Understanding Islam and gender roles on May 30, 2018Denied by Allah Author: Noor Zaheer Publishers: Vitasta Price: USD 14.99 Pgs: 160 About one sixth of the world’s population is Muslim. As such, no single country can define what it means to be Muslimor what form of Islam is ‘correct’. True religion, as opposed to the fossilised Mullah version of Islam, is a dynamic […]
Repairing the ethos of Kashmir on May 25, 2018The Kashmiri society that I was raised in was compassionate, kind, tolerant, and close-knit. Political rifts, animosities, and communal fault-lines existed even then, but without the vitriol, venom, and sheer viciousness that we see today. Marriages and funerals were occasions on which people put their enmities on the backburner and participated in with geniality and […]
India’s centralised federalism on May 21, 2018The process of nationalist self-imagining in India is likely to remain in a nebulous state so long as the destiny of regional politicians is etched by the calligrapher in New Delhi and determined by manoeuvres in the murky den of centralised federalism. I recall going to an event organised for the anti-Indian National Congress Opposition […]
Military crises and diplomatic rapprochements on May 15, 2018During the last decade, each military crisis between India and Pakistan has been followed by attempts at diplomatic rapprochement, which have turned out to be fiascos. The two countries go through sporadic peace-making efforts, characterised by negotiations. For instance, in January 2004, then Indian Prime Minister (PM), Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the then Pakistani president, […]
The Lion of Kashmir on May 9, 2018Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was interviewed for the Supplementary Issue of Shabistan Urdu Digest, New Delhi, in 1968. This interview was translated into English, and rights to publish the English translation were given to Messrs Narain Dass & Sons, Dehra Dun, by the General Manager of the Shama Group, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi. I found […]
Impact of Kashmir atrocities on women on May 1, 2018The unpleasant reality in which the people of Jammu and Kashmir live is one of Indian and Pakistani dominance. It is marked by the overwhelming presence of paramilitary troops, barbed wire and invasive searches; dispossessed youths trained in Pakistani training camps to unleash a reign of misguided terror; custodial killings in detention centers, and mothers […]
Sh Abdullah’s letter to Ayub Khan on April 18, 2018Letter to President Ayub Khan of Pakistan, September 1, 1967 In the name of God, most Gracious, most Merciful C/ O Deputy Commissioner Delhi, 1st September, 1967 My dear Khan Sahib, May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you. While giving your views on a proposed South Asian Confederation in your […]
Kashmir, nothing can be achieved sans infinite hope on March 14, 2018The Kashmir conflict is driven by nationalistic and religious fervour, each side pointing to the violence and injustice of the other, each side pointing to its own suffering and sorrow. The distrust, paranoia, and neurosis permeating the relationship between a large number of people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the Indian Union has intensified […]
Repairing the tapestry that Kashmir once was on March 8, 2018Given the highly volatile situation in Kashmir, millenials in the state are unable to employ effective strategies to successfully resolve issues that they are invested in. They lack access to their representatives, legislators and decision-makers. As a result, there is nobody to implement their recommendations. They also lack the space to reflect on their strategies, […]
Our relationship to democracy on January 19, 2018We inhabit a world that has been sinking further into the morass of lack of political accountability and cultural repression after the gut-wrenching events of September 11, 2001. We have witnessed the fizzling out of the fragile Peace Pact in Palestine in 2003. We have witnessed the reduction of Afghanistan in Southwest Asia to a […]