Babasaheb Ambedkar’s prefaces to his works were often as penetrating and incisive as the main body of the work that followed. His book, Who Were the Shudras? How they came to be

B.R. Ambedkar’s fascination with Jyotirao Phule goes beyond the fact that he considered him a guru. Ambedkar, recognising the intellectual legacy of Phule, wished to project him on to the national scene. More

Amidst the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the ritualisation of mindless joy through banging of utensils, clapping one’s hearts out while screaming slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on the

Among the more obnoxious things I’ve read in the wake of Anthony Bourdain’s death is that if only he had been a man of faith, he wouldn’t have taken his own life.

“Is Vivekananda whom we know different?” that was the title of my article published in Udayam daily. The Telugu daily managed by movie producer Dasari Narayana Rao in 1985 with

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet Traveling through casual space Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns To a destination where all signs tell us

Logic-defying, mind numbing statements cast in front of the public in India over the years.There is no dearth of ‘ancient wisdom’ in India, but the sheer number of self-styled ‘godmen’

As soon as I was about seven or eight years old and could read Hindi well, I started looking for books that I could read. This way, I found a

Religion is probably the most complex human phenomenon. From Centuries philosophers have tried to understand and define it. Different commentators have emphasized on its many facets. Probably one of its

Wild Wild West, the Netflix show that chronicled the sordid truths about Osho’s life, predictably created a big stir. National embarrassment for us, yes, but who doesn’t like a story

Introduction Jaggi Vasudev is a self-styled new-age guru whose philosophy and agenda are represented by his activities through his organization, the Isha Foundation. Isha Foundation has steadily been gaining a follower

Conspiracy theories can undercut public health efforts to forestall epidemics. An emerging line of research exploring what might be called misinformation studies is trying to understand how and why fake

(This is the text of Gail Omvedt’s inaugural lecture on Feminist Discourse, organised by the Department of Sociology, SavitribaiPhule Pune University.Gail Omvedt is a scholar, sociologist and human rights activist

Science has proved itself to be a reliable way to approach all kinds of questions about the physical world. As a scientist, I am led to wonder whether its ability