If you are an astute observer of the world like I, whatever your religious or ideological affiliation, one thing is obvious: getting your book banned is great for sales. Lets face it, book-writers are an impoverished lot. Few of them (us?) manage to get any royalties and fewer still can live off them. In the pursuit of making a living doing what you love and in the process entertaining and illuminating people, all means must [...]
How to get your book banned in India: a step by step guide
How to get your book banned in India: a step by step guide
Jalliyanwalla Bagh Mein Vasant: A poem by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
Jalliyanwalla Bagh Mein Vasant: A poem by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
April 13th 1919, Amritsar, the city was celebrating Baisakhi a traditional festival on which people celebrate the beginning of the harvesting season by congregating in community fairs. Unfortunately the biritsh had passed martial law in most of punjab expressly forbidding the meeting of more than 5 people. About 2000 people were packed in the garden called jalliyanwalla, in defiance of the prohibitory orders. General Dyer, who later said; I think it quite possible that I [...]
From the Archives: The New East India Company
From the Archives: The New East India Company
Published on The Blog Of Dysfunction on September 18 2008 Indians of any background should have reason enough to celebrate their historical or cultural association with Nagarjuna’s penetrating philosophical arguments…Maitreya’s searching questions, Carvaka’s reasoned skeptisism, Aryabhattas astronomical and mathematical departures, Kalidasa’s dazzling poetry, Sudraka’s subversive drama, Abdul fazal’s astounding scholarship.. or Ravi Shankar’s and Ali Akbar Khan’s music, without first having to check the religious background of each Sen, Amartya,The Argumentative Indian (Penguin Books 2005), [...]
