Category: People

Excerpts from an autobiography Gopal Krishna Gokhale was a remark able Indian in his time.He was considered the greatest living Indian,said Annie Besant in a letter to Gokhale. Lord Curzon,the headstrong imperialist Viceroy wrote to his boss,the secretary of state that Gokhale was the most able and also the most morally upright Indian member of…

Only a rudimentary Indian education. He had certainly no Western education. Thus, his education thought and philosophy as such was very orthodox, thought it was cast in the pre-colonial mental makeup. Take the life of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.I gave a second reading of his biography his son and distinguished history writer Savapalli Gopal this time…

My Oxford years : crowded by philosophers and historians! A.J.P.Taylor, Isiah Berlin, James Joll Indians need to learn to distrust much of British written history. The immediate provocation for this essay is the reading of A.J.P. Taylor (1906-1990), the well-known British historian, for the second time. I had the good fortune to attend his history…

50 Vice Chancellors meet:what they will achieve? V.S.Naipaul, the Nobel Prize winning author of Indian origin is known for his provocative remarks. He is a maverick. In a recent interview to New York Times he said: there are no thinkers in India! A country of one billion people, he says, has no thinkers! It is…

Truth seekers defy conventional wisdom! Truth seekers are two kinds. Those who advance knowledge and those who advance our morality! Truth seekers are the most god-given people. Or, the chosen people, we can say without any religious overtones! Just now I read about Francis Bacon, the founder of modern science. Born on January 22, 1561,…

PM’s loss of face, a pity! PM must have educated the people and the allies about his core economic vision and his basic beliefs in economic reforms. This he had failed to do and the consequences for the image of the country, than for his personal stakes, is much more serious. Will the UPA retrieve…

I read with much sadness about the passing away of Ravi Dayal my friend from Oxford days. I had read the many obituaries and tributes to his memory by some of his friends who had worked with him at the Oxford University Press in India and I learnt much about the many endearing qualities of…

Image of Indians changes, old prejudices die in Europe! French President Jacques Chirac put up a brave face! It was a humiliating climb down for him. French national pride was touched! The “unfriendly” takeover became suddenly “friendly” takeover! The French and Luxembourg governments suddenly had to change course and come round to accept the Indian,…