Sparsh

1- Great compilation of cultural article at BBC Hindi : Enjoy Reading about Hindustani Tahzeeb 2- ऑन स्‍क्रीन ऑफ स्‍क्रीन : बहुरुपिया का माडर्न अवतार आमिर खान 3- Death by Dialogue By Trisha Gupta : What does it mean for the future of Hindi cinema if most films are now in fact conceived, thrashed out and largely executed not in Hindi but in English? Will filmmakers only tell the stories of a minuscule section of the population? 4- National Film Awards : The absurdity of censorship - An open letter to Hon’ble Minister for Information & Broadcasting on July 14, 2005 by Rakesh Sharma , a prominent Indian documentary film-maker. 5- Paradoxes of memory by Helmut König : Lasting peace agreements after wars and civil wars were for a long time considered to be conditional upon damnatio memoriae – the deliberate and reciprocal forgetting of violence and injustice. However, the established amnesty clause is only realistic where certain rules were not broken during war. The First...

1- State legitimacy and resistance : State derives its legitimacy from its institutions. Its these institutions that give State credibility and roots to live in the society of hostile crowds. 2- The ‘Viral’ Revolutions of Our Times – Post national Reflections by Aditya Nigam 3- Interview to Devinder Sharma :- On Food Crisis and Corruption. An Interview with One World South Asia: "Corruption has fuelled India's economic growth. 4- Growth and other concerns by Amartya Sen 5- Comments and Responses by the author : Socialism of 21st Century : Author Sunil 6-  An Interview with Guernica Magazine . In the wake of sedition charges by the Indian government, Arundhati Roy describes the stupidest question she gets asked, the cuss-word that made her respect the power of language, and the limits of preaching nonviolence. 7- The multi-individual society By Pratap Bhanu Mehta - An look on liberalism and multiculturalism. 8- Reluctant heroes : International recognition o...

Continuing from the previous posts:  1 , 2 , 3 - The people's uprising in Tunisia, Egypt or Yemen is not just about the state of the economy, but also about civil rights and dignity. The Arab regimes have exploited 'threat of terrorism' fears and blew them out of all proportion in order to justify its repressive policies and garner support for them. The revolt is an expression of the frustration at social injustice. Currently, There is no organised political opposition except Islamic movement. The regime has systematically destroyed all peaceful alternatives, from the democratic parties to the political Islamists. All of this has happened over the course of time when manipulative world power were busy in supporting dummy dictators. I am proceeding on 4th part of essay series to understand the reason behind such events with these articles explaining background and reason for this sudden arrival of wind of change; 1- Predicting a "de-Islamicised Muslim World" ...

1- Transparency and Poverty in India :  It is interview of Aruna Roy a prominent leader of the Right to Information movement and and Nikhil Dey. 2- Indian Culture : How does one define “Indian Culture”? And more importantly, why is “Indian Culture” always defined in terms of what women should and should not do? 3- A World Split Apart by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn : Commencement Address Delivered At Harvard University published June 1978. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a writer and Through his writings he helped to make the world aware of the Gulag , the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich , two of his best-known works. 4- Food security - of APL, BPL and IPL : The official line is simple. Since we cannot afford to feed all the hungry, there must only be as many hungry as we can afford to feed. The truth is the government seeks ways to spend less and less on the very food security it talks about, ...

Continued from the Part 1 , When there is no cultural, political or social movement in a country, alternative forces emerge. That's why I believe that the intellectual life of the Islamic republic has virtually ground to a halt. The fear of causing offence has helped undermine progressive trends in Islam and strengthened the hand of religious bigots. Secular Muslims have come to be regarded as betraying their culture, while radical Islam has become not just more acceptable but, to many, more authentic. There is less need to quote Quran and Hadith again and again for better understanding of Islamic doctrines. This trend has led to cherry-picking whichever paraphrase or translation supports whatever point one attempts to convey through holy book. Here, we have to understand the relationship between the Muslim and the non-Muslim world. The idea of two separate worlds divided from one another is wrong and violent repression is the seed of terror and militant Islamism in the I...

