While you mentioned Alauddin Kilji, it provoked a thought. Could Chinese be the 19th century Alauddin Kilji? They ruthlessly detroyed buddhism and colloborated, albeit secretively with Pakistan and Afghanistan to destroy Buddhism in those countries. Hey, if communism is against all religions how come Chinese so collude and kiss Islamists? Does that mean communism does not consider Islam a religion? You know all this makes me think Buddhism is the root cause of rivalry between Pakistan and India & China and India. The Arabs (rather modern-day-wanna-be- Arabs - the Pakistanis and Afghans) and the Chinese think that India spread its tentacles into their land through Buddhism and they want to push it back. Don't you think the events so far have just been proving this thinking all along?
nice one,good insight.corrections-nalanda was destroyed by bakhtiar khilzi who went further to bengal and was annihilated there by Ahom ruler of Assam.secondly.what's happening in bihar is what the people of this state want-isn't laloo a democratically elected leader.so,there is no improvement in sight and the supposed nadir was reached a decade back.but other states shouldn't complain since bihar hasn't taken anything from them .
Rajeev, I am an avid fan of your columns. Of late I feel It's time you stop mentioning kerala in every context. I am truly bored of your kerala talk. I understand ur attached to your roots, but stop bragging and brooding about it in every possible topic. It is Nauseating
With education, India is becoming more secular. Its nice to see a southerner showing his interest and support for a struggling state up north. We need to know our history to appreciate our culture and develop respect for our own people. Have you seen americans calling each other Floridan or South Dakotan? Perhaps the caste division has indoctrinated in us this tendency to formulate regional and cultural heirarchies in our minds. We must realize this is unhealthy and unfair. We should make sure we don't pass this on to our younger generations.
First I wish to salute the author who has done a great job by drawing the mind of peoples to a very dangerous future problem going to arise in India. He is correct that in many places Bihari term is taken as an insult. Being a bengali, near to the state, I have to say that Bihar was the land where Mughals were defeated(shershah), this was the place whose emperor defeated the Alexenderain force(Chandragupt), Ashoka was the man who expanded the country's biggest ever without war, this is the state under which India was called as sone ki chiriya(samudragupta), this is the land which gave..sita,kalidas,budhdha, mahavira. There is no other state in world with such a glorious history of their peoples. In fact irony is that India became under britishers when they won the battle of buxar( fought in bihar!). SO one can imagine the potential of Biharis and how they guide the country. 15 years of central govt ignorance and uncivilization cordoned by state govt. is not going to be the distiny of biharis. Biharis are born leader. Just wait for the time. The sun will shine back in east!
Agree with the Bihar being cyclic. India is a democracy so people must also share the blame for siding with Laloo, but he will be missed in comic circle I guess.
Bihar needs to look around and see the world changing. It is better to start late rather than never. Social problems and economic problems can be overcome with good governance.
Bihar indeed has the strappings of making it big. Their numbers in the IAS and history proves they do not lack in intellectual potential. To boot, natural resources in abundance.The biggest stumbling block are the Laloos and their ilk, for their refusal in trying to eliminate the feudal system, for a start and instead abetting it.
Rajeev Srinivasan's article was insightful, as usual based on plainspeak (a rare commodity these days)and daring to visualize the future of things to come, based on historical evidence, current state of affairs, human behaviour and the principal of natural cycles. The fact that he consistently does this, in a wide variety of areas/topics, is refreshing. Versatility - like that of Mohan Lal's in Malayalam cinema.
