Joseph, a Dalit Christian, was abducted on Sunday and killed by a gang of criminals allegedly engaged by his fiancee's family.
Fifty years ago today, December 25, 1972, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, one of the titans of India's freedom struggle, passed into the ages. Kalki Krishnamurthy, who penned the Tamil classic Ponniyin Selvan among numerous other novels, describes his first glimpse of the man who would become an august national leader and his cherished role model.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was on Thursday admitted to a naturopathy institute on the outskirts of Bengaluru for a 10-day nature cure regimen for treatment of his persistent chronic cough problem and uncontrolled sugar level.
Many of the stories, the pictures going out of India worldwide lately with these provocative processions, taunting of Muslims, bulldozers targeting mostly their properties, the sweeping 'othering' of a community of 200 million are painting the front pages and TV screens in the democratic world. That is where most of the friends we covet lie. Soon enough, these will also make our vital friends among the Muslim nations, from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, uneasy. The best time for course correction is now, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
He wondered whether anyone can imagine an economy operating without animal husbandry.
Count among The Light of Asia's many, many admirers over 132 years: Gandhi, Tagore, Vivekananda, Nehru and Ambedkar, Tolstoy and Kipling, Yeats and Eliot, Alfred Nobel, Dmitri Mendeleev and C V Raman. Jairam Ramesh reveals why he decided to write a book on Edwin Arnold, who wrote The Light of Asia.
'there is absolutely no question that the Hinduism of the mob-lynchers, the people who have actually gone and killed others because of what they are eating or how they are worshipping or the faith they belong to or what they're doing professionally, those are, to my mind, not Hindus at all.' 'Hinduism needs to be reclaimed for the Hindus who are not bigots.'
Let these thought-provoking quotes by famous teachers from across the world inspire you.
Why must Indians adjust their time-tested system because of what the West needs, asks Sanjeev Nayyar.
'People beat their chests when the Babri Masjid was brought down, not realising that it was just one event in a chain going back centuries; to look at the last link or two in isolation is absurd.'
'I could have joined the BJP in 2014, the doors were open.' 'I stayed on with the TMC, a party I was involved with since its very inception.' 'But today enough is enough.'
In an age of patents and intellectual property rights, it would be improper to deny that yoga comes from the Hindu tradition, says Sankrant Sanu.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf on the futility of the 'who is a Hindu?' debate.
'I sat down and asked them what they would want in their new school. One student said a football field, another one asked for computers. One little girl came and sat next to me and said, "A separate toilet for the girls." I think these small things make a huge difference in the future of education in India,' Nita Ambani tells Aseem Chhabra/Rediff.com
'Unity in diversity is a dated notion as India, today, is more unified and cohesive and yet more pronouncedly diverse than ever in its history,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
The prime minister's "Pareeksha pe charcha", ahead of the Class 10 and 12 board examinations, was held at the Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi.
'Having dedicated my life towards improving breast healthcare in my motherland. I shall continue to work with rock-solid determination following this "chosen" path.'
The rationalist has proved to be a greater voice of reason in death than he was during his lifetime.
'Many said his visit was very risky. But mercifully, Air Force One has taken off from Delhi without Mr Trump stepping on anybody's toes,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'We teach our kids the 3 R's -- reading, writing, and arithmetic -- so that they can be successful. It's time the fourth R joined that list: Programming. My vision is to expose every student to computer science and show them that coding IS fun and applicable to their daily lives.' Just 15, Swetha Prabakaran, founder and CEO of Everybody Code Now!, a non-profit working to empower the next generation of youth to become engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs, is already a White House Champion of Change for teaching hundreds of students how to code.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday dedicated birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as National Unity Day, saying a nation that disregards its history cannot create one and made a veiled reference to anti-Sikh riots that followed then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination this day 30 years ago.
The hypocrisies of high-caste Hindus have cost their followers very dear. Millions have left their dharma, their great religion which boasts of the loftiest philosophical ideas, says Tarun Vijay.
There are many firsts in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha speech which constitute the cardinal elements of a strategy which has all the potential to serve as the mainspring of the polity for the rest of the century, says B S Raghavan.
'He was one of us. He was a perfect Indian. He breathed India, he wore India's core values. His faith was India. We will miss you sir.'
'We are no longer striving for a strategic partnership. We have arrived at one.'
Pandit Ravi Shankar was George Harrison's link into the Vedic world.
'Here I am, a BJP candidate, with a Muslim's blood running through my veins. This is simply magical!' P C Sorcar Junior, perhaps India's best-known magician, tells Rediff.com's Indrani Roy.
'Every time I step on stage, I feel like I'm performing the play for the first time,' Manoj Joshi tells Sadiya Updade.
'The world wants India to succeed. It also worries now that India over-promises and under-delivers,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Ahead of the G20 Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Osaka, Japan and discussed a range of issues of mutual interest.
'We have never before seen an Indian prime minister's visit to the United States so heavily business-oriented and so packed with meetings with the US business community.' Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com reports from Washington, DC.
'The Sabarimala issue is no longer in splendid isolation.'
Kainchi, near Nainital, attracts devotees from near and far, 42 years after the death of its spiritual leader, Neem Karoli Baba.
Manobi Bandyopadhyay, India's first transgender principal of a college, speaks of her struggles in a moving interview.
'After 8 to 10 hours of running, when my body starts paining, I keep thinking about the pain and sacrifice of my mother and it makes my will stronger.'
In the second and final part of his column, Col Anil Athale says the fight between forces of Indian nationalism and Macaulayism aided and abetted by West is going to be long, hard and dirty. The outcome will decide whether India becomes a superpower or continues to wallow in the swamp of underdevelopment.
India's beloved President -- there has been no other who has influenced the nation as much -- never stepped back from inspiring people to be the very best that they could be.
'There are so many schemes announced for the benefit of farmers, women and less privileged sections of our society. But how many of these are being availed of?'
Menstruation is not a disease. Yet, in villages, women die due to poor hygiene during their periods.
The founder of the Republican Hindu Coalition first attracted attention in the US as the "Punjabi tycoon" who was a huge supporter of Narendra Modi in the US. 'He will be best for India. There is no better ally for the US than India in the region,' Shalabh Kumar tells Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
