'At home, being vegan is no real problem, and other than dairy (dahi, chhaas, ghee and kadhi) I can eat normally.' 'There is, of course, the eschewing of meat and as someone who likes (should I say liked?) Naga pork and beef steaks, and has eaten snake and dog, going vegan is unusual,' says Aakar Patel.
'The BJP will never do anything substantial to empower Dalits.'
'Jignesh Mevani has many strengths: Youth, articulation, fearlessness, proficiency with social media, political and ideological flexibility.' 'Also focus, as in targeting the BJP as the one and only enemy for now and using that justification to align with the rest,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'It is obvious that the lakhs who come to see it do not see it through the prism of religion,' says Jyoti Punwani.
'Yogi Adityanath will prove to be the most popular and effective chief minister, overseeing a regime of peace and justice, harsh on wrongdoers and rabble rousers, encouraging those who work for India,' says Tarun Vijay.
From the Aadhaar verdict to #MeToo's arrival in the country to the entry into the Sabarimala temple -- India had a newsworthy 2018. As we step into 2019, these are the top moments from the year gone by.
Farmer suicides have nearly doubled in the drought-hit Marathwada region of Maharashtra.
'The challenges of the world are too great for any one religious tradition to address alone... The best way to learn about other religions is not from books, but from people... Go talk to someone from a different faith tradition. Get to know them. Build up some trust.' Dr Katharine Rhodes Henderson, who jointly won Hofstra University's Guru Nanak Prize for inter-faith champions in the United States, discusses religion and the challenges of extremism in this lively interview with Rediff.com's Arthur J Pais.
Winding up his visit to Canada, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was a historic trip that will herald a new era of cooperation between the two countries.
'Putting Yogi Adityanath in the CM's seat two years before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls is something to be read carefully.' 'Opposition parties would be dishonest themselves and unfair to secular people if they failed to unite and work as a single force to defeat the BJP.'
'Much of the Socialism that we attribute to him actually came during Indira Gandhi's time,' says M J Akbar who believes that Nehru's convictions helped shape modern India.
'They are running the Shiv Sena on Facebook and Twitter.' 'So who will be scared of the Shiv Sena on the roads?'
Our Hindutva fanatics are actually making Hindu society more like Islamists are changing Muslim societies, says Shivam Vij.
The Karnataka government decided to hand over to the Central Bureau of Investigation the probe into the murder of noted Kannada progressive thinker and scholar M M Kalburgi, even as his body was laid to rest with full state honours.
President Barack Obama has said the United States and its allies are not at war with Islam but with people who have perverted the religion, asserting that groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda are desperate for legitimacy by portraying themselves as holy warriors in the defence of religion.
The BJP cobbles up the numbers to stake a claim to form a government in Imphal. But ruling the restive state won't be easy, says Chitra Ahanthem.
It was a historic moment for California's Hindu American community, when the senate floor at the Capitol unanimously passed the resolution on Monday designating October 2013 as Hindu American awareness and appreciation month.
Anti-conversion laws are needed since thrusting the idea of a competitive battlefield of religion onto India's pluralistic traditions can only lead to greater communal conflict, says Sankrant Sanu
The million dollar question that begs for an answer is: Why is it that an amateurish attempt to convert a handful of Muslims by fringe Hindu elements garners so much attention while large scale systematic attempts to subvert Hinduism go unnoticed or are deliberately overlooked? If this is not double standards then what is, asks Vivek Gumaste.
The need of the hour is not a divisive, slanging match of accusations and counter-accusations, but a call for sanity,' says Vivek Gumaste.
Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra speaks to Nikita Puri about Left idealism, a driving force in Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi.
'They have no other agenda, but to perpetuate hate.' 'They have destroyed the economy and polity and they survive only on hate.' 'They think through hatred, they can mobilise the large chunk of Hindu votes.'
'Rich Indians don't give cash, they give gold. Why?' 'Because cash is spent by temples on prasad or doing some charitable work.' 'Gold remains intact with god,' says Aakar Patel.
'If the BJP wants to build a minimally inclusive and secure society, in which vulnerable groups and religious minorities don't feel persecuted, then the Sangh Parivar, the party and its government must change their ways. Or else, they risk dividing India further -- violently and irreparably -- for narrow political ends,' argues Praful Bidwai.
'The Mahabodhi temple is the only example in the world where a religion's most sacred place is controlled by people belonging to another religion.'
Maybe the new methods of measuring GDP helped us get an accurate picture.
Today, it is modish to be part of a yoga class, to post stories on Instagram while striking an impressively complex asana in a bralette and crop-top paired with neon yoga pants, to bond over green tea and yoga bars after a strenuous session at the studio and have subscriptions to yoga studios, not ashrams, says Manavi Kapur.
The Bharatiya Shiksha Niti Aayog will study the present education system and suggest corrective steps to make it Bharat-centric. G Sreedathan reports
'It is the regional parties and their leaders who are the ones we have to watch.'
'Hindu voters in coastal Karnataka lean more towards Hindutva than Hinduism which explains why the Siddaramaiah government's perception as anti-Hindu worked wonders for the BJP in coastal Karnataka.'
'What his minions do, we are not sure, but he has got to keep them under control. Pogroms against Muslims in India -- I don't think that is going to be his policy.'
In the midst of a raging row over the conversions in Agra by Hindutva outfits, the Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Friday favoured a strong law to stop forcible conversions.
Rediff.com lists a few instances when BJP leaders and ministers shot their mouth off.
Could the Haji Ali dargah verdict be the beginning of the end of all social discrimination -- against women, against Dalits, the low castes and the caste-less, asks Durba Dhyani.
Eminent Punjabi writer and Padma Shri winner Dalip Kaur Tiwana decided to return her award protesting "recurrent atrocities" on Muslims in the country, as another Kannada writer joined authors giving up their Sahitya Akademi Awards against "growing intolerance".
On Friday, the Bombay high court reversing the ban imposed on women entering the inner sanctum of the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai said, "The ban is contrary to articles 14, 15, 19 and 25 of the Constitution of India. Women should be permitted to enter the dargah on par with men." The news brought much cheer and joy to petitioner Zakia Soman who is also the founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan. Zakia spoke to Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf on what made this verdict historic and how it will bring about a change in the future.
'It is a great misfortune that the Nehruvian Stalinists of India have colluded with the grand project of demeaning and destroying Sanskrit. Today, the number of Sanskritists in India is low, and falling,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
Sharpening his attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Narendra Modi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused them of trying to usurp the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and recalled the Congress stalwart's description of the RSS as "a venomous organisation" which could "finish" the country.
This is just a brief reminder, dear fellow citizens, that none of us needs permission or sanction to be Indian, in whatever way we choose, as long as it doesn't break the law.
