Peoples Telangana

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The Case of the Kumbakonam Shankaracharya

MOHAN GURUSWAMY: The late Jayendra Saraswathy, the self styled Shankaracharya was accused of having a former acolyte, Sankararaman, murdered and was sensationally arrested by the Tamil Nadu Police in a midnight operation when he was visiting Mahbubnagar, then in AP. The arrest of this "prince of Brahmins" sent shock waves through the powerful TamBram establishment in Tamil Nadu. How this came to pass is at the most obvious level a tale of hubris. When Henry II wanted to be rid of Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury all he had to do was to loudly exclaim: “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” He had hardly uttered these words when four knights led by Reginald Fitz Urse set of for Canterbury to do the dastardly deed. Henry II Plantagenet was in Winston Churchill’s opinion “the very greatest King England ever knew” but history knows him mostly as the man who murdered Beckett. Likewise Jayendra Saraswathy will be remembered, rightly or wrongly, as the man w...

Threads of Change: Understanding India’s Textile Transformation (1890–1940)

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 ...

The Discomfort of Questions

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...

అధికారం, సోషల్ మీడియా వ్యూహాలు: ఉన్నత వర్గాల కేసుల్లో అసలు నిజాలు ఎలా మారుతాయి?

Nagesh Bhushan అధికారం, సోషల్ మీడియా వ్యూహాలు: ఉన్నత వర్గాల కేసుల్లో అసలు నిజాలు ఎలా మారుతాయి? పెద్ద పెద్ద రాజకీయ నాయకులు లేదా సంపన్న కుటుంబాల పిల్లలు కేసుల్లో ఇరుక్కున్నప్పుడు ఏం జరుగుతుంది? కేవలం కోర్టుల్లోనే కాదు, బయట ప్రజల్లో కూడా వారిపై చెడు అభిప్రాయం రాకుండా పెద్ద ఎత్తున ప్లాన్‌లు జరుగుతుంటాయి. అధికారం, డబ్బు, సోషల్ మీడియాను వాడుకుని కేసులను ఎలా మలుపు తిప్పుతారో సులువుగా అర్థం చేసుకోవడానికి ఈ క్రింది నాలుగు పాయింట్లు చదవండి. 1. అరెస్ట్ చేశారా? లేక వాళ్లే లొంగిపోయారా? ఒక విఐపి (VIP) నిందితుడిని పోలీసులు పట్టుకున్నప్పుడు రెండు రకాల కథనాలు వినబడతాయి: పోలీసుల వెర్షన్: తాము నిరూపణల ఆధారంగా నిందితుడిని అధికారికంగా అరెస్ట్ చేశామని పోలీసులు చెప్తారు. కుటుంబాల వెర్షన్: తాము చట్టాన్ని గౌరవించి, స్వచ్ఛందంగా లొంగిపోయామని సదరు కుటుంబ సభ్యులు మీడియాకు చెప్తారు. ఇలా చెప్పడం వెనుక ఒక పెద్ద పబ్లిక్ రిలేషన్స్ (PR) వ్యూహం ఉంటుంది. తాము తప్పు చేయలేదని, చట్టాన్ని గౌరవిస్తున్నామని ప్రజలను నమ్మించడానికి ఈ "లొంగుబాటు" కథనాన్ని వాడుకుంటారు. 2. గ్యాగ్ ఆర్డర్లు అంటే ఏమిటి? పెద్ద పెద్ద కేసుల్లో...

Snatching strategic defeat from the jaws of tactical victory

Operation Rising Lion and Operation Epic Fury have redrawn the Middle East's military map. Whether the United States and Israel have won the war—or merely a series of battles—depends on six questions whose answers will not be known for years. Nagesh Bhushan | Hyderabad, India O n June 11th 2025, Israeli jets crossed into Iranian airspace and began the most audacious military operation in the Middle East since the Gulf War. Twelve days later, a ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump halted what both sides were already calling the defining conflict of the region's modern era. Nine months later, the United States joined in earnest, launching Operation Epic Fury on February 28th 2026—a campaign that lasted 71 days, struck more than 9,000 targets, and gutted Iran's navy, air defences, and ballistic-missile stockpile. On May 5th, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared offensive operations concluded. The guns, for now, have fallen silent. The silence, however, is not th...