PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
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Everything Academic & intellectual with a flair for the discipline of public administration.
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
1d ago
The Buddhist Period
The Buddhist period not only continued the earlier tradition of debates, discussions and decisions in public assemblies, but made its own valuable contributions. It is noteworthy that in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, a philosophical work, Bhagavan Buddha found it necessary to tell his disciple Ananda that, “ so long as the people of the Vajji-Gana hold full and frequent public assemblies, so long they may be expected not to decline but to prosper.” Indeed, Buddha repeatedly stressed on the point that such public assemblies had to compulsorily meet frequently an ..read more
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
5d ago
THE CIVILISATIONAL, CULTURAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY of Bharatavarsha is also the history of its Grāmas or villages. It is in this treasure-chest that we find the foundational and enduring aspects of the all-round life of our people. Our Grāmas really hold the magic key that unlocks an array of secrets. Indeed, from time immemorial, our villages were the countless miniature centres that provided civilizational sustenance and cultural preservation and cushioned both these in face of serial depredations.
As we never tire of repeating in these pages of The Dharma Dispatch,&n ..read more
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
1w ago
A KEY LINK TO UNDERSTAND both the theoretical and practical functioning of politics and statecraft in ancient India up to the destruction of the Classical Era is not to view it from the prism of what is known as democracy. While we can find contemporary terminological equivalents to adequately describe and analyze various aspects of Hindu polity, we must have a vivid picture of its practice. The chief sources that enable us to get this picture include epigraphs, language, literature, writers on Rajyasastra and Dharmasastra, numismatics and what are derisively dismissed as “oral legen ..read more
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
2w ago
Preface
Mohandas Gandhi’s oft-quoted remark that the real India lives in her villages has been quoted so often that it has become sick cliché: sick because our attitude towards our own villages swings between two extremes: our internalized colonial contempt for them or a dreamy romanticization of village life that has no basis in reality.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the Madras Presidency had a total population of 31 million, ninety percent of which lived in its 55,000 villages. Writing about this in 1891, a British joint collector Mr. B. Knight made this eminent observation:
"It is ..read more
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
1M ago
An analysis of the role Hindu temples play in the Indian economy is presented in this article. Throughout India, temples have served as cultural centers, commerce hubs, art galleries, educational institutions, and social centers in addition to being places of worship. Across the country, there are over two million temples, which are crucial economic hubs, attracting devotees and tourists worldwide. The article cites statistics from the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) showing that religious travel alone brings in Rs 4.74 lakh crore annually.
There are approximately 3.02 lakh c ..read more
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
3M ago
Public Policy Making In India: Issues and Remedies
by
O.P. Agarwal &
T.V. Somanathan
Abstract
Public policy-making in India has frequently been characterized by a failure to anticipate needs, impacts, or reactions which could have reasonably been foreseen, thus impeding economic development. Policies have been reversed or changed more frequently than warranted by exogenous changes or new information. This paper is concerned with why India's policy- making structures have so much difficulty in formulating the "right" policy and then sticking to it. It goes on to ask, and make a mode ..read more
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
3M ago
"We have for over a century been dragged by the prosperous West behind its chariot, choked by the dust, deafened by the noise, humbled by our own helplessness, and overwhelmed by the speed. We agreed to acknowledge that this chariot-drive was progress, and that progress was civilization. If we ever ventured to ask, 'Progress towards what, and progress for whom,' it was considered to be peculiarly and ridiculously oriental to entertain such doubts about the absoluteness of progress. Of late, a voice has come to us bidding us to take count not only of the scientific perfection of the chariot but ..read more
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
3M ago
Envisaging a Native Constitution
A constitution based on dharma and meant for a dhārmic society, would ideally base itself on the scheme of dharma. It understands how morality builds bottom up and takes cognizance of institutions of society that help maintain such a moral order. The reconciliation between individual and collective reflects in the way constitution enshrines ideals. Besides, a native constitution takes cognizance of dhārmic view of man instead of an occidental view. This has several implications on how a constitution designed for a Hindu society looks like.
Layering
First ..read more
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
3M ago
Nature as Teacher and the Trustee
One of the most important aspects of dhārmic thought is seeing Nature as the ultimate teacher. It is not just about understanding Nature and Her workings, but about basing the design of the most evolved human institutions on such lessons.
The philosophical schools see matter and consciousness as the two primal principles of creation, and nature to be the primal mother of all beings – the sustainer, the giver of upādhi-s or faculties of experience, the provider of phenomenal experiences that beget beings the three-fold experiences of life. In the ca ..read more
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
4M ago
Abstract
After independence in 1947 this is arguably the most opportune time for us to contemplate on a constitution and a state design that aligns best with the nation. Right from the notion of nation-state and union of states, to rights to ideals like equality to choice of democracy to secularism, the modern systems known were adopted in Indian constitution. There has not been an analysis or a debate of whether these align with Bhārata, there has only been an attempt to make these successful in Bhārata with an implicit assumption that Bhārata should scale up to these ideals of modern ..read more