AS I See It

FEAR AND HATRED

Ponmala On 16 May 2022, a young American buys two AR-15 assault rifles on the day he turns 18, the eligible age in the US for buying guns. He gets out of home after shooting his grandmother in the head and drives to the elementary school where he studied and where his mother is working […]

P.C. GEORGE IS ONE OF US

Valson Thampu It is at once inadequate and inaccurate to dismiss the irrepressible PC either as a political gimmick, or as a communal vaudeville, or as a special brand of entertainment. He is none of these. Why else would he have such a widespread appeal to people of different hues and dispositions? Even those who […]

IF DIALOGUE IS TO BE POSSIBLE . . .

Valson Thampu The thoughts that ensue have been occasioned by an article by Jacob Parappally titled ‘Dialogue Is Our Best Hope’ (Light of Truth, May 1-15, 2022). I thank him for the same. We are all for dialogue, even if we are indifferent to what it is and what it takes to dialogue. Characteristically, we […]

THE ELITE AND THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY

Valson Thampu Laws, said Leo Tolstoy, are created by the elite. The laws thus created are meant to favour the elite. No one expects the socio-economic elite to be saintly. One joins the elite club largely through predatory gains either in person or via inheritance. There is no moral route to astronomical material gains. Nor […]

UKRAINE: PEACE, POWER AND ALSO PRAYER

Valson Thampu It is customary with us to pray for peace when and where peace prevails. As congregations, we pray for world peace, without a thought as to what peace means, especially in a world that cares neither for God nor for peace, nor for prayer. Even when the world makes a margin for prayer, […]

HIJAB-KITAB VS. COMMONSENSE

Valson Thampu The full bench of the Karnataka High Court, the Chief Justice presiding, has upheld the order banning religious attire in Karnataka educational institutions. The court concluded that wearing hijab is not essential to the practice of Islam. Prescribing a uniform is, according to the court, a ‘reasonable restriction’ of religious freedom. It is […]

KERALA AND THE UKRAIN WAR

Valson Thampu For the families of 5000 Kerala students trapped in the war zone, Kharkiv is closer home than Kollam or Kolancherry. Proximity is not always geographical. It is also affective. But for the emerging human tragedy of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Keralites would not have known that so many of our young educational […]

WHY DO GOD-MEN PROSPER?

Valson Thampu Miguel de Unamuno, the Spanish author and spiritual thinker, cites in his famous work, The Tragic Sense of Life, the instance of a doctor in Paris. When that doctor found that a quack was drawing away his clientele, he left the city and settled down far away and began to work as a […]

Eviction-facing Indian Catholics to fight Muslim charity’s claims

Goans oppose tourism project near 16th century basilica