Chairman Press Council of India Justice Markandey Katju’s Hindutvist Akhand Bharat Theory : Right out of the RSS manual
By Yasser Latif Hamdani I have always had the greatest respect for the superior judiciary of India. This is why it is a painful to write this post especially as it is about a gentleman who was Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and later a Supreme Court Justice. His very accurate view on the tussle between the judiciary and the executive in Pakistan had made me a fan. Unfortunately though I have now realized that even some great men of law have their blind spots and as far blind spots go, this gentlemen has a huge black big blind spot spanning Afghanistan to Burma. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, India, Pakistan
Why Religion Could Not Unite Pakistan
Raza Habib Raja Today’s Pakistan displays strange contrasting patterns with respect to religion’s influence. Apparently Pakistan looks to be a relatively moderate country particularly when compared to the likes of Iran , Afghanistan , Saudi Arabia etc. Here the hardliners have never been voted in power through the ballot box. It has an independent media and relatively loose censorship standards. Radical Islam as a mode of life is still largely absent from the overall lifestyle of the Pakistanis as the country by no stretch of imagination is following the trajectory of Iran. It does not have the charismatic cultish religious leader like Khomeini and the public mood despite being conservative is hardly appreciative of hard line version of Islam when it comes to ballot box. Anyone coming from abroad for the first … Read entire article »
Filed under: Bangladesh, Identity, India, Islam
Bangladesh’s Independence Day
For an ordinary student of History, it is puzzling to know that Bangladesh does not celebrate its Independence day on the day that it seceded from Pakistan i.e. 16th December and instead on 25th March. This was the day when Operation Searchlight was started by Pakistan Army against its own citizens and Army’s proxies Al-Shams and Al-Badr played their own ugly part in it. Bengalis chose to commemorate the martyrs of Operation Searchlight and chose March 25th as the Independence … Read entire article »
Filed under: Anniversery, Army, Bangladesh, Elections, History, India, movements, Pakistan
Perils of Arundhati Roy Style Liberalism
Raza Habib Raja As a philosophy liberalism is more inward looking and hence does not try to shift blame on the outside forces. By its orientation, it also does not have an overly negative assumption about human nature and consequently is not obsessed with crime and punishment. It believes in the rationality of humans and further assumes that human intelligence is capable of creating an artifice where ethnic, linguistic and other such “ natural” differences can … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Imperialism, India, Marxism, Taliban
Indians and Pakistanis
Abhinav Pandya This article is written by one of my close friends at Cornell. I am grateful to him for contributing for PTH. Raza Habib Raja I remember, back home, every morning my brother would bring me the newspaper which had something on ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) as the lead organization behind everything happening in India ranging from farmer suicides, corruption scandals, black money to terrorism. The next day, same newspaper would be stuffed with the statements of hardliners trying to espouse the escapist brand of patriotism in order to run away from the real issues (as it requires a lot of introspection which any fanatic breed is scared of) eventually breeding a generation of youth who thrives on these ideas of misinformed and imagined hatred. Being in … Read entire article »
Truth about Gandhi
By Yasser Latif Hamdani Those who have followed my blogs and writings know that I have tried to balance out the hagiography of Gandhi as a saint. This I have done very consciously because the deification of Gandhi automatically means – to many naive immature minds- that anyone who opposed Gandhi, like Jinnah or Ambedkar, was automatically a villain. The idea has never been to replace Gandhi the saint with Gandhi the monster but to state a few facts that have been deliberately written out of history. Gandhi’s position in history is uncontested. He is a great man warts and all. … Read entire article »
Filed under: History, India, Uncategorized
Mahatma Gandhi on race relations between Indians, White people and Africans
By Yasser Latif Hamdani Will the real Gandhi please stand up? Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most extraordinary men in human history. While he is respected as the founding father of India by most Indians, his impact is truly global, more than any other leader from the subcontinent. He continues to inspire millions around the world and amongst those who claim to be the great man’s devotees have been leaders as diverse as Dr King and … Read entire article »
Indo Pak Agreement: A Great Leap Forward
Pak Tea House welcomes the visit of Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna and the agreements regarding Trade and a relaxed Visa Regime. It was a step in the right direction, towards Making South Asia a peaceful place. Trade between the two countries and frequent contacts between ordinary folk from both sides will pave the way for a gradual end to the belligerency and Jingoistic narrative adopted by Hawks on both sides of the border. Express … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, History, Identity, India, Lahore, Pakistan, Pakistan-India Peace Process, Partition, Society, south asia, Uncategorized
