BY AG NOORANI THE media is a powerful institution with a fragile base. It depends on public opinion for support against the state and any others who seek to stifle it. But it finds itself weak in the face of mob fury whipped up by vigilante groups. Every institution has come under attack lately in […]
BY ARUNDHATI ROY Everybody is shocked at what you have gone and done – at your out-of-court settlement with an unknown Hindu fanatic outfit – in which you seem to have agreed to take Wendy Donniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History off the bookshelves of ‘Bharat’ and pulp it. There will soon no doubt be protestors gathered […]
sabhi kuchh hai tera diya hua, sabhi rahatein, sabhi ulfatein kabhi suhbatein, kabhi furqatein, kabhi duuriyan, kabhi qurbatein ….. chalo aao tum ko dikhayein hum jo bacha hai maqtal-e-shehr mein yeh mazaar ahl-e-safa key hain, yeh hain ahl-e-sidq ki turbatein In an intellectual life ranging from religious education, studies in literature, a career as an […]
BY APOORVANAND These are lonely times for scholarship in India. TheShiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti( SBAS) has claimed yet another scalp in the form of the withdrawal of Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus: An Alternative History by its publishers Penguin, India. The author, while ‘angry and disappointed’ by this decision has said that she can understand the plight of her publishers who […]
By Mirza Waheed On January 23, the Indian Army passed a not-guilty ruling in the Pathribal Case of 2000 in which five civilians were executed in Indian-occupied Kashmir by the Indian Army and passed off as dreaded militants. The somewhat resigned silence, even among Kashmiris, over the ruling begs a few essential and profound questions. […]
BY CHRISTINE MEHTA Abdul Rasheed is the son of Juma Khan, one of the five Kashmiri villagers killed in the infamous fake encounter at Pathribal in 2000. Beside him sits Shakoor Khan, also the son of one of the victims. “The night they took my father, I was sleeping upstairs. I remember hearing the Army […]
BY MUDASIR WANI Two points become clear from the foregoing discussion: that there is a strong connection between Geelani Sahib and the Jama’at in the sense of he having being one of its most prominent members and leaders, and having contested and won elections on its ticket. And, that the Jama’at owns considerable property, which […]
BY SAROOP IJAZ To celebrate the culture of Sindh through a festival named the Sindh Festival does not create any provincial divisions; on the contrary, it seems to be the only way that a sustainable national identity can be formed. They would rather have a ‘Pakistan Festival’. Perfectly reasonable, however, identities do not start from the […]
Golden Mein: By Dr. Javid Iqbal Just like the French reverses in ‘Battle of Waterloo’ a battle that settled the Anglo-French confrontation with Nelson dealing the decisive blow to Napoleonic ambitions, the Muslim march in Europe was stopped in the ‘Battle of Tours’ decisively, if not ultimately, as other abortive attempts followed. Abdul Rehman al-Ghafeki had made study progress until […]