By Chuppala Nagesh Bhushan Introduction: The World’s Loom India’s historical identity is inextricably linked to its status as the primordial cradle of cotton manufacture. For millennia, the subcontinent’s "marvellously woven tissues" served not merely as local commodities but as premier luxury exports, sought after by the elites of ancient Rome, Egypt, and Greece. This "old hand-weaving industry" reached its zenith through a sophisticated ecosystem of hereditary craftsmanship and the robust patronage of royal courts. "The principal centres of this industry then were Dacca, Masulipatam and Paithan, noted respectively for muslins, chintzes and pitambars... in ancient Rome, according to all accounts, Indian muslins and chintzes were the rage of fashionable women." This era of artistic dominance, defined by the production of hand-spun yarn of incomparable fineness, remained the global standard for centuries. However, this ancient heritage was eventually ...
When a Norwegian journalist asked India's prime minister about press freedom, the resulting furore illuminated something far larger than a diplomatic spat On a bright morning in Oslo, a journalist did her job. Heli Ling, a Norwegian reporter with accreditation and a press pass, posed a question to a visiting head of state. The question was not polite. It was not intended to be. It touched on human rights, on press freedom, on the condition of journalists in a country of 1.5 billion people. Within hours, she had lost her social media accounts. Her home address had been published online. She was being called an "anti-India spy." She was not troubled. "A small price to pay," she said. Which is, in its way, the most troubling thing of all. That an accredited journalist in a stable Nordic democracy should consider organised harassment, digital erasure and coordinated doxxing a reasonable professional risk tells the observer something important. Not about Ms Lin...