, through their identification with the struggling people and consciousness for a…
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Indian Philosophy – Melody and Millstone: PART II
G Ramakrishna A total rejection of idealism means the acceptance of a secular, rational and scientific approach, while idealism has religion-orientation, faith in the scriptures, and superstitions in most of its major forms, for its accessories (p 234). The other major contribution of the anti-idealist schools of thought consists of the defence of practice as…
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Asoka and the Basic Values in Indian Culture
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya To deliver the key-note address in a seminar with such a majestic title1 is an uphill task. The topic touches so many areas of such vast dimension that it call for a person of encyclopedic erudition, which I do not possess. So, instead of addressing each and every aspect of this grandiose title,…