Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune

It was established in 1930 by the Servants of India Society, is the oldest research and training institute in Economics in the country. 

It is dedicated to research into the socio-economic dimensions of the Indian society, and carries forward the legacy of Gopal Krishna Gokhale who founded the Servants of India Society in 1905 with a view to promote education and develop capabilities among Indians for the governance of the nation after it had attained its political independence. 

डेमोक्लेज की तलवार

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सिसिली के राजा डायोनिसियस का एक दरबारी था, डेमोक्लेज़।

डेमोक्लेज , राजा डायोनिसियस को कहता रहता था कि महाराज कितने भाग्यवान हैं। उनके पास धन, शक्ति और साधन सब कुछ है।

डायोनिसियस ने डेमोक्लेज को कहा कि क्या तुम देखना चाहते कि राजा होना दरअसल कैसा है।

फिर उसने डेमोक्लेज को सिंहासन पर बिठा दिया और उसके ऊपर घोड़े की पूँछ के एक बाल से एक तलवार लटका दी।

डेमोक्लेज दरबारी शान ओ शौकत , और आनंद भूलकर अपनी जान की खैर मना रहा था कि कहीं तलवार उसके ऊपर न गिर जाये।

डेमोक्लेज ने डायोनिसियस से कहा कि महाराज मुझे सिंहासन से उतरने दीजिये ।

रोमन सीनेटर सिसेरो ने इसे एक किंवदंती की तरह इस्तेमाल करते हुए ये कहा है कि जो इंसान जितनी शक्तिशाली सत्ता का मालिक होता है, उस पर ख़तरे उतने ही ज्यादा होते हैं। वो अंदर से भयभीत रहता है।

सिसेरो ने सच्ची खुशी का कारण अच्छे गुणों का होना बताया है।

Excerpt from 'India Wins Freedom' by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

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I have to admit with regret that both in Bihar and Bombay, the Congress did not come out fully successful in its test of nationalism.

The Congress had grown as a national organization and given the opportunity of leadership to men of different communities. Thus, in Bombay Mr Nariman was the acknowledged leader of the local Congress.

When the question of forming the provincial Government arose, there was general expectation that Mr Nariman would be asked to lead it in view of his status and record. This would however have meant that a Parsee would be the Chief Minister while the majority of members in the Congress Assembly Party were Hindus.

Sardar Patel and his colleagues could not reconcile themselves to such a position and felt that it would be unfair to the Hindu supporters of the Congress to deprive them of this honour.

Accordingly, Mr B.G. Kher was brought into the picture and elected leader of the Congress Assembly Party in Bombay.

***

A similar development took place in Bihar. Dr Syed Mahmud was the top leader of the province when the elections were held. He was also a General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee and as such he had a position both inside and outside the province.

When the Congress secured an absolute majority, it was taken for granted that Dr Syed Mahmud would be elected the leader and become the first Chief Minister of Bihar under Provincial Autonomy.

Instead, Sri Krishna Sinha and Anugraha Narayan Sinha who were members of the Central Assembly, were called back to Bihar and groomed for the Chief Ministership.

Dr Rajendra Prasad played the same role in Bihar as Sardar Patel did in Bombay.

The only difference between Bihar and Bombay was that when Sri Krishna Sinha formed the Government, Dr Syed Mahmud was given a place in the Cabinet.

Religion & Terror: An alternative narrative

Islam teaches peace to its followers, nobody believes in this narrative.

Reason: Terrorist attacks happening throughout the world in the name of religion or by the people who use the name of the religion and the holy book for justifying their attacks.

So, on prime time news the discussion will be religious terrorism (which means Islamic Terror). Some Muslim intellectuals will be questioned in the debate as to why Muslims in this country are not denouncing the act of terror somewhere else in the world.

