The 2nd edition of Pondy Lit Fest, attended by leading Right-wing figures like Swapan Dasgupta, Kanchan Gupta and Tavleen Singh, saw huge on-stage fights.
Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog wants to produce panchgavya drug using cow urine. It says pregnant women will give birth to ‘smart kids’ if they take the drug regularly.
The controversial MP had moved a Private Member’s Bill in the Rajya Sabha last year that sought to introduce the death penalty as punishment for cow slaughter. He withdrew the bill this February.
Bengalis are hurt over a statement by the Delhi police calling Bangla a ‘Bangladeshi language’ and the lines Azad sang have unwittingly become protest music in Kolkata now.
Centre for Science and Environment in new report makes case for rationalising GST on waste material, saying most informal operators can’t afford high tax & it also hinders recycling.
Standing up to America is usually not a personal risk for a leader in India. Any suggestions of foreign pressure unites India behind who they see as leading them in that fight.
You seem to think that diversity within the Right is a bad thing. I guess that is the way the Left works — jihadi mentality, follow the party line or we will chop your head off. I think it is wonderful that the Right has freedom of expression and diversity of opinion.
I spoke on 3 panels at the Pondy LitFest, and listened in on 4-5 others on both days. Each one was an enriching experience for me, and for most members of the audience. Of course there were debates, but I don’t recognise the caricature presented in this article.
What right need is the scientific interpretation of its culture and civilization. Confusion of right is it want to preserve all popular narrative of the culture even if it is faulty on scientific wisdom & rationality. Any civilization is the collective history of the particular human population through time and it is bound to be a collection of good and bad. You will be dumb if you start to defend bad, accepting fault are not a weakness but a progressive face of any ideology if they really want to prosper.
I don’t care how the Right defines itself. This issue is just a strawman that this writer is setting up. As long as these lit fests can expose the monumentsl damage done by the Left to our economy, culture and civilization, I am happy to support the Right. I want the Indian Left to be eradicated like plague.
Good point. They probably won’t have anything to talk about or rant against if there is no ‘other’.
Healthy wings needed to soar beyond unhealthy narratives of Left wing or Right wing.
It is unhealthy to carry on with existing narratives in politics and media.
It is unhealthy if humanity does not realize that it needs sanity more than any particular identity.
It is unhealthy if political and media narratives- while inevitably using some identity based steps tend to stop or to slip or to slide down rather than climb up with sanity.
It is unhealthy when debates and discussions resort to visceral vitriol vindicated by the votaries of identity politics of various hues, colors and ideologies.
It is unhealthy because the self proclaimed representatives of the masses, through either the Left wing praxis of pseudo liberal appropriations and assigning of labels or virulent feverish provocations by Right wing advocates, dominate the narratives.
It is unhealthy to stuff such approaches and extrapolations to everything that the free birds of discourse and the splendorous feathers of aesthetic creations can never take flight and soar into realms of any sane unbiased zones as it will be Left overburdened with weight of one wing and Right away pulled by the overbearing of another wing.
It is unhealthy when both groups slide into snide dismissals rather than direct arguments.
It is unhealthy if we do not realize that the present practical difficulties faced by individuals and societies need solutions and not seeking endorsement by or to be sanctified by any specific ideology- however great or good that may be.
It is unhealthy that militancy without being curtailed is made to move from a mere posture into a well organized program.
It is unhealthy that radicalism without being admonished outright gets rewarded.
It is unhealthy if we are not aware that in human history till date no single ideology or institution or inscription of individual can be defined as some panacea which can claim to offer a tailor made template but with a universal cure –all, correct –all, comfort –all solutions embedded in it.
It is unhealthy if we do not realize that human race is far more than the opportunities it is consciously aware of as Jean Paul Sartre provides the example of the young man who puts his hand on his first date’s hand. She, who does not really know him yet, must either leave her hand there or remove it. Either choice reveals something not part of her consciousness. We are far more than the limited opportunities present in the world.
It is unhealthy when we either deny or defy the importance of anyone or anything or any ideology as each may have evolved to fulfill a specific need and may fit in some gap in the jigsaw puzzle called life
It is unhealthy if we are not sensible to not to hurt the sensitivities of others.
It is unhealthy not to be open to a wide variety of ideas, observations from multitude of sources and nothing stops us from planning to properly relate with everyone and everything to facilitate the understanding of meaning of life.
It is unhealthy if we do not know that the meaning of life which is after all the result of churning of the outer world by the inner self or the way inner self relates with the outer world in all its multiple manifestations.
