RIFLE RANGE BOY

A jocular Tamil proverb sarcastically portrays a man who denies losing his balance and falling flat on his face on the ground. He would show the people around him a clean moustache devoid of sand. The man hoped the others would believe he was a macho man who never fell. (குப்புற விழுந்தாலும் மீசையில் மண் ஒட்டவில்லை  - the said proverb.) This proverb has been playing in my mind over the past few days during the recently paused India-Pakistan War.  It started with a band of terrorists crossing over from Pakistan, killing 26 tourists just because they were not Muslims and retreating back into Pakistan. Pakistan vehemently denied being part of the killing or even harbouring any terrorists at all in their country. This heart-wrenching moment, especially the one involving a 6-day married honeymooning couple and a father shot in front of his wife and young son, stirred India to take retaliatory actions. Both sides flaunted their military toys, and the war games were flagged off. The...

Emergency (Hindi, 2025) Story, Direction, Starring: Kangana Ranaut https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21279420/ The first thing my language teacher told me in essay writing class was to stay on topic. Therefore, with a title like 'Emergency,' I expected to learn about the events leading up to the 1975 black mark in Indian democracy. I wanted to understand how the Opposition and civil society responded to Indira Gandhi's iron-fisted rule. Instead, I received a mini biopic of Mother Indira, the so-called Mother of India. The Emergency was rushed through, I thought. It would have been better if the film had started with the events just before 1975 and given some credence to the audience to know a little bit of Indra's background. I recall that in 1977, my classmates and I, the so-called Backbenchers of the Class, engaged in lengthy, recurring debates about India, Indira, dictatorship, and democracy. Our teenage minds, albeit somewhat precocious, concluded that for a vast and com...

Chhava (Lion Cub, Hindi; 2025) Director: Laxman Utekar The debate centres on whether Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was simply a minor chieftain seizing small territories in the Deccan, an opportunist, or a Hindu nationalist. Additionally, the crucial question is whether Aurangzeb was a fair ruler or a religious bigot. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27922706 / Depending on who authors the history book, one will be portrayed as a saviour, while the other will be depicted as an opportunistic villain. Shivaji's kingdom was once characterised as a vassal territory of the Mughal Empire, and he was even said to have undertaken military campaigns on behalf of the Mughals. In his later years, his father, Shahaji, reportedly had a somewhat complex relationship with him, having formed an alliance with the neighbouring Bijapuri Sultanate against Shivaji. In the wake of numerous military clashes post-1657, Shivaji's once amicable relations with the Mughals soured. This shift coincided with Aura...

Nishant (Night's End, Hindi, 1975) Director: Shyam Benegal Cultural practices and people's thinking evolve as society progresses. Everybody likes to think that it is progress. If, a generation ago, hugging and cuddling between family members was not the norm, now, touch is considered a prerequisite for healthy psychological growth, especially for the young. What seems perfect today may, in time to come, turn unspeakable. Long ago, the group of people known as the Paraiyars held a certain status in society. They were reputable for making good drums, which were an essential item then. Drums were important tools in religious ceremonies and battlegrounds, and they were an excellent mode of communication in battles. Coded drumming conveyed specific codes. At one point, the Paraiyars even broke from their armies and formed their own empire. Over time, the belief system of the land underwent its own renaissance of sorts. Breakaways from Hinduism viewed meat eating and working on carca...

Seven Years in Tibet (1997) Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud (Based on Heinrich Harrer's book with the same name) Similar to the internment camps established in the USA for German and Japanese migrants during the First and Second World Wars, India had comparable camps. Numerous German workers and even alpine climbers from Austria were detained in various camps around Ahmedabad and Dehradun. One notable individual was Gustav Hermann Krimbiegel, an extraordinary gardener credited with creating royal gardens across India. Krimbiegel was a German botanist who migrated to Britain in 1888. He began his apprenticeship at Kew Gardens and was subsequently recommended to work in the garden of the Maharaja of Baroda. After witnessing his remarkable gardening skills, he was commissioned by other princely states. He is recognised for his development of Lalbagh in Bangalore, Brindavan in Mysore, and many others. In addition to his horticultural achievements, he is also known for introducing new see...

Awakening Bharat Mata: The Political Ideologies of the Indian Right By: Swapan Dasgupta (2019) History tells us of a time when Indian soft powers ruled beyond their lands. Indian (read Hindu) way of living was the only way to live to the East of the land irrigated by the Sindhu Saraswati river systems. The nearest advanced culture to them was the Persians. Now they had an issue pronouncing 'S'. They did not have 'S' in their spoken language but used 'H' in places occupied by 'S'. Hence, the people living around the Sindhu Valley became known as 'Hindus', and their way of living was Hindu. The perplexing thing is that from an era when the whole world was imitating their culture whilst the rest of the world was in the dark ages, at the time of its independence, it was a nation quite apologetic to its way of life and its history. What gave? Perhaps it was the repeated invasions and trans-generational traumas with a tinge of Stockholm Syndrome. Still...

Growing up in the later part of the 1970s, kids of my generation were drilled into us that India was a subcontinent of poverty, filth, and pickpockets. Even our history books taught us that it was a land of darkness, living in its myths, superstitions, and cults, waiting to be civilised by the mighty European race and their scientific discoveries. https://borderlessjournal.com/2024/12/16/how-dynamic-was-ancient-india/ This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .