Culture & Nationalism
Patel unilaterally lifted restrictions on the use of alcohol in the Muslim-majority islands, banned beef products, citing Animal Preservation and demolished fishermen’s sheds built on the coastal areas, saying they violated the Coast Guard Act. The BJP, defending Patel, claimed that the protests were a result of his efforts to end “corrupt practices” involving local politicians prevalent and usher in development there.
Lakshadweep MP Faizal alleged that the Administrator was coming out with “anti-people” draft notifications at a time when the people were not in a position to even react to it because of the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the islands. Kareem, Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala, wrote to Kovind, alleging that all the orders were issued by the Administrator with an ulterior motive to destroy the traditional life and cultural diversity of the people of Lakshadweep. All the regulations were promulgated without an iota of consideration towards the people or their choice of food and livelihood, he alleged.
Work in Progress - contributions welcome
To equate private wealth growth with development and progress is just flat out wrong. Unemployment particularly urban unemployment is particularly hugely disruptive force. Young men and women unable to find suitable jobs and ending up taking whatever work they can even as delivery workers. The impact of this is to tear at the fabric of the civil society. It creates ruthlessness, a sense of being marooned, a sense of not belonging. The concepts of nations and nationhood are now abstractions. They lack the immediate need and continuity. He attributed the rise of small and aggressive ground-level organizational units to this failure in growth and inclusivity of all in the development of the nation. - 'Our Identity Is Not Defined By The Majoritarian View Or The Assertion Of One Homogenized Religion Or Cultural History' : Justice G S Patel AT THE The Asiatic Society of Mumbai organized its 27th Smt. Bansari Seth Memorial Lecture : https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/our-identity-is-not-defined-by-the-majoritarian-view-or-the-assertion-of-one-homogenized-religion-or-cultural-history-justice-g-s-patel-161831
Cultural Nationalism is Nothing but Rogue Nationalism pitting ‘Us’ against the "Other" Sadanand Menon 09 Jul 2016 https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/cultural-nationalism-nothing-rogue-nationalism-pitting-us-against-other
Wilhelm Reich has so insightfully written in The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1993). For Reich, cultural nationalism is the basic emotional attitude of the suppressed man.
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/stop-the-dismantling-of-environmental-rules/article32339131.ece
This article, originally written and published by K Subrahmanyan immediately after the Gujarat riots of 2002 when Narendra Modi was chief minister, is being republished in the aftermath of Modi, as prime minister, laying the foundation stone for a Ram temple in Ayodhya on August 5, 2020...
Hindu tradition is based not on acceptance of particular gods, dogmas, revelations and religious structures but on reverence for Dharma which is the rule of law and the ethics of the age. In the Hindu way of life there are no God- or Prophet-given laws. Dharma is not immutable but is liable to change to be in consonance with changing times – hence, the concept of yuga dharma. Today’s ethics, formulated by the constitution, is secularism – that is the yuga dharma...
Hindu tradition is based not on acceptance of particular gods, dogmas, revelations and religious structures but on reverence for Dharma which is the rule of law and the ethics of the age. In the Hindu way of life there are no God- or Prophet-given laws. Dharma is not immutable but is liable to change to be in consonance with changing times – hence, the concept of yuga dharma. Today’s ethics, formulated by the constitution, is secularism – that is the yuga dharma. Violators of it cannot be considered Hindus; they can only be looked upon as enemies of the Hindu way of life.
The true Hindu way of life is in danger today but not from those who follow other religions. It is threatened by those who want to imitate others and abandon its essence, because they have misinterpreted it through the prism of dogmatic faiths. For those who assert ‘Brahmasmi” and ‘Tattvamasi”, it does not matter if the temple at the birthplace of Rama comes up a few years or a few decades later, if it comes up at all.
Why is Rama the most popular of all the nine avatars? Because he was a maryada purusha, who gave Ram rajya (good governance) and defended Dharma (rule of law). Rama cannot be venerated by those who transgress Dharma by killing innocents. A way of life which highlights the birth and death cycle, allows one the freedom to worship God in any form or not to worship at all, proclaims the cosmic universality with its Advaita cannot be reconciled with the killing of innocents.
Gondi, one of the most ancient languages of India, is on the verge of becoming extinct. This is despite the language being the mother tongue of millions of people inhabiting the Gondwana region in Central India that includes large areas in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha..
Page under development: Contributions welcome..
the battle for secularism was not lost in the courts or elections... Secularism was defeated in the minds of the Indian citizens...They were just the beneficiaries of the colossal failure of secular politics...Today, we must recognise that secularism was defeated because its custodians refused to engage in a battle of ideas among the people. Secularism was defeated because the secular elite talked down to its critics in English https://theprint.in/opinion/secularism-language-religion-ayodhya-bhoomi-pujan-ram-mandir-kashmir/475307/