The Romance of the Nation-State

October 3, 2007

A thought-provoking and often amusing lecture by Ashis Nandy, prominent Indian political psychologist and social philosopher.

Category: Books & Authors, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Video

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Shunya’s Notes, a blog associated with Shunya.net, went live in Oct 2006.

Editors: Namit Arora, Usha Alexander

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A Brief History of a Civilization
A web-series in ten episodes (~30-mins. each) on YouTube (open access)

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A Brief History of a Civilization

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The Legend of Virinara

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“Shunya” means both zero and the metaphysical void. Zero and the decimal system emerged in India about 1,500 years ago, later travelling westward with the Arabs—hence the term Arabic numerals. The earliest known epigraphic evidence of zero in decimal notation appears in the Bhojadeva inscriptions of Gwalior—at least the earliest found on stone. And so Gwalior is sometimes regarded as the birthplace of zero. It also happens to be where this blog’s founder, Namit Arora, grew up, so he claims a modest pride in being associated with nothing. 🙂

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