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Preparing
The one certainty in life, the one appointment which each of us will just have to face, is the one for which we do the least to prepare-death. From the lives and last days of the Buddha, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramana Maharshi, Gandhiji, Vinoba; from our religious texts; from the teachings of great meditation masters; from santhara to sannyas to practices by which we may tame our mind-leavening all these by his personal experiences-Arun Shourie presents clues to ensure that we face our end with equanimity. In the process, he lays down what we must do if rituals, pilgrimages and mantras are to help us. He leads us to ask whether texts such as The Tibetan Book of the Dead are for the dead, or...
Anita Gets Bail
The judiciary has been the one sturdy dyke that has saved us from the excesses of rulers. But recent events remind us of the cracks that have formed: the quality of individuals apart, even the institutional arrangements that had been put in place to preserve the purity and independence of the institution--the collegium, conventions governing the way cases are to be assigned among judges--have frayed. These cracks provide a dangerous opportunity to political rulers to suborn this institution also.Through actual cases and judgments--of subordinate courts, High Courts, the Supreme Court--Arun Shourie enables us to see how frail and vulnerable this 'last pillar standing' has become. A judge who ...
Two Saints
The life of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa 'enables us to see God face to face', Gandhiji wrote. Similarly, when someone in his circle was distraught, the Mahatma sent him to spend time at the Ashram of Ramana Maharshi. The Paramahamsa and the Maharshi have been among the greatest spiritual figures of our country. They have transformed the lives of and have been a solace to millions. Their peak, mystic experience is what we yearn to have. But what if several of the experiences they had occur in other circumstances also?With the rigour and painstaking research that mark all his work, Shourie probes the lives of two of India's greatest spiritual masters in the light of the breath-taking advances in neuroscience as well as psychology and sociology. The result is a book of remarkable vigour: an examination - and ultimately reconciliation - of science and faith as also of seemingly antagonistic, irreconcilable worldviews.
Worshipping False Gods
Over the last couple of decades, B.R. Ambedkar has come to be idolized as no other political leader has. His statue is one of the largest in the Parliament complex. Political parties have reaped rich electoral dividends riding on his name. A decades-old cartoon of him in a textbook rocked Parliament for days recently, causing parties across the political spectrum to run for cover and call for the withdrawal of the 'offending' cartoon. In Worshipping False Gods, Arun Shourie employs his scholarly rigour to cast a critical look at the legend of Ambedkar. With his distinctive eye for detail, Shourie delves into archival records to ask pertinent questions: Did Ambedkar coordinate his opposition to the freedom struggle with the British? How does his approach to social change contrast with that of Mahatma Gandhi's? Did the Constitution spring from him or did it grow as a dynamic living organism? Passionately argued and based on a mountain of facts that it presents, Worshipping False Gods compels us to go behind the myths on which discourse is built in India today.
Indian Controversies
With special reference to Islam.
The World Of Fatwas : Or The Shariah In Action
'The World of Fatwas provides a new prism to non-Muslims for observing Islam, and holds up a mirror to Muslims, challenging them to necessary introspection for adjusting to a changing world'- J.N. Dixit, diplomat and former Indian Foreign Secretary, of Outlook Why are women 'the greatest affliction'? Why is slaughtering cows seen as a 'great Islamic act' when the Quran does not even mention it? Why must believers put down non-believers? In this meticulously researched book, Arun Shourie looks at the social, religious and political contexts of fatwas down the ages. With a mountain of fatwas as his text, he shows us the Shariah in action; he unravels the history of fatwas, and the implications that a faithful, dogmatic adherence to these Islamic decrees holds for the 'believer'. And hence for the non-believers. First published in 1995, this revised, up-to-date and expanded edition provides both Muslims and non-Muslims alike an even more clear-eyed look at the controversial world of fatwas.
Governance and the Sclerosis that Has Set in
India, government, politics.
Does He Know A Mother's Heart? How Suffering Refutes Religions
How can extreme suffering be so commonplace if there is a God who knows everything, who is all-powerful and also compassionate? How do the scriptures of our religions explain the existence of suffering? Do these explanations stand up to examination? Does our experience testify to a God? Or do the two demons - time and chance - explain all that we have to go through? In a devastating dissection of the scriptures - laced with accounts of the suffering and pain that he has seen at first-hand - Arun Shourie tells us why he has eventually gravitated to the teachings of the Buddha. And what lessons these teachings hold for our daily lives.
Falling Over Backwards
How is it that what was explicity forbidden by the Constitution- classification based on cast - has become the rule? How is it that what were enabling provision have become mandatory minima ? Where does the figure 50 per cent come from ? How is that in practice it is exceeded blatantly ? Are the benefits not being hogged by a few, the better -off among these castes? Has the creamy layer been actually hived off? How is that what were begun as reservations in promotion also? How did this become a right to accelerated promotions? How did that become a right accelerated promotions with consequential seniority? How did that become a right to have the prescribed standards diluted -to the point of being waived altogether? Even in educational institutions. Is this any way to become a knowledge super- power? As there has been no caste-wise enumeration and tabulation since the 1931 Census, where does this mythical figure --OBCs are 52 per cent of the population come from? And what did the 1931 Census itself say about its cast -wise figures?
The Only Fatherland
Are ideologies a pair of binoculars that enable us to see far? Or are they a pair of blinkers that keep us from seeing even that which is at hand? How is it that communists; equipped as they are with the one great Theory that explains everything; fumble ever so often in seeing the obvious? How did the Theory lead them to declare the Second World War as an 'Imperialist War' one day; and a 'People's War' the next? How did it lead them to undertake to sabotage the Quit India Movement for the British? How did it lead them to trumpet the demand for Pakistan 'better than the Muslim League'? To declare in 1947 that India had not really become independent? To insist that Pandit Nehru was just "a run...
