Current affairs, spirituality, heritage & lifestyle.
Many Patels in Gujarat are agitating for Other Backward Caste status, in order to access the same “Reservation” benefits as Scheduled Castes, Schedules Tribes and Other Backward Castes. Reservations are a quota based form of affirmative action, through which a certain percentage of government jobs and places in educational institutes are guaranteed to members of certain […]
Over a century ago, the great sage Sri Aurobindo wrote an article called “The UnHindu Spirit of Caste Rigidity” (available here). His ideas for striking at the very root of the caste problem are valid even today, and need to be taken up with more urgency that in the past. To secure its future, Hindu […]
It is very heartening to find Dalits becoming religiously self-sufficient within the Hindu fold, and developing learned priests within their own community.. But let us not be complacent. Let us destroy any vestige of birth based Varna, so that it is nothing more than a bad memory within 20 years. There is nowhere in the […]
“The only place in the UK where the hereditary caste system is practiced is Buckingham Palace!” Dilip Lakhani is a well-known figure in the British Hindu community. He is founder of Vivekananda Centre UK and for many years has been on a seemingly tireless mission to promote Hinduism in Britain. His work has included setting […]
Veda Vyasa is a legendary Hindu sage, whose very name is synonymous to Hindus with knowledge. According to traditional Hindu accounts, he lived at the end of the Treta Yuga and early Kali Yuga (the date for the beginning of the Kali Yuga is 3102BC). Veda Vyasa is accredited with compiling the Vedas and writing […]
Recently(*) the Indian state of Rajasthan, supposedly the “Land of Kings”, was host to one of the worst bouts of “caste riots” that India has seen in recent years, leaving at least 9 dead and many more injured. Eventually the Indian armed forces had to be brought in to quell the situation. What is particularly […]
(Originally published in Hindu Voice UK – July 2009) “Intelligent Life” (?!) Recently I received a copy of “Intelligent Life” (Spring 2009 Edition), a quarterly lifestyle magazine from The Economist Group. As its name suggests, the makers of the magazine fancy it to be a particularly intelligent magazine! The Economist Group of publications is a […]
This article put another perspective on a phenomenon that no-one usually dares to mention without putting on a grimace of horror and uttering shrieks of indignation: Chaturvarna, usually mistranslated as the caste system. Let me state from the outset that I am a firm believer in the Vedic verse “All men are brothers; no one […]
Hindu Perspective 