A Russian court on Monday suspended its verdict till December 28 on the demand for banning Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita, which a group linked to the Christian Orthodox Church has described as 'extremist'.
We must heed what the CJI has said. Challenging every judgment of the central government is inviting chaos, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
'There is only one common feature between Gorbachev and Putin.' 'They are both patriots, and both try to save Russia and make it great.' 'But in very, very, different ways.'
Two powerful blasts triggered by Islamic State in two churches packed with worshippers celebrating Palm Sunday in Egypt's Tanta and Alexandria cities.
According to figures, Muslims make up 19.2 per cent of the world's population while Catholics 17.4 per cent. However, Monsignor Formenti said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, Christians made up 33 per cent of the world's population -- or about two billion. The data referred to 2006.
The restoration work, held up for more than 200 years, took nine months to be completed.
Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam, meanwhile, 'rejected outright' the NCW's recommendation
The Egyptian government has ordered military special forces to assist the police in securing vital state facilities across the country.
Ultra-nationalist and schooled in their country's historical grievances, Russian soccer hooligans see themselves as fighting the Kremlin's geopolitical battles in miniature when they clash with foreign fans at the Euro 2016 tournament.
There could be significant announcements about India's purchase of Kamov-226T helicopters, S-400 air defence missile systems, and the long-delayed contract for joint development of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft.
The world celebrates Christmas with great vigour and joy!
Ace filmmaker Balu Mahendra makes a sensational acting debut in Thalaimuraigal.
'The problem is not lack of evidence, but the unholy alliance between political parties and church authorities.' 'If you are raising a voice against the priest, you and your family will suffer.'
'...that has plants and flowers of all colours and hues in it.' 'Do you think a garden with just one plant or one type of flower will be appealing?' 'No. It will look drab, uninteresting and lustreless because a garden would be captivating only if it had many flowers of different colours.'
How many of these did you already know about?
'While India's 'secularism' is a matter of cultural values rooted in Hinduism, the Western concept became one of rights rooted in legal rights. India would be secular with or without Article 25 of the Constitution,' says T V R Shenoy.
'Why exclude those who are curious about our faith but not born into it, to experience the temple?'
A towering figure in the world of letters, Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy, who died in Bangalore on Friday, was modern in his sensibilities and intellectual underpinnings in his literary works questioned many deeply-held beliefs.
Make sure that these places feature in your 2019 travel bucket list.
'No, the liberals haven't lost because there weren't any liberals in the fray to begin with.' 'What has happened is that left-wing orthodoxy has lost to right-wing orthodoxy.' 'That is at best a Pyrrhic victory for India,' argue Sonali Ranade and Sheilja Sharma.
Interestingly, the choice of August 5 as the day of the bhoomi pujan coincides with the abolition of Kashmir's special status on the same day a year ago. Perhaps the RSS-BJP wants August 5 to be remembered as the date on which the foundation stone of their cherished Hindu rashtra was laid, notes Amulya Ganguli.
'I do not believe that they have become terrorists and have gone to Syria to fight.' 'I feel they have only become very orthodox Muslims.'
'If Modi arrived like a juggernaut, he left like a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces were being dismantled bit by bit. It was as if India had seceded quietly from him.' Shiv Viswanathan's social science fiction about what India would be like in 2020.
'Why should she involve Islam in it?' 'We are living in a secular democracy and she has the right to do what she wants. but why bring Islam into it?'
Here's a glimpse of all that happened around the world last month, in 20 images.
On this joyous occasion, rediff.com wishes all its readers 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,' as we a take a look at pictures of Christmas festivities from across the globe.
'When the world was refining itself, India was going backwards culturally with so many rape cases and other atrocities against women, children and the elderly. The growth of evil forces was very bad in the last 10 years,' says Malayalam movie star Suresh Gopi, who met Narendra Modi recently tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier in this exclusive interview.
Images from Tuesday's action in the UEFA Champions League.
Almost a century before the current Sabarimala movement -- to facililate the entry of women between the ages of 10 and 50 into the Kerala shrine -- there was the Vaikom temple movement, to throw open temples in Kerala to all castes, a movement led by among others a man whose 71st death anniversary we mark today. A fascinating excerpt from Rajmohan Gandhi's new book, Modern South India: A History From The 17th Century To Our Times.
An insistence on only one language will inevitably be resented as a form of imperialism and resisted.
'I don't believe the talk of free will.' 'They are either forced to dress like this, or indoctrinated.'
'But Russia is well aware of Pakistan's nuisance power on its border.'
Siva Sankar looks at S P Balasubrahmanyam's fantastic repertoire.
What makes The World Before Her stand out is that it has the courage to ask what nobody else does: who is the Modern Indian Woman? Paloma Sharma reviews the film.
Images from the UEFA Champions League matches played on Tuesday.
'Must every believing Hindu automatically be assumed to subscribe to the Hindutva project?' asks Shashi Tharoor.
Vaihayasi Pande Daniel glances at the life and political career of Alexey Navalny who has been banned from challenging Vladimir Putin in Russia's presidential election.
There are several other famous temples across India that disallow non-Hindus to enter their place of worship, Rediff.com lists some of them.
Kerala is one state where the Congress may do well in the general election and it where Rahul Gandhi has demonstrated why he is serious about rebuilding his party, says T V R Shenoy.
'If policy-makers hold the lives of animals to be more significant than the welfare of a human populace, I can't believe that they're likely to do anything progressive for India.'
