CultureRays

Fascinating little video from the BBC

Why US English is a history lesson for the British - BBC Reel Long before Jamestown or the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Massachusetts in 1620, the US English style of spelling words such as 'honor', 'color', and 'center' were alive and well in British English. Etymologist and broadcaster Susie Dent opens an 'aluminum' can of worms and teaches Brits a thing or two...

Here's an older BBC piece that's worth pondering. This kind of blunder made by the British in India is why I'm especially wary of "essentialism" when analyzing another group's faith and worldview.

The British in several ways misunderstood Hinduism (a label that has elsewhere been declared to be about as useful as "Europeanism"), and outsiders tend to get their summaries wrong when trying to describe any worldview.

It's also the reason I love the thought provoking title of John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed's book, "Who Speaks for Islam?" How often have you felt at ease with some outsider's description of your own faith or worldview?

Have a read. Tell me, what do you think?

Viewpoint: How the British reshaped India's caste system A complex system of beliefs and social identities was oversimplified by colonisers, writes Sanjoy Chakravorty.