What are the major changes?

A lot happened.

“The President has proclaimed Emergency. There is nothing to panic about,” declared Indira Gandhi on All India Radio.

The Indian healthcare system

India’s Refugee Situation

What is the government doing for those who have lost loved ones to COVID-19?

The My Lai (pronounced ‘me-lie’) Massacre took place on 16th March 1968 during the Vietnam War, which lasted almost 20 years. The war saw heavy American involvement, who saw it as a war against communism (North Vietnam was communist).

Quotes and actions of Indian Prime Ministers that reflect the opposite of mainstream narratives.

Some of the letters written by the Indian soldiers involved in World War 1:

Kerala has an elephant spa!

Twitter is in hot soup with the government. Here’s why:

Sign the petition at change.org - End Female Genital Mutilation in India

Some insight into how diverse India’s major political parties look like on paper.

Earlier this month, farmers rejected an offer by the government to suspend the laws for 18 months, saying that they would only accept a complete repeal.

Directly? No. But the bills didn’t pop out of the blue either. Nearly 2 decades worth of committees had made recommendations very similar to what was passed, and all of them had consulted with agricultural organisations. Here are some of the excerpts from the reports by various organisations, including the UN:

2001: Inter-Ministerial Task Force:

Looking into the intended benefits of the bills, potential drawbacks identified by the opposition as well as some key issues that the bills do not address.

A guide to understanding MSP, as well as its prevalence.

In this post, we cover the key points of each of the Acts. If you would like to read the Acts themselves, or view some other resources, the links can be found at the bottom. For me, it was this three hour video that cleared up most of my doubts

Before we discuss the three agricultural acts, we should first understand the problems faced by India’s farmers prior to the passing of said reforms.

A list of what to look out for this year, politics and otherwise.

It’s hard to stay positive amongst the maelstrom of bad news so this is our humple attempt at lifting your spirits.

Citations:

Panun Kashmir translates to “our Kashmir” in Kashmiri. Although Panun Kashmir is also the name of the founding organisation of the Panun Kashmir movement, the movement is our subject of discussion today. The Panun Kashmir movement is a demand for “a separate homeland for displaced Kashmiris who have faced suppression for centuries”. The organisation Panun Kashmir published a resolution in 1991 called Margdarshan that outlined the specific claims of the displaced Hindus of the valley. A few years later, they followed up with a publication entitled “Why Homeland for Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir?” which addressed several questions such as “why a separate homeland?” as well as “is it a Hindu homeland we are seeking?”. The publication also tackles issues such as disinformation in the valley as well as Article 370, which still remain hot topics in the discussion surrounding Kashmir 30 years later.

Yoga. Derived from the Sanskrit word ‘yuj’, meaning ‘to unite’, the practice of yoga is meant to unite the individual’s consciousness with that of the universe. Recently, while reading The Sellout by Paul Beatty, I was surprised to see the words “yoga” and “yogi” in use. The following are the excerpts in which they are mentioned:

Apprehending those accused of rape is hard enough as it is, but sometimes judges become another obstacle. Here’s some of the things Indian judges have said about rape:

Dear Humanity,

Sanskrit is well-known to have had a significant impact on Asia, and it still lives on in the form of countries’ names. Here’s a brief list:

You can read the post here.

The UN had to write a UN report about themselves.

In his first speech before the members of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in 1947, Mohammad Ali Jinnah said that non-Muslims would be equal citizens in the new country and that every person living in the country would be an equal citizen, irrespective of his or her community, caste, colour, or faith. History is witness to the fact that what Jinnah said was not even remotely accurate as to what would happen.

This concerns a post put up by @muslim (Instagram). Unfortunately, because of the username of the account, I am definitely going to be vilified for supposedly being prejudiced against their account and promoting hate speech against it. I just want to put this out there now: I do not have a problem with the account (or any other account for that matter) insofar as it does not propagate fake news or half-truths. I also do not condone of any religious hate-speech that may follow.

The Daily Show used to be an entertaining way to keep abreast with world affairs until it became all about the lowest common denominator.

Shalom. I am not here to inform you on the CAA, its pros, its cons or the controversies surrounding it. I am presently writing about it, and I will share my findings with you in due time. Today, I just want to talk about the term “Anti-CAA”.

In his first speech before the members of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in 1947, Mohammad Ali Jinnah said that non-Muslims would be equal citizens in the new country and that every person living in the country would be an equal citizen, irrespective of his or her community, caste, colour, or faith. History is witness to the fact that what Jinnah said was not even remotely accurate as to what would happen.

I understand that because “Allahabad” has “Allah” in it, it touches on religious sensitivities. I assure you, however, that this is not a critique of Islam or an onslaught on Islam. It is a critique of ruthless emperors who changed the name of a venerated area with no regard for the inhabitants of the area. It is also a critique of the emperors themselves, who killed many natives, and enslaved many others. I urge you to keep an open mind as you read through this.

One country defends monuments of slavery and one is presently trying to tear them down.

Before embarking on our discussion of Hinduism and Pride, we must remember the difference between Shruti and Smriti (I have made story highlights about this). The Shruti texts, which are considered to be the word of the Divine, do not go into the specificities of much. They deal with dharma, artha and kama, which leads to moksha, and how one can achieve said moksha. This involves being a good person, following your dharma, engaging in other yogic practices, etc. But they do not elaborate much on any other topic.

The point of my account is to speak the truth, and to represent a balanced perspective. But what is a balanced perspective?

Let’s try and break it down.