I AND MY WORDS

Courtesy: India TV There has been a lot of criticism about the Election Commission's handling of the COVID pandemic. One would imply that the cases have exploded as a result of the electioneering in India. There is no logic behind this argument for a simple reason - this logic flies in the face of the fact that states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Punjab should not have been facing any outbreaks of the kind that are reeling under, given there are no elections there. Even if one were to believe that logic, the numbers should have actually reflected the spike within a month's time. The reason behind the month's timeline is that the cases take at least a week to surface and another two to three weeks to be clear from the human system for the survivors and mildly affected people. Assuming that a person was affected within seven days of attending a rally or a roadshow, the numbers should start reflecting in the moving average.  When one takes up the data for t...

The 2021 Bengal assembly elections are going on, with the latest voting round witnessing deadly political violence in Cooch Behar. However, as an observer, and that too as Obangali or Bahiragata, there are broader meta narratives that have been emerging for a while. It is strange that most people have failed to notice a few trends. While the economic and development trends are well understood and have been discussed to the point of saturation, there is increased interest in the Hindu identity of Bengal, and open questioning of the shenanigans of the Kolkata bhodrolokis in the name of minority appeasement that has hung over the state of Bengal for decades on a stretch now.   Cultural Revivalism of the Subaltern Hindus What do I mean when I say cultural revivalism? Many people will actually not take my claim lightly, but let me give an example to highlight what has been going on. Irrespective of the Trinamool’s power control, the television industry of Bengal has seen a succes...

The Flag of India as Adopted in 1906 Congress Session Being the proponent of the theory that gave direction to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, it is often forgotten that nationalism remains a key pillar to the theory of integral humanism. However, the problem with the usage of the term nationalism emanates in modern academia from the manner in which the word itself gets defined. Having its roots in the European nation-state creative processes, the concept of a religion, a language or an ethnicity is the key driver for the understanding of nationalism in the Euro-centric theorization. This is a rather parochial understanding from the Eastern perspectives of the conceptualization of a nation state. Unlike the Western model of nationalism, there is a rootedness in the approaches of the eastern civilizations in general that make the idea distinct. Cultural identity is the actual marker of this civilizational approach, and the individual as part of society rather than an individual or a society...