Only those who are passionate about art can understand the magnetic pull that demands you to pursue your dreams in this exquisite subject. A journey in the field of art is unlike any other industry, owing to its subjective and emotionally charged nature. Here are a few tips for those art enthusiasts trying to make inroads into this enchanting, but daunting field.

Here are 5 tips to embark on a career in art:

When embarking on a journey in the business of art, its crucial to build the discipline of remaining true to ones craft. Being so deeply immersed in ones craft that one ignores what the market wants is the responsibility of every creator.

Taking a cue from our Bhagavad Gita, where Shri Krishna famously says Whatever the result of the action, calmly do your duty without seeking a reward. Right action is bound to bring the right result, so it is not necessary to run after it. If you create what inspires you, the success is bound to follow.

The length and breadth of art spans limitless genres, mediums, eras and styles. Thus, its crucial for every artist and art business to have an artistic voice that is unique and focused.

It could be a distinct style, or a particular medium or even a rare subject that immensely inspires you. Without an artistic voice, one could be lost at sea in an industry that is brimming with competitive talent.

Through every stage of building your business, immerse yourself in the world of art. Understanding the landscape of any industry is crucial to businesses, but few are as pleasurable as viewing art.

Take every opportunity to attend museums, architectural masterpieces, galleries- travel and collect a wealth of inspiration.

In a world run by social media, art businesses stand at a natural advantage. With all businesses striving to create beautifully designed feeds filled with riotous colours, the nature of the art businesses effortlessly allows you to accomplish this.

Building a community of patrons can kick-start your dream in the art world. Ensure every aspect of your branding and social media is as stunning as your art.

Let your workspace serve as a source of inspiration. A creative flow is extensively influenced by your surroundings and can breathe life into your work. Make sure to fill your studio with natural light, greens, colours and everything that drives and motivates your creative process.

Creativity takes immense courage, but the pursuit of your dreams in art will undoubtedly be a colourful and rewarding journey. In the words on Van Gogh, If you hear a voice within you say You cannot paint, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

- Article by Amrita Deora, Founder & CEO, The Designera

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5 tips to embark on a career in art - India Today

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, December 6

Karnal Smart City Limited (KSCL), a special purpose vehicle looking after the Smart City project, has chalked out a plan to develop a heritage corridor on a stretch of around 4 km between Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Dwar near Baldi Bypass and Clock Tower Chowk in the city.

Set up in 1808 and one of the oldest in the country, the 200-year-old Christian cemetery, Cantonment Church Tower, old court building, record room built in the British era, Victoria Memorial Hall and Kos Minar will be part of the corridor in the first phase. Meanwhile, in the second phase, during the expansion of the corridor, the century-old buildings of Civil Hospital and Karnal Club will be included.

CONSTRUCTION IN TWO PHASES

The plan will be tabled in the meeting of the Board of Directors of the KSCL on December 11 for the final approval. Once approved, the work on the corridor is expected to be completed by April 2021.

Karnal has a rich legacy of heritage and has proposed to develop this corridor, which will act as a city-level attraction for tourists. Besides, it will help facelift these sites along with preserving heritage and providing information about the culture, said Nishant Kumar Yadav, DC and CEO, KSCL.

As per historians, Karnal was captured in 1805 by the Britishers and was made into an Army Cantt in 1806. More than 500 graves of European soldiers and their family members are buried in this cemetery. However, due to the lack of maintenance, wild grass has now grown over the graves.

Earlier known as St James Church, the Cantonment Church Tower will also be beautified. Broken links in the pathway will be connected for making surrounding areas more accessible. Architecture lighting will also be taken care of for safety concerns,

The buildings of old court and record room along with the Victoria Memorial Hall, all built in the British era, will also be developed as heritage buildings. Ancient structures are mostly in the Victorian architecture style. Facade restoration will be the main component and the internal part will be painted keeping the original texture intact. The restored building will be reused as a public building. Thematic lights will be added to the old ones. Work will be done on the entry plaza to make it more inviting. The beauty of the Kos Minars will also be visibly enhanced, he added.

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Heritage corridor likely in Karnal by April next - The Tribune India

Last month, Collins Dictionary unveiled its word of the year: lockdown, defined as the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction and access to public spaces. As Collins explained: We have chosen lockdown as our word of the year because it encapsulates the shared experience of billions of people who have had to restrict their daily lives in order to contain the virus. Meanwhile, Merriam-Webster went with pandemic, with runners-up quarantine and asymptomatic. And the Oxford English Dictionary, instead of choosing a single word, issued a 38-page report analyzing the use of dozens of words, including coronavirus, doomscrolling, social distancing and systemic racism. Given the phenomenal breadth of language change and development during 2020, the report explains, Oxford Languages concluded that this is a year which cannot be neatly accommodated in one single word.

I disagree. There is a single word that sums up 2020 and does encapsulate, in a deeper sense, the shared experience of billions of people this year. That word is resilience. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity. Its that quality that allows us to overcome challenges, obstacles, hardship and adversity, instead of being defeated by them.

