eBook | Jawaharlal Nehru’s “Five Principles” for the policy to be pursued vis-a-vis the tribals

Jawaharlal Nehru [1889–1964, first Prime Minister of India] formulated the following “Five Principles” [Panchsheel] for the policy to be pursued vis-a-vis the tribals: (1) People should develop along the lines of their own genius, and the imposition of alien values should be avoided. (2) Tribal rights in land and forest should be respected (3) Teams … Read more

A constitution which guarantees: “The State shall not discriminate against any citizen” – The Sovereign Republic of India

Did the Constitution of India borrow ideas and many of its stand out features from the constitutions of other countries? Yes, after intense scrutiny, it turns out that our founding fathers liberally chose what features to embed into our Constitution and in many cases remoulded them to suit diverse local realities. “There is nothing to … Read more

Resources for the classroom: Learning from and about India’s tribal communities, their culture and knowledge systems

“[I]t is some of the basic values and ideology imbibed in the traditional tribal socio-cultural milieus that should have been emulated and promoted amongst the non-tribal mainstream, not, as has been going on, the other way round.” – Arup Maharatna (Professor, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune), in Who Is Civilised?’: In Praise of Tribal … Read more

The crisis within by G.N. Devy (Book review): “Nearly one in every twelve humans is a young Indian for whom meaningful education is of critical importance”

The crisis within by G.N. DevyISBN: 978-93-83064-10-6Genre: Non-Fiction/ EconomicsPublishers: Aleph PublishersPrice: Rs. 399/- Nearly one in every twelve humans is a young Indian for whom meaningful education is of critical importance. […] If knowledge is the core of education and if education lays the very foundation of a nation, the author argues that it is … Read more

Gandhi’s profound religious belief and sensibility – Gandhi Jayanti (2 October)

It may be argued that what is more representative of his outlook is the stupendously radical idea that if the Muslim prays, he should pray that not that the Hindu should become a Muslim but rather a better Hindu; that if the Hindu prays, he should pray not that the Muslim should return to the … Read more