"Deus meus et omnia" ("My God and my All!") was St. Francis of Assisi's favourite prayer. According to early Franciscan accounts, most notably recorded by Brother Bernard of Quintavalle, Francis's fir

St Francis shows that peace begins by freeing ourselves from the urge to possess, control and dominate. His poverty, humility and fraternity offer another way of exercising power: not over others, but

Assisi is more than a pilgrimage town; it is a challenge to the way we live. Eight centuries after St Francis, his poverty, simplicity and service still raise a difficult question: how much do we real

St. Francis of Assisi's life and message have much to say to a communally divided India. Dialogue across faiths, standing with the poor and marginalised, respecting diversity, and working together for

Gandhi and St Francis remind us that renunciation and humility go hand in hand. While their understanding of celibacy and self-denial may invite disagreement, their lives of sacrifice, simplicity, ded

St Francis remains a beloved figure because his life joined simplicity, poverty, humility, compassion and love of creation with a deep devotion to God. His message of peace, brotherhood and reconcilia

"Brother Sun has become an energy contract. Sister Water is imprisoned in plastic and sold. Mother Earth is mined, poisoned and stripped of her forests. When she responds with floods, fires and drough

A diplomatic dinner is more than a meal; it is cultural diplomacy on a plate. India has every right to showcase its magnificent vegetarian cuisine, but excluding its equally rich non-vegetarian tradit

Ageing need not mean becoming a burden. With the right opportunities, senior citizens can remain productive, creative and socially engaged. Kerala's emerging Silver Economy offers the Church and civil

Congress asked Karnataka's Christians to trust its promise to repeal the anti-conversion law. Three years later, the law remains. Repeated meetings, assurances and memoranda have only served to produc

Accountability is travelling from official files to the grassroots. "School Thik Karo" may be satire's latest avatar, but its questions about India's public schools are real.

India's education system is in terminal decline because of short-sightedness and corrupt, incompetent academic leadership. The public education system is practically dismantled. Ever since the Nationa

A major strength of the book is that Menamparampil does not examine these issues merely as political or theological problems. He approaches them through human relationships, collective identities, soc

I am tired of the Indian theorists MN Srinivas, Bhikku Parekh, Ashish Nandy, Akeel Bilgrami,

The voter is sovereign. The electoral roll exists for the voter. The election exists for the voter. The government ultimately derives legitimacy from the voter. When crores disappear from electoral ro

The Bible is filled with rulers who believed they could contain God. Today, their thrones are gone, their empires are history, and many of their names are remembered only because they tried to stop Hi

India's daughters are still treated as someone else's property, burdened by patriarchy, denied autonomy and forced to surrender independence. Rahul Gandhi's women-only gathering in Pune challenged thi

If changing the Constitution is difficult, changing the electorate may prove easier. SIR's mass deletions raise the disturbing possibility that Hindutva's route to a Hindu Rashtra may run not through

This writer must admit to a vested interest in this story, as the Election Commission office in New Delhi erased his wife from the national capital territory's electoral rolls, and restored it only af

Reservation is not charity; it is a constitutional instrument of social justice. But leaving sanctioned posts vacant, replacing permanent employment with contracts and privatising public institutions

Children do not always need another lecture, correction or punishment. Sometimes they need an adult willing to listen beneath the behaviour and discover the unmet need. The language we use can rebuild

A 7.8 per cent GDP growth rate makes for an impressive headline. But GDP does not pay the rent, buy food or protect a worker from illness or unemployment. The country's growth remains incomplete until

He may speak of purity and pollution, tradition and order, custom and inherited authority.

To commemorate this historic occasion, the Departments of History, Sociology and Political Science organised a one-day state-level seminar in collaboration with the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQ

Gentlemen, before telling women to stay at home, remember that the doctor saving your life, the judge protecting your rights, or the pilot flying your plane may be a woman.

The RSS has spent decades building an international ecosystem of charities, cultural bodies, donors and political influence. Bhagwat's centenary outreach seeks to consolidate it. The West has noticed.

Bhagwat's New York sermon offered the world an India where diversity is sacred and every citizen belongs. Back home, the reality is far less harmonious: food, faith, dress, history and citizenship its

If you ask me which was the greatest news story I reported or commented upon during my 53 years in journalism, I would answer without batting an eyelid: the eradication of smallpox from India.

The Taliban tried to silence Malala with a bullet. India's new fundamentalists wield sticks, censorship and intimidation. The weapons have changed; the instinct has not. Both fear the same enemy: a yo

The Church cannot preach courage to its flock while practising caution in the face of persecution. When Christians are attacked and sacred spaces desecrated, polite memoranda are no substitute for act

They write of democracy from rooms where democracy has never had to enter the kitchen, where equality is discussed beneath lights that never reveal the darkness outside.

According to Koenraad Elst, when Hedgewar started the RSS, he had purely pragmatic ends in mind. The first thing he had to guard against was British imperial surveillance. He carefully adopted secret-

Perhaps Mr Bhagwat had brought this beautiful version of India in his luggage. Perhaps it had cleared American immigration because unity, unlike some Indians, is still welcome in the United States.