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How Old is The Hindu Temple?

How Old is The

India has the largest number of monuments in the world. Even after large-scale destruction of its temples during the Islamic invasions of India, still thousands upon thousands of the Hindu temples survive. Though most are in ruins, they give an idea about the Hindu architecture and sculpture.

After at least six centuries of Islamic destruction and two centuries of British neglect, it is only in the 21stcentury that the Hindu temple is getting its due fame in the age of social media. An army of self-funded amateurish photographers and heritage tourists have begun to embark on temple trails across India and publish the stunning pictures of the jaw-dropping temple architecture and gradually the world is waking up to the wonder that is the Hindu temple.

In the wake of this newly aroused interest about the Hindu temple, a question which is often raised about it is: how old is the Hindu temple? There are several answers to it, considering the kind of evidence one is taking into account. It is imperative to go into them one by one.

Architectural Evidence

As the Hindu temple is a piece of architecture above all, it is natural to consider the architectural evidence before others. So what does the archaeology tell us about the age of the Hindu temple?


Systematic Destruction of Education System of India

Systematic Destruction of Education System of India

During the time of the East India Company and later, in the British rule, there seem to have been two motives working in the minds of the rulers: plundering the wealth of this land and the ‘white man’s burden’ of civilizing the natives (the term used by them to refer to all Indians). We shall see, how in order to achieve these ends, the British so cleverly played their cards that even after 60+ years of independence we still continue to exist in a state of stupor, unable (and even unwilling!) to extricate ourselves from one of the greatest hypnoses woven over a whole nation.

Perhaps many of us do not know that India was the richest land till the British came here. Whereas Britain’s share in world exports before was only 9% as against India’s share of 19% today our share is only 0.5%. Most of the foreigners came to India in search of her fabulous wealth. Ernest Wood, in the book “A Foreigner defends Mother India” states, “In the middle of the eighteenth century, Phillimore wrote that ‘the droppings of her soil fed distant regions‘. No traveller found India poor until the nineteenth century, but foreign merchants and adventurers sought her shores for the almost fabulous wealth, which they could there obtain. ‘To shake the pagoda tree’ became a phrase, somewhat similar to our modern expression ‘to strike oil’.”



Will our academia be ever free of hypocrite liberals?

Will our academia be ever free

Recent reports of furore over a planned Yajna before the kick-start to a symposium titled Nationalistic Journalism in Current Scenario: Media and Myth, at Delhi’s Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) on May 20, has once again laid bare the hypocrisy of left liberals, who continue to occupy Indian academia exercising disproportionate influence in the public sphere.

Looking to find more details about the event, I stumbled upon a pro-RSS writer Prathak Batohi’s Facebook post, which gives a good background on the event. Quite clearly, the organizers have an RSS background and conducting Yajna might indeed be their idea of Hindutva assertion in a left dominated IIMC but doesn’t it exposes the hypocrisies of  advocates of free speech that instead of countering the content of symposium itself, they chose to target Yajna, exposing their virulent hatred for anything representing Indian culturalism. And this while shamelessly participating and organizing the Iftar parties across the Universities during Ramzan.

It is also ironical, those who raised slogans demanding Azaadi from India and later from RSS (a change in script as advised by sympathetic news traders) and vowed to fight with all their might to this effect, are suddenly getting scared by a simple Vedic practice of Yajna.


As an @IIMC_India alumni, I am feeling very very scared. Will non-Hindus and atheist participate in yagna? Why an RSS guy is presiding? 
@IIMC_India calling everyone at @IIMCAA to protest this. Its a secular institute, please retain the basics of journalism: stay neutral and be objective


It Is the time to say enough is enough to this abhorrent hypocrisies of the left liberals.


Why Bhagavad Gita should be compulsorily taught in Schools in India

Why Bhagavad Gita should be compulsorily
Should Bhagavad Gita be compulsorily taught in Schools in India?

The Bhagavad Gita has been inadvertently brought into the ambit of public discourse in the past few months. The question that has deeply divided opinions among various religious scholars, government and political parties is a very simple one. Should Bhagavad Gita be taught compulsorily to children in schools? This seemingly simple and innocuous suggestion has been made the subject of fiercely fought debates those who studies and learned Bhagavad Gita but not on national news channels. The media coverage around this issue has taken an inexplicable turn as it has been seen with conjunction to the idea of secularism. For the purpose of being objective and unbiased, let’s try to answer the question in a purely logical way.

Noble Book Rich of Excellent Examples

As we all know, Bhagavad Gita is a Hindu scripture with 700 verses which forms a small part of the epic Mahabharata. Written in a narrative tone, the scripture is essentially an insightful and profound conversation between Lord Krishna and the Pandava prince, Arjuna. The text contains the counsel of Lord Krishna as he helps Arjuna to address a moral dilemma. It encompasses the answers to some of the most common trials and spiritual questions that a man faces throughout his life such as fulfillment of his/her duties, attainment of liberation and many more. How can then a profound scripture addressing the most innate issues of human life be harmful to school going children. Consider this verse from the book for instance.


