Society
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Were All Hindu Saints Allowed Into Temples?
Published on 31st July, 2021, in Times of India. In Maharashtra, at Pandharpur, outside the temple of Vithala, is a shrine to the poet-saint, Chokhamela, who lived in the 14th Century. The saint was not allowed to enter the temple…
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What the Chinese Saw In India
Published on 25th July, 2021, in Mid-day. Chinese scholars realised the Buddhism they were receiving was in diluted or corrupted form. So, many monks travelled to India by land and sea routes to get the original documents. They translated them…
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‘Thali’, ‘handi’, ‘paniki’
‘Thali’, ‘handi’, ‘paniki’: Unique Inventions of the Indian Kitchen by Women Who Remain Nameless Published on 26th June, 2021, in Economic Times. An Indian kitchen is a sacred place. Many people do not take footwear into the kitchen. They insist…
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Hindutva: A Sampradaya, Not a Parampara
Published on 30th May, 2021, in Mid-day. The word Hindutva was invented by Chandranath Basu in Bengal in 1892. He was against the 19th Century reform movement popularly known as Hindu Renaissance led by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who had…
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Fluid Marriage Rites
Published on 7th March, 2021, in Mid-day. Suriya, the daughter of the sun-god, marries the twin-gods, the Ashwins, and rides with them on their chariot. So says the Rig Veda. Later, we are told, that the Ashwins do not actually…
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The Rajput’s Umbrella
Published on 21st February, 2021, in Mid-day. When a Rajput king dies, his bones are collected after cremation and cast into the river, as is common practice amongst many Hindus. Additionally, the spot where he is cremated is marked by…
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Is Goddess Saraswati Connected to Love and Longing?
Published on 14th February, 2021, in Mumbai Mirror. Valentine’s Day upsets Hindutva, that valorises men over women, celibacy over sensuality, politics over arts, and lets saffron eclipse the rainbow. They want to save India’s culture but this does not include…
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View: The Beginning and End of Using Religion
Published on 6th February, 2021, in The Economic Times. When the Romans went about conquering, they did not destroy local temples or reject local gods. They simply demanded that those conquered owed libations to the Roman emperor, while carrying on…
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Guru Teaches Autonomy Not Submission
Published on 10th January, 2021, in Mid-day. The idea of guru being greater than mother, father, even God, is an idea that emerges from medieval times and is articulated in the “Guru Gita”, a conversation between Shiva and Shakti from…
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Does Hindu Meal Include Dalit Food?
Published on 28th December, 2020, in Mid-day. Have you been offered Hindu meals on flights? What is it? North Indian food, or South Indian? Does it include Dalit food? What is Dalit food? The word “Dalit” homogenises hundreds of communities…
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Hindu Parliament and Churning the Ocean of Milk
Published on 6th December, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. The design of the Parliament building in Delhi was based on yogini shrines of North India that were built over 1,000 years ago. They are circular without a central roof, very different…
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Does Gujarat Inspire the Ram Janmabhoomi Architecture?
Published on 25th October, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. The Ram Mandir will finally be built in Ayodhya. It is meant to establish a common political Hindutva identity to unite Hindus, who are divided by many castes, languages, gods and rituals.…
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The Treacherous Truth
Who Is a Hindu? The Treacherous Truth Published on 11th October, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. Popular politics chooses to ignore the many strands of mythology in favour of convenient figureheads. Not long ago, a man on a television channel yelled,…
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View: Is the Corporate Pantheon Truly Diverse?
Published on 2nd October, 2020, in Economic Times. The corporate world is assumed to be masculine, one that needs to be forced to acknowledge the feminine and the queer through policies. But while the corporate world struggles to be inclusive,…
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Dark secrets of the sewers of Harappa
Who is a Hindu? Dark secrets of the sewers of Harappa. Published on 13th September, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. Indians have an uncomfortable relationship with the sanitary system. We have permitted and even justified manual scavenging. A place where the…
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Making Do To Survive
Published on 5th September, 2020, in Reader’s Digest. If you have no resources, a government that pretends to care and a non-existent system in place, you have to make do with what you have and align whatever forces within access,…