Indiblog

When Michael Jackson Rocked Mumbai

rogeralexander — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:37:12 +0000

(This is a guest column by Roger Alexander.) Michael Jackson performed in Bombay, in fact India, only once – on October 31, 1996 – as part of the HIStory tour that year. The concert was organised by Raj Thackeray’s Shiv Udyog Sena with the objective of providing jobs to 27 lakh youth in Maharashtra. That the [...]

Insensitive ruckus over decriminalization of gay sex in India

Sooraj — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:03:20 +0000

Applause to the Delhi High Court for invalidating the use of Section 377 against men indulging in gay sex! A triumph to human rights and the government staying out of private sexual matters of its citizens. The Media has in general welcomed this judgment; and thanks to corporates like Amul for espousing the cause. However, [...]

Moral police – Rise of the Hindu Taliban

Sooraj — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:11:19 +0000

Girls wearing jeans or mini skirts, girls smoking and drinking, Valentine’s day, girls talking to guys have all been of late victims of a growing moral police in India. This self-styled Indian Taliban claim their origins in Hindu culture such as Bajrang Dal and Sri Ram Sena. Their ludicrous motive – to preserve Indian culture! As [...]

Anti-sodomy law invalid: 1500 animal species practice homosexuality

Sooraj — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:24:55 +0000

Homosexuality is practiced in over 1500 species of animals including lions, killer whales and even insects. Man’s evolutionary predecessors also indulge freely in gay love, a classic example being the bonobo apes that make love indiscriminately of gender. Below are some videos about homosexuality in nature – one from the National Geographic (a trustworthy source [...]

Karunanidhi criticizes Hindus because India is secular – what’s the logic?

Sooraj — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:44:08 +0000

Being the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, it is rather irresponsible of Karunanidhi to criticize only Hindus in the name of secularism. He has done it before. This time, he says that Hindus shouldn’t wear tilak or that the sacred thread of Brahmins is unnecessary. And his rationale is that India is secular where all [...]

Wrongly blaming Indian Muslim backwardness for terrorism

Sooraj — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:18:35 +0000

The terrorist attacks in Mumbai have dominated the news and rightly so. Once they were over, analysts and writers started publishing opinion articles. Many of them criticize the Indian security establishment while even more criticize the marginalized state of India’s Muslims. Let’s discuss both of these. It appears to me that writers dwelling on the backwardness [...]

Dangerous Rise of the Religious Right in India

Sooraj — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:49:19 +0000

The so-called secularism practiced by most political parties in India is synonymous with Muslim appeasement and therefore the dissatisfaction. However, instead of trying to implement respect and secularism, these groups seem to want totalitarian Hindu rule which goes against the ethos of independent India. It is especially the recent surge in violence by these groups to get their partisan ends met that is a disturbing trend.

Ministries wrangle over the law against homosexuality

Sooraj — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:44:07 +0000

Some organizations working against AIDS and for homosexuals petitioned the HC which asked the Central government for a response. The Home Ministry headed by Shivraj Patil has argued against relaxing the law stating that homosexuality is a perversion, that homosexuals will corrupt the entire society and that it is unacceptable to Indian morals. How two consenting adults having sex will corrupt society, or how love happens to be a perversion just because the two individuals happen to be of the same sex is puzzling. And speaking of Indian morals, the law is a western import, not homosexuality.

India-US relations under President Barack Obama

Sooraj — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:37:07 +0000

How is Obama's presidency going to affect US relations with India? Firstly, it was the Democrat administration of Clinton that catapulted relations with India into a strategic partnership. The Republican administration of Bush continued on that foundation with the breakthrough civil nuclear deal that was signed recently. And since India, as one of the major emerging economies, can no longer be ignored, Obama will in all likelihood build on the strategic partnership.

Nuclear deal: India defied domestic pressure, now faces international pressure

Sooraj — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:39:58 +0000

Manmohan Singh let go of his Leftist allies and braved a confidence vote to clinch the nuclear deal with US. But now he faces a bigger challenge of convincing Austria, New Zealand and the Netherlands that India is a safe nuclear power. India's future will be bright with nuclear power, but what does future hold for her nuclear arms?

Masks and protests mark India’s gay pride parades

Sooraj — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:34:43 +0000

For the first time this year, gay pride was celebrated in four Indian cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. The parades were only little celebration however. In true style of their origins where gay New Yorkers marched to protest the Stonewall riots, they were mostly protestations of the anti-sodomy law under section 377 of the Indian penal code.

Hindu-Christian tensions rising and are here to stay

Sooraj — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:35:14 +0000

With Christian missionaries invading India in hordes and converting Indians by deceitful and shameful means, tensions with the majority Hindu population were only waiting to happen. The trigger was the cowardly murder of four swamis in a Hindu ashram in Orissa this week. Understandably, all the pent-up anger against the mushrooming Christian population gave way to riots.

Kashmir is burning, Pakistan is unstable, India is mute

Sooraj — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:29:40 +0000

India provides hundreds of rupees in Haj subsidy every year, maintains a Waqf board, pays for Muslim universities (Aligarh Muslim university) and Urdu universities, provides reservation for Muslims in education and employment (Andhra Pradesh state government) apart from spending crores of rupees for Muslim welfare in India. Yet, when Jammu and Kashmir decided to give 99 acres of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board for providing basic conveniences to Hindu pilgrims that pay for the pilgrimage from their pockets, Muslims rioted!

Cram Junkies

heartcrossings — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:49:15 +0000

I am not familiar with a Korean cram school equivalent in India though the unscrupulous coaching centers come pretty close. That said, the cram school sounds like torture that even Indian kids don’t go through and that is saying a lot. When the stakes are so incredibly high, often the end justifies the means – [...]

Krishna was a playboy, but an AIDS activist, He wasn’t

Sooraj — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:15:12 +0000

This image looks alright at the outset, but it has a red ribbon for the AIDS campaign on the top right corner and is captioned: "For God's sake, do not have multiple sex partners."

Irresponsible India not part of cluster bomb ban treaty

Sooraj — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:31:11 +0000

It is very sad that the country that boasts of Mahatma Gandhi as the father of the nation and won independence on the policy of non-violence (ahimsa) was not part of the treaty to ban cluster bombs.

Shiva ashram/temple in Hawaii, the middle of Pacific Ocean

Sooraj — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:53:25 +0000

In Kauai, one of the islands of the Hawaii archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is a sight to behold: a Shiva temple set amidst verdant hills, a landscaped garden with pond, a river, an ashram and a rudrashka forest.

Reduce and Reuse the traditional Indian way

Sooraj — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:39:27 +0000

Ah, the good old days before plastic infiltrated the Indian lifestyle! Do you remember the days when our grandfathers and grandmothers used to always carry a cloth bag when they went out? And brought groceries and other purchases back home in those cloth bags? And kept using them until they tore and could no longer carry [...]

A new Hindu encyclopedia – Hindupedia

Sooraj — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:21:43 +0000

It is wonderful to hear of the relaunch of Hindupedia, the Hindu encyclopedia already populated with many extensive articles on various aspects of Hinduism about the various philosophies, saints, Gods/Goddesses and festivals. They promise to provide all points of view on contentious issues, especially because we have many of those in Hinduism and by tradition, [...]

Indians care most for environment

Sooraj — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:43:49 +0000

A recent survey by National Geographic reveals that Indians and Brazilians care most for the environment and are the greenest consumers in the world. Not surprisingly, Americans care least and are the worst offenders. …rates Indian eating habits the best, with 84 per cent eating local vegetables at least once a week. This is not surprising because [...]