October 2 has been designated as the International Day of Non-Violence to coincide with the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. Non-violence is often misinterpreted as something passive, but it is a set of attitudes, actions or behaviors intended to persuade the other side to change its opinions,...
This is the end of election season in India. Parties have announced many schemes. Although the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is projected to win, the results may not be a foregone conclusion. To win public support, the Indian National Congress, the opposition party, has promised Nyuntam Aay...
It is a formidable proposition, in today’s context, to decide what’s real. To borrow from Charles Dickens, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times. To highlight another paradigm, we are traversing along in a society where impulse is given its way. In the process, we are...
What can the young people of today learn from Yeats’ poetry? “That is no country for old men. The young / In one another’s arms, birds in the trees / — Those dying generations — at their song, / The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, /Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long...
Can returning to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi bring about a revival of dignity? Earnestness, it is aptly said, is the font of authority or authenticity, where “auto” means “self”—your original instrument and “entea”—or tool connotes communication. This explains why our...
The celibate Gandhi is as much a conundrum as any other Gandhi we have known. A celibate for the greater part of his life, Mahatma Gandhi continues to attract nearly unrivaled attention — often for the sex that did not take place. Even his friends and admirers, who revered him for bringing...