It is unhealthy if we do not realize that our inner self is a combination of heart (body) mind (conscious awareness) and soul. Heart itself is wonderfully referred to as HRUDAYA in Sanskrit which is one of the most perfect terms to indicate both the physical and psychological functionality of the heart. Meaning of “Hrudaya” from the Bruhadaranya Upanishad: ‘Hru’ means to bring. This involves bringing impure blood from the body to the heart. ‘Da’ means to give, involves giving pure blood to the body. ‘Ya’ means to set right all the activities and maintain the stability of the body.
It is unhealthy if we do not realize the inevitable fact of life and stark reality is that whatever we may have planned or planning to plan may not be the plan that unfolds in life in all spheres of life irrespective of whatever label we may give to such state of affairs: – as fate or destiny or we may wish and try to ignore it or work hard to justify it. This does not mean or need not necessarily lead to the conclusion that we must not plan and that there is no use in planning.
Healthy conditions can be planned and programmed if those scripting any political narrative realize to do away with the outdated dichotomy of Left and Right because life, especially socio-cultural and economic life, has many dimensions each having its own dynamics and in addition there are also those emanating from intersectionality and interactions and all of these manifest themselves with varying degrees of intensity. Fortunately life and all its concomitant evolutions happen despite and beyond the blinkered narratives peddled by status quo addicts of trite dichotomies and have made visible various options between, besides, beneath and above those dichotomies, and these may strengthen the wings and enable the discourse to soar into unbiased zones and offer some solutions to many present day problems faced by humanity.
First a better understanding of Advaita is to find synergy “The spirit of Advaita is not to keep away from anything, but to keep in tune with everything.” – Swami Chinmayananda.
It is nice to know that at least Indian right exercise its right to disagree and show dissenting views , thus being really liberal , unlike the self labeling LEFT which cannot move out of its ideological cages of identity or extrapolating everything in tune with its ideological frames of references.
It would be better to for some media houses and journalists to know that
DISSENT need not necessarily mean
Disseminating differences disproportionately
Internationalize or internalize for
Sensationalizing and scandalizing to
Social engineer selectively by
Exaggerations and extrapolations through
Nuanced and new found
Terminological terrorism as a trend.
It is unfortunate that MEDIA as an acronym now may be defined as:-
Mask as master of
Everything;
Desultory deception of
Involvement to inform
All about everything.
Wrong English here: “The organisers say they are under no illusion that the Left will NEVER allow the institutionalisation of a platform that it does not control” should be “The organisers say they are under no illusion that the Left will allow the institutionalisation of a platform that it does not control.”
No illusion and NEVER will cause a double negative, causing the opposite meaning.
Why literature festive talks about right left – because bjp is in the Centre – every one have their own principle and they focus only on that – just talk about your view don’t worry about others – blindman should tak about other than blindness or problems of being blind
You seem to think that diversity within the Right is a bad thing. I guess that is the way the Left works — jihadi mentality, follow the party line or we will chop your head off. I think it is wonderful that the Right has freedom of expression and diversity of opinion.
This article is copied from The Dawn (pakistan news paper).
Shame on reporter
I spoke on 3 panels at the Pondy LitFest, and listened in on 4-5 others on both days. Each one was an enriching experience for me, and for most members of the audience. Of course there were debates, but I don’t recognise the caricature presented in this article.
What right need is the scientific interpretation of its culture and civilization. Confusion of right is it want to preserve all popular narrative of the culture even if it is faulty on scientific wisdom & rationality. Any civilization is the collective history of the particular human population through time and it is bound to be a collection of good and bad. You will be dumb if you start to defend bad, accepting fault are not a weakness but a progressive face of any ideology if they really want to prosper.
I don’t care how the Right defines itself. This issue is just a strawman that this writer is setting up. As long as these lit fests can expose the monumentsl damage done by the Left to our economy, culture and civilization, I am happy to support the Right. I want the Indian Left to be eradicated like plague.
Why don’t the Right speak with clarity about what they want to convey,than pointing to the other: the left or Muslims or the secular.
Good point. They probably won’t have anything to talk about or rant against if there is no ‘other’.
Healthy wings needed to soar beyond unhealthy narratives of Left wing or Right wing.
It is unhealthy to carry on with existing narratives in politics and media.
It is unhealthy if humanity does not realize that it needs sanity more than any particular identity.
It is unhealthy if political and media narratives- while inevitably using some identity based steps tend to stop or to slip or to slide down rather than climb up with sanity.
It is unhealthy when debates and discussions resort to visceral vitriol vindicated by the votaries of identity politics of various hues, colors and ideologies.
It is unhealthy because the self proclaimed representatives of the masses, through either the Left wing praxis of pseudo liberal appropriations and assigning of labels or virulent feverish provocations by Right wing advocates, dominate the narratives.
