Hindus, Muslims and colonial blinkers
At a time when Muslims find themselves under siege in India and are being hunted like animals on the benign watch of the BJP government, two brave new books by…
Who’s afraid of minorities?
Although India may be shining upon its middle class and Hindu nationalists, a Kali Yuga – the mythical Dark Age – is descending on Muslims and other religious minorities in…
Politics of suspicion
Mashal Khan’s murder shook many of us to the core. And how could it not? A young man of just 23 years was brutally beaten to death in a display…
Beyond the veneer
Mashal’s death was excruciating because it exposed the hypocrisies, mediocrity and hollowness of our polity. The incident reflected the sheer bankruptcy of the education system that is tailored by the…
No more lynchings of our Mashals
Will this be the last time a promising youngster is lynched at a supposed place of learning by a crazy mob in the presence of those who are bound to…
How to remember Mashal
As predictable as it is infuriating, Mashal Khan is becoming yesterday’s news. Entertainment and masala always gets better ratings than moral self-examination and the Supreme Court’s Panama Papers judgment has…
Remembering the fifth of July
The fifth of July brings to our mind the reactionary military coup General Ziaul Haq engineered, which reshaped Pakistan’s ideological, social, cultural and strategic landscape. No any other regime influenced…
Wages of freedom in a state of inquisition
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif seemed quite sanguine while launching Zarb-e-Qalam (literally ‘stroke of the pen’), meant to intellectually counter the violent extremist mindset that produces terrorism. Alas, that was not…
Muslim discourse
The wealth and pomp of several Muslim monarchies notwithstanding, the world of Islam is in tatters. Torn by internal strife, lack of focus on starving millions and controlled by greed…
Benazir: leader par excellence – II
The theory propounded by Dr Sachithanandam got credence as proved by later events. Dr Sachithanandam aptly highlighted that "the earliest foreboding surfaced in the backroom manoeuvres by United States and…