The reason resilience is my word of the year is because, unlike quarantine and coronavirus and social distancing, resilience is the only one thats going to be just as relevant when the pandemic is over. Resilience is the quality that was summoned in us by all the challenges of 2020. And its also the quality thats going to carry us forward into 2021.

Resilience is often spoken about including in the Oxford dictionary definition in terms of navigating or simply getting through challenges. But the key part of resilience isnt about bouncing back, its about bouncing forward. Its about using adversity as a catalyst to get better and become stronger.

Of course, weve always needed resilience. But what weve learned in 2020, at both the individual and collective levels, is that at a time of so many losses and such deep uncertainty and anxiety, we simply cant do without it. Right now were all waiting for a vaccine to bring the pandemic to an end. But our challenges wont end when the pandemic does. And resilience is the vaccine we already have its our immune system for the inevitable ups and downs of life. Just as with our bodys immune system, the hostile agents are always there and always coming at us. Resilience allows us to tap into deeper resources in ourselves we didnt even know we had, not just to overcome the obstacles but to be transformed by them.

Certainly its not hard to see the urgent need this year for resilience. According to a recent C.D.C. report, 41% of Americans have struggled with mental health issues, like anxiety, depression or substance abuse related to the pandemic. The American Psychological Associations Stress in America report found that nearly 8 in 10 adults say the pandemic is a major source of stress, and 60% are overwhelmed by the issues currently facing America. And suspected overdoses went up 18% in March, 29% in April and 42% in May.

These are depressing numbers, but an important thing to remember is that though our need for resilience is endless, so is our capacity for it. Its not a finite resource, or a quality we are born with that we cannot develop later in life. But as Norman Garmezy, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota and a pioneer in studying resilience, found there are protective factors that make some people better able to handle adversity than others. Indeed, Emmy Werner, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, followed high-risk children for 32 years and found that the resilient children, even as toddlers, tended to meet the world on their own terms. However, as Maria Konnikova wrote in The New Yorker, some people who werent resilient when they were little somehow learned the skills of resilience. They were able to overcome adversity later in life and went on to flourish as much as those whod been resilient the whole way through.

So the power to build resilience is within us; just as we can learn other skills through practice, we can teach ourselves to be more resilient. We can make ourselves more or less vulnerable by how we think about things, George Bonanno, a clinical psychology professor at Columbia Teachers College, said. Events are not traumatic until we experience them as traumatic.

You can let your loss and pain be the catalyst that divests you of whatever is not needed and takes you to the core of who you are.

Though the science unpacking the psychological and neural mechanisms of resilience may be recent, in many ways, its confirming a concept thats been at the heart of spiritual and philosophical traditions for millennia. In the Bible, were told that God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love. Lao Tzu, the 6th century B.C. founder of Taoism, taught us that if you correct your mind the rest of your life will fall into place, and that knowing others is knowledge, knowing yourself is wisdom, while in the Bhagavad Gita, were reminded that happiness arises from the serenity of ones own mind.

Stoic philosophers understood this well. As they have taught us, while we cant control what happens in the external world, we do have control over our inner world and how we respond. For Epictetus, this meant that men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things. In other words, do we see crises solely in terms of the havoc they have wrought, or also as opportunities to get stronger and grow?

Science has confirmed everyday ways to nurture our resilience through sleep, taking time to unplug and recharge, gratitude, social connection and the belief in something larger than ourselves. In an interview about her work on resilience, Emmy Werner talked about the role spirituality plays in cultivating greater resilience. Its not about any one organized religion, but what faith provides for you as an emotional support, as a way indeed of making sense of your life and your suffering, and also as a way to help you become a chain that you yourself give back something to others who have given to you. Thats a very, very important part of the community of faith that should be more appreciated by people that either want to foster resilience or study it. In other words, we draw strength and support the community, and also from giving back, which studies have shown creates a helpers high that has a powerful impact on our resilience and well-being. There is a lot of evidence that one of the best anti-anxiety medications available is generosity, Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at Wharton, said. The great thing about showing up for other people is that it doesnt have to cost a whole lot or anything at all, and it ends up being beneficial to the giver.

If youll forgive a proud mother moment, my daughter Isabella has written about the connection between pain, resilience and spirituality in her first book, Map to the Unknown, which was released as an Audible Original last week. It chronicles the story of what happened after she was hit by a bike in the streets of New York. What began as a concussion became three years of debilitating pain, but also a transformative emotional and spiritual journey of learning to trust the universe and her inner voice. When something senseless happens that our minds cant explain or justify or control, its a fork in the road, a moment of choice, she writes. One fork is to go into despair and cynicism and raging at the universe (which is the route I first chose), or if you never believed in anything as amorphous as God or the universe, you can double-down on how meaningless life is. Or you can choose the other fork: starting the journey to finding deeper meaning in even the most senseless events in your life. You can let your loss and pain be the catalyst that divests you of whatever is not needed and takes you to the core of who you are.

