Press snippets

eBook | “That pride must never allow us to forget our many weakness and failings or blunt our longing to be rid of them” (Jawaharlal Nehru): Museums in the service of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace: International Museum Day (18 May)

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https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.98835 In his book, The Discovery of India, Nehru wrote, long before 1947, about the difficulties regarding uniting people with diverse languages, religions and cultural values. At the same time, as a historian, he could sketch the unifying forces which connected India right from the Ashokan period to pre-Independence India. His grasp of Buddhist philosophy … Read more

eBook | Preserving the variety of modern India’s communities and cultures in the making of the nation: Nehru’s empathy for “a people who sing and dance”

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Nehru is not only opposed to muting the tribal into submission but is also opposed to majoritarian Hindu chauvinism that aims at creating a homogenized national community. […] For Nehru, the key is to preserve the variety of communities and cultures in the making of the nation. […] His empathy for a people who sing … Read more

Cultural invisibility – India’s 600 potentially endangered languages

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According to UNESCO, any language that is spoken by less than 10,000 people is potentially endangered. In India, after the 1971 census, the government decided that any language spoken by less than 10,000 people need not be included in the official list of languages. In India, therefore, all the languages that are spoken by less … Read more

The Right to Information Act (RTI): Legislation that empowers citizens to prevent illegitimate concentrations of power

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The basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain corruption, and make our democracy work for the people in real sense. It goes without saying that an informed citizen is better equipped to keep necessary vigil on the instruments … Read more

eBook | “It is possible to finance tribal health care”: Recommendations by the Expert Committee on Tribal Health – Government of India

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Though it has long been suspected that tribal people have poor health and unmet needs, health care for tribal people remained subsumed in rural health care. It was assumed that tribal people have same health problems, similar needs and hence the uniform national pattern of rural health care would be applicable to them as well, … Read more