Today Muslim world is deeply divided along the lines of separation between passionate liberalism and firm conservatism. Most of the Muslims do not debate with Non believers on Islam. They react and then huddle up behind flimsy and lopsided historical and national narratives about what being a Muslim is all about. That doesn't solve the problem of stereotyping of Muslims. I personally assume, Muslims as individuals capable of accepting cultural norm of others very easily and Islam as an institution going towards reform very slowly. This article is not be beginners guide for learning about Islamic cultural aspect. It is the first part of our essay that is focusing on current cultural environment in Islamic world. For beginners [ History of Islam ] Arab world is the cradle of Islam and all the problems emerged in Islam can be studies better by understanding the mindset of Arab region. Arab countries are depending too much on religious books and have failed to educate a generation o...

I try to understand the phenomenon constituting of violence, power, truth and justice in the daily happenings. Blasphemy is must for progress of the civilization. Ideas behind traditions must be challenged to know if they are true and relevant — and if we cannot challenge an idea, we cannot know validity of following the traditions in the society. Today, I want to publish without fear or favour and look at the world without the filter of 'faith'. USA administered Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib in Iraq, Soviet suppression through Gulag, Hitler's cruelty in the Holocaust, Islamic persecution of Bahai faith, Ahmadiyya community and non-Muslims, discrimination in Hindus on the basis of caste, Israel's action against Palestine, South African apartheid with root of racism, fight of Christianity against evolution theory and countless other struggles shows the dark side of the world in last 60 years only. They are the recent events existing in the minds of last generation. They...

We defend peoples right to say something, it doesn't mean that you have to agree with it or even respect it. Culture and religion is much too important a matter to be disposed of in ritual routine or lost in an inconclusive debate. This post is dedicated to the Indianhomemaker conclusion on the free speech demand : Whenever we think we are stopping someone from hurting our sentiments by curtailing their freedom of expression (right or wrong), we also empower someone (e.g. the government, extremists, or even religious leaders) to shut our own mouths. 1- Olivier Roy is professor at the EHESS and I was quite impressed by his insight on the religious issues in this article . It emphasize that everyone is faced with the need to invent, define, and objectify what religion means to them. Olivier points out some interesting facts on the dependence of religion on the culture. Today's religious revival is first and foremost marked by the uncoupling of culture and religion, whatever the...

I have a passion for watching movies around the world. My friends ask me whats the reason of watching an Iranian or Japanese film (with subtitles) with fair amount of effort. They vouch films for entertainment and I bet films as experience to grow beyond mine roots. Are we mere product of the social circle bounded by geographical or religious strain ? My answer is No. The above paragraph gives the background of this article. An individual living in any part of the world feels same anxiety, fear and love towards other based on the local belief system. But this notion of local is expanding into global day by day. And staunch believers want to impose their faith forcefully on others without even understanding others. This group of believers (mainly religious) are threatening our co existence together with false tradition of casteist , racial and cultural supremacy over others. Let me give an example: The idea " The earth is the center of the universe " was not a rational view b...

I had read about Nazism and holocaust in class 10th history book. The whole notion of racial supremacy appears highly irrational to my teenage mind. Hitler and Nazis rise on the wave of German Nationalism. Read in super short about history here: " To secure their ability to create a totalitarian state, the Nazi party's paramilitary force, the Sturmabteilung (SA) or "Storm Detachment" used acts of violence against leftists, communist, democrats, Jews and other opposition or minority groups. Given the frustrations of the people (after World War I and during the Great Depression) it was easy for the SA to attract large numbers of alienated (and unemployed) youth and working-class people for the party. The "logic" of keeping Germany small worked in the favor of its principal economic rivals and had been a driving force in the recreation of a Polish state. The goal was to create numerous counterweights in order to "balance out Germany's power". T...