This has been a tragic year for so many a year of so many losses and so much grief. And yet, what the science and wisdom of resilience show us is that, as horrible as this year has been, the long-term impact on both our individual and our collective lives as a society is not predetermined or fixed. Its no coincidence that the group of people whose lives were shaped by the Great Depression and World War II were branded The Greatest Generation. This has been a year in which weve learned what we need and what we dont need, what adds value to our lives and makes us stronger, and what depletes us. By tapping into those parts of our lives that many of us were ignoring or not tending to before this year, we can nurture our resilience and create a new normal for 2021 one thats not simply going back to the pre-pandemic status quo, but one thats a better normal. Its our resilience that offers us a chance at true transformation, allowing us to go deeper, connect with what we truly value, grow and expand.

Its a common refrain on social media to want to say goodbye to 2020. But our goal should be more than to just get through 2020, which will pass no matter what we do. The new year will inevitably come, but what kind of year will it be? What lessons will we carry with us to shape it into a year of hope and possibility? How will we have been transformed based on what we have experienced? That is up to us. And the more we summon and strengthen our resilience, the more we can bounce forward into a new and better year.

Subscribe here for Ariannas On My Mind Newsletter, where youll find inspiration and actionable advice on how to build healthy habits, resilience and connections in our unprecedented times.

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Arianna Huffington: Why Resilience Is My Word of the Year for 2020 - Thrive Global

Earlier this week, a video of a Shiv Sena leader promising to organise an Azaan recitation competition for Muslim children went viral on the internet. The proclamation drew severe flak from netizens on social media websites and invited criticism from the opposition parties like the BJP.

Several social media users criticised Shiv Sena for its brazen pandering to the minorities. The BJP, on the other hand, accused Shiv Sena of bartering Hindutva for minority votes. One of the BJP leaders slammed Shiv Sena for its decision to organise an azaan recitation competition and alleged that the only thing left for Shiv Sena now is to carry a green flag on its shoulders.

Unnerved by the criticism his announcement garnered, Shiv Sena leader Pandurang Sakpal, who had claimed that Shiv Sena would organise an azaan recitation competition on the lines of Bhagavad Gita recitation and even reward the winners, made an about-turn, stating he has no plans on conducting such an event.

However, it appears that the party is bent on tying itself in knots as it tries to defend the indefensible. Earlier today, an editorial was published in party mouthpiece Saamana, lambasting the critics for Senas contentious announcement of organising an azaan recitation competition.

In its bid to criticise the detractors accusing the party of courting minorities, Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Raut, who is also the editor of Saamana, proffered a bizarre and ambiguous analogy in the editorial that lends itself to multiple interpretation.

Dragging Shiv Sena through the mud on the issue of azaan recitation competition is akin to calling protesting farmers in Delhi Pakistani terrorists, the editorial published in Saamana said. This ambivalent parallel drawn by Sanjay Raut in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece can mean a host of things. Here are the four things that Raut could have meant with this absurd comparison.

The most basic interpretation of the aforementioned analogy in Saamana could mean that Shiv Sena agrees that the protests carried out in Delhi are done by Pakistani terrorists. This assertion may not be far-fetched as the protests convulsing the national capital region and the Punjab-Haryana border has seen participation from pro-Khalistani elements.

At the very least, it would seem like political parties, Khalistani elements etc have come together to mislead farmers, spread misinformation, and ensure that the country burns.

Deep Sidhu, a Punjabi actor, became the face of the protests after his video threatening a security official manning a barricade went viral on the internet. Subsequently, Sidhu was offered a platform by Barkha Dutt and Shekhar Gupta to come clean on the allegations of him being a Khalistani supporter. However, Sidhu dug his heels in, hailing Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a revolutionary fighter who fought for a strong federal structure and refusing to condemn him as a terrorist.

It is an established fact that Khalistanis, in their heydays during the 1980s, were morally and financially supported by Pakistan. The ulterior motive of Pakistanis then was to dismember India as a retributory action for the secession of Bangladesh back in 1971 by aiding the Khalistanis. In this context, Pakistan had waged a proxy war on India with the help of Khalistanis. The Khalistan supporters and sympathisers can therefore be effectively compared to Pakistani terrorists, who are trying to revive militancy and stoke unrest in India.

If Sanjay Raut did not mean that the protesters thronging the national capital are terrorists, then the corollary that naturally follows it would imply that for Shiv Sena and Sanjay Raut, Khalistanis are not terrorists, since the protests were decidedly hijacked by Khalistani proponents.

The protests and blockades carried out by the so-called protesters saw posters of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale being raised at various places. On other instances, protesters could not hide their Khalistani impulses. The demonstrators gloated on former PM Indira Gandhis assassination and threatened PM Modi with a similar fate. Pro-Khalistan slogans were also raised by the protesters who were apparently demonstrating against the three new agriculture laws.

Since Shiv Sena has a history of trading their ideology for petty political gains, it remains to be seen what is Sanjay Rauts stand on Khalistanis who had taken over the farmers protests. Would Shiv Sena condemn the protests or will it, like its alliance partnersNCP and Congresscontinue to turn a blind to the Khalistani presence in the ongoing protests?

