{"id":10654,"date":"2018-01-29T13:19:51","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T10:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/?p=10654"},"modified":"2018-01-29T13:19:51","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T10:19:51","slug":"hindu-press-international-jan-29-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/sanatana-dharma\/hindu-press-international\/hindu-press-international-jan-29-2018","title":{"rendered":"Hindu Press International- Jan 29, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Great British Empire Debate<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Source<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"NEW YORK, NEW YORK, January 26, 2018 (New York Books, by Kenan Malik): The sun may have long ago set on the British Empire, but it never seems to set on the debate about the merits of empire. The latest controversy began when the Third World Quarterly, an academic journal known for its radical stance, published a paper by Bruce Gilley, an associate professor of political science at Portland State University in Oregon, called ”The Case for Colonialism.” Fifteen of the thirty-four members on the journal’s editorial board resigned in protest, while a petition, with more than 10,000 signatories, called for the paper to be retracted. Like all such debates, this latest controversy comprises many threads. Was colonialism good or bad, and for whom, and in what ways? How should one debate these questions in academia, and in politics?<\/p>\n

Apologists for colonialism argue that Western powers brought economic development, the rule of law, and liberties to its colonies. According to Gilley, colonialism stressed ”the primacy of human lives, universal values, and shared responsibilities” and constituted a ”civilizing mission” that ”led to improvements in living conditions for most Third World peoples.” For many British historians, the British Empire was preeminent in achieving all this. As Niall Ferguson put it in his 2003 book Empire, ”no organization in history has done more to promote the free movement of goods, capital and labor than the British Empire…. And no organization has done more to impose Western norms of law, order and governance around the world.”<\/p>\n

If Britain could transform itself from a backward, undemocratic state into a modern industrial power, why could not any of the nations it colonized have done so, too? One answer might be that the countries that Britain colonized were even more backward than Britain was at the time, and lacked the social and intellectual resources to transform themselves as Britain did. But the reality, at least in some of its colonies, was the opposite. Consider India. At the beginning of eighteenth century, India’s share of the world economy was 23 percent, as large as all of Europe put together. By the time Britain left India, it had dropped to less than 4 percent. ”The reason was simple,” argues Shashi Tharoor in his book Inglorious Empire. ”India was governed for the benefit of Britain. Britain’s rise for two hundred years was financed by its depredations in India.” Britain, Tharoor argues, deliberately deindustrialized India, both through the physical destruction of workshops and machinery and the use of tariffs to promote British manufacture and strangle Indian industries.<\/p>\n

Much more of this debate at ”source” above.<\/p>\n

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The Good Swastika<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Source<\/a><\/p>\n

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A swastika decorates an entryway in India. Photo by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman<\/p><\/div>\n

UNITED STATES, January 26, 2018 (RNS by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman): I just returned from my first trip to India and Nepal, a soul-stretching pilgrimage that was as much mentally as physically demanding. Along the way, I made my peace with the swastika. Not that swastika, that unrepentant symbol of hate seen most recently on the streets of Charlottesville. No, I’m talking about the original swastika, the ancient Asian swastika, the one you get when you peel away that nasty layer of red and black paint. I saw how, in India, this symbol brings a sense of warmth and protection to tiny village huts, similar to the role played by the mezuzah in Jewish homes. I also saw how it conveys a feeling of grace and order in public art, grand squares and vast temples. In Sanskrit, the word connotes well-being; the four arms symbolize sun, wind, water and soil, the basic elements of existence.<\/p>\n

Making peace with the swastika does not mean making peace with Nazis past and present, nor with their hateful ideology — nor with their corrupted version of that symbol. Rather, it is a statement of defiance to those who so grotesquely distorted an emblem held sacred by half the world.<\/p>\n

More of this account at ”source” above.<\/p>\n

Muruga Song Released for Thai Pusam
\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=isrCboz8AvY&feature=youtu.be<\/a><\/p>\n

SINGAPORE, January 25, 2018: For those wanting to get in the mood for the Thai Pusam festival in a few days, we recommend this YouTube video by our friends Aks and Lakshmi of Eclipse Nirvana and Padmini Chandrashekar singing this upbeat arrangement of the traditional song, ”Velava Velava Vel Muruga Vaa Vaa.” Filmed at the Sri Murugan Hill Temple of Singapore<\/p>\n

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Daily Inspiration<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Source<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him–that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.
\n— Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Great British Empire Debate Source NEW YORK, NEW YORK, January 26, 2018 (New York Books, by Kenan Malik): The sun may have long ago set on the British Empire, but it never seems to set on the debate about the merits of empire. The latest controversy began when the Third World Quarterly, an academic journal known for its radical stance, published a paper by Bruce Gilley, an associate professor of political science at Portland State University in Oregon, called ”The Case for Colonialism.” Fifteen of the thirty-four members on the journal’s editorial board resigned in protest, while a petition, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hindu-press-international","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revers-sun.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}