Why despite of their best of efforts some one two instances of youth has gone to a path which is not preached by the religion.Now, I have a problem with this narrative in my country which is India. Why should there be a prime time debate on religious terrorism and only Muslims have to sit their and justify that Islam does not preaches violence and only some misguided youth are doing what they are doing?
Then i read this article in a website. http://www.fairobserver.com/region/asia_pacific/is-buddhist-militancy-the-next-wave-of-global-terrorism-76334/
The article says "Buddhist militancy appears to be the next wave of terrorism in Asia—and it could go global. It’s been happening recurrently in Sri Lanka since the end of the ethnic civil war in 2009, with Buddhist monks attacking minority Muslims (as well as Christians). Similarly, in Myanmar since 2012, Buddhist monks have been openly attacking minority Muslim groups, including the Rohingya.But now, extremist monks in both countries have formally linked up to form a global anti-Islamist pact.In September 2014, Buddhist monks in Myanmar, including Ashin Wirathu who once referred to himself as the “Burmese bin Laden,” flew over to Sri Lanka to officially launch the global Buddhist alliance against Islamist militants. We haven’t seen any follow-up on what this alliance means exactly. But at the time, they said the goal was to get more Buddhist groups to join their cause against Islamist militants—partly as they felt their governments would fail to tackle this perceived threat."
The title of the article is "Is Buddhist Militancy the next wave of global terrorism ?". Now, I want the Buddhist scholars to come to a debate in the prime time news in India and face the question as to what is wrong with Buddhism because of which the terrorist activities are being performed by those who are Buddhists.
But that will not happen because the narrative is set by the west. The question is why terrorism in the world has only one bad guys (Muslims) because they are the ones who have troubled North America and Europe the most.The moment one of these Buddhist Terrorist organizations attacks a place in North America or Europe the media all over the world will go crazy and fact finding on what is wrong with Buddhism and what is Buddhist Terror will start. But not before that because the value of life in second and third world is less than what it is in the first world.
Now, I read this second article. http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/08/20/the-new-face-of-jewish-terror-hilltop-settlers-price-tag-attacks-israel/
The title of the article is "The new face of Jewish Terror...." and it says “Jewish terror” is not new to Israel. In one of the most infamous incidents, the Irgun, a militant Zionist group, set off a bomb in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in July 1946, killing 91 people. But, says Shlomo Fischer, a sociology professor and expert on Jewish extremism, the modern incarnation is younger and more religious, uniting an eclectic group of fringe outcasts around an identity of “romantic religious nationalism.”Now, I want the Jewish scholars to come to a debate in the prime time news in India and face the question as to what is wrong with Judaism because of which the terrorist activities are being performed by those who are Jews. Do you think that is going to happen?
The answer is a Big NO. Reason is the same. Those who are getting hurt by the Jewish terror are not in the first world but in the second or third world. 
So, for North America and Europe the only terror problem in the world is Islamic terror.They control the world media and they set the narrative of discussion of the whole world.These are only two examples to show that how flawed the narrative is when it comes to act against terrorism.Terror has no religion but terrorists can be from any religion . 
This should be the starting point when any discussion on terror starts.

Sufism and Vedas

Mun tu shudam, tu mun shudi,

Mun tun shudam, tu jaan shudi.

Taakas na goyad baad azeen,

Mun deegaram tu deegari.

I have become you, and you have become me (soul),

I have become you, and you have become my body;

So that no one can say hereafter,

That you are are someone, and me someone else.

***

This is a loosely translated couplet of Hazrat Ameer Khusro. This signifies the relationship of self with Khuda (Allah) or God.

Now if we compare the same with sayings in the Chhandogya Upanishad verses such

1. Aham Brahmasmi: Atmana (self) is the same as Brahma, therefore I am Brahma

2. Tatvamasi: Atmana (self) is the same as Brahma.

3. Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma: All this is Brahma.

That's how close the sufi teachings and vedas are.

Notes from the riddles in hinduism

Whether the government would be good or bad, democratic or undemocratic depends to a large extent up on the instrumentalities particularly the civil service on which everywhere the government has to depend for administering the law.

It all depends upon the social milieu in which civil servants are nurtured.

If the social milieu is undemocratic the government is bound to be undemocratic.

~ B R Ambedkar

Good government means good laws and good administration. This is the essence of good government. Nothing else can be. Now there cannot be good government in this sense if those who are invested with ruling power seek the advantage of their own class instead of the advantage of the whole people or of those who are downtrodden.

~ B R Ambedkar

If in a democracy, liberty does not destroy equality and equality does not destroy liberty, it is because at the basis of both there is fraternity. Fraternity is therefore the root of democracy.

~ B R Ambedkar

Henry Buckle in the history of civilisation

It is evident that until doubt began. progress was impossible. For as we have clearly seen, the advance of civilization solely depends on the acquisitions made by the human intellect and on to the extent to which those acquisitions are diffused.

But men who are perfectly satisfied with their own knowledge will never attempt to increase it. Men who are perfectly convinced of the accuracy of their opinions will never take the pains of examining the basis on which they are built. 

They look with wonder and often with horror, on views contrary to those which they inherited from their fathers; and while they are in this state of mind, it is impossible that they should receive any new truth which interferes with their forgone conclusions.

~ Henry Thomas Buckle