My Perspective

We are in the middle of a new AI revolution that is going to change media forever. This could give a push to the saturating and plateaued social media. It could also make it even more difficult to reach a wider audience due to higher competition. To contemplate and guess what may happen, we must understand how changing media changed societies and civilizations. It does three things – unites a type of people, divides or polarizes a group, democratizes a previous media system, and makes content more local, but reduces wider reach. Creation of Insiders, but also Outsiders   Invention of Languages When early humans invented languages, they became more organized and developed tribes and societies. But this also clearly defined the concept of an ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’. When they came in contact with tribes which didn’t speak their languages, the idea of insider and outsider became clearer. This also led to clashes and cultural feuds.   Invention of Writing Systems When...

In recent times many countries are taking a right turn. Right-wing politics has been rising globally since some time, and this has increased discussions and debates on the role of religion in a state.  Traditionalists claim a country has a religious identity irrespective it is secular or not. They feel this religious identity has to be sealed with a proclamation of a state religion. Supporters of state religion claim that nothing would change and minorities will continue to live normally as they have been living till now. But its critiques misinterpret it as a theocracy. Hence during a debate, each side is not able to convince the other why they oppose the idea, as their imagination of a state religion is different from the person differing. So to clarify, let me explain the types of state concerning religion. Broadly, let's bifurcate states into two types: Religious State, and Non-Religious State. Each type has three sub-types, which can cause confusion. Religious State: Cultural ...

I remember a lesson we had in Hindi subject when we were in school. Don't remember the exact year or the exact story, but only its crux. It was a story of Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara Empire. As the story goes, Krishnadevaraya was a just king who was trying to do good for his subjects. But no matter what policies he made, it all failed miserably. One day, a sage came to visit his court. The king spoke about this issue to the sage and asked for a solution. But instead of answering him, the sage passed a weird comment. The sage said that the room of the court stinks. He said it has a damp smell and advised that the king should open up the windows and let the fresh air come in. He also told the king that good ventilation of air is beneficial for everyone's well-being. Then the sage left the court leaving the king puzzled. Puzzled because the windows were already open, fresh air was coming in and there was no damp smell. Tenali Rama was also in the court when the sage m...

Indian polity of the early ancient times was comprised of clans, settlements and tribes referred as Kula , Visha and Jana respectively. [1]  Several clans formed a settlement and its patriarchs elected a leader amongst themselves. Similarly these leaders of settlements elected amongst them a king called Rajana . [2]   The kingdom got its name after the ruling clan and hence we find words like Kuru , Puru , Ikshvaku and so on. A kingdom had many clans which united and fought wars under the banner of their ruler's clan. There were countless banners of countless tribes who waged war for suzerainty over other tribes and their lands. Change in situation, diplomacy and agreements led to breaking up of these alliances of houses. A region that came under the banner of a house or a tribe at a point in time went to some other house or tribe when loyalty and public mood shifted. If you could go to a certain region you could see who is controlling it just by looking at its flag. Do...

We know from the Hindu epics and mythologies that after ruling the kingdom of Hastinapura post Mahabharata war the Pandavas retired to Himalayas. Yudhisthira handed over the throne of Hastinapura to Parikshit, who was son of Abhimanyu and grandson of Arjuna. Parikshit was a pious king. His reign saw the beginning of Kala Yuga or the Dark Age which began soon after Lord Krishna left his mortal body and went to Vaikuntha. In the Puranas the dark age is personified the demon "Kali". He symbolises corruption, evil, suffering and everything bad. When the Kali Yuga began, the demon Kali entered Parikshit's realm. When Parikshit stopped him the demon asked Parikshit to name few places where he can dwell. Parikshit granted him five places to reside amongst which was gold. Kali immediately entered Parikshit's golden crown and began to corrupt his mind. This made him arrogant and made him do wrong things. When he went to a sage who was meditating, he threw a dead snake on th...

The Karnataka Government  recently setup a panel to look into legality of having an official flag for the state of Karnataka. This led to an outrage among many people calling a state flag a step towards separatist movement. Mostly because Indian states other than Jammu & Kashmir have no official state flags and as J&K is an autonomous state with some issues people feel having a state flag is a step towards breaking away. Proposed Official flag for Karnataka But according to me it should not be a big deal as every state in India have its separate identity and a state flag is just a symbolic representation of it.  India is among very few countries in the world where states does not have its official flags. Be it the US, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Australia and even Pakistan has official flags for their states and it is not a big deal in those countries. I believe the concept of a state flag should have been created when we formed out constitution so that by no...

Yes, the most controversial topic of Indian politics since its independence and the basis of Indo-Pak conflict - The Kashmir Issue. I have found that many Indians don't know much about the state and its culture and fight or debate on it only on the basis of emotions. Religious emotions mostly. So here's an overview of the state and my take on it. Many of you must be thinking that Jammu & Kashmir is a state with just one culture i.e. Kashmiri, like a 'Nation-State'. To have a clarity on what is a Nation-State, you may visit my other article on ' Ethnic Nationalism '. But that is not true, the state of J&K is a multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-cultural society bound by a former ruler and history. Here' s the map of the former Princely State of Jammu & Kashmir.  Not everyone speaks Kashmiri The state is culturally divided into these regions. Jammu region- Dogra speaking (similar to Punjabi) Kashmir valley - Kashmi...

A lot is heard about ethnic based separatist movements, like people of a particular region in a country having issues with people of other regions within the country. Most of the reasons are ethnic or cultural and the demands range from territorial autonomy to complete independence. Why does it happen? Well for that we have to go back in history. During the age of empires, the political boundaries were not limited to the cultural boundaries but depended on the ruler's imperial capacities. For examples: Maratha Empire had conquered and ruled states like Gujarat and Central India which were culturally distinct. The French Empire ruled Italy and Spain. The Japanese Empire briefly ruled nations in South East Asia and Korea. The British, well their rule was in every continent of the world. When concept of Nation-State emerged, it started changing political boundaries. Most common factor was language; kingdoms like Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria etc. joined to form Germany, as they a...

People all over the world have misconceptions about India including Indians. Unlike countries like Germany, Japan, Thailand, Bangladesh, India is not a nation-state. But we present her as a nation-state just because we compare India with other countries. But that's not true. Nation State Nation-State is a concept in which " nation " means people (ethnic group) and " state " means government or rule. In the old ages there use to be city-states, kingdoms and empires, which had nothing to do with culture or geography. All the lands possible to conquer were conquered, irrespective of culture. Nation-state emerged as a concept in which a country is a homeland of an ethnic people. Hence,  Germany (German people, German language, German cuisine, German culture), Italy (Italian people, Italian language, Italian cuisine, Italian culture), Japan (Japanese people, Japanese language, Japanese cuisine, Japanese culture.) But there are some countries  which do not fit ...