Dheeraj Kalgutkar

Tipu Sultan, the 18th century ruler is back from the grave to haunt the land he once so ferociously ruled. In the protests against Karnataka government for deciding to celebrate the birth anniversary of the Tiger of Mysore, one person has lost his life while others continue to boil their blood amidst winter’s chill. Karnataka government on the other-hand is acting all passive as if it’s a storm in the tea-cup, terming it as another political game to communalise the society. It’s one of the sad irony of our times how one person has lost his life over a ruler who lost his life more than 200 years back in a war fighting against the British! Tipu was a patriot or ‘bigot’ is debatable. Those who are protesting claim he was a tyrant, an intolerant ruler while the other fraction claims he promoted communal harmony. Whose point are we supposed to buy? This is where history comes to our rescue. The then king of Mysore introduced number of innovations during his rule, including lunis...

You have to understand, no one puts their child in a boat unless the water is safer than land - Warsan Shire. An image of Aylan Kurdi, 3 year old whose lifeless body in a red shirt and dark shorts face down on a Turkish beach which washed off to shore like debris has galvanized the public attention to a crisis that has been building for years. His round cheek pressed to sand as if he is sleeping is nothing short of apathy the humanity has turned into. The boy along with family like million others were on their unsuccessful journey to safe shores but no one except father survived. What brought Syria a treasure house of archaeological marvels which sadly are looted and bulldozed now only to be sold in black markets to such a stage where people are risking their blood to flee their homeland? It is not simple to sum it all in definite terms but here is a short summary of what happened. It all appears to have begun after the Arab Spring of 2011 where young Muslims ...