Global Nationalism

Dear Reader    Today is the fourth Saturday of the month and so I will be writing about a country outside of South Asia.  The country I will discuss about today is Israel.  Israel has been in a conflict with Palestine for the last two weeks.  It began on May 6th when Palestinians rioted in East Jerusalem against an anticipated decision of the Supreme Court of Israel. The Court was hearing a case on a property dispute in Sheikh Jarrah. It was over settlements in Sheikh Jarrah which were occupied by Palestinians but claimed by Israelis. During the course of the case the Jews proved that ehy were the owners of the settlements as they had the legal documents passed down to them from their predecessors. The Muslims had forcefully taken over the settlements in the past.  The Court on an earlier date had offered to the Palestinians to continue living in the settlements as tenants. The Palestinians had refused to abide by the offer. And hence the Court was to hear...

Dear Reader,  This is the third Saturday of the month and hence I will be discussing about news relating to nationalism in a South Asian nation.  The nation I will feature in today's post is, Sri Lanka.  In the last two months there have been several initiatives taken by the Sri Lankan government relating to the national security threat posed by terrorism. 1) Promulgation of the Prevention of Terrorism (Deradicalization from holding Violent Extremist Religious Ideology) Regulations No.1 of 2021 which was published on 12th March, 2021. The regulations will refer those individuals who have surrendered or have been arrested on suspicion of an offence under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) or the Emergency Regulations No. 1 of 2019 to a rehabilitation programme.  The regulations state that any individuals using words or signs to cause acts of religious, racial or communal violence, disharmony or feelings of ill will, shall be rehabilitated in Reintegration Centres f...

  Dear Reader, Today is the second Saturday of the month and hence I will be discussing about a historical topic relating to Indian nationalism.  I will write about the Maratha Empire in relation to Indian Nationalism.  I will begin with this: An overview of the Maratha Empire The Marathis are an ethnolinguistic group who speak the language Marathi as their mother-tongue. They live in the state of Maharashtra, and in some districts of Karnataka, Goa and Gujarat. The term Maratha is used to refer to a group of castes of people. The Maratha caste are a Marathi speaking clan formed out of various families of peasents, blacksmiths, shepherds, pastoral workers and carpenters. They are a middle-peasantry caste which formed the bulk of the Maharasthrian society. The Maratha empire was an empire created by the Marathas. It formally existed from 1674 to 1818.  It was founded by Shivaji Bhonsale 1 who was coronated as the emperor in 1674, which in Marathi is called as Chhatrap...

Dear Reader, Today is the first Saturday of the month and so I will be discussing current events related to nationalism in India. 1) The first I would like to discuss is the Indian External Affairs Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar's instructions to Indian diplomats and ambassadors in India to counter the reporting in the international media about the situation regarding Covid-19 in India. S. Jaishankar External Affairs Minister These instructions were given in a virtual meeting on 29th April in which the majority of the discussions were on procuring medical supplies from other countries. The minister also told the attendees,   not to get overpowered by the “negative” media reports but to take charge and project the government’s side of the story. The participants were told that the ferocity of the second surge was something no public health expert in the world had predicted, and that health infrastructure even in the most advanced countries had crumbled in the first wave last year, ...