SG OwnBlog

I came across this post by the reknowned author, William Darymple on Pakistan promising to renovate and return 400 temples to the Hindu community . Something of a contrast... Pakistan to restore, hand over 400 Hindu temples https://t.co/ufTdlW3joH via @indiatoday — William Dalrymple (@DalrympleWill) November 12, 2019 That is great. However, there was something problematic about the tweet. Notice the first line - 'Something of a contrast'. The inference is hard to miss. The fact that the Indian Supreme Court had given its verdict recently to return the Ram Janmabhoomi to the Hindus stands (as per William) in direct contrast to Pakistan returning its temples to Hindus. The moral signalling is relevant. Hindu majority India is handing 'Muslim' places of worship to Hindus, while Pakistan being a Muslim majority nation is  transferring Hindu places of worship back to Hindus. Katas Raj Mandir Comples Indian nationalists will take a serious offence at the p

The Ram Mandir verdict was pronounced by the Supreme Court of India yesterday. The judgement was decisive as it clearly asked the state to handover the erstwhile disputed site to the Hindus for the building of a Ram Mandir and the Muslims to be given a 5 acre land for the construction of a Masjid if they need one. Both sides seem to have accepted the judgement so far. Of course, neither side could do much in any case. The judgement was unanimous, all five judges pronounced the verdict in favor of the Ram Mandir and hence the chance of a review petition by any party was unlikely to be entertained by the Court. Besides, the Hindus got what they wanted (mostly) as they have restored ownership to the 2.77 acres of land where the previous Mandir was supposed to have been standing. Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Ayutthaya, Thailand I will not go into archaeological evidence again to justify the verdict. The court has done a decent job in noting the reports that were provided to it by the ASI

I have always been enamored to war. It is different from being in love with war. I never disliked war, considering it a tool in the instrument of politics or policy making. In that I am more in line with what Clausewitz had in mind . But my fascination for war and especially conventional modern warfare (WW1, WW2) has only increased. I remember picking up Zhukov's Memoirs and Konev's war diaries when I was in Class IX. Then I devoured von Manstein's Lost Victories, Achtung Panzer by Guderian, Keitel's War Memoirs, Stuka Pilot by Hans Ulrich Rudel and so on. In addition, I have extensively studied about war strategy - all that is available in the public domain - from economics of warfare to Manstein's favorite sickle cut, from Beweigungkreig to Deep penetration Warfare and Cold Start doctrines. In all these accounts the individual glories of generals, and officers or political figures reigned supreme. They never claimed otherwise, but the grim realities of war es