Valson Thampu

Religion and the corona pandemic

Compare the faith healers with our health workers. The latter risk their life for others, undeterred even by sporadic eruptions of ingratitude from the very people they serve

20 Apr 2020

How shall we respond to the pandemic?
 

On occasions like this, it could help to recall how such calamities were faced in the past

01 Apr 2020

Nirbhaya tragedy: beyond the hangman’s noose

The lust to abuse human beings as tools stems from the mindset of power that rejects love, which is the spiritual element in us
 

21 Mar 2020

Looking behind & beyond Delhi riots

The sentimental task is to bemoan the mammoth human suffering inflicted. The ethical task is to map its subterranean roots.

08 Mar 2020

Arvind Kejriwal has turned Delhi into a counter-Hindutva laboratory

If Modi is truly invincible, he should be so not only in parliamentary polls but also in state elections. That is clearly not the case. What does this mean?

11 Feb 2020

What the turmoil in JNU portends

JNU signals a worrisome pathology.Violence as the medium of argument is unacceptable anywhere

14 Jan 2020

Christians of Kerala, awake!

The oppressiveness of organised religion draws its legitimacy from man-made rules and customs, which are dishonestly attributed to God for stamping them with legitimacy.

08 Dec 2019

SC verdict: A passage to Ayodhya 

As the apex court is set to deliver its judgment today, India is on the cusp—a time pregnant with expectancy and its country-cousin, anxiety 
 

09 Nov 2019

On the ease of doing democracy

Civilization, as Will Durant documents, involves a transcendence of the tribal way of life in which tribe-against-tribe was the norm.

03 Nov 2019

The helpless nuns of God’s own country

If there is a crime worse than raping defenseless nuns, it is hounding those who, out of spiritual sensitivity, dare to stand by their spiritual sisters

22 Oct 2019

Revisiting Unity in Diversity

Unity in diversity is the irreducible logic of life. Uniformity is its contradiction, necessarily attended by disastrous consequences 

12 Oct 2019

Fetish of separation in Kashmir

Central to the tragic situation in J&K is the mix-up of autonomy with separation. The separatists propagate this deadly confusion

16 Sep 2019

Political perplexities around onam

In the Indian world view, the purpose of an avatar is to combat adharma. The Mahabali myth embodies a contrary pattern

31 Aug 2019

Kashmir as an allegory of pathological minorityism

Between the response, broadly speaking, of the rest of India and that of the people of the Valley, to the present Kashmir gamble, there is a complete discontinuity.

18 Aug 2019

Congress in a deadly dilemma

The grand old party banked heavily on the ‘aristocratic’ facade. Times have changed. Yesterday’s merit is today’s stigma

10 Aug 2019

Tracing the taboo around menstruation

Now that the heat and dust around Sabarimala have settled, we can afford to think rationally and historically about its core issue.

25 Jul 2019

In support of Kerala’s church bill

The politically powerful bishops’ lobby in Kerala is opposing the Bill. By doing so, it is only pushing Christians away from the mainstream

01 Jul 2019

Will the Congress panic and commit harakiri?

It was Plato who, through Socrates, flagged the danger that the man of enlightenment faced the risk of getting killed by entering politics.

26 May 2019

The real message of Easter

The paradox of the Easter event is that it celebrates life through death. The primary reality is life, not death

20 Apr 2019

Protect kids from priest-craft

No religion is safe in the hands of priests. The pattern of irrational dependence on priestly favours impairs your child’s will to endure.

18 Mar 2019

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