Befriending India’s Smaller Neighbours Lets look east more and more. Things that actually matter happen there.

Understanding Sanatana Dharma Good one Mr. Khan,

Despite the upheavals in its history, there have been many genuine contributions too in South Asia. The foremost is the Hindu philosophy followed by its varied music, dance forms, and of course its cuisine. The nice thing about Hinduism is it allows people to practise atheism and still call themselves Hindus. The mythologies - Ramayana and Mahabharatha, if not for anything else make for good stories. Like someone pointed out earlier, shortcomings in Hindu icons appear in these two at many places. To the uninitiated, this makes their comprehension of the subject all the more complex. Krishna advocating Arjuna to `strike in the back` of Karna while his chariott is sunk in the earth, Bheema killing Duryodhana by hitting on his weakest part -- his thigh, Rama aiming at Vali and striking him with his arrow behind his back

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all of these can make a Hindu a supporter of the underdogs -- the `villains` in these two mythologies :). In other words, Dharma had to be put on the backburner for the short-term to achieve Dharma in the long-run again, and quickly.


Its true that the lack of a central authority, the lack of rigid tenets in Hinduism, are its unique strengths. It would be nice though, for religion to weigh less in the subcontinent, and worldly matters to gain more space.

Prioritizing Science and Technology Hi Charlie/Omer (#6)

Communications was the thrust area in my masters. Right now I am working for a well known communications company in san diego, my profile is a bit old. BTW, are you Omer Cheema, the author of this article ? :)

Prioritizing Science and Technology Omer,

A timely article ! We need to get our priorities right. Education is the pill for subcontinental issues and we have to choose between a civilized, educated society and an unstable one reeling with anger, and frustration. Though I wouldn`t say Indian education is well-rounded, atleast in technology, it manages to produce a large pool of well-aware, competitive professionals. Of course, this can be attributed to the law of large numbers, to some extent.

There are some issues though, one of which is trivialization of pursuits towards excellence. Just like our attitude towards anything in the subcontinent is, we are laid back in our attempts at improving the quality of teaching and that of information dissemination (the fact that supposedly `big` universities cannot maintain decent websites attests to this fact). The only prerequisites for some good research in any area is a lot of patience, objectivity, uncompromising attitude, and some information management skills. Unfortunately, the above qualities are not nurtured as much as they should be. Given the national, international politics (God knows how large the influence of Bollywood is...) that loom so large in the subcontinent, the mind does not get as much space as it needs. Its high time both the government and the people in the region decide whether to focus on investment in education (of quality), or lose out on the global radar screen. India had this always in mind, and it did some wise investment, though it can and has to do a lot, to earn its rightful place.

Musharraf’s Enlightened Moderation, My Foot Hi Abrar,

Nice one. It is true that not having an agreeable vent for opposition is the one of the main causes for the tumult in the muslim world. But while it is just one, it is also true that a large section of the muslim world gets swayed emotionally because of seemingly trivial secular issues. One such example, is the design of a logo on Nike shoes sometime back. There should brew thinking within whether or not to be `fired up` so easily. This can only happen with better education, exposure to other cultures and sincere appreciation of good aspects in those. The ideal thing to happen is: 1) customization of the religion to one`s own personality, 2) reformation within the `church` 3) decoupling religion from administration 4) and of course, more and more popular support for democracy, which we all hope to see happen very soon in Pakistan

The Secularity of India Nader,

I am really apalled with your views, on Indian secularism. Indian secularism is faulty, but its not off the mark !

``...the most telling illustration of this is the fact that the laws of India do not treat a Muslim like a Hindu, or a Hindu like a Zoroastrian. A secular state where all men are not equal under the law? I rest my case``

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Like it has been pointed out in an earlier post, the said laws pertain only to civil affairs. There is pressure to bring a unified civil code, but alas, the `minorities` themselves are the last ones to want it.

There are fanatic Indians, agreed, but from all religions. Given the immense diversity, for every extremist force that exists, there is an abundance of moderating forces. To ease outsiders` concerns, loyalties of most `majority` community members are more regionalistic, linguistic, and community oriented than religious. This precisely, saved the skin of secularism in India.

Unsubstantiated authority that is evident from your above statement only leaves many Indians dumbfounded and sore.