It is unhealthy to stuff such approaches and extrapolations to everything that the free birds of discourse and the splendorous feathers of aesthetic creations can never take flight and soar into realms of any sane unbiased zones as it will be Left overburdened with weight of one wing and Right away pulled by the overbearing of another wing.
It is unhealthy when both groups slide into snide dismissals rather than direct arguments.
It is unhealthy if we do not realize that the present practical difficulties faced by individuals and societies need solutions and not seeking endorsement by or to be sanctified by any specific ideology- however great or good that may be.
It is unhealthy that militancy without being curtailed is made to move from a mere posture into a well organized program.
It is unhealthy that radicalism without being admonished outright gets rewarded.
It is unhealthy if we are not aware that in human history till date no single ideology or institution or inscription of individual can be defined as some panacea which can claim to offer a tailor made template but with a universal cure –all, correct –all, comfort –all solutions embedded in it.
It is unhealthy if we do not realize that human race is far more than the opportunities it is consciously aware of as Jean Paul Sartre provides the example of the young man who puts his hand on his first date’s hand. She, who does not really know him yet, must either leave her hand there or remove it. Either choice reveals something not part of her consciousness. We are far more than the limited opportunities present in the world.
It is unhealthy when we either deny or defy the importance of anyone or anything or any ideology as each may have evolved to fulfill a specific need and may fit in some gap in the jigsaw puzzle called life
It is unhealthy if we are not sensible to not to hurt the sensitivities of others.
It is unhealthy not to be open to a wide variety of ideas, observations from multitude of sources and nothing stops us from planning to properly relate with everyone and everything to facilitate the understanding of meaning of life.
It is unhealthy if we do not know that the meaning of life which is after all the result of churning of the outer world by the inner self or the way inner self relates with the outer world in all its multiple manifestations.
It is unhealthy if we do not realize that our inner self is a combination of heart (body) mind (conscious awareness) and soul. Heart itself is wonderfully referred to as HRUDAYA in Sanskrit which is one of the most perfect terms to indicate both the physical and psychological functionality of the heart. Meaning of “Hrudaya” from the Bruhadaranya Upanishad: ‘Hru’ means to bring. This involves bringing impure blood from the body to the heart. ‘Da’ means to give, involves giving pure blood to the body. ‘Ya’ means to set right all the activities and maintain the stability of the body.
It is unhealthy if we do not realize the inevitable fact of life and stark reality is that whatever we may have planned or planning to plan may not be the plan that unfolds in life in all spheres of life irrespective of whatever label we may give to such state of affairs: – as fate or destiny or we may wish and try to ignore it or work hard to justify it. This does not mean or need not necessarily lead to the conclusion that we must not plan and that there is no use in planning.
Healthy conditions can be planned and programmed if those scripting any political narrative realize to do away with the outdated dichotomy of Left and Right because life, especially socio-cultural and economic life, has many dimensions each having its own dynamics and in addition there are also those emanating from intersectionality and interactions and all of these manifest themselves with varying degrees of intensity. Fortunately life and all its concomitant evolutions happen despite and beyond the blinkered narratives peddled by status quo addicts of trite dichotomies and have made visible various options between, besides, beneath and above those dichotomies, and these may strengthen the wings and enable the discourse to soar into unbiased zones and offer some solutions to many present day problems faced by humanity.
First a better understanding of Advaita is to find synergy “The spirit of Advaita is not to keep away from anything, but to keep in tune with everything.” – Swami Chinmayananda.
It is nice to know that at least Indian right exercise its right to disagree and show dissenting views , thus being really liberal , unlike the self labeling LEFT which cannot move out of its ideological cages of identity or extrapolating everything in tune with its ideological frames of references.
It would be better to for some media houses and journalists to know that
DISSENT need not necessarily mean
Disseminating differences disproportionately
Internationalize or internalize for
Sensationalizing and scandalizing to
Social engineer selectively by
Exaggerations and extrapolations through
Nuanced and new found
Terminological terrorism as a trend.
It is unfortunate that MEDIA as an acronym now may be defined as:-
Mask as master of
Everything;
Desultory deception of
Involvement to inform
All about everything.
Wrong English here: “The organisers say they are under no illusion that the Left will NEVER allow the institutionalisation of a platform that it does not control” should be “The organisers say they are under no illusion that the Left will allow the institutionalisation of a platform that it does not control.”
No illusion and NEVER will cause a double negative, causing the opposite meaning.
You will come across double negatives as a matter of course in Indian English discourse.
Other things apart, “pondy” is an apt moniker for a LitFest of the Indian Right.
?
Why literature festive talks about right left – because bjp is in the Centre – every one have their own principle and they focus only on that – just talk about your view don’t worry about others – blindman should tak about other than blindness or problems of being blind