The BJP has successfully leveraged Ram Mandir to effect a fundamental restructuring of Hinduism, which has no ecclesiastical order, absolutist establishment, governing organisation, or binding holy book. All of this could change. https://thewire.in/religion/reading-into-bjp-rsss-structural-assault-on-hinduism-and-the-advent-of-hindu-vatican
Firstly, the BJP is leveraging the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra to effect a fundamental restructuring of Hinduism. Currently, Hinduism has no ecclesiastical order, absolutist establishment, governing organisation, or binding holy book. It has many sampradayas (traditions), which consist of monastic orders of the Vaishnava or Shaiva traditions, which have their own akharas, ashrams and mutts. Then there are countless temples and temple trusts, the most prominent being the chaar dhams (four ancient pilgrimage sites) and the 12 jyotirlingas (revered shrines dedicated to Bhagwan Shiva).
The BJP, which infiltrated and misused many of these to further their politico-ideological goals, is now projecting the Ayodhya Temple as India’s Rashtriya (national) Temple. In this imagining, akharas, ashrams, and mutts will be reduced to franchises of BJP’s Hindu-Vatican.
23/01/2024
Congress boycott right. Ayodhya event not about Ram, but coronates Hindutva as state religion KAPIL KOMIREDDI 16 January, 2024 https://theprint.in/opinion/congress-boycott-right-ayodhya-event-not-about-ram-but-coronates-hindutva-as-state-religion/1925091/ to accept that the spectacle about to be staged in Ayodhya can be extricated from politics is to sanctify the falsification of our living memory. The inauguration of the temple to Ram in Ayodhya is not a religious event to which politicians have been invited out of courtesy; it is the culmination of the most consequential political agitation to remake India into a Hindu state to which politicians of all persuasions are being summoned to perform a legitimating role.
Where’s the V-shaped recovery? https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/wheres-the-v-shaped-recovery/3368633/ Santosh Mehrotra January 19, 2024
Data on real wages, jobs, savings, consumption, etc, point at a K-shaped rebound
the share of India’s Biggest 5 firms in total assets of the non-financial sectors rose from 10% in 1991 to nearly 18% in 2021, whereas the share of the next Big 5 business groups fell from 18% in 1992 to less than 9% in 2021. This growth has been the biggest in the last decade. “In other words, Big 5 grew not just at the expense of the smallest firms, but also of the next largest firms,” Acharya said.
The Biggest 5 industrial groups referred to in the paper are Mukesh Ambani-helmed Reliance Group, Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group, Adani Group, and Bharti Telecom. He said the growth of such conglomerates raises several concerns, like the risk of crony capitalism, related-party transactions within their byzantine corporate organisation charts and overleveraging due to an implicit too-big-to-fail perception among others. This is what drives government spokesmen to claim the importance of ‘national champions’.