Arthashastra (अर्थशास्त्र)

Symbol of resistance: The Nepali flag bleeding in 2025, reflecting the struggles and sacrifices of a protesting generation/Image created using AI In Kathmandu, the heart beats twice: once for the mountains, and once for the children who leave them. In 2024, those children sent home eleven billion dollars in remittances—money that became rice in a bowl, a school uniform, a hospital bed. It was not wealth, but survival. Survival spoke through WhatsApp calls from Qatar, Viber messages from Seoul, Facebook photos from Malaysia. So when Nepal’s government banned twenty-six social media platforms in September 2025, it did not merely silence dissent. It severed the threads of daily life. A mother in Pokhara who waits each evening for her son’s voice suddenly heard only silence. A father in Dhangadhi, eager to show his grandson’s first steps through a flickering video call, found the screen frozen. Overnight, the distance between loved ones became infinite. That is why the protests erupted...

Sarkari Babu: India's Obsession With the Government Jobs/Image Credit: Pxhere Last week, a cousin of mine landed a job in one of the highest Indian government institutions and consequently, he was flooded with congratulatory messages and long tiresome queries about how he was able to get it -- as clearing a government job exam in this country is deemed as a gargantuan task. He was flooded with questions about under the table monetary benefits, dowry prospective and his choice of not choosing a juicy department when options were available. In a week time, the poor soul has faced each and every kind of question regarding the job. He tried to answer them all, best to his abilities, however he was not able to answer a simple question he asked himself: why we (Indian Society) are obsessed with the Sarkari Naukri? So when he threw the question on me, I realized, there is no single and particular explanation for this obsession. It has several layers and each layer requires a unique s...

India's Lost Opportunity (Image by Harikrishnan Mangayil) We are living in interesting times. On one hand, countries across the world are embracing globalization and are becoming inter-dependent socially, culturally and economically and on the other side, there is a sudden rise in regionalism, sectarianism, and nationalism. India is no different. The current debate on CAA-NPR-NRC is just a small part of a larger nationalism versus globalization tussle. And in one or another way, India has lost its opportunity to claim its stake in world politics again. But before dwelling onto the main topic, we first need to understand CAA-NPR-NRC and why India is protesting against it. What is CAA-NPR-NRC? CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) 2019 is an amendment to the Citizenship Act of 1955 which provides a pathway to Indian citizenship for members of minority section (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians) of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who have fled religious ...