Service Before Self:


Book Description

This memoir by Vinod Prakash is a compelling immigrant story about the courage to face life’s challenges and the conviction, even in the face of the most devastating illness, to continue leading a life of service to society. Vinod reveals his source of strength – his family values, with a belief in ‘duty’ rather than ‘rights’, and his dedication to seva (service) and the welfare of all Indians.




The Clash Within


Book Description

While America is focused on religious militancy and terrorism in the Middle East, democracy has been under siege from religious extremism in another critical part of the world. As Martha Nussbaum reveals in this penetrating look at India today, the forces of the Hindu right pose a disturbing threat to its democratic traditions and secular state. Since long before the 2002 Gujarat riots--in which nearly two thousand Muslims were killed by Hindu extremists--the power of the Hindu right has been growing, threatening India's hard-won constitutional practices of democracy, tolerance, and religious pluralism. Led politically by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Hindu right has sought the subordination of other religious groups and has directed particular vitriol against Muslims, who are cast as devils in need of purging. The Hindu right seeks to return to a "pure" India, unsullied by alien polluters of other faiths, yet the BJP's defeat in recent elections demonstrates the power that India's pluralism continues to wield. The future, however, is far from secure, and Hindu extremism and exclusivity remain a troubling obstacle to harmony in South Asia. Nussbaum's long-standing professional relationship with India makes her an excellent guide to its recent history. Ultimately she argues that the greatest threat comes not from a clash between civilizations, as some believe, but from a clash within each of us, as we oscillate between self-protective aggression and the ability to live in the world with others. India's story is a cautionary political tale for all democratic states striving to act responsibly in an increasingly dangerous world.




Hindu Nationalism in the Indian Diaspora


Book Description

Hindu nationalism is transforming India, as an increasingly dominant ideology and political force. But it is also a global phenomenon, with sections of India's vast diaspora drawn to, or actively supporting, right-wing Hindu nationalism. Indians overseas can be seen as an important, even inextricable, aspect of the movement. This is not a new dynamic--diasporic Hindutva ('Hindu-ness') has grown over many decades. This book explores how and why the movement became popular among India's diaspora from the second half of the twentieth century. It shows that Hindutva ideology, and its plethora of organisations, have a distinctive resonance and way of operating overseas; the movement and its ideas perform significant, particular functions for diaspora communities. With a focus on Britain, Edward T.G. Anderson argues that transnational Hindutva cannot simply be viewed as an export: this phenomenon has evolved and been shaped into an important aspect of diasporic identity, a way for people to connect with their homeland. He also sheds light on the impact of conservative Indian politics on British multiculturalism, migrant politics and relations between various minoritised communities. To fully understand the Hindutva movement in India and identity politics in Britain, we must look at where the two come together.




Communalism in Postcolonial India


Book Description

This book reconceptualises the idea of communalism in independent India. It locates the changing contours of politics and religion in the country from the colonial times to the present day, and makes an important intervention in understanding the relationship between communalism and communal violence. It evaluates the role of state, media, civil societies, political parties, and other actors in the process as well as ideas such as secularism, nationalism, minority rights and democracy. Using new conceptual tools and an interdisciplinary approach, the work challenges the conventional understanding of communalism as time and context independent. This second edition includes a Foreword by Romila Thapar and an Afterword by Dipesh Chakrabarty, along with a new Introduction which revaluate the trajectory of communal politics in contemporary India, and question how secularism has come to be understood today. This topical volume will be useful to scholars and researchers in South Asian politics, political science, history, sociology and social anthropology, as well as the interested general reader.




Pluralism and Democracy in India


Book Description

Wendy Doniger and Martha Nussbaum bring together leading scholars from a wide array of disciplines to address a crucial question: How does the world's most populous democracy survive repeated assaults on its pluralistic values? India's stunning linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity has been supported since Independence by a political structure that emphasizes equal rights for all, and protects liberties of religion and speech. But a decent Constitution does not implement itself, and challenges to these core values repeatedly arise-most recently in the form of the Hindu Right movements of the twenty-first century that threatened to destabilize the nation and upend its core values, in the wake of a notorious pogrom in the state of Gujarat in which approximately 2000 Muslim civilians were killed. Focusing on this time of tension and threat, the essays in this volume consider how a pluralistic democracy managed to survive. They examine the role of political parties and movements, including the women's movement, as well as the role of the arts, the press, the media, and a historical legacy of pluralistic thought and critical argument. Featuring essays from eminent scholars in history, religious studies, political science, economics, women's studies, and media studies, Pluralism and Democracy in India offers an urgently needed case study in democratic survival. As Nehru said of India on the eve of Independence: ''These dreams are for India, but they are also for the world.'' The analysis this volume offers illuminates not only the past and future of one nation, but the prospects of democracy for all.




