Independence Day

Ramanand Tiwari rounded the corner at a brisk pace – the achhoot well was now visible. He made a long peripheral detour around it.

The Day I Became Free

The day I became free
From sacrifices of the past
Of my own and millions
To wear this smile

Rang De Basanti

“We’re zinda dil people.� She said, “Amidst whatever mix of worries we live in, we make it at the end of the day.�

The Last of the Mughals

The book is mostly about the 1857 mutiny – discussing at length what brought it about, how it spread and how it ended – and Dalrymple reconstructs a chronicle of its days and months.

My Children Play in the Same Playgrounds as the Desolate, Bombarded Souls

Terrorism is the root cause of all of the current atrocities that are harboring in the beautiful cities of Pakistan. But is this the same terrorism that the world speaks of?

Sexless and Loveless Marriages

Many people are surprised how the same routine life that provides stability and security starts to kill creativity, spontaneity and love. When monogamy turns in monotony.

‘Dustbin of history’ or ‘history of sorts’

Omar Abdullah the president of the National Conference opines that complete independence for both sides of Kashmir along the Line of Control (LoC) is not a viable option at all.

Historian Amaresh Misra on South Asia

Left alone, South Asia would have evolved more smoothly into the Industrial age, says historian Amaresh Misra

Remembering the Jallianwala Bagh, Gandhi, Churchill and Jinnah

Reviewing positions of three key players on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre - the watershed event of India’s independence.

Toward a Pakistani Media Strategy

Being disgusted with the way things are is not a sufficient response, and the Pakistani community needs to take the lead in changing its own image.

Long Live Pakistan

From 1947, the day we became free
As we stand, to celebrate another year
From Waziristan to distant corners,
Lies there the evidence, of our endeavors

The Emperor is wearing Albanian Clothes

As soon as the western powers recognise Kosovo as an independent country, it will cause a huge dislocation in the fabric of all other separatist terrorist campaigns

1857-What Really Happened-A Reconstruction

A brief analysis of the claims about 1857 as one hears them in today’s Pakistan.

War of Independence or the Great Mutiny

A review of William Dalrymple's book, The Last Mughal

Making a new Future: Peace Dividends for India and Pakistan

India Pakistan relationships in the light of future economic and security dividends of peace.

The 'poor' Neighbour

India is seen as a success story, while Pakistan is written off as a failed state and the hiding place of Osama bin Laden. What went wrong?

60 Years of American DogHood

Graffiti in Karachi proclaims that General Musharraf is an American Dog who must be shot dead. (General Amriki Kutta, Tthaa!!). It’s an idea, problem is that not much of Pakistan will remain if we shoot all the American Dogs

India's Yin and Yang 60 years After Independence

There is no disease that has not afflicted India, no catastrophe not experienced... Yet India, a land of fabled and stoic resilience, always picks itself up and keeps going.

Jinnah and the Islamic State – Setting the Record Straight

What did Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, want for the country he was destined to create in 1947?

Celebrating Pakistan's 60th Anniversary

What better way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Pakistan's independence from Britain than poetry from Iqbal, the man who is Pakistan's ideological founding father?

Cause For Celebration

Malaysia is also a former British colony. It’s still developing but it’s taken the first step towards that goal, and its well on its way.

Let us do away with Kashmir

Asked whether Pakistan was giving up its claim to Kashmir, Musharraf said, 'We will have to... yes... if this solution comes up'.

Nehru’s Legacy: Time to pay tribute

The 77th anniversary of the declaration of Purna Swaraj, the 57th anniversary of India’s Republic Day – it is time to pay tribute to some one without whom India would not be what it is today: a global economic, military and political power.

Chained dreams and unchained reality

So betrayed by faith
The others stand so tall and straight
Why was it always my mind that strayed?

Decoding Spirit of Independence

Even with a tight security jacket in place, the South Asian subcontinent is into celebration mode with India and Pakistan commemorating the 60th Independence Day.

Secular Army

It is a great contribution to Independent India that those who do not wear uniforms and may be communal themselves, made sure that those in uniform remained secular.

This thing called Love of Country

If we want to know why we are what we are, psychology, science, anthropology, sociology, geography, environment, economics ---everything can be used to excavate the past. Uncover inconvenient truths. But we have to be brave enough to look these truths in

The Freedom of Empathy

Are we strong enough to want the freedom that so many would die for? Can we begin to appreciate what we have been given?

Erica

Her morals were of the highest standards and she always stood for values like truth and justice. She resolved issues with wisdom and pretty soon her stance on issues were valued and respected by people everywhere.

Catfood and Little Women

Life, then, comes down to a debate as to which is worse: death by dreariness or death as catfood.

Independence

‘I love my country, but I don’t think my country loves me.’

Resistance is the first step towards Iraqi independence

Sooner or later, all foreign troops will have to leave Iraq. If they do not do so voluntarily, they will be driven out. Their continuing presence is a spur to violence.

Origins of the Modern World Capitalist Economy

The Great Game for Central Asian Oil

The Imperialist Ring from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan

Kashmir: Time for a Radical Approach?