Another interpretation that the ambivalent analogy lends itself to is that Shiv Sena is being humanitarian in respecting azaan and minority sentiments. However, admitting to this would effectively mean that Shiv Sainiks in the past were cruel ruffians who allegedly targeted and harassed the states Muslim populace.

Ironically, Sanjay Raut which claims Sena of being a secular party, had in the past asked for disenfranchisement of Muslims. In an editorial published in Saamana in 2015, Raut had called for barring of Muslims from voting, stating that the masks of the secularists will come off if Muslims are disenfranchised. For a long time now, Shiv Sena had preened itself on being a party whose members played an instrumental role in levelling the controversial Babri structure in Ayodhya. Shiv Sena leaders have also been convicted of orchestrating the riots in 1992 in which several Muslims were killed.

The partys past antecedents do not jibe with this interpretation of Shiv Sena being an inclusive and pluralistic party in organising the azaan recitation competition. Nonetheless, if Shiv Sena still persists with this outlook, it would mean denouncing its past and therefore implicitly admitting that it was a party of radical fundamentalists earlier.

The last interpretation that emerges from Rauts absurd comparison is that whoever does not agree with Shiv Sena is a terrorist and must be treated as one. This appears to be the most likely case when Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that criticising Shiv Sena for keeping Azaan recitation competition is tantamount to calling protesters in Delhi terrorists.

This stance was evident in its full glory when the Uddhav Thackeray government relentlessly pursued Republic TV, just because it asked uncomfortable questions of the Uddhav Thackeray government.

Ever since Arnab Goswami criticised the state government on its handling of Palghar lynching of Hindu sadhus, the Maharashtra government, of which Shiv Sena is a part, carried out a relentless witch hunt against the journalist and his channel Republic TV. Multiple FIRs were lodged against him. Republic TV employees were routinely harassed. A Republic TV crew was unlawfully jailed when they were pursuing an investigative story in Navi Mumbai.

Mumbai Police commissioner called out a press conference to allege that Republic TV had indulged in manipulating TRPS. Later, it was found that the complaint had mentioned India Today and not Republic TV. The culmination of this witch hunt resulted in the arrest of Arnab Goswami, who was arrested by a phalanx of armed police officials and lodged in the Taloja jail. Mr Goswami had claimed that he was treated like a terrorist and not allowed to meet his lawyers.

Similarly, actor Kangana Ranaut was also attacked by Shiv Sena after she likened Mumbai to Pakistan occupied Kashmir after Azaadi graffiti had defiled the streets of the city. In response to her remarks, BMC demolished her office. The Bombay High Court recently slammed that BMC, stating that the demolition was carried out with malafide intent and directed the corporation to compensate the actor for her loss.

We really have no idea what Sanjay Raut really meant, but that is ok. We are used to it. Arent you yet?

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Raut gives bizarre analogy trying to defend party after Azan row: Here are 4 things that he could have meant - OpIndia

More News 08 Dec 2020 | 10:54 PM

Ranchi, Dec 8 (UNI) The Coronavirus tally in the state on Tuesday reached to 1,10,639 as 182 cases were detected across 20 districts of Jharkhand.

Shillong, Dec 8 (UNI) Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma is scheduled to meet Governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday to discuss the Inner Line Permit and Meghalaya Resident Safety and Security (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (MRSSA).

Agartala, Dec 8 (UNI) A day after his own party men raised slogans demanding his removal in front of BJP national secretary and central observer for Tripura Vinod Kumar Sonkar, Chief Minister of Tripura Biplab Kumar Deb on Tuesday invited people of the state to assemble next Sunday at Stable Ground here to decide whether he should continue in the office.

Ranchi, Dec 8 (UNI) The Bharat bandh, called on Tuesday by the farmers unions, hit the normal life in many districts across the state.

Patna, Dec 08 (UNI) The nationwide shutdown call of the farmers on Tuesday against the Centre's new farm laws evoked mixed response in Bihar where road and train services, which were disrupted by the protestors, gradually resumed in the afternoon.

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Dhankhar remembers freedom fighter Khudiram Bose on his birth anniversary - United News of India

Voices of Dissent: An Essay. Romila Thapar. Seagull Books. 2020. Pages 164. Rs 374.

Writer Romila Thapar would have made a great environmental activist. She believes in recycling.

Unfortunately, she is a historian and she recycles the same old propaganda lines in style and, more importantly, with authority, which stems more from her ideological network than genuine scholarship.

In her latest book, Voices of Dissent: An Essay, she promises to take her readers on a journey into the history of dissent in India from Vedic times to Mahatma Gandhis satyagraha and "places in context the recent peaceful protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens.

The book has a narrative that has been told right from the day when the first Protestant missionary started exhibiting its despise for Hindu Dharma "the Brahminical priestcraft" oppressing the people.

Since then, this evangelist theme has resurfaced many times and in different jargons such as Indological, Marxist, Post-Modern and so on. Here, Thapar provides the same old opiate of the colonised academics, though packed in a new wrapper.

