Razi Azmi

Since the May 11 elections and their outcome, there is a general feeling that Pakistani civil society and its politics are perhaps in a melting pot. And there is an air of expectation, coupled, of course, with a wave of cynicism that tends to neutralise it. Most of us have many expectations from the new […]

No, dear reader, this is not about the pronoun ‘I’ as in ‘self’ and certainly not about me. You might say it is about more than one billion people, over a millennium of history and one of the world’s great religions. Yes, it is about Islam and Muslims. More accurately, it is about what a […]

As the plane descends over Cape Town, the view below takes one’s breath away, particularly if one is lucky enough, as I was, to have a window seat with a view of Table Mountain. At 1,085 meters, it is not much of a mountain, but it is a magnificent and unusual sight, as flat at […]

Leaving South Africa’s Kruger National Park, I drove through the Blyde River Canyon. It was a magnificent drive, if a little risky. With sheer drops on one side and rocky outcroppings from hillsides on the other, reckless driving very much the norm for mini-bus drivers, my FM radio constantly reporting deaths from road accidents and […]

 I spent my first night in South Africa at the huge Johannesburg Airport, waiting to catch an early morning flight to Nelspruit. I had arrived in Johannesburg on a late night flight from Dares Salam in Tanzania (via Nairobi). The airport was all but closed, with only two coffee shops in the food court open. […]

Buddhism is almost universally regarded as synonymous with peace, tolerance and non-violence. On the other hand, so strong and widespread is the perception of Muslims as the source of intolerance and violence in this world that people seem to overlook not just the past but also the present when it comes to judging all the […]

We are supposed to be living in an age of nation-states. But most ‘nations’ are multi-ethnic and most ‘states’ are accidents of history, geo-politics and arbitrary mapping. In any case, it is easier to define a state than a nation, two of the main attributes of a state being recognised borders and the exercise of […]

Our first stop after Denver was the unremarkable little town of Hays in Kansas, home to Fort Hays State University, where my very dear friend David teaches history. The visit was very short, but David wanted to show me a church in Victoria, a few short kilometres away. Named the ‘Cathedral of the Plains’, it […]

“We have a sick man on our hands, a man gravely ill, it will be a great misfortune if one of these days he slips through our hands, especially before the necessary arrangements are made,” said Russian Tsar Nicholas I in 1853 to the British Ambassador, G H Seymour. To which the ambassador replied, “Your […]

Much has been said in the press and on TV on the issue of dual citizenship or dual nationality, following the Supreme Court’s suspension of membership of parliament by holders of dual citizenship. Like the learned judges, many commentators have also cast doubts on their loyalty to their country of origin. This is ironic, for […]