Spatializing Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab: Dreams, Memories, Territorialityon October 11, 2019Author: Yogesh Snehi This is a timely and important contribution of historian Yogesh Snehi who teaches at the School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi. Synthesis and syncretism predate the advent of Islam and the Sufis in the Indian subcontinent. This is a very distinctive if not unique feature of the plural cultural and civilization […]
Indian election 2019: Jinnah’s 11 August 1947 and Modi’s 25 May 2019 speecheson May 28, 2019The long-drawn Indian election is finally over. The world’s biggest democratic electoral process has returned a clear verdict: the Indian voters want Narendra Modi and his BJP to continue ruling for the next five years. 303 seats out of a total of 543 in the lower house of the Indian Parliament, the Lok Sabha, means […]
13 April 1919 – 13 April 2019: 100 years of Jallianwala Bagh bloodbathon April 13, 2019A hundred years ago on 13 April 1919one of the most shameful acts of state terrorism took place at the Jallianwala Bagh, near the Golden Temple, Amritsar. That day a large crowd of several thousand had gathered it. Most of them were innocent villagers who were in town to take part in the Baisakhi festival […]
Kartarpur Sahib corridoron December 4, 201828 November 2018 will be recorded in the annals of history as the crucial step taken by the Pakistani and Indian governments to reconnect the historical Punjab, which in 1947 witnessed unprecedented bloodshed, forced migration and the overall debasement of humanity until ethnic (religious) cleansing was achieved on both sides of the divided Punjab. Guru […]
Philosophy of the social scienceson November 27, 2018Some students have requested that I share my views on the philosophy of the social sciences. Some scholars prefer the singular form: philosophy of social science. However, such distinctions do not really matter much. Philosophy of social science is that branch of philosophy which examines the concepts, methods, and logic underpinning social sciences. A simple […]
1947: the partition that caused a million deaths and displacedon November 19, 2018Revisiting India’s Partition: New Essays on Memory, Culture, and Politics Edited by: Amarjit Singh, NaliniIyer, and Rahul K. Gairola Publisher: New Delhi: Orient Black Swan, 2016 Pgs: 400 The partition of India and the two Muslim-majority provinces of Bengal and Punjab in 1947 continue to whet scholarly curiosity and that of the public. A growing […]
Faith and feminism in Pakistanon October 29, 2018It is seldom that qualified research, conceptually and theoretically sophisticated informs the academic undertakings of Pakistani scholars. This is especially lamentable when one reads works written supposedly by political scientists. Their contributions to information and knowledge are mostly political history. Other branches of social science are not much better. Understanding society, its composition and structure, […]
Lahore’s eternal citizen, Pran Nevile (1922 – 2018) is no moreon October 14, 2018I received the news with a heavy heart that one of Lahore’s original ambassadors in Delhi, Pran Nevile, died on October 11, 2018. His was a very long innings, close to a century. He was fit like a fiddle the last time I met him in Government College Lahore in 2016. His hair was thick […]
India under Modi continues to disappointon September 24, 2018Most sensible people were looking forward to the meeting of the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan in New York. Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan had written to his counterpart PM Narendra Modi that he wanted to discuss all outstanding issues and problems which have bedevilled the relations between their two countries, and instead of […]
Death: an inevitable reality?on September 19, 2018A few days ago, a student wrote to me, recommending that I discuss death: something we all know is a reality which nobody can deny. Let me define death, as the termination of metabolism in the human body so that it ceases to function. The heart stops beating, the brain stops working and all normal […]