"at home with liberalism-secularism than the left could be"

Friend Harsh has great piece on "entrenched identities" polity in India. He concludes with the below para:

• "...there are various interpretations of all these loaded "-isms", but the Indian right, unlike the right elsewhere, is potentially more at home with liberalism-secularism than the left could be. India's Hindu majority has no theological mandate against blasphemy, apostasy, homosexuality or abortion, and yet the country was always spiritual enough to never fall for the materialist philosophy of communism, "the god that failed". Indian leftists, self-declared moderates and so-called progressives must realise that their intellectual monopoly will be increasingly challenged by an aspirational, young and yes, largely fair, India."

Here is another great piece on new "colonialism". The "neocolonialism" is something on which I have also written in the Pragati last year. But it was in different context but more of domestic focus unlike Mr Rajiv's arguments. Rajiv's books are great source for finding the rational analysis on neocolonialism in India.

A bit from Rajiv's piece:

• "I am no fan (or opponent) of Modi. What concerns me is the violation of important principles and due process. Such intrusions are reminiscent of the way the British East India Company operated in Indian affairs, supporting one Indian raja (ruler) against another, often citing “human rights violations” as its excuse. It was through these strategic interventions, and not through a conventional military invasion, that they ended up stitching together the world’s biggest colonial empire.
• Ironically, these Indian professors specialise in scholarship criticising colonialism, not realising that now they are serving similar American policies on interventions in India. They are extreme leftists when it comes to protesting against imperialist interventions in places like Iraq, Libya, Syria and other failed states. But they switch sides when it comes to India, and play the same role for America in undermining India’s sovereignty as the sepoys did.
• Though American universities are amongst the best in the world, there also exist many compromised academics that promulgate theories on India which are racist, colonial and downright inimical to India’s interests. Many naïve Indian donors have unwittingly sponsored such scholars. My earlier book, Invading the Sacred, analysed how certain professors at top American schools view Indian culture as oppressive and destructive, using outmoded theories; my next book, Breaking India, exposed the nexuses between such academics and civic groups that are promoting separatist identities and schisms in India. I analyse the long-term trend that I have called “breaking India,” in which many colonised Indian intellectuals are funded to dish out divisive and biased materials on India. Such meta-narratives can put Indian business leaders on the defensive in their international negotiations."

Mr Gurumurthy is known for his critical analysis about political economy of India. His latest piece on Budget 2013-14 is a must read one. Just a line of thought from his piece:

• "Chidambaram himself had faulted the giveaways and had vowed to scrap them in the run-up to the Budget 2007-08. And the Prime Minister backed him."

Interesting line from country's chief economist Mr Raghuram Rajan who says:

•  "A good job is the best form of inclusion. If you can train them up to get that job, they are independent of the government for life and they would be able to carve their own destiny. Can we give them the opportunity? That is, to my mind, the challenge of the next 5-10 years."