By Farhat Javed / BBC 100 Women For centuries, Pakistan’s Wakhi shepherdesses have trekked to remote mountain pastures to graze their flocks. The income they generated has been pivotal in transforming their community, helping to pay for healthcare, education and the first road out of their valley. As their way of life dies out, BBC… Read More The last of their kind: The unique life of Pakistan’s Wakhi shepherdesses
War, we were learning slowly, is a terrible thing that turns men into beasts, women into zombies and children into scarred and introverted human beings for the rest of their lives… Mrinal Pande When in primary school, we did not know or care about the Partition. Why would neighbours suddenly begin resenting each other enough… Read More Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, Really?
First posted January 05, 2016 NB: This interview taken by Dr K. Sohail with Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy was dated February 2000; but the link at which I first pocured it is now inactive. Those capable of searching for it could start with this link. DS Sohail: When I read your book “Islam and Science’, I was… Read More How difficult it is to help people change their thinking: Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy (Canada 2000)
I am reminded of a conversation years ago with Pakistan’s defence attaché in London, who later became the Director-General (Analysis) in the Inter-Services Intelligence. I got a call from Brigadier Javed Alam asking what I was doing then. I responded that I was working on my doctoral thesis and a chapter titled ‘threat perception in… Read More India calling itself Bharat fulfills Pakistan’s age-old wish
Shah Meer Baloch Attaullah, 16, was travelling to school on Tuesday to collect his exam results, using a cable car to cross the ravine from his village – as he had done many times before. But when a cable broke and left him, five other children and two adults hanging precariously in the air hundreds… Read More ‘I thought I was dead’: Pakistan cable car survivors describe 16-hour ordeal
NB: Communalised religion is not love of God, but love of violence and a surrender to bestiality. DS Thousands of Muslims in a city in Pakistan have set fire to churches and vandalised homes belonging to Christians over claims that two men had desecrated the Quran, police say By George Wright The attacks took place… Read More Pakistan: Mob burns churches over blasphemy claims
Almost 10 years back on a lazy summer afternoon sitting in the veranda of our ancestral home in suburban Kolkata, my late grandfather in a casual conversation said something which has stuck to me till date: “While others can talk about it and be nostalgic, only people of Bengal and Punjab could feel the actual… Read More Suman Nath’s ‘Democracy And Social Cleavage In India’ Indicts Both TMC And BJP For Communalism In West Bengal
First posted November 19, 2011 NB: The historic significance of this document should be apparent to those who take the time to read it. I have cited it in an essay on the history of Indian fascism written in 2013, so I will not repeat myself here. I will make just two observations: 1/ Pakistan’s… Read More Pakistan’s First Law & Labour Minister, Jogendra Nath Mandal’s Resignation Letter, October 1950
Dilip Simeon First posted on March 24, 2015 NB: This paper appeared in a volume entitled Communalism in Post-colonial India Changing Contours; by Mujibur Rehman (ed; 2015). I discuss why our understanding of communal politics is constrained from the outset by the faulty concepts we use, which only serve to re-inforce communal ideologies. DS The Philosophy of Number [1]… Read More The Philosophy of Number
Hamid Mir I am not a big fan of Imran Khan. I have long criticised Pakistan’s former prime minister, but now it is becoming difficult to do so. There is a de facto ban on referring to him in the media, meaning we are no longer allowed to mention his name or show his picture. Pakistani… Read More I literally cannot say Imran Khan’s name on Pakistani TV – this madness has to end
After the truth-shower 