Number of words: 2,440 Like all good Anglophiles, I went to one of India’s best schools in Bombay. Among the many things they taught me was that the epics—the Ramayana and the Mahabharata—were mythologies. And I believed this till, one day, I decided to read Valmiki’s Ramayana in Sanskrit. And there I read that, as … Read more

Number of words: 89 Savarkar thesis of Hindutva so inspired Dr. K.B. Hedgewar that before syarring the volunteer organization known as that Rashtriya Swayamsevak  Sangh Dr. Hedgewar  had a long discussion with Savarkar over the faith, form and future of the organization thus from the beginning the RSS philosophy got interwoven with Savarkar Hindutva – … Read more

Number of words: 1,902 It began with a cryptic remark. In 2012, when I was teaching at Princeton, a set of bright students enquired whether I might teach a course on Indian political thought. At the time, my rozi roti was teaching one of those broad introductions to “Western” political thought affectionately termed “Plato to NATO” courses. … Read more

Number of words: 85 On the other side of the country, close to Aurangabad, is the small town of  Khuldbad. Here lies the tomb of Aurangzeb, the last great Mughal emperor, who died in the eighteenth century, and ruled an empire stretching over most of India. Aurangzeb was a devout Muslim. In keeping with Islamic … Read more

Number of words: 85 Israel’s electrol system has the virtue of being democratic. If a party gets, say, 1 per cent of the votes it will get 10 percent of the seats. The lottery element, which one finds in the British system, is removed. It has the serious disadvantage that as the whole country is … Read more

Number of words: 320 In 1897 the first Zionist Congress assembled in Basle. The transactions of that historic gathering were perhaps less significant than the gathering itself. For the first time in Jewish history, representatives from Jewish communities throughout the world had assembled to discuss a programme of action for the Jewish people. Zionism, they … Read more

Number of words: 418 Israel is one of the youngest states in the world, and yet it is among the oldest. Other peoples have recovered their independence after centuries of subjugation, but they existed as a compact entity, living on their own soil, speaking their own language, and enjoying a greater or lesser degree of … Read more

Number of words: 423 A recent discovery revealed that pain-sensing nerves help fight skin infections and prevent its spread, suggesting a new type of immunity. “These pain-sensing nerves can detect pathogens, and for the first time, we’ve shown that they activate an immune response and also signal protective immunity in sites adjacent to the infection. … Read more

Number of words: 596 It was the evolutionary leap that defined the species: while other apes ambled around on all fours, the ancestors of humans rose up on two legs and, from that lofty position, went on to conquer the world. The benefits of standing tall in the African savannah are broadly nailed down, but … Read more

Number of words: 2,282 In February 1719, two months before the publication of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe proposed in the Weekly Journal that the South Sea Company – founded just eight years earlier to manage the national debt and awarded a contract to supply the Spanish colonies in Latin America with several thousand African slaves … Read more