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Showing posts with the label Hindu history

Decision Making as Output and Bounded Rationality

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  The classical economics theories proceed on the assumption of rational agents. Rationality implies the economic agents undertake actions or exercise choices based on the cost-benefit analysis they undertake. The assumption further posits that there exists no information asymmetry and thus the agent is aware of all the costs and benefits associated with the choice he or she has exercised. The behavioral school contested the decision stating the decisions in practice are often irrational. Implied there is a continuous departure from rationality. Rationality in the views of the behavioral school is more an exception to the norm rather a rule. The past posts have discussed the limitations of this view by the behavioral school. Economics has often posited rationality in the context in which the choices are exercised rather than theoretical abstract view of rational action. Rational action in theory seems to be grounded in zero restraint situation yet in practice, there are numerous restra
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Reclaiming Lost History

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  In a previous post “ Saffron Swords ”, there was an attempt to review the book by the same name. The book sought to collate together the stories of those known and unknown fighters who put their lives at stake in defence of the motherland. They might have fought against the British or they might have fought against the Sultanate and their successors, but they did not shirk away from fighting to protect their independence. As the book argues, contrary to the popular perception, neither the Islamic invaders nor the Europeans had an easy time in managing India. They were faced with resistance at every nook and corner and in many instances, the victory they obtained was perhaps pyrrhic. Interestingly, barring the Mughals, there was hardly an Islamic dynasty that had a long uninterrupted rule either in Delhi or in other regions. Maybe the Bahamans would come close but they never had uncontested supremacy with them being constantly challenged and often outpowered by the Vijayanagara rulers
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The Hindu Rights Awaits its Gandhi

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  There is a constant debate in the social media on how left has monopolized the intellectual and cultural public sphere. Furthermore, there is a strong stream of liberal thinkers or at least so-called liberal thinkers who strive to have their voice as the monopoly in the public sphere. Without doubt, many have been patronized by the Congress led ecosystem that ruled the country for a significant part of the decades post-independence. There have been non-Congress dispensations yet they have shied away from taking on the powerful lobbies. Some attempt was made in the intellectual sphere or the social sciences sphere by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi as HRD minister during the NDA rule from 1998-2004 but it was undone the moment the Congress came back to power. Given the liberal secular chatterati which is very vocal and thus entrenched, the scope for the challenger is often diminished.   The emergence of social media gave a new impetus to the growth of the Indian right. The voices on the r
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Tales of Hindu Bravery and the Contemporary Day

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  Indian historians in recent times have often talked about how Islamic invaders were easily able to conquer India. They also talk about the Islamic supremacy that enabled them to outbeat the Indian rulers who still used primitive methods of warfare. While the Indian rulers used primarily the elephants as their conveyance, their weapons still comprised of bows, arrows, swords or hand to hand combat. On the other hand, the Islamic rulers had got hold of the ammunition and gunpowder technology which enabled them to avoid hand to hand combat thus an advantage over the Hindus. Further it was claimed that cavalry power of the Muslims easily could outperform the Hindu elephant battalions.   There is no doubt, there is some truth in the same. The Hindu rulers did not venture into accessing advances in war. They perhaps felt no need of doing so. It was only in the later centuries that the Hindu rulers began to keep pace with the Muslim conquerors. In fact, in 1556, as Hemu marshalled his f
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