Category: Society
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Concept of Men: Patriarchy & Women
Patriarchy in India is not only something men do to women. It is a lesson, taught with love in nearly every home, by fathers, mothers and sisters alike. This essay traces how a boy learns that he comes first, and how men and women can unlearn it together.
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Pax Indica : The Golden Ages of India and the World That Came to Her Shores
For centuries, India was not a peripheral land on the edge of the world economy but its center – home to vast trade networks, world-class learning, and a reputation for wealth so enduring that scholars, merchants, and refugees kept arriving from every direction. This is the story of how a subcontinent once produced a quarter…
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Bound By Fire: The Great Romances That Shaped Indian History
This article explores the significance of romance in Indian history, detailing love stories that reveal societal values over two millennia. It examines various narratives, such as Radha-Krishna’s divine love, Heer-Ranjha’s tragic romance, and the politically powerful partnership of Nur Jahan and Jahangir, highlighting their cultural implications beyond mere entertainment.
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Not Only Hindu, Not Only Indian: Caste and Caste-Like Hierarchy Across Religions and Continents
The discussion of caste in India is often framed as an exclusively Hindu theological phenomenon. However, a deeper look at the comparative record reveals that hereditary status hierarchies -complete with endogamy, occupational stigma, and social exclusion – persist independently among South Asian Muslims and Christians, whose founding doctrines explicitly reject them. From the Pasmanda movements…
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The School Room They Didn’t Tell You About: Caste and Colonial-Era Indigenous Education
Was pre-colonial Indian education really a Brahmin monopoly? The popular claim crumbles against the evidence. William Adam’s 1835-38 surveys and the Madras Presidency’s district returns reveal something far more complicated: in early 19th-century Bengal, Bihar, and the Madras Presidency, non-Brahmin and Shudra students frequently formed the outright majority in vernacular schools. Yet higher learning remained…