A good piece in @IndianExpress on the substantive contribution of Parsis to Delhi culture. Kapoor mentions #HomaiDustoor of @LSR but doesn't mention #ProfPEDustoor, her husband, a literary giant & Head of @Delhiuniversit's English Dept who taught my mother at @UoA_Official 1/n
2/n Homai Dustoor was Principal, & my beautiful mother, #ProfessorPrabhatNaliniDas, age 31, was appointed #HeadEnglishDepartment & #VicePrincipal of @LadyShriRam by a committee headed by #SirShriRam, with #DrOliveReddick, founder of the #USEFI, & #ProfPEDustoor. A magical era.

@IndianExpress. I disagree. Please re-read TM Krishna's #misogynist, #abusive pieces on #MSSubbulakshmi. His theories about her music after being "Brahminised" are buried in dreck & pure conjecture.
Kudos to #HighCourtofMadras for calling out schlock. 1/n

indianexpress.com/article/opinio… 2/n For those of us who have studied & taught Art, Art Criticism & Aesthetics at New Ivy League universities since 1990: you may not manufacture spurious correlations, even if you are the finest virtuosos of vitriol; & you may certainly not defame the deceased—or deceased icons.

I disagree. Carnatic music needs no shock treatment, just as Beethoven and Bach do not. The tradition is phenomenonally strong—no "conservatism" here. Krishna hallucinates, to stay alive; and egregiously attacks MSSubbulakshmi and Thyagaraja.
Pulpit? 1/n

indianexpress.com/article/entert…
2/n
What's the pulpit? The Music Academy? That's reinforcing elitism.

Carnatic music is not in any need of 'democratisation'—I know dozens of pre-eminent gurus who teach poor students, irrespective of caste, creed, or faith. Attend the season: it's for ordinary folk across India

2/n
There's only so much the police can do. There are massive burglaries, drunken hooliganism, a profusion of garbage, and unfettered #NoisePollution. Citizens deserve better. I spent a fortnight in 8 big Southern cities, and we heard no noise. None! Bhubaneswar is a nightmare. 3/n

The major difference between the #BijuPatnaik tenure and this one is that Bijupisa was an excellent administrator, and governance was at his fingertips. He administered the state himself. Dozens of Dad's IAS students worked with him. That capability made all the difference.

False.

@nsitharaman is India's Finance Minister. @Meenakshilekhi_ , @smritiirani — @BJP always had/has #womenleaders in prominent positions.

The @BJP recently nominated a woman and a tribal: #PresidentDraupadiMurmu!


via @manjiri_chitre
@narendramodihindustantimes.com/india-news/bjp… @pmoindia @HardeepSPuri @AmitShah @nsitharaman @MEAIndia @ianuragthakur @BJP4India

While Ms Moitra has a right to protest in her chosen way, she ought to be respectful of fact. And the fact is that the #BJP has consistently appointed women to apex leadership positions.

A chalk and cheese argument.
#ashokkkantha: Just because the Taj Mahal & Lal Qila were built, these somehow absolve the Mughals of the centuries of brutalities against the #Hindus? This is recorded by their own historians.
Do read up on that bloody period of India's history. 1/n

https://twitter.com/ashokkkantha/status/1691486402704289794

2/n
Now, certain Western historians have taken it upon themselves to portray Aurangzeb as a benevolent monarch. But read this, in Mughal historians' own words:



The building of monuments doesn't justify or erase butchery.scribd.com/document/52320…

I can name quite a few; but #GopinathMohanty, whom my parents and I have translated, is just as great, and, in many senses, greater. We need to be cautious before passing carte blanche judgement against #Indianwriters. I've read &/or taught all the novelists below save Lovecraft.

https://twitter.com/Tim_Clif/status/1578682342021165056

#CSLewis and #JRRTolkien taught my father at Christ Church, Oxford. Arthur Conan Doyle and Jules Verne certainly don't bat in the same league as Chekov. And to put Jonathan Swift in here? How's that? #GopinathMohanty is in the league of #Tolstoy, #Dostoevsky, #Dickens & #Hardy.

Modiji's forefathers have not built a single monument worth showcasing to the world? Hindu temple srchitecture, with its 1000s of ancient temples & forts, is world renowned for its extraordinary beauty.

I wonder which planet this bigoted person inhabits.

And it's: no calls for.

https://twitter.com/Anjna116/status/1527241743309197312

Architecture.