The haunting of Kashmir
Kashmir has erupted once again – and not due to Pakistan’s policies but despite them. There are many in Pakistan’s third generation who don’t crave expansion of Pakistan’s territorial boundaries,…
Turangzai vs the Raj
In one of my previous articles, titled ‘Frontier and resistance’, published in these pages I focused on the armed resistance in the frontier where a number of freedom fighters, including…
Deoband and resistance to the Raj
The 1857 war of freedom brought together different strata of society to liberate India from foreign rule. A number of religious leaders, who were descendents of Shah Waliullah, took an…
Aligarh’s response to the Raj
The war of Independence in 1857, in which all ethnic groups took active part, was the climax of upfront resistance to the British Raj. The passionate freedom fighters, however, could…
21st century’s ‘defining’ partnership?
On June 8, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi was warmly applauded while addressing the US Congress; this was in sharp contrast to the almost decade-long ban imposed on his entry…
Elephant in the room
Since the first Afghan war of 1980s during which Islamabad had willingly served as a conduit for the US gold and guns meant for the Afghan 'Mujahideen' fighting a 'jihad'…
Reality of ‘war on drugs’
If politics makes strange bedfellows, politics and drugs produce even stranger ones. The partnership between drug trafficking and national politics has taken a truly bizarre turn in the fight against…
War of Independence
The 1857 War of Independence was not just a spontaneous happening but a natural culmination of a number of consistent resistance efforts going back to the battle of Plassey in…
Is this good governance?
The disturbing events beginning March 24 yet again shook peoples' confidence in the government's priorities, perceptive abilities, and pre-emptive strategies; together these failures reflect the importance it attaches to its…
What revolution?
The global elite gathered last week at the Swiss resort town of Davos for the so-called World Economic Forum to deliberate on the future of the world economy (read: how…
