On the occasion of the 134th anniversary of the founding of this newspaper, Kasturi & Sons Ltd., publishers of The Hindu group of newspapers, have pleasure in announcing the launch of The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy – to encourage research and discussion on critical political and public policy issues.
The Hindu played a historic role as an influential voice in the freedom movement and in the formation of independent India. The founding spirit of The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy is the firm belief that as independent India enters its 65th year, the publishers of The Hindu can help revitalise the faith of the Indian public in democratic politics. We do believe that The Hindu group, with its strong public presence over more than a century and its important contribution to nation-building, is especially well placed to start an institution of this kind.
A major goal for The Hindu Centre is to look at the governing vision over the last several decades since Independence and to revisit the fundamental formulations of the Indian Constitution, be it on pluralism, federalism, linguistic states, or regional autonomy and to see whether parts of this governing vision need to be updated to address the intense challenges facing the country today. The idea is that over a time frame of five to ten years at the least, on a number of issues that are part of the public discourse in India today, whether on secularism, linguistic states, federalism, regional movements, caste consolidation, insurgencies like the Maoist movement, the failure to subdue secessionist impulses such as in Kashmir, the Centre can contribute valuably to an understanding of the complex problems.
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