In the first section of the long essay, the villains of the narrative are outlined. Her word jugglery could be admired but for the boring repetition of the same old yarn she weaves.

For instance, she acknowledges that it is incorrect to speak of an Aryan race that is the escape window but discusses about the Other of the Arya which she identifies as those who could not speak the Vedic language.

So, throughout the first section of the essay, she presents the typical Aryan-Dasyu/Dasa binary with Vedic religion practising uniconic ritualism and the Dasas/Dasyus, phallic worship as they could not speak the Vedic language properly etc.

She even distorts the elevating episodes of Kavashaka and Satyakama. A reading of Kavashaka and Satyakama stories show that while the Vedic society was as hierarchical as any contemporary society with social exclusions, the Vedic values were against both social stratification and exclusion.

If one is to find a continuity for satyagraha and dissent then one can find that right in the soulful protests of Kavashaka, which in turn resulted in the Brahmins asking for his forgiveness.

In Satyakama being admitted to the school of sacred learning there is social emancipation. Even Thapar is forced to acknowledge that, when she says, "here the Varna identity gave way to an ethical qualification.

But then she asks her readers not to accept this as positive aspect of the Vedic culture but to see a hint of a subtle and new socio-religious interface of a more complex kind. Worse, she tells her readers how to read the Vedic texts with a prejudiced framework: "The dasas is the culture of the Other.

Then come the Shramanas whom she considers as possessing social good at their heart, but persecuted by adherents of Brahminism. Though today, this theory itself has been questioned heavily, she happily repeats the same lines.

Later, when it comes to the Islamist times the Other becomes more nuanced. Those rebelling against the sultanate and Mughal empire, including the collaboration between the forest-dwelling and urban-rural warrior communities, acquire a new label and even a motive. The covet reference is obviously to the Bhil-Rajput cooperation and resistance to Mughal onslaught.

So she speaks of "the few cases where the adivasi clans had assisted adventurers to acquire political power" and then of "some concessions of status" by the rulers like applying tilak by the "adivasi chief" at the time of coronation of Rajput kings.

But, here, one should note the language. The vanvasi-Rajput cooperation amounts to assisting adventurers, and liberation from the empire is portrayed as "acquiring political power". More importantly, freedom fighters, true rebels like Rana Pratap Singh, become "adventurers". Rituals that came into existence in recognition of the sacrifices of vanvasi communities are relegated to "concessions".

While Thapar wants to present an alluring narrative that flows seamlessly from Shramanas to satyagraha, she meets a problem in Gandhis satyagraha being rooted in his reading of Bhagavad Gita. She tries her best to somehow disconnect Gandhi from traditional Gita but fails pathetically.

However, for the faithful and the establishment, this may appear like an academic miracle whereas any true Gandhian scholar would see only a clumsy sleight of hand.

The whole exercise by Thapar is to fabricate a historical continuity to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) agitations. The true implications of the continuity is the slow but sure destruction of Hindu communities in India right from the day of the first Islamist marauders slaughter of Hindus because they were Hindus to the 1971 East Pakistan genocide, where the countrys army was given written orders to account for the number of Hindus they killed.

The real democratic dissent has its roots in Vedic literature where a Kavashaka, taunted for being born to a dasi woman, would summon the river Saraswati. In a remarkable continuity of this assertion of spiritual oneness of all traditions and divine equality, Ravidas would summon river Ganga. Later, Sreedara Iyyavaal in southern Tamil Nadu, when ostracised by the Brahmin community for giving the ritual food to a socially excluded person, would make Ganga flow out of his well.

In all these traditional narratives beyond or bereft of the supernatural elements, there is dissent against social stagnation and a push towards social emancipation. That force for that push comes from the values which continue as invisible strands right from the Vedas.

Mahatma Gandhi himself defined swarajya as a Vedic concept no less and considered his satyagraha as being derived from his Vaishnavism. And coming to civil disobedience, the most visible democratic form of dissent in modern times, the most comprehensive and detailed study of its traditional roots in Indian context has been done decades before Romila Thapars present book by Dharampal a really dissenting historian dissenting to the established power structures of academia and media.

The book Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition was first published in 1971 by Varanasi-based Sarva Seva Sangh Prakashan, now it forms the second volume of the collected works of Dharampal.

The foreword was written by Jayaprakash Narayan, another dissent in the truest and most honest sense of the term. The book explores the protest movements by Indian people in the beginning of the nineteenth century decades before the 1857 uprising.

In both the books, (Dharampal (1971) and Thapar (2020) one can find superficially strikingly similar passages but there are crucial, basic differences.

Thapar follows the Marxist model (which is also subtly Eurocentric) where the dissent is traced to a particular group or ideology and set against the other. In this case, it is Brahminical versus the non-Brahminical.

The pre-modern society is depicted as having marginalised or subjugated dissent but it was always present. Then whatever ideological movement with which Thapar aligns herself with in this case anti-CAA movement, is shown to be a continued but conscious evolved form of that historical dissent.

