Swarjyamag

A three-part series by SN Balagangadhara What happened in Ayodhya: a pran prathistha, a consecration, or something else? What happened in Ayodhya: Mehta’s heroics, Varshney’s warning, and Palshikar’s guilt What happened in Ayodhya: what our intellectuals saw and yet did not know what they saw Combined version From Academia.edu: The Ayodhya Event: A Response to Some Newspaper Columns From …

Part I, Part II , Part III , Part IV (Appeared on 04/13/2022 through 04/15/2022) S.N. Balagangadhara, emeritus professor at Ghent University, Belgium, has spent more than 40 years studying the science of cultures, especially Western culture, which was deeply influenced by Christianity, and how this framework was used to understand Indian culture, where it was a colonising power. In the process, …

[ Published on swarjyamag Aug 26, 2022] Let me recollect the question we agreed upon: how does the combined phrase (colonial mindset and servitude) make sense within the framework of my research programme? My hypothesis on religion includes characterizing the dynamics of its expansion. As I see it, such a dynamic includes (a) conversion and (b) secularization. The first side of the dynamic, …

What happens to the future of Indian intellectual scene when most of projects driven by its intelligentsia propagate perverted truths for self-seeking purposes? “Satyam Vada, Dharmam Chara”, “Satyameva Jayate” are but two of the well-known Sanskrit sayings that are supposed to indicate the values placed upon truth and truth-telling in Indian culture. It comes as a surprise, therefore, to read …