Hindustan Times
Since we have relegated the arduous task of thinking — that key determinant that differentiates man from beast — to our leaders, we need to accept its consequences as well. The Babasaheb Ambedkar controversy, conveniently aroused six decades after an innocuous cartoon (look carefully, it is clear that Jawaharlal Nehru is whipping the snail, not Ambedkar) was published, is really an investment in a future that says the following: if yesterday’s leaders are today’s gods, tomorrow’s gods will emerge out of today’s MPs. Read more
(12 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Gautam Chikermane on Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 8:33 pm
Filed under India, religion · Tagged Babasaheb Ambedkar, books, cartoon, controversy, Dalit, democracy, Gautam Chikermane, gods, India, Kapil Sibal, movie, MPs, National Council Of Educational Research And Training, NCERT, Parliament, politics
It is clear as daylight that the rising spirit of India is not acceptable to the archaic powers of this great nation. The smothering of humour by Mamata; of books, art and films by fundamentalists; of information by the government; of development by naxalites…all these are examples of a larger, darker force that’s seeking to crush the growing aspirations of India.
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(8 votes, average: 2.88 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Gautam Chikermane on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 7:24 pm
Filed under India · Tagged art, books, change, Cutting the Edge, entrepreneurs, films, fundamentalists, Gautam Chikermane, India, institutions, leaders, Mamata Banerjee, nation, naxalites, officials, people, spiritual transformation, transformation, West Bengal
We banned Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, and provided the moral justification for a barbaric fatwa on his head by Iran’s then spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Read more
(40 votes, average: 3.98 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Gautam Chikermane on Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 9:25 pm
Filed under religion · Tagged Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Bajrang Dal, Gautam Chikermane, Heehs, India, Iran, Jaipur Literature Festival, Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities, MF Husain, Orissa, Pondicherry, Qatar, Salman Rushdie, Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, The Satanic Verses
What do you do when spiritual gurus enter the political arena, rake up political issues — and push a democratically elected government into a corner? I laughed. Read more
(7 votes, average: 4.29 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Gautam Chikermane on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Filed under India · Tagged Anna Hazare, black money, Chandrashekhar, Chandraswami, corruption, Dhirendra Brahmachari, Doordarshan, Elizabeth Taylor, gurus, India, Indira Gandhi, Kapil Sibal, Lalu Prasad, Lokpal Bill, media, PK Bansal, politics, Pranab Mukherjee, PV Narasimha Rao, scams, spiritual gurus, Subodh Kant Sahay, Sultan of Brunei, Swami Ramdev
With science and its adherents, rationality and its advocates, taking up greater space in all dimensions of life, from the natural to the social, it’s getting harder and harder to be a saint in India. Read more
(9 votes, average: 3.22 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Gautam Chikermane on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Filed under Research, religion · Tagged AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Buddha, Dhammapada, Gautam Bhagwad Gita, India, ISKCON, Krishna, Mahavir, Mahesh Yogi, meditation, Osho Rajneesh, Puttaparthi, Ram, rationality, saint, Sathya Sai Baba, Science, spirituality, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust
As expected, reactions to France banning the full face veil on Monday, with a fine of 150 Euros, have been varied. Read more
(18 votes, average: 1.78 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Gautam Chikermane on Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Filed under World, religion · Tagged Anna Hazare, Darul Uloom Deoband, democracy, extremists, face veil, France, Gautam Chikermane, India, Islam, Jabeen of Abdullah Azzam, Koran, religion, Sarkozy, Shumukh al-Islam
In August 1997, when India was celebrating 50 years of freedom and we were bombarded with advertising and hypes around the ‘event’, I was seeing the hollowness of that freedom. Read more
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Gautam Chikermane on Friday, April 8, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Filed under India · Tagged Anna Hazare, Business Standard, Five decades of decay, Gautam Chikermane, India
This is the land of Sita and Draupadi. Read more
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Gautam Chikermane on Friday, April 1, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Filed under India, religion · Tagged Aruna Asaf Ali, Bhima Bai Holkar, Chand Bibi, child sex ratio, corruption, daughters, Draupadi, Haryana, India, Jhajjar, Kali, Lakshmi, Lopamudra, Madam Cama, Maheshwari, Mamata Banerjee, Mirabai, Nirupama Rao, Rani Channama, Rani Lakshmi Bai, Sadhvi Auvaiyar Maa, Saraswati, Sarojini Naidu, Shyamala Gopinath, Sita, Sonia Gandhi, Sucheta Kripalani, Sushma Nath, Sushma Swaraj, womb
When the world’s third-richest man asks you to invest in this way or that, you stand up and listen to him. Read more
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Posted by Gautam Chikermane on Monday, March 28, 2011 at 8:07 pm
Filed under religion · Tagged Bill Gates, India, Members of Parliament, Parliament, Warren Buffett
With a global revival in religion and the general interest in it rising with every passing crisis, I am surprised that the two credible institutions that can hold forth on such matters — education and media — have not kept pace. Read more
(8 votes, average: 2.5 out of 5) Loading ...