Dharampal bases his book on empirical data. He does not have binaries. Then from the data, he points out the alternative ways of looking at history different from the establishment history. Unaffected by colonisation of the brain, he points out how the colonial raj with its inherent infallibility of the state created a disruption in the traditional way in which people and the rulers were related.

This can be illustrated by two quotes from each of the books. The first is from Thapar:

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Romila Thapars Latest Is Recycled Work Of An Evangelist Theme Brahminical Oppression - Swarajya

A heritage corridor will soon be developed in Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattars constituency Karnal under the Karnal Smart City Limited (KSCL).

Officials monitoring the project said the corridor will be developed on the two kilometre stretch from main entrance of Karnal at Srimad Bhagavad Gita Gate to Karna Gate.

The corridor will include heritage buildings including 200-year-old Christian Cemetery, the old court building, record room, Kos Minar and the ancient Victoria Memorial Hall.

Deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Kumar Yadav, who is also the chief executive officer (CEO) of Karnal Smart City Limited said, As of now, we have identified four old buildings under this project and later the Karnal Club and old building of civil hospital will also be included.

He said the project will attract tourists to showcase the historic importance of these buildings built in the 19th century. The buildings will have CCTV cameras and other facilities including artifacts.

In this regard, the authority has prepared a proposal to get the NOC from the archaeological department. The tender process will be started after getting approval from the boards of directors and NOC from the Archaeological Survey of India. The work will be completed by March-end, Yadav said.

The Christian Cemetery was a cantonment of British forces about 200 years ago and the mortal remains of soldiers were buried at this site. Likewise, the 114-year-old Victoria Memorial Hall is the perfect example of Indian, Islamic and European architecture.

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Heritage corridor to be developed in Karnal - Hindustan Times

By Mohammed Shafeeq

Hyderabad, Nov 19 (SocialNews.XYZ) Hip hop and Urdu don't go together so also hip hop and Sufism but an Urdu hip-hop band has come out with an album with strange fusion of rap music with the Sufi message and in mostly Urdu lyrics.

As Hyderabad's Thug Unit is all set to release its album 'Resurrection 040', the duo behind it shared with IANS their experiences and the motivation behind the unique experiment.

Comprising 12 tracks and representing a variety of elements, the album is set to be released on Friday on Apple Music. Mostly in Urdu, the tracks also have English and West Indian flavor with Jamaican lingo.

Mudassir Ahmed and Syed Irshad, who go with stage names 'Mo Boucher' and 'Irish Boi' respectively, told IANS that for the first time message of sufism has been conveyed to people through the medium of hip hop.

People so far used to listen to qawwalis to known something about the message of Sufism but the Hyderabadi rappers with this album are adding a totally different medium.

"This is not philosophical Sufism like reading of books but it is actual practical journey. This has come out of our own experience," said Mudassir, who stopped writing poetry and composing music in 2012 for his spiritual journey and is making a comeback to the world of hip hop with his old friend.

"In 2014, I started to have spiritual yearning. I stopped writing and making music asking questions what is purpose of life. I started reflecting what I want to do with my life," said Mudassir, who read books include Bhagavad Gita and Vedas.

"I realised Sufism suits me on a personal level. I connected with the Sufi message. I spent 5-6 years with a Sufi master and learnt the Sufi traditions."

They said the main purpose of the album is to give good content to hip hop listeners. "What they mostly get is rubbish stuff like, sex, drugs and partying. Hip hop is not just that. It is reflection of ourselves," he said

Mudassir and Irrshad are confident that they will be able to change to hip hop scene in the country. "Hip hop is about poetry on any subject chosen and what we are seeing. We have put our own personal experience in the form of poetry," said Irrshad.

The musicians say that their fourth album, the first commercial one, has given them satisfaction. "Hip hop is a representation of yourself. You have to use it with responsibility because young people are listening to it. What they listen at this age is going to stay with them. We have a huge responsibility as to what content we are giving," said Mudassir, who started writing poetry when was 14.

He pointed out that one of the tracks in the album is on the current political atmosphere in India and the political shift that has happened in last 5-6 years, especially the last two years.

"As Indians while we were growing up it was different but now you have a completely different situation. There is more hate now and that is what motivated us to write a song about it," he said.

The album features pertinently named tracks Rubaroo (face to face), Raahe Rast (straight path), Suroor e Ishq, (exhilaration of love), Pardafash (unmasked), Azmaish (test), Atishbazi (fireworks), Bossman, Bus'em (Bust Them), Hate Monger, Intro, Kun (Be) featuring Rebel of Khan Artists and Original Rajah (Original Ruler).

The musical ensemble portrays Sufism-inspired self-reflection, community evils and voice against power establishments. Music for the album is produced by seasoned Grammy-nominated and multi-platinum producers including Buck Wild, making the duo the first from Telangana and perhaps from India to work with US-based Grammy nominated producers.