I was trying to complete this series in the draft form long ago. Roshmi bombarded me with comments in 2nd part of the series and I became busy in reading history of Pakistan. While 3rd part of this trend comes to my notice during debate with my sister. There was talk about equality, merit and anti casteism without seeing the ground level discriminations practiced in the society. I recall only rough details of our conversation: - She was clearly seeing the 'quota' as a toy given to each section of society who makes fuss about it. She was holding very strong points over implementation of the anti-discriminatory laws and strict punishment to law breakers. It is not about the implication of laws but raising of consciousness over this issue. Upper caste Hindus how much they shout will never take action against one of their own over Dalit issues. It is that their conscience is not a public conscience but a caste conscience, imbued with values derived from caste. Quotacracy is indee...

While I write about 2nd phase of article inquiring about disturbing trend in the civilization, I will emphasis on the countries governed by Islamic law. Personally, I don't see liberty, equality and a place for minority in the Islamic Law. This article is more based on the study of Pakistan that resembles us most in culture and traditions. People who are ignorant to history can perish easily. That's why false notion of history creates a generation believing in conspiracy theories than scientific inquiry about religion. That what is happening to the generation of Muslim countries. And this excessive religious education corrodes the youth minds making them unaware of the worldly affairs. The tendency to see every act through the eye of religion tarnishes the viewpoint and starts the pointless debate to determine ‘true Islam’. Romanticized version of Islam’s early history is constructed purely on memorized accounts. 'Glorious age of religious faith' is the imaginative co...

I am disturbed by trends happened in past or happening presently around me in the name of religion, race and caste. The trend of one's religion based on faith and love while another on irrationality and superstition is growing abruptly. Before starting this discussion, remember the warning: Civilization is an intellectual pursuit of leisure class. I was watching a movie ' Before the Rain '. The movie shows the unending cycle of love and violence in the Macedonian region. There is a bitter division of orthodox Christian and Albanians, and it gives the hint of civil war like situation. I started thinking about root causes of this hate. West stick to the theory of " Clash of civilization ". This clash is bound to happen due to rapid globalization that brings people together. Prejudice of superiority and purity are shattered by scholars. Extremists taking in the refuge of nationalism return into cocoon with mythical glorious past theories of the region. European nati...

Talking of ‘IP’, here’s what Krzysztof Zanussi has said about it. ( Source ) “ Intellectual property, to me, is important because I benefit from it when sometimes, author’s rights are paid to me. However, I doubt it from the moral point of view that intellectual property should ever be protected. I want to be popular and I want my work to be accessible to anybody who wants to read it. When I saw pirated cassettes of my films in Russia I wanted to embrace the seller because they bhad taken pains to make it accessible. I found pirated DVDs of my films in China and was proud. I probably lost some money, but what a joy. There is a contradiction between my desire to be accessible to anybody who is interested in my work and my greed to be paid for it. I was paid for making the film. In fact any intellectual who is defending his property has already been paid for it, and now we want something extra. I am not in a position to find a solution to this issue. I have participated in a number ...

1- The Taliban have taken advantage of the vacuum of governance by carrying out spectacular suicide bombings in major cities across the country. They are generating fear, rumor, and also support from countless unemployed youth, some of whom are willing to kill themselves to advance the Taliban cause. The mean age for a suicide bomber is now just sixteen. It is a brilliant strategy of evacuation of opposition by suicide bombing and then fill the place with Talibs as a voice of people. They also utilize high illiteracy rate in Pakistan. All the crux of the above blabbering was to introduce you to these two articles describing mindset of our neighbouring nation elite society: Why is Pakistan Half Illiterate? and Causality of war . 2- Faith of Einstein . 3- Econ Sense: Equality vs. Efficiency, the Case of Universal Health Care. . 4- Bloggers, Media and Science Reporting & Indian Scientists and Science Blogging 5- On black literature in America Quote of the day: Logic and reason are t...

