South Asia

Stanley Wolpert’s Works

In our generation, perhaps rarely any of one might have read it or heard about it. In my small collection of biographies, there is a purple coloured hardbound, with  pagesturned to smoke yellow biography published eighty-eight years back by George Allen and Unwin Limited, 40 Museum Street, London. It has a foreword by father of Indian Nation Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.[Read More...]

BJP in power is always favourable to Pakistan and vice-versa

How many of us remember the post emergency era famous quote that “Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee can win election from any constituency in Pakistan”; whilst he was the foreign minister in Sri Morarji Bhai’s cabinet in 1977? Remember that India had just won a conclusive war in 1971 courtesy of Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s government. The wound of Bangladesh’s creation by[Read More...]

Shame vs. Shamelessness: Examples from Bangladesh

The Oxford Dictionary defines shame as “a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behaviour”. It could be self-inflicted, or an act committed by others leading to a loss of self-respect or self-esteem. “Shame on you” is something no respectful human being wants to hear from anyone. Self-respecting victims of shame sometimes kill[Read More...]

Against the Politics of War of Hindutva Forces

Political atmosphere in the country rapidly changed after 14th Feb Pulwama terror incident. Warlike situation emerged and war mongers had a field day. War hysteria was created in Pakistan as well as India. There was air strike on terrorist training centre of Jaish-e-Muhammad at Balakot by Indian Air Force. Next day, Pakistan too launched air strike crossing Indian territory. Indian Air Force[Read More...]

CNDP Statement on Ongoing Indo-Pak Armed Conflict

The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) notes with grave concern the ongoing conflicts between neighboring India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons together with all the three delivery platforms ensuring a “second strike” capability in case of being hit by a “first strike”. To recall, the present phase was triggered by an abominable suicide blast – following[Read More...]

Afghanistan, China and Pakistan , A Paradigm Shift

The role of Pakistan and Afghanistan in the region has become more important with the announcement of CPEC. The upcoming hub of Gwadar is all set to change the shape of international trade in South Asia. In order to resolve key issues and to bring peace in Afghanistan, Pakistan consistently been holding dialogues with Taliban on the request of Trump.[Read More...]

India Pakistan after Playing ‘War War’ calls for Truce

 India and Pakistan seem to have just got over playing “War War” on the February 26 and 27, 2019 testing aerial capabilities of each other and in the end declaring victory. In the absence of hard evidences and credible sources, both the sides have sold their own version of the story to save their faces and let the people make[Read More...]

‘Pulwama’, ‘Balakot’, Modi, Imran Khan, Wing Commander Avinandan, War Cry, Peace Appeal etc. etc: What do we make of all these?

Whole thing started with Pulwama in Kashmir in Indian Kashmir where a suicide bomber attacked an Indian army convoy and killed 40 soldiers. The incident has happened in the wake of upcoming general election in India which also coincides with Modi’s plummeting popularity that have made some people looking at this sad incident beyond the obvious. There is nothing more[Read More...]

Difference as liberatory politics

It’s ironic that I found out about India’s air strikes across the line of control, inside Pakistani territory, from a friend in New Delhi. Surbhi Dewan and I were texting each other, late at night on Monday, February 25, about the passing of her grandmother, Leela Dewan, one of the beautiful women who shared their testimony about the partition of[Read More...]