Thugs Unit inked a deal with Apple Music earlier this month. "We are happy that Bobin James Editor and Artists Relations Lead at Apple Music personally listened to our music tracks and liked them enough to honour us by featuring on a platform so robust like Apple Music", they said.

Source: IANS

Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.

He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.

When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.

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Spreading the message of Sufism through hip hop - Social News XYZ

This past weekend was Diwali, the Hindu New Year. I associate Diwali with being at home among family, with rows upon rows of traditional lamps, and with the triumph of good over evil. But Diwalis beauty can feel ephemeral. The dancing firelight eventually vanishes. The epic Ramayana, from which some stories of the triumph of good originates, doesnt end so happily after all. The semesters work comes crashing back after a weekend of cooking, cleaning, and family worship, and its like you had only been folded into a world of your own foolish construction.

This year, Diwali reminds me of my father, who underwent major back surgery about this time last year. The surgery was successful and my father is healthy. But for every year leading up to it, my father, a natural and skilled athlete, an intrinsically brave man, was perpetually in pain. I have vague memories of this fact, when he was a little bit more irritable after a long day of performing procedures as an indefatigable physician, or when he did not want to eat dinner at the dining table and instead watched TV from the couch. Still, it was only after I read about ankylosing spondylitis, the autoimmune arthritic condition that my dad has, on an organizations website that I realized the degree to which people with this condition feel pain: Bad days felt like grizzly bear claws and teeth ripping through my connective tissue and joints. And, I struggle to keep my mind positive and just want to cry which on occasion I do. For a time, I hardly believed that my father felt this kind of pain, because if I am having the least bit of discomfort, he is the first to advise ibuprofen. It is as if the fact that he has suffered from chronic pain means nothing for how others should learn to bear it, too.

A few weeks before the surgery, my mother called me and told me exuberantly that my father had finally signed up to take theological exams at the temple. These exams are meant to teach scripture of this particular Hindu tradition and ways of understanding the world and our place in it. Theyre open to anyone and are purely for spiritual discovery and fulfillment. My mom had been urging my dad to take them for years, since, in her view, without the positive pressure of an exam, its tough to find time to read anything at all. After eleven years of taking the same exams, I can say with confidence that Ive found this to be true. But my father always resisted, brushing it off jokingly as unnecessary, citing his busy work schedule as a valid reason not to do it.

Hes finally decided to do it! my mother was smiling at me from behind the screen. From behind her, out of the frame, my father called back, Dont get your hopes up too high! I was shocked; I couldnt be sure that his decision wasnt just a brief, noncommittal comment to assuage my mother.

There are times when I resent the added burden of studying for this exam, when my friends on campus are stressed about spring semester midterms, and I am stressed about all of those things plus the fact that I am miserably underprepared for an exam one that is supposed to tell me how to salvage the fate of my soul after death. The kicker is that having read by now thousands of pages on the subject, I still look at my father and think, here is a person who wastes no time drowning in theoretical faith. For him, faith is nothing like leaping off the edge, or a blinding firework, beautiful but short-lived. He is a person who enacts those theories and concepts that I only memorize. He is a person who is put to the test not once a year by pen and paper, but by nature. The word faithful has a longitudinal connotation, after all.

Diwali reminds me of my father because its not always jubilant and loud. Sometimes, like in the pandemic when we will not visit family members, it is quiet. Its less like a firework and more like an image I cherish from the Bhagavad Gita: a lamp in a windless place. It is still and warm; it is transparent and yet substantial.

Six years ago, I stood in the winding line of a ride called Leap of Faith at a resort in the Bahamas. From the railing, I could see him, sitting in a reclining chair surrounded by our shoes and towels. While the anxiety preceding a near-vertical slide into a shark tank rose, none of us mourned the absence of the lone family member who sat near the edge of the pool reading. Thats because it happens every time. My dad always spearheads vacation planning, hurtling headlong into the logistics for every excursion, and then sits out when the moment to lie on the salt-encrusted surfboard, to buckle into a humongous roller coaster arrives.

It was me, my brother and mom and cousins, and aunt and uncle, who leapt off the edge that day and came up sputtering at the end of the slide with chlorine in our eyes and noses. But it was my father, that day and every day, who gave faith a new meaning, steady and quiet, performing nothing, and needing no occasion but normalcy to find good in the dark. This Diwali, when the last light dissolves, I remember this.

Pranati P. Parikh 21 is a joint Religion and Comparative Literature concentrator in Adams House. Her column appears on alternate Wednesdays.

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Light Without Wind | Opinion - Harvard Crimson

The perils of Indian economy are products of directionless economic policies of Modi government. It is led by ignorant leadership and arrogance of Hindutva politics based on exclusionary ideology, which is inspired by European Nazism and fascism. There is a method madness in the reactionary politics of BJP and RSS. It intends to convert multicultural India into a monolithic India based on Hindutva. It is a reactionary political outlook shaped by national and global capitalist classes. These forces have unrestricted access to national treasury and natural resources in India under Modi led government. From deregulation, demonetisation, GST to pandemic lockdowns, Modi government did everything to dismantle both supply and demand side of the Indian economy. The collapse of two primary pillars of economy led to the growth of unemployment and declining purchasing power of the masses. The consumption and consumer demands declined immediately, which shocked Indian economy and pushed it to undeclared recession for the first time in Indian economic history. Modi government is doing everything to protect corporate interests, when people are trying to find ways to survive with hunger, homelessness, unemployment and Coronavirus pandemic. Indian economic predicaments are inherent within exclusionary Hindutva politics. The economic recovery, growth and development in India depends on social, religious, and political inclusive culture, where citizens are equal shareholders of economic opportunities.

