Promise of Reason

The marriage ceremony of Feroze Khan and Indira Nehru

Indira Gandhi’s (Originally, Indira Nehru) husband’s name was Feroz Khan.Feroz Khan’s mother was Ratimai Gandhi and his father was Jehangir Faredoon Khan (Indira Gandhi’s Father-in-law.Feroz Khan changed his surname from Khan to Gandhi,that is, to his mother’s father’s surname.

Reason? Had Rajiv “Gandhi” retained  his father’s surname, there was least probability that Hindu majority would accept him in that scenario.

So,tracing descent, basically the whole “Gandhi Family” is a “Khan Family”.

Did YOU know that?

Unlike western countries where democratisation was a product of industrialisation and economic development, for India Democratisation was a means of social and economic development.Due to this, there are various dichotomies regarding text and context of India.For instance, we have a secular state (according to constitution) but not a secular society.

Dichotomy regarding state and civil society influences the functioning of political parties and government to a large extent in Indian democracy.Democracy makes government and parties function in a constraint fashion.Here, I analyse how political parties function inadequately and how these inadequacies are somehow inherent in Democracy of  third world societies. Read the rest of this entry »

For nearly 2000 years now Af-pak area has been constantly a zone of war, shifting boundaries and bloodshed. It is upto our generation to look for long term answers rather than finding temporary patchworks as has been done by British raj in India, Russia, US/NATO over and over again. It must be understood that ultimate peace and prosperity in a region can come only when the society of that place is in peace with itself. It requires to look for the basis of stability in a society. Ethnicity is the main component of such basis. Only those countries all over the world are in perpetual state of peace where ethnic boundaries are coterminous with the national or state boundaries. Arbitrary drawing of boundaries based upon prevailing situation of time had costed north west of Indian subcontinent and many countries in Africa dear. It is time to recognize the natural frontiers and draw national lines without prejudice and analysis of immediate loss or gain by all concerned parties. Read the rest of this entry »

In recent times there have been demands for carving out smaller states, latest being great hoop-hulla around Telangana and anti-telangana agitations. The main apparent reason is sense of economic deprivation of certain areas in large states like UP, WB, AP MH etc. Cultural and political reasons are also responsible for such demands. It is argued that smaller and medium sized states will bring functional politics closer to people by making state government more responsive to local demands. Such an arrangement will also ensure proper distribution of centarl development funds to various regions of the larger states with subregional needs highlighted well. Read the rest of this entry »

jawaharlal nehru speech

Jawaharlal Nehru’s broadcast to the nation on August 15, 1948 is noteworthy because the words he uttered then hold considerable importance for our contemporary political life. Excerpts from that address are being reproduced here. Better late than never

Let us not forget where we have failed or where we have erred. For our failures and errors have been many. Some of these are obvious enough, but the real failure has been a failure of the spirit and a falling away from the high standards set by the Father of our Nation, under whose wise guidance we had struggled and marched for over a quarter of a century. He taught us that worthy ends could only be achieved through worthy means, that ideals and objectives could never be divorced from the methods adopted to realise them. He had told us to cast out fear, for fear is not only ignoble but is also the parent of hatred and violence. Read the rest of this entry »

Regions of North-western South Asia

Proposed National Boundaries

I am starting this new series on “how to reorganize the South Asia politically” so as to have maximum possibility of peace and prosperiety. Division on lines of religion has been proven wrong. Base of my analysis is ethnic character of the India-Pakistan-Afghanistan-Nepal-Sri Lanka-Bangladesh-Bhutan. This analysis is based on data collected over the time and my understanding of south asia, everybody is welcome to put in their views as comments. Later I plan to bring it out as free ebook. Read the rest of this entry »

This post is by Ratnakar Sadasyula, our guest contributor. Ratnakar is an IT professional. Please welcome him on POR.

The BJP’s spectacular rise in the 90’s was due to the enthusiastic backing of the younger sections of the population, during that time. The BJP had a large support from the younger educated professionals, the college going students, and people in the 20-40 age category. While the older generation still voted for the Congress, a major part of the BJP’s support base came from the youth. For a Generation, fed up with the shenigans of the Congress, the failure of “champagne socialism” and “sham secularism”, the BJP seemed the best alternative. The BJP’s right wing Hindutva ideology had large scale support among the urban educated middle classes, while its espousal of a capitalist economy enthused the youth. The reason why youth, including myself, supported the BJP in large numbers was its no nonsense stance on internal security and the country’s safety. Many ex Defence officers joined the BJP, impressed by the party’s discipline, its decorum. While there essentially was not much difference between Congress and BJP on economic policy in the 90’s, the difference was pronounced on other issues, like relations with US, more friendly policy with Israel, Uniform Civil Code, repeal of Article 370, which did really attract the youth. Read the rest of this entry »