top of page
Who May Drink From the Tank? — Mahad, the family and the langar, and the long opening of India's institutions
Most older Indians live with their children, and that is a real strength. The same homes, castes and temples also locked people out of water, land and food. Mahad and the langar show who opened them, and why care that forbids exit is not care.
Nithin Palal
6 hours ago31 min read
A Boy, a Pot and Thirty Wards — How a Tamil village chose its leaders by lot, and rewrote its own rules in 921
In about 921, a Tamil village chose its committees by lot from a pot, barred men who hid their accounts, and then rewrote its own rules. The wall at Uttaramērūr does not prove ancient democracy. It shows something more useful, rules that were corrected.
Nithin Palal
8 hours ago29 min read
A Trophy, a Museum or a Weapon? — Why India should read its ancient wisdom like a laboratory notebook, not obey it like a command
India should not obey its ancient texts or ignore them. They cannot set a carbon price or run a central bank, but they give principles, questions and warnings, and their own teachers told students to keep the good and drop the rest.
Nithin Palal
13 hours ago41 min read
The School That Has Everything Except Learning — Why India cannot copy its way to Viksit Bharat, and the old Indian test for borrowing well
India cannot copy its way to Viksit Bharat. A copied school or regulator arrives without what made it work. An old Indian rule of debate gives a sharper test for borrowing, and India's own history shows the test both passed and failed.
Nithin Palal
14 hours ago38 min read
bottom of page