NGOs, Activists & Foreign Funds


Book Description

Contributed articles on the political leanings of Indian nonprofit organizations and political activists.




The Infidel Next Door


Book Description

"Kashmir today is the most radicalized region on earth. But behind it is a little known history of religious persecution and violence where its original inhabitants resisted religious conversion and struggled with valor to keep their faith.Told with a rare sensitivity as seen by a psychologist who has worked on trauma of Kashmir, this inspiring story revolves around three young people Aditya, a Hindu priest on a quest for justice for his people, Anwar, his neighbor and an imam's son who will stop at nothing to create an Islamic Kashmir and Zeba who is torn between her love and her faith.The Infidel Next Door is a powerful story of every individual in search of an identity after facing a deep loss and for the first time gives an insight into the struggle between the plurality of Hinduism and the monotheism of Islam and the power of forgiveness and redemption of the human spirit."




Idrf


Book Description

IDRF, the India Development and Relief Fund is a Maryland, USA based charitable organization focused on self-development of the most needy in India. The fund had supported exceptional work after the Orissa cyclone of 2000, and the Bhuj earthquake of 2001, in addition to its sustained service through decades, as the main source of support for over 200 organizations ranging from orphanages and leprosy patient shelters, to One Teacher schools, hospitals and farmers' cooperatives. In 2002, this fund came under a massive attack plotted by a well-funded political cabal, coordinated with several unscrupulous media entities. Several academics jumped on the bandwagon, misusing institutional affiliations and pompous titles in lieu of diligence and common sense to claim credibility. Tens of thousands of the most needy in India, whose one hope of self-development was the work funded through IDRF, faced starvation - a fact that appeared not to bother these pompous entities and journalists. The blatantly political attack was intended to discredit India's government and destroy relations with the USA at a time when the strategic partnership of democracies was coming into full bloom. It was a frightening time: the attackers succeeded temporarily in bullying major corporations into suspending donations to IDRF, and seemed poised to enlist powerful political support in the US as well. We - diverse individuals mostly unaware of each other's existence until this outrage woke us up - decided to form a team and fight for the truth. Our response, informed by a massive popular upwelling of outrage against this atrocity, was to investigate thoroughly, and then report the facts. We were inspired by a virtual army of dedicated and often anonymous volunteers who showed what good, honest research could accomplish. Our experience validated the ancient advice: "Truth Alone Shall Triumph", but also showed why that requires a determined effort. Over a decade later, the IDRF continues to thrive and grow, now with stellar ratings from numerous rating agencies. As for the attackers, well, let's just say that Karma is real, and so are the consequences of not doing one's homework before claiming to have done 'meticulous research'. Many people worldwide read of their antics and well-deserved exposure, and found them highly amusing: in some cases government agencies investigated as well and were not so amused. This book, unchanged from 2003, documents the facts. We hope that this will guide and encourage those like us, who find themselves wondering how to counter such massive attacks by powerful and unscrupulous entities and their pompous but unthinking cheering squads.




India's Rebirth


Book Description




Genetic Crossroads


Book Description

The Middle East plays a major role in the history of genetic science. Early in the twentieth century, technological breakthroughs in human genetics coincided with the birth of modern Middle Eastern nation-states, who proclaimed that the region's ancient history—as a cradle of civilizations and crossroads of humankind—was preserved in the bones and blood of their citizens. Using letters and publications from the 1920s to the present, Elise K. Burton follows the field expeditions and hospital surveys that scrutinized the bodies of tribal nomads and religious minorities. These studies, geneticists claim, not only detect the living descendants of biblical civilizations but also reveal the deeper past of human evolution. Genetic Crossroads is an unprecedented history of human genetics in the Middle East, from its roots in colonial anthropology and medicine to recent genome sequencing projects. It illuminates how scientists from Turkey to Yemen, Egypt to Iran, transformed genetic data into territorial claims and national origin myths. Burton shows why such nationalist appropriations of genetics are not local or temporary aberrations, but rather the enduring foundations of international scientific interest in Middle Eastern populations to this day.




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