CHARVAKA DESK
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Indian Philosophy – Melody and Millstone: PART I
G Ramakrishna Indian Philosophy, especially the school of Vedanta with its source in the Upanishads, has been the subject of endless panegyric on the part of writers on the subject. Here are a few choice examples of their exuberance: “The Upanishads contain a scientific search for the substratum underlying the phenomenal forces of nature”. “In…
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Transplanting Elephant Head on Human Body – The Magic of Mythological Fiction
Ram Puniyani One of the best parts of childhood for me was to enjoy the mythological tales and become aware of the world where Lord Hanuman could fly, as the emergency herbal treatment is to be delivered to his master’s brother; Laxman. Lord Ram travelling by Pushpak Viman (aero plane), Lord Ganesha being planted with…
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Targeting Nehruvian Legacy?
Ram Puniyani The debates about India’s partition, Gandhi murder and politics of Nehru have been a matter of ceaseless debates. Each political tendency has their own interpretation of these events, which in a way are landmarks of sorts in modern Indian History. As such the phenomenon of Partition of India and assassination of Gandhi are…
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Doctoring History for Political Goals: Origin of Caste System in India
Ram Puniyani Caste hierarchy is the major obstacle to the goal of social justice and it continues to be a major obstacle to social progress even today. There are many a theories, which have tried to understand its origin. The latest in the series is the attempt of RSS to show its genesis due to…
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Carvaka Darsana ki Sastriya Samiksa: Sarvananda Pathak
Published in 1965, ‘Carvaka Darsana ki Sastriya Samiksa‘ (A Critical Study of Carvaka Philosophy) gives an overview of Carvaka philosophy. Though the author, Dr Sarvananda Pathak (who was a lecturer in Sanskrit, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda, when the book was written) is critical of Carvaka philosophy (the title of the sixth chapter, in fact, is…
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Modi Sarkar: Politics through Culture
Ram Puniyani The change in the ruling dispensation (May 2014) has more than one aspect which is likely to affect the very social-cultural-political map of India. Narendra Modi won the last elections with an electoral success, 282 seats for BJP, with 31% of votes polled, which is a landmark for a party. There was a…
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History of Materialism in India
Th. Stcherbatsky Amidst the diverse philosophical systems which we find in India, ancient as well as modern, it is quite natural that there must have been some materialistic system too. Their main approach lies in reducing all the psychic processses to physical ones, negating the independent existence of soul, and affirming that the so-called soul…
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Science versus Miracles: Reading a message in a sealed cover
B Premanand Experiment: 133 Effect: Telling the number a person thinks. The tantrik asks a person to tell a number. When ash is rubbed on the surface of a blank card the number appears. Props: Soap, ash, blank card. Method: Write the numbers 1 to 9 on the board with soap. Ask a person to…
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The Belief in Rebirth and the Gospel of Gautama Buddha
Normal 0 T.A.P Aryaratne When we speak of Buddhism we mean the doctrine set forth in a certain collection of compositions, chiefly discourses, orally transmitted over a period of some five centuries before the Christian era began, and committed to writing towards the close of that period. From this fact we cannot justly conclude that…
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Science versus Miracles: Tantriks and their Tricks
B. Premanand When the tantrik spits on sawdust, it bursts into flame. Experiment: 131 Effect: When the tantrik spits on sawdust, it bursts into flame. Props: A metal-bowl, well dried sawdust, sodium peroxide (powdered), water. Method: Keep in metal bowl dry sawdust mixed with equal parts of powdered sodium peroxide. Ask some one to bring…
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Hegel, Heine, Marx: Hanuman and Sabala
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya In ‘The British Rule in India,’ one of his contributions to the New-York Daily Tribune, 25 June 1853, Marx waxed both passionate and indignant: ‘We must not forget that these little [village] communities [in Hindostan] were contaminated by distinctions of caste and by slavery, that they subjugated man to external circumstances instead…
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Is the Face of Hinduism Changing?
