Monthly Archives: August 2017

Man’s cruelty to man is unbelievable. But believe one has to, when details come out one after another, of what people undergo in our prisons, where they are supposed to be reformed. After spend­ing ages in prison, they come out· hardened, their hearts darkened more than ever with evil…

Reorganization of the education system in India, admittedly inadequate to meet national needs that are constantly getting wider and more complex, has been dis­cussed for long, with many commissions, committees, seminars and conferences con­tributing their learned mite. The volumi­nous Kothari Commission…

To an ordinary soul it seldom occurs to consider whether his kitchen is polluting the atmosphere or not. Suddenly scien­tists raised the alarm that the future of mankind is at stake. Indiscriminate indus­trialization, atomic wastes, deforestation…

In the last three decades when we have replaced the political-colonial order, our rhythms seek a new formamentis. While the liberated countries are undergoing far ­reaching changes of modernization, they reveal at agility and potential to develop creatively through multilinear processes in which tradition can be a component…

No two peoples have influenced men’s ideas and attitudes as much as the Indians and the Greeks have. Much of what is important in Christianity is derived from Greek philosophers, while the bulk of the population in South and East Asia, which accounts for nearly one-third of huma­nity, is sustained by beliefs that are Indian…

In recent days there has been newspaper coverage of allegations on the part of leaders of the Barelvi denomination (maslak) of Sunni Muslims that their rival Deobandis in India are jihadis and ‘Wahhabis’, even terrorists…

It is not very often that reputed historians come together to explore new frontiers in historiography, each bringing to the table her/his respective expertise and skills. Unlike the scientists who prefer to work in a team, social scientists, in particular historians…

A ncient Indians, like people elsewhere in the world, fought their wars for their king and country with the weapons of those times. However, not much is known about how those wars were fought, or of the strength and organizational structures of those armies, or even of the prevalent social milieu…

It is not easy to review a book of this kind. A personal reflection of what I would describe as a ‘return journey’ of an Indian American and his interface with a ‘different’ yet ‘similar’ India. He does this with a certain degree of familiarity, which is partly first hand and partly acquired, and also with a certain degree of decultured astonishment. Son of a Tamil father and Punjabi mother born, brought up and accultured in America,…

The question of autonomy for the State of Jammu and Kashmir has been mired in myths and misconceptions. In the six decades since the adoption of the Indian Constitution, few provisions of the document have been as misunderstood and contested as Article 370…

Initiated in 2001, the India’s National Security Annual Review (INSAR) over the past decade has evolved into a useful companion in studying India’s national security challenges…

It is unsurprising that China, its development and its intentions, continues to hold the interest of academics around the world. As the world’s second largest economy, speculated to displace the United States from its current number one position in the coming decade, the role China plays in international affairs today and how it can be expected to behave in the future are issues that merit meditation…

The Tibetan movement has witnessed some significant events in recent years. Foremost among these is the 2008 protests in not just the Tibet Autonomous Region but in four other provinces in China with Tibetan populations…

Twenty years after the birth of Bangladesh, the three protagonist nations involved in this birth-Bangladesh, Pakistan and India have their own narratives on the event. Bangladesh has a war crimes tribunal (International Crimes Tribunal), Pakistan is reconciled to its break up but still sore with India and India remains triumphal about its own just war…

Amongst the numerous armed groups operating within India and many outside India’s borders targeting India, the most potent perhaps is the Lashkar-e-Taayyeba or the LeT. It is also the most ‘visible manifestation’ of the al-Qaida in India…

‘We were told that Muslims in Kashmir are not allowed to practice their religion and Islam is in danger. This is what moved me to come here and fight Indian troops’, said 17-year-old Lashkar activist Mohammad Abdullah nervously in police custody in August 2002…

Rumour-mongering is a national pastime in Pakistan. This habit is perpetuated by the situation of extreme volatility, uncertainty and instability which has plagued Pakistan for the last three decades. Building on the late Benazir Bhutto’s statement that there is always…

Riaz Mohammad Khan’s book Afghanistan and Pakistan adds to the numerous books already available on the shelves on the linked Afghanistan-Pakistan situation. The Taliban-takeover of Afghanistan, the 9/11 terror attack that provoked U.S. military intervention leading to Taliban’s ouster…

Before you get too comfortable with a single view of Pakistan as a Talibanized state, here are two new publications that offer some new and previously less discussed dimensions of the state. The first one by Saadia Toor examines the progressive movement in Pakistan…

Before you get too comfortable with a single view of Pakistan as a Talibanized state, here are two new publications that offer some new and previously less discussed dimensions of the state. The first one by Saadia Toor examines the progressive movement in Pakistan…