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Monthly Archives: January 2008

Where is Outrage?

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Two stories have been on my mind for a couple of weeks now. These stories aren’t unusual. Nor is the response (or lack of it) to these stories. Still, we have to ask: why there is no outrage?
I don’t need to recount the first one, for Yashica Sitaram shares her travails with a private builder [...]

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Paryaya troubles

Monday, January 21, 2008

Madhva theology (and theologians), like Michael Jordan, is a good fastball hitter, but struggles always with curve balls, be it asserting Madhvacharya’s greatness or the egalitarian nature of Dvaita philosophy. More recently, the shastric injunction against Madhva gurus crossing the oceans has caused a huge furore.
So here is the latest dispute.
Udupi has eight mathas, [...]

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Essence of India

Sunday, January 20, 2008

I don’t mean to be snarky but
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Each time a foreign correspondent moves to Jorbagh and begins her South Asia Bureau chiefdom, the West rediscovers the essence(s) of India. If caste and Hinduism were the old Orientalist inventions, as time has gone included into that list are some new ones: Bollywood, Cricket, Taj Mahal, IT, [...]

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Why not Sledge?

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Well, the Perth test was a good comeback. Both teams, especially Australia, redeemed themselves with a hard fought, competitive cricket match, played in good spirit. All around, good advertisement for test cricket.
So what made this a good game? Watch (or read an account of it by Sambit Bal) rookie-quickie Ishanth Sharma probe and give a [...]

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Cricket controversy continues

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

One Stephen Waugh seems to attribute the current cricket controversy to cultural differences.
At the end of the day, much of what is happening between the teams springs from an inability to understand each other’s culture. For an Indian, calling someone a monkey is not a terrible insult, and certainly not a racist one.
Others aren’t so [...]

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Cultural relativism in cricket

Monday, January 7, 2008

(Updated below)
Cultural relativism has finally entered the world of Cricket. The Indian case that the word ‘bastard’ is as reprehensible as any racist epithet is predicated upon this recognition. Recall, Harbhajan Singh is alleged to have called Andrew Symonds, who has native Aussie ancestry, a monkey. Indians, now, allege that Brad Hogg used the ‘bastard’ [...]

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