Peoples Telangana

MOHAN GURUSWAMY   The Indian Union of States has reached a critical impasse. Its diversity bound together by the Constitution that was meant to make us a modern, democratic and secular state based on equality and equal availability of justice, education, healthcare and social services, and division of government based on functions is now under grave challenge. India was never intended to be a saffron hued monochromatic state, but a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual state whose diversity made it a nation as never before. Its demographics compound its problems by threatening to swamp the non-Hindi/Hindutva belt into a saffronised dominion.   Each state in India is a veritable nation and hence maintaining the balance of political and economic power between them is critical. The delimitation exercise now underway will reduce the weightage in Parliament of the states that did better on giving their people a better quality and standard of life, and hence curbed the popu...

MOHAN GURUSWAMY: The Indian Union of States has reached a critical impasse. Its diversity bound together by the Constitution that was meant to make us a modern, democratic and secular state based on equality and equal availability of justice, education, healthcare and social services, and division of government based on functions is now under grave challenge. India was never intended to be a saffron hued monochromatic state, but a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual state whose diversity made it a nation as never before. Its demographics compound its problems by threatening to swamp the non-Hindi/Hindutva belt into a saffronised dominion. Each state in India is a veritable nation and hence maintaining the balance of political and  economic power between them is critical. The delimitation exercise now underway will reduce the weightage in Parliament of the states that did better on giving their people a better quality and standard of life, and hence curbed the population....

MOHAN GURUSWAMY: Soon after the attack on Kiev stalled, President Putin sent the western alliance (NATO +EU) into a tizzy by announcing that Russia has put its nuclear defences on alert. What he was ambiguously stating was that the entire panoply of Russian air and space defences will be of a heightened alert status. These defences are meant to largely neutralise an incoming nuclear assault leaving enough Russian “first strike” nuclear forces of land based and highly accurate nuclear missiles standing to be able launch a devastating counter strike. But what he was doing was to introduce nuclear calculus into the security equation. He was telling the west that any attempt to impose a ‘no-fly’ zone over Ukraine will entail a war with Russia. Biden sensibly baulked and blinked!  The threat of an implicit nuclear escalation is not uncommon. Many declared and undeclared nuclear countries constantly resort to it. Several times in the past senior Pakistani officials have warned that dispu...

Mohan Guruswamy  We must never forget that half the Pashtun nation lives in Pakistan. And to understand what is Afghanistan we only have to recall the words of Afghanistan’s great poet, Khushal Khan Khattak: “Son, one word I have for thee, Fear no one and no one you flee. Pull out your sword and slay any one, That says Pashtun and Afghan are not one. Arabs know this and so do Romans Afghans are Pashtuns, Pashtuns are Afghans.” Afghanistan emerged as a country-of-sorts in the mid-18th century, when Ahmad Khan, later Ahmad Shah, leader of the Abdali contingent in the Persian army of Nadir Shah, carved out a buffer zone between Persia and a crumbling Mughal empire in the Indian subcontinent.  History, however much we may try to deny or distort it, has a way of repeating itself. One lesson from recent history is the assertion of nationality as a unifying theme. Religion, history shows, is not enough of a glue to hold diverse nations together. Pakistan should know. Religion did not...

MOHAN GURUSWAMY. The Indian Ocean has been at the centre of world history ever since we know. Man originated in Africa, probably somewhere in the Olduvai Gorge in present day Tanzania – where Homo Erectus lived 1.2 million years ago and where the first traces of Homo Sapiens, our more recent ancestors having evolved only about 200,000 years ago. First phonetic languages evolved around 100, 000 years ago. The migration of mankind out of Africa began almost 60000 years ago. But we don’t call the Indian Ocean the African Ocean because first recorded activity over it began only about 4000 years ago.  Three great early recorded activities of this period come to mind. The first is the Indus Valley Civilization. It was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent. Along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilizations of the Old World, and of the three the most widespread...

By Mohan Guruswamy  How did Modi end up thinking Alexander was stopped on the north bank of the Ganges opposite Pataliputra? Many years ago I visited the excavations at the site of the original Pataliputra near present day Patna. The massive columns that survived the annual ravages of the Ganga tell us of the glory of the Mauryans.  But Alexander never came this far. To understand how Modi goofed one needs to go far away to the west to Mendhar. Mendhar is an interesting and historical place. Its midway between Rajouri and Poonch. The ancient Mughal road to Kashmir is nearby. The name Mendhar is derived from the Indo-Greek king Menander (155 -130BC) who founded it. Nearby is the village of Baflias, whose name  was inspired by Alexander's favorite war horse Buchephalus. Many believe it was buried here, but it is unlikely as Alexander didn't cross the Hydapses (Jhelum).  I visited the area in 1994 as a guest of the famous 25 Division of the Indian Army and w...

Mohan Guruswamy  I was once having lunch at the home of a Prime Minister, along with a very small and rather eclectic group. I looked around and realised that I was the only non-Brahmin. The talk veered around to the preservation and dissemination of traditional Hindu culture and arts, and the role of the Brahmins in it. About how the top artists and sculptors, musicians, writers and poets, historians etc were mostly Brahmins(largely true). And about how it was the responsibility of the Brahmins to preserve our national identity. At some stage I noticed that the conversation changed from the third person to the first person. Instead of "the Brahmins" the discourse began employing "we/us". So I asked the lady sitting next to me as to why they were talking in terms of us and them, when I was not a Brahmin. She expressed surprise and said that given my name, education and attainments, it was always assumed that I was a Brahmin. She then told the group that the topic of...