civilisationReview

Throughout the year, humans exist largely as ‘employees’. This means that people generally engage in those characteristics that make us ‘human’, such as listening, acting on, exhibiting interest, exercising imagination, interacting meaningfully and striving aspirationally solely at work . Everything else is generally ‘compensatory’ or ‘recuperative’. That is, they do what they do outside of work not because it is an avenue via which they express themselves – or other aspects of their personas – but simply because it helps them to recuperate from the myriad of maladies they suffer as a consequence of their absorption within the work environment.  Hence, social life is reduced to the status of a reservoir from which they drink in order to be rejuvenated for work. In other words, life becomes little more than a means to work as opposed to the inverse. Christmas, ...amongst others, however, demands that life, excluding ‘work’, be celebrated. It demands that humans be validated as being...

The division of India into India and Pakistan simply served to amplify the differences between the Muslims and Hindus. Yes, there were tensions between the two sectors that was accentuated by British colonial policies of 'divide and conquer/rule', but these tensions DO predate British incursion into Bharat ('India'). Much of these tensions, we have to admit, was due to Muslim intolerance of difference in the historical 'Mughal' past. They did, historically speaking, demolish temples, and even line the steps of some mosques with the debris of said demolished temples to claim ascendence over the Hindus. Over time, there was integration, and Muslim assimilation into the Indian multicultural view of things, as laudably illustrated in the Taj Mahal being a national symbol of Bharat. And this multicultural character of India is also further illustrated by the Dharma Chakra on the Flag of India, popularised by Buddhism, but which is also a part of Hinduism and Jain...