Source CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, May 26, 2016 (edx.org): This religion course introduces the rich and diverse textual sources from which millions of Hindus have drawn religious inspiration for millennia. The Bhagavad Gita has offered philosophical insights to a number of modern thinkers. This course will introduce important passages from important Hindu sacred texts, their interpretations by moderns and will give you…
Source MYANMAR, May 18, 2016 (Frontier): Signs of a vibrant Hindu community are everywhere in downtown Yangon; ornate temples peer out from between the tenements, and periodic festivals enliven the streets with rhythmic music, colorful costumes and offerings of sweet masala chai. With their roots in several waves of Indian migration during the British colonial era, Myanmar’s Hindus are thoroughly…
Source It is far easier to conquer others than to conquer oneself, because the former can be attained by recourse to outside means, while the latter can be achieved only with one’s own mind.— Mahatma Gandhi(1869-1948)
Source HYDERABAD, INDIA, May 23, 2016 (by R. Rajashekar Rao, News India): The Hyderabad High Court has made it clear that once a member of Schedule Caste or Scheduled Tribe converts to Christianity or some other religion, such a person ceases to be a member of SC or ST and is no longer covered under the provisions of the Scheduled…
Source WASHINGTON D.C., US., May 20, 2016 (First Post): A California commission — mandated with recommendation and revision of school textbooks — has rejected demands of replacing India with South Asia for pre-1947 references, which had become a major bone of contention from various academic groups in the US. The California Department of Education’s (CDE) Instructional Quality Commission (IQC), at…
Source Eternal, pure, groundless, death-and-birth free, pervasive, ever immaculate, distant, near, enveloping effulgence of void, the support of all, the fullness of bliss, the consciousness-form beyond thought and speech, That which thus stood, the expanse vast that generates bliss, let us contemplate.— Tayumanavar (1706-1744), South Indian devotional poet
Source HYDERABAD, INDIA, May 18, 2015 (Times of India): The Iron Age may have come into existence in Telangana much before the rest of the world. At least that’s the conclusion reached by archaeologists excavating the University of Hyderabad campus who found iron artefacts dating back to roughly 2,200 BC. The team of archaeologists, led by professor KP Rao, has…
Source WASHINGTION, D.C., US, May 21, 2016 (Times of India by Chidanand Rajghatta): India has survived in California school textbooks. Nothing calamitous was going happen to the country itself, but a pedagogical and academic battle over use of the term “India” over “South Asia” has been resolved to the satisfaction of overseas Indian nationalistic groups and Indophiles. At the heart…
Source CALIFORNIA, May 17, 2016 (Press Trust of India): A group of 41 prominent scholars, including several Indian-Americans from across the US have written to the California Department of Education opposing proposals to change “India” to “South Asia” in the state text books.Signed by distinguished academics such as Barbara McGraw of Saint Marys College of California, Diana Eck of Harvard…