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 »
India and Pakistan: conflict or co-existence
By Saad Hafiz Pakistan should accept that India as a major power in South Asia can exert significant influence on this region due to the size of its armed forces, economy, population and democratic credentials which no other nation in South Asia can match. India is also well on its way to being recognized as a global power by other countries in the region and beyond, despite the yet to be fulfilled dream to obtain a permanent Security Council seat. From attaining regional supremacy and the ability to project its global aspirations; India has also moved decisively towards achieving another objective articulated by the prominent Indian strategist the late K. Subrahmanyam (KS) “India needs strategic partnerships with all democratic, pluralistic and secular powers to counter the combined threat from an alliance of … Read entire article »
An Angry but Patriotic Retort
By Adnan Syed This post is meant as an “honorable” and “patriotic” reply to all the liberal bloggers and PTH-likes who cast doubt on popular nationalist narratives, and point out the nationalistic ideology steeped in hatred and revulsion against foreign powers as self defeating. The post had its genesis in Raza Raja’s article titled “The Misplaced Hatred and Our Rational Self Interest”[i], but is also applicable to all articles calling for restraining our patriotic fervor when it comes to drones, Blackwater, and now Raymond Davis. (AZW) Hold on right there you so called liberal Pakistani bloggers: Are you suggesting here is that Pakistan is in a mess here because of America? Do you not think it was Americans, not us who were pursuing the ideas of strategic depth by backing every rabid extremist like … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Economy, Egalitarian Pakistan, FATA, Identity, India, Islam, Islamabad, North-West Frontier Province, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Politics, state, USA
Kashmir’s Troubles
While at PTH, we do not indulge in cliched fights over the Kashmir issue, the plight of Kashmiris needs to be mentioned. Below we are reproducing an article from The Economist that we believe does a decent job in highlighting the present state of affairs, as well as the emerging developments in the Indian Administered Kashmir (Admin, PTH). From The Economist Dec 29, 2010 A GROUP of special Indian police barged into a white-painted, single-storey house on the crisp morning of October 27th. They let their lathis do the talking. The wooden batons were first rammed through all the windows, furniture and a television. When the grey-haired owners protested, the rods were turned on them. The police broke the husband’s leg and beat his wife’s flesh a sickly purple. Before leaving, the officers … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, human rights, India, Islam, Islamabad, Kashmir, Uncategorized
The Giant in the East – IV
By Adnan Syed This four part series examines the rise of India as an economic giant, the threats that India faces in this remarkable rise, and implications for Pakistan. Originally planned as a three part series, I decided to split the series into four parts due to sheer volume of information that I came across while writing this series. (AZW). The Two Fundamental Assumptions Regarding future India, Pakistan must start with two fundamental assumptions: A. India’s progress is for real and will likely continue. Indian economy is beginning to compound and will consequently elevate India as one of world’s top four powers to reckon with on the world’s political stage in coming decades (along with China, US, and Europe). B. India’s military rise is inevitable along with its economic rise. However, Indian’s military rise is being … Read entire article »
Filed under: China, culture, Democracy, Economy, India, Islamabad, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Pakistan-India Peace Process, Politics, Uncategorized, USA
The Giant in the East – III
By Adnan Syed This four part series examines the rise of India as an economic giant, the threats that India faces in this remarkable rise, and implications for Pakistan. Originally planned as a three part series, I decided to split the series into four parts due to sheer volume of information that I came across while writing this series. (AZW) Bottom line: It Mostly Comes Down to the Economy Arguably, in recent memory, the United States came dangerously close to losing its mantle as a modern economic and military power on September 15, 2008. That was the day when famed Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. As the financial markets opened the next day, the economic engine of the United States quickly started stalling. Banks balance sheets were severely compromised as their assets were falling … Read entire article »
Filed under: China, Economy, India, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, poverty, south asia, state, Uncategorized, USA
A 'desi' desire for Aman ki Asha
by Adnan Shahid (Courtesy: The News) I am a proud Pakistani. I wear my national identity openly. But I am also a strong advocate of Indo-Pak peace. In 2004, I had the opportunity to work on a short term consulting assignment for a multinational oil and gas company in Delhi. Relations between the two countries were then lukewarm at best. But I still felt the warmth at the personal level, which reinforced my belief in the need for people-to-people contact. … Read entire article »
Filed under: India, Pakistan, Pakistan-India Peace Process
Religious Right in Their Own Words; Apostasy Punishment, Jihad and the Role of Non Muslims in the Land of Infidels
Part 3 By Adnan Syed This series revisits one of the pivotal events of the early Pakistani history; the riots by the religious right wing parties to get Ahmadis declared as non-Muslims, and the subsequent Munir-Kiyani inquiry commission report into the causes behind the riots. The report went on to interview the religious leaders of the newly formed state of Pakistan regarding their motives and their ideas of Pakistan as a pure Islamic state. As the interviews revealed the incongruous replies of various leaders, they also showed vague but chilling ideas that the right wing parties harboured to turn the newly formed Muslim nation into a politically Islam dominated theocratic nation. The interviews reveal the role of democracy, non Muslims, Jihad and punishments like apostasy that would be practiced in an ideal … Read entire article »
Filed under: Constitution, Democracy, History, Identity, India, Islam, Jinnah, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, minorities, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Religion
Liberal Pakistani Websites and Indian Right Wingers
By Raza Habib Raja Liberalism as a philosophy is more inward looking and therefore does not try to blame others for the follies of one’s own nation. Thus it takes a stark divergence from the conservative and ultranationalist philosophies who assume that identity cultivated on the basis of religion, ethnicity, or geographical location is always under threat from outside forces. Therefore liberalism’s natural thrust is towards self introspection and on fostering cooperation with the different ethnicities and nations. This orientation always bring it into conflict with the ultranationalists who often accuse liberals of being “unpatriotic”, soft and even traitor! Pak Tea House is one of the liberal website in Pakistan and let me assure you such websites are rare. We are committed to cultivating a spirit of self introspection and are doing our bit … Read entire article »
Filed under: India, journalism, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, liberal Pakistan, Pak Tea House
Manmohan Singh’s ignorance & Indian media's blackout
Raza Rumi I had posted a short version of this post on my personal website which quite unexpectedly drew the attention of several Indian internet warriors on their cyber-raths. It is a message that needs to be shared here. I have therefore decided to expand this and say what needs to be said. I have always supported India-Pakistan dialogue and the peace process and the purpose of this post is not to demean India or Indians but to express the shock that many of us – peaceniks – have experienced in the recent days. I have been accused of being ‘soft’ on India and constantly under attack by jingoists in Pakistan. Therefore it pains us to see such displays of insularity, indifference and isolates us with the remarks: “see we told … Read entire article »
Filed under: India, Pakistan, Pakistan-India Peace Process, Politics, state, Terrorism
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