The Other Inconvenient Truth
By Abdur Rehman Mian: On May 15th, a friend of mine sent me an email, a quasi electronic alert along with an attachment called Indus Waters. It was an Opinion piece in The News by Mr Zirgham Nabi Afridi, a researcher at the Jinnah Institute. I was intrigued. Because the Indus, its tributaries, its basin rivers and their Doabs, have been a long time passion for me. And before you question me for the nature of … Read entire article »
Dismantling the barriers of hate
By Ghazala Akbar Midway between the cities of Lahore in Pakistan and Amritsar in India each about 25 km away is the village called Wagah. It stands on an ancient pathway that stretches from Kabul in the North West to Calcutta in the North East and beyond to Shonargaon in Bangladesh. Known variously in history as Uttara Patha, Sadaq – e -Azam or the Grand Trunk road, it was until very recently, the only road link … Read entire article »
Filed under: Citizens, culture, Democracy, India, Pakistan, Politics, secular Pakistan, Society
THE NEPAL-INDIA-PAKISTAN SPINAL BEETLE DRIVE
The ‘Great Nepal-India-Pakistan Spinal Beetle Drive’ is a journey from Kathmandu Valley through the Indus-Ganga plain to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, starting on 4 November and scheduled to end on 16 November 2011. The drive will take place in a 1973 model Volkswagen Beetle, which previously has supported similar fundraisings ride – to Dhaka, in 2002 and 2005. President of Nepal,H.E Dr. Ram Baran Yadav has graciously consented to flag-off the “Spinal Beetle Drive” at 8:00 am on Friday,4th November, 2011. The drive is sponsored by the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre-Nepal, which has faced a sudden need to expand its services, being required to grow from 39 to 51 beds. The Spinal Centre, based in Saanga in Banepa Valley east of Kathmandu, is run entirely on voluntary contributions. Meera Jyoti is present Chair of the Spinal Centre. For details, … Read entire article »
Mumbai Massacre Part 2
By D. Asghar As these lines are being written, over 20 precious lives are no more in Mumbai. 100 plus people are injured and as reports trickle in, sadly the number of impacted physically, keeps on rising. People of Mumbai have barely recovered from the 2008 terrorist attacks and now this. Many speculations and opinions came to fore almost instantaneously, thanks to electronic media and twitteriti. Some were just down right stupid as usual and some were worth paying attention to. The electronic media reported just yesterday that, India has given a list of most wanted criminals to Pakistan. Mostly people related to terrorism and related senseless acts. Its a pity that we have (supposedly) within our boundaries, responsible for such heinous acts. It is equally damning to hear rebuttals, which are proven … Read entire article »
Filed under: India, Pakistan, Pakistan-India Peace Process, Terrorism, violence, war
India: A Portrait by Patrick French – review
By Aravind Adiga An unauthorised settlement near the beach in Mumbai, with the city’s financial district looming large across the water. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian The following correction was printed in the Observer’s For the record column, Sunday 23 January 2011 A review of Patrick French’s book India: A Portrait said: “French retells the story of Ramunjan, the brilliant young Tamil mathematician who died in England before he could fulfil his promise.” However, Ramunjan died in Chennai (formerly … Read entire article »
Reflections on Jantar Mantar revolution
By Jehangir Ali The Drama So we had an insouciant, television revolution in Lutyen’s Delhi. How peaceful it was! It took just four days and no bloodshed! No Gaddafis here, no bombing of ‘revolutionaries’, no martyrs, a pure pep talk on corruption and its ‘harmful effects’ and lo, our moment has come, “India has shown on TimesNow tonight that enough is enough! It is a people’s movement and we have won”, thunders a brutally honest Arnab Goswami. A wild dog suddenly starts barking in our street. There were more journalists and onlookers at Jantar Mantar than the actual number of protestors on more than one occasion over the last four days! The Meeting I had the pleasure of meeting a “philanthropic” (that is what his visiting card says) on Wednesday night, one Mr P Rajdeep, … Read entire article »
Filed under: India
Pakistan’s Geopolitical Dilemma China Or US: Viewpoint From Pakistan – Analysis
Written by: Eurasia Review By Khan A. Sufyan The dynamic nature of geo-political environment is transitioning from American efforts to retain its uni-polarity to a stage where the emerging competitors and challengers are moving to a position of asserting their influence. This is likely to result in geo-economic, geo-political and geo-strategic changes, realignments and re-assertions, in certain regions which are likely to play important, if not pivotal roles in the future. These are high-stake political games … Read entire article »
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