The Young India

Ananth Venkatesh

I profess that there is immense admiration and fascination in me for Hinduism and for the many divinities that epitomize this faith.

The sacred books such as the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita and many others provide this religion with its seductively cerebral foundations. The duration of the survival of these pious treatises illustrates their attachment to the psychology and mentality of the Indian State.

The gorgeousness of Hindu treatises is that their applicabilities is not confined to the Hindus alone. Sage standpoints are …

Kartikey Sehgal

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The respondent is unconcerned about the topic. She is unaware of discussions on casteism and racism in the media. She tells me that there are many like her; they have belief in dharma and don’t bother about what allegations others put on their way of living. Often I have to reconfirm what she says;  “there was lots of bloodshed between the brahmins and kshatriyas” where bloodshed means that the boy’s family didn’t accept the girl. But …

Kartikey Sehgal

I came upon this information during a conversation on casteism. The lady told me, “There has never been much caste problem in my home town [Jammu] )".

She continued:

“We recently discovered that a family belonging to the shudra caste is actually a brahmin family. The ____ (surname) were brahmins at one time and shifted to a lower caste probably to defend themselves.”

Here’s the backdrop; two families in Jammu have been friends for many decades thought they are from different castes. The …

Kartikey Sehgal

A walk to Dr. Ambedkar’s memorial prompts thoughts on ‘dalitism’.

Did Siddhārtha envisage Indian Buddhism as a sect of people bickering about the validity and significance of a particular famous leader? Or a sect that frowns upon and overtly discourages a boy and a girl from holding hands? If we consider Buddhism as a religion without rites and if then outlaw ‘couples’ then doesn’t it become a religion of rites; that one rule spawning several other rules about public decency and morality leading …

Kartikey Sehgal

It is absolutely fine if you do not vote in the coming elections. Asking you to vote compulsorily is like enforcing a caste system.

Consider the Jaago Re ad on television in which a ‘young’ man and his friend offer tea to people who have not cast their vote. You are sleeping-he tells them. When they retort that they are awake, the man says that if on Election Day people are not voting then they are obviously sleeping. The embarrassed/awakened people then accept the cup of tea as the two young men walk confidently amidst the crowd.

Compulsory voting is subterfuge.

Kartikey Sehgal
A green parcel-like bomb lies at the centre of a road. The police cordon off the entire area and send a protected man to diffuse it. Crowds stand at road corners wondering what would have happened had it exploded. News channels do the same; thinking on behalf of people sitting at home.

This is a time when caste and class barriers thin out. The madam in the fancy car and the salesman inside the fancy potholed road are discussing safety issues in a few sentences. And nobody asks the sweeper his caste before informing him about the green parcel that lies at the centre of the road.