Sindhu, Shintu, Hindu, Indies, Hindia & Yoga

“Remember history, or you shall be forgotten by history” — we have heard phrases like this a thousand times, yet we keep forgetting. So, we are condemned to repeat the same lessons over and over. The Malaysians — the politicians as well as the...

View Point: In search of ‘the leader’

Several weeks ago I was in Singapore attending a high-profile book launch. The author, Prof. Joyce Lebra, is an American in her early 80s, but far younger in energy, spirit and vigor. She writes about India and Japan with unparalleled passion. Perhaps it was this...

Valuable lessons to learn now from the Sudan conflict

Anand Krishna ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 10/22/2008 10:49 AM  |  Opinion Sudan would have been long forgotten by the so-called civilized world had it not been for the conflict in Darfur. Sometime back, while participating in a conference overseas, I had the opportunity to...

Time for the moderates to get off the fence

Sam Harris, the author of The End of Faith, warns us against the moderates, and I totally agree with him. The moderates live in a state of limbo. They are neither here nor there. They have problems deciding what is right and what is not. Look at the moderates in our...

Indonesia: A nation without sense of urgency

It was not pleasing to hear prof. Jeffrey Winters of Northwestern University, U.S., criticizing us on local television here that we, Indonesians, lacked a sense of urgency. Many considered his observation unfriendly. One of our high officials remarked cynically,...

Sufi solutions to world problems

This was the title of my paper prepared for the Conference on Sufi Movements in Contemporary Islam, held in Singapore on Aug. 14 and 15, 2008, under the auspices of the National University of Singapore and the independent Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Along...