Out-of-step English Teacher. Interested in intellectual history of modern India.
Joined May 2008
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Thinking to develop this as a #Thread about #Missionary and #Christian contribution to the development of #ModernIndianLanguages #IndianLanguage
Most #IndianLanguages owe their current state of advancement to the work of #Christian #missionaries—#linguists, #lexicographers and #Bible #translators.
From #JohnNewton and #LeviJanvier in #Punjab to #HermannGundert in #Kerala it’s missionaries all the way!
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
.@NigelBiggar .@History_Reclaim .@robert_lyman I learned yesterday that there is a phrase in Brazilian Portuguese, "Para ingles ver". Colloquially, it means 'just for show'. Literally, however, it says, 'for the English to see'. It refers back to the 19th century, when the British were pressing Brazil to abolish slave-trading and the Brazilians were just pretending to.
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
राक्षसा विविधा वाचो आहरन्ति महावने ।
हिंसाविहारा वैदेहि न चिन्तयितुमर्हसि ॥
(रामायण सर्ग ४५, छन्द १९-२०)
लक्ष्मण उवाच: हे वैदेही, आप चिंता न करें, इस बड़े वन में वे, जिनका मनोरंजन ही हिंसा में निहित रहता है, नाना प्रकार की बोलियां बोलते रहते हैं ।
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
सच तो यह है कि जेंडर अनुपात तालिकाओं में भारत में औरतों की तादाद पुरुषों की तुलना में निरंतर घटी है।बड़ी वजह है कन्या भ्रूणों के ग़ैरक़ानूनी गर्भपात! आज कई जगह बहुएं दूसरे राज्यों से ख़रीदी जा रहीहैं
सरकारी शोध कहता है देश में लगभग ४५ से ६३ मिलियन औरतें अपेक्षा से कम निकली हैं।
This quoted post is unavailable.
“…the roots of our nation’s freedom lie in the impulse of social reform that moved writers like Samuel Vedanayagam Pillai.”
#Bicentenary #Tamil #TamilLiterture #Tamil #ModernIndianLanguages #IndianNovel
The bicentenary of Tamil novelist SV Pillai offers an opportunity for a fresh engagement with the 19th-century pioneers, who imagined a new social and political future, writes Ashish Alexander @AshishAlexander for @thetribunechd #SpectrumTheTribune
tribuneindia.com/news/variet…
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
The bicentenary of Tamil novelist SV Pillai offers an opportunity for a fresh engagement with the 19th-century pioneers, who imagined a new social and political future, writes Ashish Alexander @AshishAlexander for @thetribunechd #SpectrumTheTribune
tribuneindia.com/news/variet…
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
He's right.
In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
“The zek [Gulag prisoner] is always expecting it to be worse. That is how he lives, constantly awaiting the blows of fate and stings of the evil spirit. And, on the other hand, he perceives every temporary relaxation as an oversight, a mistake.”
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
Uri was a failure of command. The brigade commander & up the chain to the corps commander. That militants could strike a secure camp of a brigade on our side close to the LoC and kill ten sleeping soldiers shows laxity. The retaliation however brave does not redeem the failure.
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
Disagree. The Crown ruled India post the 1857 rebellion, correctly defined. Indians joined the police, railways, judicial services, revenue services and the military as professions, besides running businesses contributing to the exchequer. Recruits for the military were always available since pensions and land jagirs were awarded. Coming to Haifa, the soldiers did their duty to their regiment and flag. Arab tribes had revolted against Ottoman rule. The advance to Damascus was led by them with TE Lawrence (of Arabia) in the background. Haifa was liberated for the Arabs by a cavalry unit of Mysore. Israel had not come into existence. It was Palestine. That politicians in France and the Brits cut out the spoils, with the Sykes Picot Agreement was a betrayal of the Arab cause. Indian participation in WW1 actually helped getting independence. And so did our contribution in WW2. Should we not recognise their sacrifices. Hobnobbing with Israel on this is shameful. Haifa and Jallianwala Bagh are different and unrelated.
Disclosure - My father served in the RIAF in WW2.
Should Indians celebrate Haifa day, marking the British Empire's victory in WWI using Indian troops?
I argue that this is bizarre. The British Indian Army was an occupation force that worked for the Raj.
Free Indians celebrating it makes zero sense.
scroll.in/article/836391/fro…
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
This is the man abt whom the Supreme Court said: "Let him also celebrate Independence Day." One whose name will forever be synonymous with the burning alive of 2 kids with their father only because the father was a missionary.
#DaraSingh
deccanherald.com/opinion/dar…
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
Todo el mundo está en contra del legado europeo —incluso muchos europeos mismos—. Pero aquí Slavoj Žižek expone por qué al final es esa herencia europea lo mejor que nos queda.
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
What's the connection between fascism and illiteracy?
A third of British adults who used to read for pleasure don't anymore.
And according to the OECD, literacy itself, not just the habit of it, is declining or stagnating across most of the developed world.
In a new book, The New Dark Ages, @j_amesmarriott argues that we're living through a great unwinding: a retreat from the written word and the kind of rational, analytical mind that print culture built over five centuries, back towards something closer to the pre-literate world: one dominated not by books, but by images, screens, and short-form video.
In this episode of The New Society, @tanjil_rashid_ is joined by @j_amesmarriott to ask: are we really heading back into the dark?
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
The first volume of the proceedings of the New Trinitarian Ontologies conference have been published, and the book is available to order.
wipfandstock.com/97816667681…
amazon.com/dp/1666768111
Seven years ago, we hosted the 2019 New Trinitarian Ontologies conference at the University of Cambridge.
Watch the proceedings here:
youtu.be/7tMaZAIhemw?si=XrR8…
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
Looking at the present state of India and the deep-seated hatred between castes, I find myself agreeing with @chandrabprasad_ sir: “The British came too late and left too early.”🙏
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
Dear; that's why I am a critique of the Britishers. They were lazy and irresponsible; they ran away from their duty of civilising Caste India...
Looking at the present state of India and the deep-seated hatred between castes, I find myself agreeing with @chandrabprasad_ sir: “The British came too late and left too early.”🙏
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
Too many clergy talk about Christianity in terms of ‘my faith journey’ etc as if Christianity were just a private matter rather than an adamant claim about the open and public manifestation of God himself in history, upon which all legitimate order must now in some way be based.
Ashish آشیش ਆਸ਼ੀਸ਼ आशीष retweeted
An 18-year-old girl named Roop Kanwar burned alive on her husband’s pyre in Deorala, Rajasthan.
On 4 September 1987 — eight months after marriage..
One day after he died of gastroenteritis.
The village called it sati. They said she walked in smiling in bridal clothes, held his head in her lap, and sat calmly while thousands watched.
Journalists found she hid in a barn, was dragged out, frothing at the mouth, screamed when the fire hit her, and tried to climb off. Logs and the crowd held her down.
If she had lived as a widow the in-laws would have lost the dowry — gold, TV, fridge, cash. Dead “goddess” kept the goods and turned the village into a pilgrimage site. They built a shrine, sold photos, drew 100,000–250,000 people. Politicians defended it. A new law banned sati and its glorification. 45 people were charged with murder, abetment, and celebration. Every single one walked free over 37 years. Last acquittals in 2024. Zero convictions.
Her brother said they were happy she became sati.
No one asked an 18-year-old husband to burn if the wife died first.
That is the whole story: property, pride, and a pyre. They didn’t just kill a girl. They turned her into a business and walked away clean.
If roles reversed even once, the custom would have died the same day. It survived because only she was disposable.
