Videshi Sutra

Musings on Indian history, philosophy, culture, politics, art, whatever. This is the tumblr colony of my wordpress blog.

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Linguistic Clues towards Madagascar's Population History

This is the kind of post which needs to start with some maps and then contain even more maps: Notice Madagascar in the lower left hand corner. (source) This map is useful because it shows that Malagasy (the primary language of Madagascar) is in the same sub-group as Bornean languages. There is a little pocket of this sub-group on Sumatra, but otherwise they seem oddly distant, with Sumatra and…

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Some thoughts on the Nagaland Independence Movement

I’ve been reading this book called “The Periphery Strikes Back” by Udayon Misra. It examines the historical context behind secessionist movements in Assam and Nagaland. Here I am just going to voice my observations based on the first two chapters, which deal with Nagaland specifically. A map representing a common conception of “Greater Nagaland” Nagaland was largely left to govern itself under…

Some thoughts on the Nagaland Independence Movement

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Ahl-i-Hadis, Deobandis, and Barelvis: Responses to Colonialism in Early Modern Subcontinental Islam

The Ahl-i-Hadiths, Deobandis, and Barelvis engaged in a series of debates with one another over the course of the late 19th century which illustrated three sets of varying doctrinal positions. This is based on a series of thoughts I’ve taken notes on over the course of a few years reading the books and journal articles in the bottom of this section. I will try to touch upon the social background…

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Earliest Glimpses of Colorado Hinduism

The early 20th century in Denver marks a fragmented period for the presence of Hinduism, a time when authentic Hindu philosophy and spirituality began to emerge alongside a flurry of sensationalist and dubious claims. The Vedanta Society made a brief but notable appearance, attempting to establish a foothold for genuine Hindu teachings, though its influence appears to have been transient. More…

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"My Body = My Property"?

Is this property? I recently saw some Libertarian women carrying a sign which said “My Body = My Property”. I suppose they were doing this as a sort of alternative permutation of “My Body, My Choice” to lend themselves an explicitly Libertarian flare to their pro-abortion rights advocacy. This is also a common sentiment and justification for abortion rights which I have heard from many…

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Review of Nonviolence Consumption and Community Among Ancient Indian Ascetics

I recently read this book, which I would like to share my impressions of. Or at least my impressions of the first essay, entitled “The Politics of Alms gathering: Asceticism, Exchange, and the Alimentary Ethics of Ancient Buddhist and Jain Mendicants”. It is a fairly short book consisting of just two essays, so it is the type of thing which is easy to read and review. The first essay was quite…

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Repose

Would you find it easier if we never met here, and instead met for the first time in death’s repose? When will I see you again in the doubtless, fearless world? We could meet again in breath, but you choke, run, lock the gates. When are you coming home?

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A Scrap of Maldivian Buddhism

The Maldives are not a country we typically associate with Buddhism. Currently, it is primarily known to the West as a culturally denuded vacation dystopia/utopia catering to the cosmopolitan elite, though in reality, it also exists alongside a somewhat extremist Islamic state. A double whammy to ensure the cultural irrelevance of anything preceding even early modernity. The paucity of the…

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Octagonal grinding disk cuts through the universe

Octagonal grinding disk cuts through the universe Though an ominous, violent phrase, I think this I think represents two ends of a similar means of attaining wisdom within the broader Dharmic tradition. Two which are at opposite ends of a particular horseshoe. 1) The intoxicated Caitanya-esque ecstatic dancing, music, or trance (embodied in most epitomized form by the heterodox, antinomian and…

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World Leaders React to Death of Castro

World Leaders React to Death of Castro

I won’t be doing this kind of post often. This isn’t even related to South Asia at all except that I’m starting the list with South Asian leaders, but I’m posting it because I was annoyed at how bad the media is at doing this extremely simple job. I couldn’t find a single complete list of immediate reactions of foreign leaders to the death of Castro. They all exclude some major leaders, chop up…

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Deshbondhu Chittoronjon Dash (দেশবন্ধু চিত্তরঞ্জন দাশ)

Deshbondhu Chittoronjon Dash (দেশবন্ধু চিত্তরঞ্জন দাশ)

  Portrait of Deshbondhu. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Recently I was reading over the “Presidential Address of Desabhandhu C. R. Das at the thirty-seventh session of the Indian National Congress held at Gaya on 26th December 1922” also known as “Freedom Through Disobedience.” I kept highlighting key passages for my own reference, but I thought that I’d post them up here for those…

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Covert Lokayata V: Arts, Culture, and Modernity. (+Bibliography)

Covert Lokayata V: Arts, Culture, and Modernity. (+Bibliography)

(Click to go back to Part I: Doctrines)

(Click to go back to Part II: Proto-Materialism in Vedic and Tantric Traditions)

(Click to go back to Part III: Orthodox Darshanas)

(Click to go back to Part IV: Social and Physical Sciences)

Culture:

Much of the cultural output from the Mayura to the Gupta period reflects the themes of Lokayata. Though it had always been prevalent amongst the population,…

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Buddhist Meditation on the Foul, and the Body in Horror Manga

Buddhist Meditation on the Foul, and the Body in Horror Manga

From “The True Shape of Human Bones — On the Dawn of Anatomical Dissections in Early Modern Japan” By Michel Wolfgang. p 42

Warning! Very graphic imagery ahead if you choose to click through to this article.

I had the hypothesis that the type of “body horror” imagery which we see in modern Japanese horror Manga had some kind of historical relationship with Japanese Buddhism, probably via Buddhist…

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Ab Ki Bar Trump Sarkar

Ab Ki Bar Trump Sarkar

Image Source: Quartz India

This recent spate of “right wing” victories which includes Brexit, Trump, and the European nationalists is part of the same global phenomenon which produced Modi.

It almost seems too obvious to point out how similar Trump and Modi are but I haven’t seen many people in my circles saying it. Probably because I hang out mostly with Americanized NRI liberals in the Brahmin…

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India's Ancient Constitution, Part 1

India’s Ancient Constitution, Part 1

Did India have an Ancient Constitution worth respecting, or not? Did the British uphold it, or destroy it? For a Libertarian or Burkean Conservative Hindu, these are important questions to consider dispassionately. The answer actually matters. If India had an Ancient Constitution which was destroyed when the British came, then much of India’s existing constitution, a combination of British…

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Covert Lokayata IV: Social and Physical Sciences

Covert Lokayata IV: Social and Physical Sciences

Political theory

The word Lokayata occurs only once in the Arthashastra (PDF here), but it is a very significant mention. The treatise opens with the line “Om, salutations to Sukra and Brihaspati” the two progenitors of materialism and deha-vada (doctrine of the body as soul) in Vedic mythology.There are also numerous mentions of the “school of Brihaspati” later on in the text; though it is…

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Ancient Indian Aristocratic Republics

Ancient Indian Aristocratic Republics

Map of the 16 Janapadas. Source: Wikimedia Commons

I was reading about non-monarchical forms of government in ancient India. Really I was interested in what they call the “Republics” of ancient India. But that concept is a bit misleading. It has all sorts of Eurocentric connotations, and implicit associations with democracy, egalitarianism, populism, etc. It has those implicit connections even…

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