Brief history of Islamic jihad in Kerala and the resistance of Hindus

Compared to norther regions of Bharat which saw frequent invasions by Muslims from 7th century onwards, southern regions like Kerala were not affected by jihad till around the 16th century. But the non-muslims of Kerala suffered horrific and sudden jihadi attacks within past few centuries like the jihad of Hyder and his son Tipu, 1921 Moplah jihad etc., which led to mass conversions of Hindus into Islam and destruction of temples in various regions. Due to these jihads, Malabar region which was once a Hindu majority area, saw rapid rise in Muslim population within few centuries.

If we are to trace the roots of jihad in Kerala, we must go back several centuries to the time when the Samuthiris or Zamorins (the Hindu Nair kings) were ruling Calicut, and Malabar was a politically significant region of Kerala.

During this time, the local Moplah Muslims had enjoyed patronage from the Zamorins and enjoyed all freedom to practice their religion in his kingdom. The chiefs of the naval forces of Zamorins were also traditionally Moplahs and they were known by the tile of ‘Kunjali Marakkars’.

But by 1600s, after Zamorins and their forces had defeated the Portuguese, the Kunjahli Marakkar of that time challenged the Zamorin by building his own fortress and by claiming himself as king of Moplahs and lord of Bharat’s seas. He also cut off the tail of one of Zamorin’s elephants (thus obviously triggering an elephant rampage) and when the Zamorin sent one of his Nair agents to demand an explanation for the deed, Marakkar abused the agent. This betrayal of Kunjali Marakkar and his Moplahs angered the Zamorin and he allied with remaining Portuguese forces to defeat the Moplahs and capture Marakkar. After capturing Marakkar, the Portuguese executed him.


Top Ten Corruption Scam in India

Top Ten Corruption Scam in India

Every time I write or think about corruption, it’s expected that a selective few parties will run away with the top honors. Some of the most decorated parties have played their part in looting the nation & leaving nothing for the common man. Newspapers and news channels carry news related to these scams. The accused always have a common answer – I plead not guilty. Did they end up watching Rustom too many times?

Let’s look back at some of the biggest scams in the Indian Political History. We haven’t numbered any of the scams as they are not placed in any particular order. However, these are scams that have plundered the national exchequer.

2G Spectrum Scam – We live in the world of 4G, but corruption is not a two-day affair. A Raja was the Telecom Minsiter. Many power brokers and political behemoths were also said to be involved. The Ex Prime Minister’s speed of delivering speeches was slower than 2G.

Commonwealth Games Scam (2010): India’s performance was totally eclipsed by IOA President, Suresh Kalmadi. We finished second with 101 medals, but Kalmadi was interested in the other ranking. Business Today magazine estimates that the games cost 70,000 Crore ($11 Billion). Kalmadi made sure that even half of the amount was utilised.

Saradha Scam (2013): Mamata Banerjee’s TMC officially shielded the key people involved in the scam. This was a chit-fund scam carried across Bengal, Odisha, Assam & Tripura. The Saradha group collected $4-6 Billion (24,000-36000 crores) from 1.7 million depositors before it collapsed in 2013. Many TMC members were allegedly involved.


Myths about Kashmir – The current problem in Kashmir started in 1987

Myths about Kashmir

This is the first in a series of articles on Kashmir. This series was motivated by the current spike in turmoil in the valley and the highly evocative video images that have shaped public imagination about it in recent days.

Myth 1: The current problem in Kashmir started in 1987

A statement bandied about by several writers is that the starting point of the disaffection of people in Kashmir towards Bharat was the election of 1987. This election is supposed to have been rigged by the Congress-National Conference, and led to people becoming disillusioned with Bharat, and its central government.

However, the above assertion is absolutely and provably false.

The first time all of Bharat witnessed the strong anti-Bharat and pro-Pakistan sentiment in the Kashmir valley was much earlier—in 1983. 

In that year, the Bharatiya cricket team had just won the world cup, in arguably the greatest upset in cricket history till then. They had beaten the seemingly invincible West Indies at Lord’s in the world cup finals.  Following this victory, they were hosting the runners up the West Indies at home for 5 ODIs and 6 test matches. The first ODI was to be held at Srinagar – the first international match there. To the great surprise of both the Bharatiya and the West Indian players, the crowd constantly jeered Bharat and cheered the West Indies. Not only that, pro-Pakistan slogans were raised, which was all the more telling given that Bharat was not playing Pakistan.