Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
View: Fake News & Politics & Economics Of Faith
Published on 13th June, 2020, in the Economic Times. The Knights Templar was an order of warrior knights that existed nearly 900 years ago. It owed its allegiance to the Christian Church. In its 200-year history, it also established one of the first banking institutions in the world, before it was brutally suppressed by French…
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Articles
How ‘Breaking India’ Started
WHO IS A HINDU? How ‘breaking India’ started. Published on 7th June, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. At the heart of Hindutva is the idea that Hinduism is under threat from external and internal forces and they must be countered at any cost. The proponents of Hindutva are wary of Muslims and Christians and Dalits, but…
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Articles
View: Seva For People, Or For Afterlife?
Published on 30th May, 2020, in the Economic Times. The idea of religious institutions doing ‘seva’ and serving the people is an old one. The idea of social work, as we know it today, emerged with the Christian Church and the concept of tithe. Priests would pass around fishnets to those congregated at the church,…
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Articles
Why Hindus Should Read Islamic Mythology
Who Is A Hindu? Why Hindus should read Islamic mythology. Published on 24th May, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. People often challenge me to write on Islamic mythology. These ‘challengers’ don’t realise is that Wikipedia already has an entry called Islamic mythology. And in academic circles, people speak of Islamic, Christian and Judaic mythology as freely…
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Articles
Quran and Hadith
Published on 17th May, 2020. in Mid-day Fourteen hundred years ago, an Arab trader who lived in the city of Mecca went to meditate in the caves outside the city. There, he suddenly found himself being caught by an angel who forced him to read and recite. Being an unlettered man, he didn’t know what…
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Articles
How Was Hindu Rajdharma Different From Turuku’s?
Published on 26th April, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror People often speak of a civilisational rupture that took place when Islam came into India. The easiest way to understand this is to go back in history and figure out the different ways in which kingship was perceived, in medieval India and medieval Persia, before 1,000 AD.…
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Articles
Islam’s Agricultural Contribution
Published on 17th April, 2020, in the Economic Times Nabi Bansa is a Bengali epic written over 300 years ago that narrates the tales of Islamic prophets. Here we are told that when Adam was cast out of Eden, he fell to Serendib, the island of Sri Lanka, and then walked across what we now…
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Articles
Mapping mythology, history and art with Wendell Rodricks
Published on 3rd March, 2020 in The Hindu I find it hard to believe that Wendell is gone. The news was a shock. But then, Wendell has always surprised me. From his habit of waking up very early in the morning, to living his life confidently and openly with his husband, Jerome, giving courage and…
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Articles
How Evangelical Models Inspire Hindu Gurudoms
Published on 1st March, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror For many people, ‘guru’ is no different from a church elder, or even a prophet. Just as a prophet has direct access to God and communicates God’s will to people, many people believe that their guru has direct access to the divine and presents the wisdom of…
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Articles
How To Transform an Object Of Art Into One Of Worship
Published on 16th February, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror Objects of art are part of our day-to-day lives. Displayed in showcases, they lend beauty to the places we live in. Objects of worship are different: they are channels to access the divine. Both may have images of gods and goddesses, but they are treated differently. What…
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Articles
Muslim Guardians Of Hindu Shrines
Published on 16th February, 2020, in Mid-day Nowadays, there is a lot of talk about Muslim immigrants not being welcomed in India. But, when one reads folklore of South India, one finds many places where Muslims saints and warriors are accommodated within local Hindu temple lore. Here are four examples. In Kerala, we have heard…
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Articles
Seven Abrahamic influences on contemporary Hinduism
Published on 2nd February, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror When someone passes away and people say, Rest in Peace, or RIP, they are being part of a paradigm where death is followed by waiting in purgatory till the final day of Judgement, a concept found in Christianity and Islam. In Hinduism, the soul does not rest…
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Articles
Mythology of White Hindus
Published on 5th January, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror We may claim to be free of colonial rule, but we are still spellbound by Caucasian people. We link their skin to beauty and power. So it is not great surprise that Hindus seek validation of their faith from Caucasian scholars and converts. We place great value…
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Books
Behold, I Make All Things New : How Judaism, Christianity and Islam affirm the dignity of queer identities and sexualities
In 2015, a historic panel discussion took place at the global Festival of Theology held in Sweden. Its objective was to examine what the sacred texts of the Abrahamic faiths — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — had to say about human sexuality. Behold, I Make All Things New is the outcome of the effort. This…
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Articles
Messaging Modes – Hearing, Overhearing
Published on 29th December, 2019, in the Economic Times In Abrahamic mythology, God communicates with humanity through messengers. Judaism informs us how God spoke to Moses, Christianity informs us how God spoke to Jesus, and Islam informs us how God speaks to many prophets from Adam onwards to the final Prophet Muhammad. Messengers hear God’s…