Reflections

The Great Indian Middle Class - the driver of India's growth; the focus of business entities from across the world; the source of some of the most-qualified people both in India and in the migrant Indian Community abroad; the cynosure of all eyes in the media; the pride and joy of India; the drivers of India's consumption, as well as one of the main of the national savings rate; the most educated and erudite people in India! All of these, and more, are used to refer to the Middle Class, which is also the biggest magnet for International Business. The size of this class has been one of the single most mentioned aspects of the Indian Consumerist Landscape.  However, as all things in life, this too has another perspective, one that does not give such a rosy picture of the fabled middle class which is the cynosure of more than a few scholarly researches and erudite articles. To be blunt, the other side of this bright, resplendent and fast rising class gives a picture that cha...

1857, The event known, till date, as the Sepoy Mutiny by a fairly large segment of our population. Even those who refer to it as a War of Independence call it a spontaneous uprising; thanks largely to the incorrect narrative of the war written and recorded by the English, and dutifully followed by Indian Historians inspite of pervasive evidence to the contrary. Even the most balanced of books on the national movement refer to the presence of some form of conspiracy, but leave it at that, saying no proof exists. Surprisingly, they did not need to look any further than an existing book - Mazhaa Pravaas - an eyewitness account of the events, that lay bare the reality. I have read and reviewed its English translation on my Blog, so am aware, and recognise the need for an honest investigation into the reality of 1857. The current book under review, is a truly commendable start in that direction. This book goes much further than that one single source stated above...

This is the third article in the reality series... We are, as a nation, 67 years young today, with our tumultous years hopefully well behind us. We, as a nation, are just coming out of a very demanding period in our life-cycle, and stand at a very critical juncture. As we head into these elections, we stand at a vital junction in our life-cycle. The rise, rise and rise of Narendra Modi has done one thing for certain : it has, yet again, exposed our weak underbelly; once again, we as a people stand stripped naked in front of the Whole Wide World. We stand stripped, and desnuded of all our pretentions, and our grandiose statement of focussing on the issues that matter.  In its place, we are seeing a sorry and sad spectacle that will no doubt be infintely saddening to The Foundng Fathers Of Our Nation. Yet again, the public discourse has shifted - and shifted decisively - from issues, problems and solutions onto the more mundane, pointless but infinitely more dangerous disc...

  AUTHORS :  Dr V Lakshmikanthan is HOD of Mathematical Sciences at Florida Tech. He is the editor of 5 international mathematical journals; Dr J Vasundhara Devi is a mathematician and a professor.  When was Ashok really born? 4th Century BC - or more than a 1000 years before that? When was the Buddha really born? 6th Century BC - or more than a 1000 years before that? Who wrote the history that we know as gospel truth today? What were the motives behind writing this history? What were the other viewpoints considered when our {Indian} history was being written by the western scholars? When was the Mahabharat era? Who were the 2 ChandraGuptas?  Is the Aryan Invasion the truth - or a complete fabrication? What were the mental attitudes of the people who wrote our history? And much, much more… This is a book that I set about reviewing with some trepidation, since some of the contents are explosive, to ...

First, history... and then, to top that, Economic History. Yaaaawn, you would think; yet another long-winded treatise that is boooring, you would think. You could not be more off the mark; the current book stands as the best, most interesting and power-packed book on Indian History that I have ever encountered. It is short, to-the-point, powerful, and deeply engaging in its flawless narrative and nearly irrefutable in its scathing indictment of the British. Next, why should you read this? Reason : because any number of educated Indians regard the British rule as either a boon, or just another subduing power. For them, this book forms the ideal vehicle; it deals with that easily understandable commodity - money, moolah, cash. Not for this book the esoteric realms of cultural subjugation a-la Pawan Verma; or the cruel horrors of imperial murder and genocide in 1857 and 1942-44 a-la other writers. This deals with a subject that is easy to explain, as well as un...