Author: Maria Wirth
Indians are generally highly intelligent. Yet when it comes to secularism, most intellectuals, media and politicians get the concept wrong, so wrong that it looks as if Indians were purposely fed wrong information. Contrary to the general perception in India, secular is not the opposite of communal. Communal as such is not objectionable either. It means ‘pertaining to a community’. In Germany, elections to local bodies are called “communal elections” (Kommunalwahlen). Secular means worldly and is opposite to ‘religious’. Now ‘religious’ in this context refers to Christianity, i.e. to a well-organized, dogmatic religion that claims that it is the sole…
I was informed that my reply to the question, “Is India becoming the most hated country?” violated their “be nice, be respectful” policy. In fact some months ago, I had been asked to remove the last sentence of my write up. I didn’t remove it, because it is not disrespectful, but true. So the whole piece disappeared now, after being up on the site for about a year and getting over 80,000 views and 10,000 upvotes. Quora removed so far 6 replies and each times threatens that I will be banned from Quora if I continue to not be nice…
Last December, Sri Pushpendra Kulshreshta made an interview with me for his public 24/7 channel. He is a very outspoken, well known media person with numerous worthwhile talks on YouTube. I post here the link. It’s in English, as unfortunately I am still not able to freely talk in Hindi. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkAoD80zhGA
Media is not anymore about giving information. It probably never was. It is about influencing opinion to further the agenda of certain interests and lies are apparently an accepted tool. Lies are often disguised as surveys or even research. Nobody would believe lies if they were too obvious. Yet when a World Watch List for example by Open Doors in England gives out a ranking regarding the level of persecution of Christians in the world, and when nobody less than the British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt releases it (in January 2019) and tweets about it, the ranking acquires respectability and…
Recently, there was a conference in Delhi on the many different aspects of India’s amazing soft power – like cuisine, Ayurveda, crafts, languages, dance and many more. Spirituality is in all likelihood India’s most important soft power because it gives answers to the basic questions of human beings regarding the meaning of life, and most importantly, who we essentially are. India’s Advaita Vedanta is probably the most logical description of spirituality: in absolute truth, our universe, including our persons, is consciousness or spirit (Brahman, Sat-chit-ananda). The physical ‘reality’ is an appearance on that invisible spirit. It is more like a…
India has an amazing potential of soft power yet it doesn’t figure among the top 30 countries with the greatest soft power. Of course the methodology can be rightly questioned, as the countries at the very top are UK, France and Germany. I am from Germany and would have never guessed that Germany ranks number 3 and India in the high 40s. But then, Germany has far more world heritage sites than India… of course this is also a grave distortion of reality. Recently, a conference on India’s soft power was held in Delhi. Topics were cuisine, public diplomacy, museums,…
I was recently at a conference on India’s soft power in Delhi organized by India Foundation and the Center for Soft Power. On the first evening, after the inauguration by the Vice President of India, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev was in conversation with Professor Subhash Kak and answered question on varied topics. The plus points of Hindu Dharma were stressed, yet the elephant in the room – the two dogmatic religions, which have absolutely no regard for those plus points, and still claim that Hindus are very wrong and need to be corrected if they want to be saved, was left…
My book got ready just in time for the Dehradun Litfest. If you like my articles, I am sure you will also like the book. It has 46 chapters and some 30 b/w photos in the text. I will copy the table of content after the links. It’s available in India for Rs 499. Signed copies are also available. For a gift pack of 5 there is a 20 per cent discount (separate link) Since it is not yet available on Amazon.com (it is coming i am told), the publisher will send it abroad, too. Please contact adm@garudabooks.com In India,…
How confused, uninformed and maybe mischievous the discourse on religion and extremism has become, was obvious again at the recent General Assembly of the United Nations. A Pakistani diplomat, in his reply to the speech by Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, lambasted the “unabashed Hindu extremist Yogi Adityanath”, the chief minister of UP, for “advocating the religious superiority of Hindus”. He also bemoaned that in India claims of religious superiority get patronage all across the country. Did anybody get the irony of it all? Pakistan’s grouse is that there are Hindus who advocate Hindu Dharma as superior to Islam and…
This is my first videographed talk. I accepted the invitation by Srijan Foundation not because I know more about Sanatana Dharma. Many among you know more than I, but because I grew up as a Christian and maybe can better appreciate the value of it. Also, I realised that many of you find it difficult to talk frankly about the doctrine of Christianity and Islam. The talk is in 4 parts: Why Sanatana Dharma is the best option? Why is it portrayed as worst? common and differing aspects between Sanatana Dharma and Christianty/Islam we need to bring truth back into…