Another Thought

I n the previous blog post, we briefly discussed the opinions of famous ancient Athenians on Democracy. We witnessed their skepticism and their doubts, which bore out of their solid moral foundations. It was only 2000 years later that resounding ideas of state again emerged, and this time it was from England, where trouble was brewing. The English weren't always sipping tea and sinking into their armchairs in vain colonial pride. In fact, tea was only made popular by the Catherine of Braganza, the wife of Charles II who ruled England during the restoration period, beginning from 1660. However, during the two decades preceding this, the English Civil War(or the war of the three kingdoms) brought the island to its knees, as it engulfed the nation in a spate of massacre and bloodshed, that took over 200,000 lives. Thomas Hobbes  It was in these troubled times that Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher, published his political treatises, Leviathan and De Cive . We shall brief...

G eorge W Bush, the erstwhile president of The United States of America, in the October of 2005, was making a speech at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington. It was 3 years into the now infamous Iraq War, when he famously made the following statement "It is true that the seeds of freedom have only recently been planted in Iraq — but democracy, when it grows, is not a fragile flower; it is a healthy, sturdy tree". On June 8, 2006, the Republican Speaker of the US Congress, John Boehner said "Now that's what the fight is all about in this part of the world(read Iraq), planting seeds of democracy". Planting these seeds was a messy affair though, with an estimated 98000 excess deaths or more in less than 2 years since the invasion. That the ideals of democracy and freedom were used to justify a bloody war would make anyone question the real reasons behind the war. But it should also make one question the ideals of democracy and freedom itself. Are the...

This is a summary of a part of the first chapter 'Perceptions of the Past', from Romila Thapar's book Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. Prinsep Ghat, Kolkata, in memory of James Prinsep, an English scholar, orientalist and antiquary. Romila Thapar lends great simplicity to her writing by sparing the amateur from crashing into a wall of academic babble. Instead she slowly introduces the reader to nuances of the subject. In the book's introduction, she brings clarity to the nature and meaning of history as a subject, when she says "History is no information that is handed down unchanged from generation to generation". In a line, she demolishes the common myth surrounding history, as an objective series of events, as a narrative that cannot be otherwise, as a true story. She further says "Historical situations need to be explained and explanations draw on analyses of the evidence, providing generalizations that derive from the logic of the a...

S ounds like a tricky place to start, for this opinion piece will also be subject to any critical analysis of opinions done here, putting its credibility at risk. Supposing that such would only improve the quality of the exposition, this should be an interesting exercise. Why then do opinions deserve this author’s great opinion, one might ask. This piece is an attempt to rationalize an activity we perform day in day out. On matters of weather to western civilization, opinions fill our mental landscape every day. Where do they come from? How is it that it takes us such little time to comment on pretty much everything? Such indulgence on the brain’s ability is beyond the author’s capacity. A better line of questioning might be to ask why we do it. After all, our lay opinions serve little purpose, don’t they? Our opinions on government will most likely not affect policy, our views on history will not change the facts, nor will Jose Mourinho change his team formation even if I disagre...

So who am I? Am I my body and face? Clearly, if someone changed my hands for a pair of robotic arms, it wouldn't make much of a difference would it? If my legs were replaced with that of a dog, I would definitely feel bad about it, but I would still be there. Am I the face? If they changed my face, oh I would feel quite weird. The face is a big marker of who I am perhaps. I would not recognize myself. I would say "Oh fuck, I look different now"! But that would still be me, after all, I am still Annapragada Krishna Prasanth. What if my name was changed? Well people have many names you see. But if essentially my name were changed, to say 'Rahul Modi', I would feel quite weird and perhaps laugh, but it would still be me wouldn't I. If I am not my name, not my face, not my body, the who am I?  Such a weird question to ask. Who am I. I am not my face, I am not my name, I am not my body. I am more than all of this. I am something behind my eyes I suppose, someth...

Never before in human history has such an immense cluster of personal information existed. People a decade back were dumbfounded by the convenience that these internet services offered, only never to realize the consequences that these would have when used on a mass scale. And hereby the present generation honoured and carried forward the legacy of the human race, of realizing the problems only when water reaches the neck. People have suddenly begun to fret about the right to privacy, when the very vanguards of their rights, their governments have already shredded it to pieces. It’s interesting to see a large number of people blaming internet companies, who ironically enough have honoured people's privacy more than their so called representatives.  For any debate on or analysis of Internet privacy issues, an understanding of the basic tenets of right to privacy becomes essential. Opponents of privacy rights, most of them based in our governments establishments believe that “Y...

I t’s the young who are hogging the headlines across the world. As a 29 year old Edward Snowden plays 'catch me if you can' with Uncle Sam and Turkish youngsters take to bathing in the streets under water cannons, not to forget Yousafzai Malala who has shot into world headlines, no thanks to that bullet shot through her head, there is no denying that the world is waking up to a new generation of leaders, ideologies and convictions. On can feel those tremors in India as well, but in a slightly different way. Mulayam Singh during UP assembly elections realized the importance of fielding his son as the CM candidate and promising free laptops to students instead of pressure cookers. So did Vijay Goel of BJP, who decided to take on Delhi University and force it into reducing cut-offs for Delhities, poor guy couldn't succeed but perhaps the real success will be determined in the elections scheduled later this year. This is what elucidates the difference in the ways the youn...