India’s Map Perfidy on November 18, 2019India has just committed an act of cartographic perfidy by illegally annexing the territory of disputed State of Jammu and Kashmir State and has gone a step further by redrawing the illegal borders into spurious new maps of the State. The State of Jammu and Kashmir, a disputed state that as per the Independence Act […]
Whither Internal Democracy? on November 15, 2019Democracy in its simplest definition is a system of governance through the consent of the people. Right from the Greek times when there were strong detractors of the system like the doyen of philosophy Socrates, who disparagingly referred to the system as a mob rule. It was a system which according to the Greek philosopher […]
Guru Nanak’s Kartarpur on November 9, 2019Ensconced nicely like a white nugget in the russet glory of ripening wheat fields between River Ravi and Bein is Kartarpur where the founder of Sikh faith spent 18 years before leaving for his eternal abode. Kartarpur village was founded by Guru Nanak where he lived a happy eighteen years of his life, far from […]
Reforming the unreformable on November 6, 2019Pakistan is in the grip of a system of spoils controlled by those who want to benefit form a governance anarchy. When Pakistan crafted its constitution under a democratic revolution after long tussle between the praetorianism and democracy in 1973 the demons of the colonial legacy could not be exorcised. The constitution still carried vestiges […]
Arms and the Men on November 1, 2019Soldiering my dear madam is the coward’s art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong and keeping out of harm’s way when you are weak (George Bernard Shaw) The above quote from Shaw’s classic drama “Arms and the Men” expresses the levity of human spirit and the instinct to survive when confronted with heavy odds. […]
Rogue Indian army on October 27, 2019Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets. (Napoleon Bonaparte) Perhaps we should not fear Indian Army as much as their newsprint and electronic media that has become a metaphor for jingoism and sabre rattling of a worst kind. The complete abdication of reason and responsibility by the media of the […]
Hindu Cultural Violence on October 18, 2019How is that a religion that once prided itself on the non- violence creed of “ahimsa” has come to be equated with exclusion and belligerence? The sepulchral gloom of the human recipients of the Hindutva violence is in sharp contrast to the syncretic inclusivism of a faith that is places premium on “Moksha” i.e human […]
End of India on October 11, 2019This article is not one of the usual jeremiad prognostications about the demise of a nation lest the message is misunderstood. It is in fact a bare knuckles admission of a stark reality that like a mirror should be shown to all India lovers and sympathizers. For if ever there was a time the empyrean […]
A Martyr’s Memory on September 26, 2019In peace and honour rest you here, my sons Secure from worldly chances and mishaps! Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells No noise, but silence and eternal sleep: In peace and honour rest you here, my sons! —Titus Andronicus from How should one begin a saga of courage and altruism so overpowering that […]
Lalik Jan — a saga of courage on September 4, 2019“Great deeds are done when men and mountains meet this is not done by jostling in the street”. (William Blake) This is the story of Lalik Jan, the quintessential soldier and a true denizen of the mountains whose rendezvous with martyrdom atop a mountain post proved the above dictum true. A true son of the […]