Dreams for the future – an open invitation for ideas
I am starting this page in the hope that Indians will suggest what they think should be done for India by Indians, in the form of comments. I am keeping this deliberately open-ended so that a wide variety of ideas can come in. I am retaining the right to moderate comments. I also hope that the ideas are concrete and constructive. I do believe in the power of ideas to transform nations and communities.
In order to channel the discussion along what I think are constructive and useful lines, I will suggest the following broad areas initially:
(a) strategies for urbanization and building self-sustaining modern communities in India
(b) strategies for education and educational policy
(c) modernization of civil and criminal law
(d) reorganization of governmental administration and the electoral process
(e) modernization and reform of health care
(f) social security and support systems
(g) defence strategies and policies
I will try to summarize suggestions and ideas coming in. Give free reign to your hopes and imagination – and a request – be polite, be concrete, be to the point.
Dikgaj's Weblog 
hey there. this is a grand initiative by you. i am an architect in new york, i am from india and am on the verge of coming back home to start a practice. i am very keen to contribute to your topic on urbanisation and the creation of self sustaining cities. this as you know is our most pressing need. i am hoping with the recent tilt of population to the urban areas, our leaders will give more imortance to our cities. they are in many ways our future. let me know if you are still running this initiative and i will gladly contribute. all the best to you.
animesh joseph nayak
March 19, 2009
namaste.
i have strong opinions on points d and f. i
will jot down few points shortly.
namaste.
baby moothaparambil
baby moothaparambil
March 22, 2009
Hi I was just trying to get my facts right about all religions and stumbled upon your blog, just wanted to know , how come we where never thought in schiool or collage about the time or period before Allaudin Khilljhi and the rest of them and why were they always refered to persians and not arabs
mario
April 4, 2012
Well it was a mixed bag right from the start. The early caliphate – primarily under Hajjaj – was Arab dominated, and they had just managed a toe-hold on the western part of the then exhausted Persian empire [contrary to propaganda, there seems to be evidence that large portions of what is now Iran – actually stayed free of Islam until the 15th century]. Arab conquest of the eastern shores of the Euphrates and western parts of Persia had done two things – first, one part of Persians could be recruited [under pressure or promise of loot] as soldiers for Islamist adventures, and the second part who refused became outlaws and pirates using their previous skills of arms or maritime knowledge.
Afghans at that stage were Hindus and Buddhists, just as most of the people north of Hindukush and Turkmenistan were – animist, ancestor worshippers, and Buddhists. The fall of the persian empire allowed Arab armies to attack the Buddhist merchant settlements and university townships – usually treacherously in typical Arab and Islamic tactical way – say when the men were gone for trade and town remained mostly defenseless, and Arabs enslaved or captured the women and children and freed part of them only on conversion as well as ransom. This is boasted of by Arab historians.
There are criminal opportunists in every society, and surely Buddhism did not cure all of their greed – and one such character was the looter and petty robber Sabuktigin, in origins not an Afghan, but Turk.
Sabuktigin was more successful because of his looting ventures and it was his son Mahmud who succeeded most. Thus they were Turks by descent, and the Ghoris who destroyed the Mahmud dynasty – were actually Afghans.
Before Alauddin, thus many central Asian, including some Persian and Turks, apart from Arabs – got mixed up in Islamic imperialism. The reason official textbooks try not highlight this part – is because their history would show them to be the worst characters imaginable of their respective societies, even as per the so-called humanitarian standards now attributed to Islamism of the time.
dikgaj
April 7, 2012
Because even if the law says the right convert is equal – media, politicians, and organized religions mount campaigns that justify conversion only into certain reigions.
One has to simply look at judiciary’s comments to see that such opinions in public spaces mounted by well-oiled and well financed machineries – might happen to coincide more often than not with judges’ opinions.
dikgaj
April 7, 2012