Hindutva exclusionary politics is trying to hide all its failures and constantly diverting public attention. The advocates of Hindutva glorify mythological Hindu past and blame all previous governments for all ills of Indian society today. The current problems are products of past deeds. It is a perfect Hindutva recipe that derives its philosophical legitimacy from the Karma theory of the Bhagavad Gita. The current problems are products of Hindutva economic policies, which are geared towards upholding the interests of corporates in India. It is evident in the rise of corporate wealth and decline of per capita income of the working Indians. Hindutva uses neoliberal dispossession to mobilise the masses and consolidates its Brahmanical social and cultural order. At the same time, Hindutva politics accelerates neoliberal economic policies that dispossess the masses. This political and economic contradictions are integral to Hindutva politics. The mainstream mass medias are playing a central role in hiding these contradictions by promoting Hindutva agenda of dispossession and disenfranchisement of majority of Indian citizens; Muslims, religious minorities, lower caste, tribals, women and working classes. Hindutva exclusionary ideology is not only depriving Muslims from their citizenship rights but also accelerating deprivation of lower caste, women and working-class population from participating in economic opportunities by privatising national resources.

Hindutva politics is opposed to the idea of India as an inclusive, constitutional, liberal and secular democracy. It follows mythological theocracy, which is opposed to very foundation of scientific and modern India of 21st century. The Indian economic perils are products of such a reactionary and medieval ideology of Hindutva. It is shaping India with its Hindutva shock therapy based on prohibitions, controls, and commands over everyday lives of people. Hindutva discourse is trying to dominate every aspects of Indian life from food habits, dress patterns, education, health to reproductive rights. These regressive outlooks are fundamentally opposed to economic growth and development in India. Because social, political, economic religious, and cultural marginalisation weakens citizens, families, societies, states and institutions to mobilise internal resources of India. The centralisation of power by Hindutva forces further diminish the abilities of local and provincial governments to mobilise local resources. The availability, accessibility and distribution of goods and services depend on production, demand and supply. Hindutva politics destroys every economic foundations of the country by creating social and religious conflicts and violently supressing political opposition and democratic decentralisation processes.

Hindutva model of economic and political governance of Modi government is based on multiple forms of exclusionary practices that hinder economic growth and development in India. Hindutvas innate hatred for Muslims is the first form exclusion, which diminishes more than fourteen percentage of Indian population and their abilities to contribute to their individual lives and to the national economy. Hindutva politics considers women only as mothers, sisters and wives who can be prayed inside the house. Such a patriarchal approach discourages civic and economic participation for nearly forty-eight percentage of Indian women population. The apartheid Hindutva ideology believes in caste hierarchy, which disables social and economic abilities of nearly twenty five percent of lower caste and tribal population. It means eighty-seven percentage of Indian population are living under the conditions of structural barriers that does not allow them to grow and be the shareholders of national life. The processes of marginalisation, denials of citizenship rights and lack of participation creates social, political and economic conditions of institutionalised deprivation, which gives power to Hindutva forces. Therefore, crisis crime, dominance, and deprivation are four weapons of Hindutva politics in India.

Hindutva exclusionary politics creates conditions of deprivation trap, which breeds unemployment, poverty, debt, destitution, marginalisation, illiteracy and illness. These outcomes are dangerous and weakening of India and Indians both in short run and long run. Social coexistence, peace and inclusive cultures are foundations of economic growth and development. But the idea of inclusive culture and peace are alien ideals and antithetical to Hindutva politics. Therefore, Hindutva ideology is a hinderance to economic growth and development in India.

The Hindutva politics led Modi can neither be reformed nor can be revised. The only alternative is to defeat it ideologically and politically till it becomes qualitatively and quantitatively irrelevant and illegal in India. Hindutva is Indian version of Nazism and fascism. It is detrimental to India, Indians and humanity. India and Indians will suffer social and economic underdevelopment as long as Hindutva rules the country. The institutionalisation of Hindutva discrimination destroys all potentials and conditions for economic growth and development. The struggle against Hindutva is struggle against caste, gender and religious based discrimination in India. The united struggle against Hindutva politics must develop radical narratives based on social, political and cultural integration, inclusive economic and development policies for peace and prosperity for the masses. These are essential conditions of sustainable economic growth and secular development of society in India.

*Bhabani Shankar Nayak, Coventry University, UK

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Hindutva Hindrance To Economic Growth And Development In India - OpEd - Eurasia Review