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We Can Make a Difference

They are the children who have been abandoned, have run away from abusive homes, were orphaned or simply got lost.

Mind the Gap, The Generation Gap That Is

Between 9/11, Afghanistan, Bush and Iraq, a new generation is forming which will define America for the next thirty years at the least. I call it the angry generation.

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

Why the American War on Terror is Failing Miserably

USA's counter terrorism effort in the Global War against Terror is frankly creating more terrorists than it is stopping.

France has a better Middle East foreign policy than the Brits and Americans?

Thirty years later, it (France) has suddenly become a close friend of the very same people who previously thought of them as an enemy.

Brand India’s Ambassador – Shashi Tharoor’s Ganesh Cellphones & Tigers

Ganesh Cellphones & Tigers is more a description of an idealised India neatly packaged and divided into bite sized pieces for public consumption.

War of Independence or the Great Mutiny

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

The Muslim Brotherhood – A Force Not to be Underestimated

If nothing else, the fact that the various despotic regimes in the Arab world hate the Muslim Brotherhood itself is a plus point in their favour.

Scotland's Case for Independence from UK

During the week that we celebrated India and Pakistan's independence, Scotland wrote a document laying out its case for independence.

Ancient Assyrians Alive!

Egypt is their promised land, and between Egypt and Israel, the Assyrians will be the lord and masters.

The Future of Iraq

The future of Iraq is dicey, it will fly apart at the seam simply because it does not have a national ethos nor it has strong visionary men leading it.

How you judge reform depends upon where you are standing

Three muslim leaders brought in changes to muslim life as a reform but they are not considered as reformers in the west, why?

Its media, Jim, but not as we know it

The traditional media is mutating into something that normal users havent really picked up on yet, what’s going on?

Trapped, surrounded, quarantined or just reading too much into it?

I get the strong feeling that Pakistan is definitely under the microscope, if not under quarantine. Not a good feeling to have, I am afraid.

An Untouchable Apology

The untouchables of Hinduism are a wretched lot. While it is not at the level of genocide, it is an institutionalised social discrimination over a very long period of time.

What Went Wrong?

Have you noticed a faint air of desperation around the western world capitals these days? Ok, so it is not faint but quite visible. The desperation is around the Iraq war particularly and to a lesser extent, the Afghanistan war.

The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

The Muslim Policeman who refused to guard the Israeli Embassy in London, the European Union trying to force the working time directive in the UK, a state in India to removing learning of English in schools and the decision by the Iranian Government to res

One Swallow Does Not Make a Summer, but Ten Million Make a Swarm!

Sub-continental minorities are still looked on with suspicion and there is no true secular treatment, such as the lack of a uniform civil code.

Muslim Reformers - A Peek Into the Past

The remarkable story of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, a polyglot, agricultural scientist, lawyer, judge, scientist, author, publisher, political leader, and most of all an educator (his greatest achievement which has survived up till now).

Guess who is staying for a Thai dinner?

Since 1992, after widespread protests, democratic rule was established and it seemed that the time has come for liberal democracy to come into play in this idyllic South-East Asian country. But on September 19th 2006, the military came back and is now ru

Footprints in the Sand

Nasrallah, another in a line of charismatic Arab leaders who leave behind nothing else but footprints in the sand

Children of a Lesser God

The US Military officials caution against seeing the cases of abuse and murder as part of any broader pattern, noting that the incidents in question are isolated and rare! But as Bush himself has said, “we are different from our enemies” ̷

Cannibalising Your Own

What can you do with people who are so much against modernity, or the basic human rights of education, burning down schools, killing teachers and throwing acid on girl students?

Terrorism: Do you handle it as a crime or as a war or both?

I would prefer to go down the British School. The reason is that given a strong legal system, it is always better to de-legitimise the political agenda of the terrorists.

With a Grain of Salt: Poor Tariq Ramadan

He answered the question about his views on the perpetrators of 9/11 by simply asking 'who gains?' and posited that no Arab or Muslim group will gain. As you can imagine, this went down like a lead balloon.

How do you Define a Citizen’s Identity?

In many countries around the world, being a citizen is driven by religion, one can change his religion to get citizenship or is forced to live a life of shadows and hiding just to have any chance of being a citizen, as well as have some form of self-ident

Education isn't the Magic Bullet for Terrorists

What makes an educated person suddenly decide to break all these education and culturally provided societal constraints and go off to murder innocent people? It is just not terrorists, but we see this behaviour in normal society as well.

The State as Hostage

An Indian national, K. Suryanarayana, working for a Bahraini company in Afghanistan was killed by the Taliban. The poor chap's life has gone to waste, but the best revenge would be to help the country develop and make it impossible for others to die for s

The Placebo Effect of Economic Boycotts

Economic boycotts are very blunt weapons and useless in terms of satisfying the actual objectives, but as I said, they offer some palliative to the chattering classes

Oil and Water do Mix

The thought of foreign policy driven by BOTH water and oil is worrying.We are seeing the beginning of this trend between India and Pakistan and my belief is that this will keep on happening more and more as time goes on

My Hero! Your Hero! Our Hero! Whose Hero?

Home grown heroes are chased away, and then you go about borrowing some from neighbouring countries who, in turn, moan about misuse of their heroes

Musty Tomes Full of Trouble

Before independence, the British Indian education system was oriented on the Macaulay model fit to churn out clerks and basic administrators. Post independence, we clearly saw a difference

Secularism and Liberal Democracy

The US Supreme Court recently touched upon something which goes to the heart of what we all know and love about liberal democracy. The issue was around whether or not the Ten Commandments should be displayed inside a US courthouse.

To Cry, to Weep and to Pray!

The Vikings screamed and imitated animal sounds during battle, but it is crying out God’s name which seems to be the most common

20th Century Versions of Cronus

Ideologies are good and fine for a period, but after some time, all that the people want to do is to live in peace. That is where the control starts slipping and the terrorist groups start devouring themselves.

The Worst Curse in the World

If we have to defeat these terrorists, then we have to understand their objective and then we are on our way to combat their pernicious influence over their sympathisers and turn the already committed terrorists.

Cause and Detect

Please do remember that I am ignoring the conspiracy theorists, who are a real funny bunch, blaming it on the intelligence services, the police, the Zionists, the military industrial complex, capitalism, little green men from Uranus

The Buddha is Smiling

An orphan’s curse would drag to hell

Let my People Go

Man was born free but is held in protectionist trade chains almost everywhere

Greatest Indians

Ideally speaking, the Bharat Ratna award should give a list of the greatest Indians, but I was rather disappointed with it, it doesn’t fit into my definition of greatness. In any case, it comprises of people from the past 50 odd years only. So I dec

An Hour in the Life of a Soldier

An imaginary walk with a soldier on patrol

Bhaskar Dasgupta

• Articles on Chowk: 41
• First article: Sep 4, 2003
• Latest article: Jun 30, 2008
• Times read on Chowk: 299420