According to you Alexander defeated Porus in 325 BC but the Maurya Dynasty was around the 16th century BC? Call your History teacher or do a simple Google search. You will realize how wrong your are (you are off by about 1000 years!!).

Alexander was crushed by Porus? Government issued history books in India will state that Alexander and Porus fought a fierce war but in the end Alexander won but pardoned Porus after seeing his bravery.

You cannot just say that people like me are destroying “Indian culture” without providing evidence. As I mentioned in the article William Jones (a Britisher) claimed that that Pataliputra (Palibothra) is Patna (Bihar). This effectively placed Alexander, Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka in Eastern India. This is what we teach in our history books today. So who is following the stories written by “Greek writers and colonial fools”? You or me.

There is a lot of individualism in the West. You have to think about yourself first before anything else. But it is not as simple as that. Countries like the United States lead the world in charitable contributions and they really step up to the plate when there are tragedies in the world.

It is complicated. Everybody in India nowadays complains about the political inaction, nepotism, corruption in politics and so on. But when it is our party or political leader who is doing it then we do not express any outrage. This is nothing but partisan politics.

But I was extremely surprised that no one even raised a voice of protest against such harsh words.

Maybe it reflects the fact that people are becoming too accommodating – which gives further boost to morale of such people. This is setting a really bad precedent.

It is a fact that millions of Indians eat beef and as you pointed out there is a long tradition of eating beef in India . This is not a “fringe group” as some believe.

The anti-beef community will use economic, moral, life vs. death, and cultural and philosophical reasons for preventing others from eating beef. But don’t be fooled. The real reason is their belief that the cow is sacred according to their interpretation of Hinduism.

They might be against killing the cow but they have no problems making the same sacred cow work for them under extremely difficult circumstances its entire life, use it as a means of transportation, drink its milk, make and profit from dairy products and then sell the cow to meat markets when the cow is almost ready to die and is of no use to them.

You have to kill to survive. Some favor killing plant life and others animal life. Every time you breathe in you are killing thousands of minute airborne organisms. It is as simple as that.”

How did you conclude after reading the comments that I have not checked “shabda taravali” for the meaning of Karthave? I think you have some mythical powers as well :)

I think that most Malayalees will tell you that Kartha in Malayalam means black or dark.

Please send me a link to the information that you are referring to. Thanks.

You have no respect for another human being.

A simple Google search would reveal the following:

SC/ST in India: According to India’s 2001 Census the number of Schedule Caste in India is 16% and the numbers of Schedule Tribes in India are 7.5%.

Kanyadan and Dowry: The following is what Encyclopedia Britannica says about Kanyadan (Britannica: India, Volume Six (Select Essays)): Hindu marriage has traditionally been viewed as the “gift of a maiden” (kanyadan) from the bride’s father to the household of the groom. This gift is also accompanied by a dowry, which generally consists of items suitable to start a young couple in married life. On page 154 it says “Of the two (between dowry and bride pride), dowry has been the most prestigious arrangement for Hindus, in line with the Kanyadan ideal, and an important index of social ranking”.

“Arrogance diminishes wisdom” – Arabian Proverb

The media in India are “for profit” organizations. They say and print things that their audience wants to hear or read. If Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister of India then you will see Congress Party supporters make similar complaints.

In addition the English media is “national” in nature and they try to appeal to educated middle class Indians from all sorts of backgrounds. It would not make sense for them business wise to talk about a polarizing figure like Narendra Modi.

You will see a very different view of Narendra Modi if you follow the local media particularly the Hindi language media in the North.

We do not have a consensus on who wrote the “Hindu” scriptures. We have some names but we do not know very much about their backgrounds (many of the Tamil classics particularly from the Sangam period were likely written by Buddhists and Jains). But there is no question that today the Brahmin community sits at the top of the caste system.

Indians should be allowed to choose they own caste and religion or choose nothing at all!!

The argument here is not to keep ones mouth shut. Just the opposite. Indians have every right to hold the UPA government and its leaders like Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh accountable for their actions. As you said corruption in the past is not a valid excuse for corruption now.

But we have to remember a couple of things. Democracy is a two way street. The politicians we criticize are themselves elected by us repeatedly and represent millions of us and our interests. In addition the languages that we speak in India are sophisticated and complex and have all the necessary mechanism to express our anguish, anger and frustration in a clear, precise and professional manner. There is no need to use language that is in any way personal or hurtful.

How can someone garner support of others when he/she is willing to use such language to point out that someone else is incompetent?

In general I do not see a downside to respecting someone because of their age. Respect does not necessarily have to mean that you agree with them or you follow their orders or that the older person necessarily cares for the younger persons best interests. It is simply an acknowledgment. You can respect somebody and at the same time treat everybody as equal.

But when you take the taxpayer’s money and mismanage it so vulgarly, keeping one’s mouth shut for decency’s sake is disappointing behavior. I know a lot of people will say, “oh … the whole system is corrupt. It’s not his fault”. He is responsible. He sort of asked for it to be blamed because of his ambitions to be a PM. The PM rightfully has no point to remark against such an attack from Modi.

The old are no less prone to exploit us than the young. And it’s very dubious whether or not age brings wisdom. For our politicians, age seems to have brought cynicism instead.

Showing extra respect to an older person is a fallacy. I think it makes more sense to treat everyone equally irrespective of age in all things.