The Kashmiris are not even a foot note and Ram Babu and Allah Rakha the perennial losers.

They Shoot Kashmiri Pandits, Dont They?

They say they will act as a “buffer against the export of jehad into India”. They who ran away?

Excavating India

I say, thank god for Babar, for the dear departed Mughal badshah has revealed how the purring cats are jumping on a hot tin roof.

USA and Muslims

Muslim extremists generally dislike non-Muslims and they hate various people at local level

A Work In Progress

Jinnah put Pakistan in such a location that the future state would always be involved in the geo-politics of world

Creation of Hindu ’madrasas’

Is this the sort of education we Indians want in our school system?

Husain Haqqani at UC Berkeley

Pakistan has to revisit its relationship with India

Our Landlord System...Good or Bad?

Government of Pakistan helped Landlords producing more crops.

The Day Of All Days

Pakistan will re-take its first fledging steps towards democracy

Road Blocks in Normalising Relations

If cross border terrorism ceases, facilitating a dialogue between India and Pakistan, will a dividend of long term peace follow?

The Quarterbreds of Californet

What choice is left in the face of such enmity?

On the Nature of the Principal Civic Contracts

Is anyone amongst the current world leadership dreaming with us

The Last Crusade

Sharon’s visit finally removed the façade from the Israeli diplomacy

A Contrary Opinion

why not give the goodwill to someone who has only been brutally honest with us

The Place of Debate

He said there was also a need for debating on the concept of secularism, whether it is contrary to Islamic teachings and concept?

1971: A Forgotten Story

We ‘forgot’ to ask for our men to be returned

A Reason For Change

What is really interesting about Marianne Pearl’s interview with CNN is not what she said

An International Failure

do the Pakistanis know who they are themselves

Jihad: Paradoxes and Defining Moments

There will always be a lunatic fringe in the Muslim society

Random Thoughts From a Far Away Land

On the Eve of Pakistan’s Independence day ... these thoughts occupy a migrants mind

The Real Jehad

Birth control and Education together should be the focus of our Jehad.

The Indo-Pak Summit, Kashmir and the Taj Mahal

One cannot expect a solution from just one summit on the complex Kashmir problem ...

The Chicken Hawks Of Pakistan

The military should accept the fact that it is a dictatorship

The Autonomy is for India

greater autonomy for states is the only way

Negotiating Human Rights

arrested in Pakistan for saving the life of a battered woman

Would Devolution Empower “We the People”?

Musharraf’s devolution plan is likely to empower the people of Pakistan. But, how?

1971 in 2000

... this singular event is consigned to the dustbin of history.

A Rumor Of Lies

Pakistan, as a nation, seems to have entered a political terra incognita from which it is unlikely to return

Open Letter to General Musharraf

Field Marshal Ayub Khan was forced out of power after extensive rioting . . .

Text of Speech by Gen. Pervez Musharraf

The choice before us on Oct 12th was between saving the body - that is the nation, at the cost of a limb - which is the Constitution, or saving the limb and losing the whole body

Honour!

So let us rejoice

The Smart and the Ordinary

For it is the dream of today from which tomorrows are

The Battle For Kosovo

An argument for the use of NATO ground forces in Kosovo

Why Vajpayee’s Trip to Lahore Was a Failure

Vajpayee’s bus trip can be described in one word: nothing

The Gentleman Must Go

Crisis in the shadows of power: Is Pakistan entering an institutional crisis acknowledging Nawaz Sharif’s imperial designs?

Talking of Talks

...the Prime Ministers have had a telephone talk

Waiting for you, Mahatma

Proud I am of Gandhiji’s birth - But feeling ashamed of not being its worth!

From Zharkent to Laguna Pueblo

We are still suffering from the radiation effects of tests done by China and Russia

Giving Way to Intolerance

During the last many years, religious intolerance and sectarian fanaticism have created a war-like situation in Pakistan

Communists and Congress Should Give Birth to ’Red Indians’

The Communist parties and the Congress (I) are toying with the idea of coming closer to form an alternative political dispensation

Extra-judicial Executions

Romilia Hernandez was an innocent 21 year old woman...

Onwards to the Nuclear Abyss

India, Pakistan and the March of Folly

Brown Man’s Burden

I remember my English teacher sneering at students for not understanding what they were teaching, attributing our faults to lack of breeding

The Intellectual Imperative

As a people and a nation, Pakistan’s need for intellectual direction has never been greater. So where are the intellectuals?

Ideology or Biology?

This notion of women as walking womb-bombs in imminent danger of exploding into several wailing infants is in complete opposition to statistical reality.

Gender and Literacy in Pakistan

By looking at agendas and practices of some organizations involved with women’s literacy in Pakistan this paper attempts to clarify ideas related to gender, assumed or consciously advocated in their various approaches.

A Word to the Wise: Industrialize

Industrialization: That has the potential to take care of ethnic divides, over-population, in-law (and out-law) problems, poverty, corruption, arranged marriage woes...