Note:I am not Bong. This article is written not to provoke any regionalism feelings. Just an opinion which comes out of respect for a community... I have strong dislike against CPI party rule over Bengal. I feel Bongs as radical and Tamils as conservative that represents extreme ends of the Indian culture. I am fan of Kerala as a well governed state. Kerala is a marginalized state in India who has challenged the false concept of high population as reason of illiteracy. But I admire Bong Culture more. This feeling was ignited when I see a original copy of Tagore's work in German published in 1904 still preserved at small city of Germany. Then, a passion to discover about their culture has reached to this final conclusion. I don't have any strong affection or even interaction with their bong culture. Check our history only, Politics, Games, Religion, Cinema, Economy, Literature and Social Reform etc all the fields was pioneered by few bongs in new direction. I was amused by the a...

In Hollywood, there is an unspoken dictum: “No film should have the mental age of more than ten years.” So, the birth of popcorn movies. We call ourselves Bollywood. How can we be any different? We lament the fact that there is no more a Hrishikesh Mukherjee amongst us. But really the question is where are Kundan Shah, Sudhir Mishra and Saeed Akhtar Mirza? --- This is from a article written by Kundan Shah.Its the reality of bollywood in simple lines. Bollywood and Cricket culture is here in Indian same as Hollywood and Baseball in america. But unlike modern American history, Bollywood is not something you can squeeze in just one lifetime. It is in genes of movie watchers.But a new trend is happening here in recent past. Bollywood totally losing its touch with the Hindi heartland and instead catering to the multiplex-going city slickers. The latest India Today calls it the 'popcorn' movie trend - films specially conceived and designed for the youth which, today, is the highest ...

Remember- Globalization causes loss in diversity. An individual in masses learn when he has single choice or no choice. Otherwise, if anyone learn for the sake of knowledge,the future belong to that individual. He/She is termed as intellect in the society. Intellect learn to adapt and evolve for future. Thinking is affected by cultural heritage and inheritance. For better future, the man will travel far from his home land to other places. There was stagnation prior to colonization. Only trade and clashes of civilization brings us together. With the growing economies, U.S.A. and U.K. were two primary nation prevailing in the power game. They attract man power from all over the world. Europe is new model as Indian subcontinent for diversity. Nationalism to internationalism are coming in scene with constant exchange program between scholars and MNC's. Mobility factor of capital as well as labor came with the industrial revolution. Revolution in transport and communication has le...

Rahul Basu rightly reviews the book 'India after Gandhi' in these lines. I really liked them for clear construction of his thought on such a vast topic. " It has become fashionable to deride and denigrate Nehru and Nehruvian socialism and secularism. But it is the Nehruvian ideal, the cliche of 'unity in diversity' that has precisely seen the country through the shocks of more than half a century. It was precisely Nehru's insistence that every culture, every language, every religion, every creed, every caste would have its own place in the Indian polity that, illogically enough, has kept the country together. There has never been an overarching dominant culture to which all others have had to defer. India might be predominantly Hindu, but by no means is it a Hindu Pakistan . " We need to understand that the cliche “Unity in Diversity” goes beyond the words. Our rich cultural heritage and diversity extends well beyond language and variety in indian cui...

Half of people in America do not read news paper and remaining half does not vote;we hope they are same bunch of people or god help that mighty country. Stereotype truths that all blacks are prevailed in crime. While truth is almost 33% of black youths aged between 18 to 25 are involved in crime.They are either in prisons or roaming in society on parole. Yaa, it is true that now multi-ethnic races residing there are following the same American dream. Consumer culture is at peak in America than anywhere n the world. The sub-prime crisis in America surfaced when defaults were reported in payments for housing mortgages. The 5% population consumes 25% resources of the world. 90% of GDP is consumed in loans (Sources: Business India 5,October 2008). It is the real face of the capitalist economy of America which wants bail out package from the government now. Ancient Indian had described consumerism as tendency to " Rinam kritvaa ghritam pibet "/"Take a loan and drink the ghee...