Hong Kong (CNN): When Ho Feng Shan died at the age of 96, he took a secret to his grave. The only clue was a single sentence in his obituary in 1997. Throughout his long life, Ho never mentioned his heroic deeds during World War II – not to his wife, his children or friends.… Read More Ho Feng Shan: The 'Chinese Schindler' who saved thousands of Jews. By Wayne Chang
Bharat Bhushan on the birthday gala to refurbish ‘Brand Modi’ The birthday celebrations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have metamorphosed into a three-week project of “Service and Dedication” from the single week of “Seva saptah” followed until last year. They will showcase a grateful nation thanking the prime minister for his service. The events projected as entirely… Read More A Grateful Nation watches a Roman circus
More than a dozen women staged a protest in Kabul on Sunday, holding up signs calling for the participation of women in public life. The protest came as female government employees in Kabul were told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men. The order was given by… Read More Afghan women stage protest in Kabul after Taliban crack down on women's rights – video report
Millions of people forced to leave their homes because of severe drought and powerful cyclones are at risk of modern slavery and human trafficking over the coming decades, a new report warns. The climate crisis and the increasing frequency of extreme weather disasters including floods, droughts and megafires are having a devastating effect on the livelihoods of… Read More Sarah Johnson: Climate crisis leaving ‘millions at risk of trafficking and slavery’
The truth is that Indians have switched to palm oil not because of some great choice but merely because it has come cheap. For most people cooking their food in palm oil or some mixture thereof, the content makes little difference. It is just another vegetable oil to them. The very versatility of the oil… Read More Omair Ahmad: What would the proposed large-scale cultivation of oil palm mean to India’s ecology and economy?
The torrent of fake news from groups sympathetic to the ruling party that flows through the Indian public discourse everyday is a phenomenon analysed by Neelanjan Sircar who writes of the ‘disinformation’ that is curated and then disseminated under centralised control to intimidate and harass critics as well as caricutarise the Muslim community. It is a year… Read More The India Forum on government propaganda; sexual violence, periodic labour, the new agricultural laws, and more
NB: To this forthright letter, I would like to add just one point. What exactly is the reasoning behind all this verbiage about DNA? Does it follow that people with ‘the same DNA’ must think alike, or love one another, or even belong to the same ‘Nation’? Sometimes even twins don’t have the same DNA.… Read More Javed Anand: On RSS reassurances to Muslims, deeds matter more than words
One of the greatest satisfactions in the history of philosophy is the inconsistency, even the hypocrisy, of the Stoics. For as long as I have studied them, I have quarreled with them. Like the late Tolstoy, they get into your head. The Stoics were meticulous students of human breakability and raised it into a subject… Read More Leon Wieseltier: 'The Wise, Too, Shed Tears'
Noted film personality Javed Akhtar says he is as opposed to Muslim fundamentalists as he is to Hindu extremism, noting that he has even received death threats from Muslims because of his outspokenness. Defending his recent interview in which he drew parallels between the Taliban and Hindu extremists, he said Hindus are the most decent and… Read More Javed Akhtar says he is as opposed to Muslim fundamentalists as he is to Hindu extremism
For around three centuries, the girl reading a letter in the dimly-lit solitude of a Johannes Vermeer painting gave no indication of what the message contained. Facing an open window, her figure gently curved as she scanned the note in her hands, her body appeared slight against the vacant wall behind her. But last week,… Read More Vermeer's 'hidden' Cupid is the enigmatic artist's latest mystery
