Some rankling questions - excerpt from the book 'The Great Indian Novel', by Shashi Tharoor

‘…even I could not understand, what makes a man strike with a cleaver at the head of someone he has never seen, a son and husband and father whose sole crime is that he worships a different God. What makes a man set fire to the homes and the animals and sometimes the babies of people by whose side he has lived for generations?

What makes a man tear open the modesty of a girl he has never noticed, spread her legs apart with a knife to her throat, and thrust his hatred and contempt and fear and desire into her in a spewing bloody mess of possession? What madness leads men to seek to deprive others of their lives for the cut of their beards or the cuts on their foreskins? Where it is written that only he who bears an Arabic name may live in peace on this part of the soil in India, or that raising one’s hand to God five times a day disqualifies one from tilling another part of the same soil?’

- The Great Indian Novel, by Shashi Tharoor.

Do you still think 'civilisation' is better?!

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Imagine a world where you can have anything and everything you want. There is plenty of fresh food every day, and of immense variety. There is some work to be done, may be three or four hours a day on average, but not more. In this world you can sleep and rest as much as you wish, or spend time with friends and relatives, cooking, talking, dancing, or just having fun.

And don’t worry about money, mortgages or debt. No need for those. No exams, qualifications or career to grapple with, no reviews, promotions or demotions. In this place there’s no such thing as losing your job. You can’t get into trouble with the law or the police here, because there are none. There is no need. If you want something, nearby friends and neighbours will help you find it – or let you borrow it, if they have it.

This world has very little risk of disease. Most illnesses we have today don’t exist. War and violence are also rare, because there is plenty of food and little competition for natural resources. Sounds good? Fancy moving in? I’m afraid today that’s not really an option. But, amazingly, this is the kind of lifestyle that we human beings have lived for 99 per cent of our history. Much of the evidence we have suggests that Stone Age man lived well, happily and mostly in peace.

 - an excerpt from the book ‘What on Earth Happened?’ by Christopher Lloyd.

Ways in which a king can annoy his citizens and make them rebellious - from 'Arthashastra'

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Impoverishment, greed and dissatisfaction are engendered among the subjects when the king:

i)    ignores the good [people] and favours the wicked;
ii)    causes harm by new unrighteous practices;
iii)    neglects the observation of the proper and righteous practices;
iv)    suppresses dharma and propagates adharma;
v)    does what ought not to be done and fails to do what ought to be done;
vi)    fails to give what ought to be given and exacts what he cannot rightly take;
vii)    does not punish those who ought to be punished but punishes those who do not deserve to be;
viii)    arrests those who should not be arrested by fails to arrest those who should be seized;
ix)    indulges in wasteful expenditure and destroys profitable undertakings;
x)    fails to protect the people from thieves and robs them himself;
xi)    does not to what he ought to do and reviles the work done by others;
xii)    causes harm to the leaders of the people and insults those worthy of honour;
xiii)    antagonizes the [wise] elders by lying and mischief;
xiv)    does not recompense service done to him;
xv)    does not carry out his part of what had been agreed upon; and
xvi)    by his indolence and negligence destroys the welfare of his people.

-    by Kautilya in 'Arthashastra'