Ram Puniyani Fali S Nariman recently made a very significant observation on the current political situation in India. The distinguished Constitutional jurist noted: “Hinduism has traditionally been the most tolerant of all Indian faiths. But, recurrent instances of religious tension, fanned by fanaticism and hate speech, have shown that the Hindu tradition of tolerance is showing signs…
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ISIS, Oil Politics and Peaking of Islamophobia
Ram Puniyani Just a month ago (August 2014) a group of Muslim activists-scholars organized press meets in various cities. They issued a statement condemning the brutal violence being committed by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). There statement carried a visual saying Islam Means Peace. The statement said “Indian Muslims Condemn the Brutal…
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Tools for Divisive Politics: Hate Speech and Patriarchy
Love Jihad propaganda spurs hate, not dialogue Ram Puniyani After the last general elections where Narendra Modi and his party won a majority overwhelmingly, the BJP has not been doing so well in subsequent by-elections. The Lalu-Nitish experiment is one model, but whether it will be replicated in different parts of the country is a…
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Does Love Know Religious Boundaries?
Ram Puniyani Communal politics, communal violence all over used women’s bodies as the site of contestation and community honor. This is the worst expression of patriarchal values inherent in the communal politics. We recall that it was the presentation of a road accident between boys of two religious communities that was propagated as an…
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Is ‘Hindu’ our National Identity?
Ram Puniyani From the decade of 1980 the identity based politics has come to the fore in our Country. The Shah Bano issue, the Ram Temple imbroglio and the Rath yatras, brought to fore the issues related identity, the first major casualty of this politics was the demolition of Babri Masjid. Around that the notion…
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The Modi Sarkar: Initial Symptoms
Ram Puniyani It is already over two months that Narendra Modi has taken over as the prime minister of the country. While some may call it as a ‘honey moon period’ others will say that its actions during last few months are an indication enough of shape of things to come. It goes without saying…
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Ideology as a Cover for Political Agenda: New ICHR Chief is a Communal Ideologue
Ram Puniyani Electoral and political arena is only one of the grounds through which political agenda of vested interests is achieved. Capturing of people’s mind, the ideological propagation, is the foundation on which political agenda stands and perpetuates itself. That’s how the change in History text books or teaching a communal version of History is…
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Gods on Earth: Shankaracharya says no to worship of Sai Baba
Ram Puniyani The phenomenon of God is probably the most complex one in the World. For believers there is a range of belief system about the supernatural powers. For agnostics it is ‘I don’t know’ and for atheists there is no supernatural power. The systems of thought relevant to the topic range from Animists (nature…
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Debating Secularism in a Communalized Society
Ram Puniyani In the aftermath of the recent elections Congress, Communist parties, Samajvadi and Lalu’s RJD, which can be called secular in some sense; bit the dust. In the review of defeat the major opposition party Congress, which has been in power for maximum number of years, one major opinion from its top leader A.K. Antony…
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Striving for Gender Justice: Overcoming Obstacles
Ram Puniyani While on one hand a PIL has been filed for UCC, there is another significant development in this direction. This relates to the personal laws of Muslim community. That ‘Muslim women are subject to more domination and gender injustice’ has been a widespread perception. While as such the Personal laws of different religious…
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Love Thy Neighbor: Nawaz Sharif’s Visit to India
Ram Puniyani India Pakistan relations have always been mired with in various controversies, which have been preventing the friendly relations with our neighbor, who in ‘popular perception’ is seen as anenemy. It is due to this that while all the members of SAARC countries have been invited, the one to draw maximum popular attention has…
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Hate Crimes and Communal Polarization
Ram Puniyani The Modi Sarkar has been installed in power from last three weeks or so (May 16, 2014). While there is lots of hope from this government by sections of society, there are other types of fears which have started getting actualized and the consequences of that are being felt with great amount of…