Controversy
Jaswant Singh's controversial book on Jinnah has nothing new to offer, except some rare photographs. It is significant only because it rudely and perhaps unexpectedly exposed the tussles within the top ranks of the BJP leadership.
Web | Sep 11, 2009
Opinion
The recent case of plagiarism is only symptomatic of the truly serious issue: the utterly cynical and self-serving attitude of a great many people who walk the corridors of power in New Delhi, wearing cloaks labelled 'Culture' And 'Education'
Web | Aug 26, 2009
Opinion
Some of the most popular Urdu Columnists in Pakistan seem to function in a world of their own creation—it challenges rational thinking.
Web | Aug 11, 2009
Opinion
Dr. Gopi Chand Narang, Professor Emeritus, Delhi University, former President of the Sahitya Akademi and the recipient of two “Padma” awards, stands accused of massive plagiarism in his award-winning book.
Web | Jul 24, 2009
Pakistan
The Nizam-e-Adl [Justice] Regulation was signed on April 15, formally enforcing what some call sharia laws in Swat. The same day came the news of the Sikh community living in Orakzai Agency being asked to pay jizia by the Taliban...
Web | Apr 23, 2009
Recall
Who was perpetrating 'terror' in the Occupied Territories twenty years ago -- when there was no PLO there, not to mention Hamas? An account of 'normal life' in Palestine in 1989.
Web | Apr 22, 2009
Opinion
It's 20 years since the fatwa on Salman Rushdie's
The
Satanic Verses. We mark the occasion by republishing what Professor C.M.
Naim presented at a forum at the University of Chicago on 10 March 1989.
Web | Mar 02, 2009
A Review Essay
Lashkar's jihad is claimed to be almost exclusively on behalf of Kashmiri mothers and daughters. For they know they must have the mothers in Punjab and Sindh on their side in order to succeed in their recruiting efforts, as we learn from these propaganda books
Web | Dec 15, 2008
Response
'I read the email, purportedly from 'Indian Mujahideen', with increasing dread and disgust. Dread for what it can cause, and disgust (and worse) for the minds that created it...
Web | Jul 29, 2008
Opinion
America's domestic politics has turned into 'identity' politics, at least for those who consider themselves liberal and vote Democrat. 'Identity' has trumped 'Issues' in this election.
Web | Jan 17, 2008
Opinion
For the people who rule the roost in Washington, history begins the day they wish to choose. But the least we can do, when deliberating over the present state of things in Pakistan, is not follow Washington.
Web | Nov 19, 2007
Review Essay
An excellent and truly comprehensive book constructed around the rare photographs of Lucknow in the extraordinary collection by Ebrahim Alkazi, marred only by some serious editorial errors.
Web | Oct 16, 2007
Review
It is not even worth the price of the paper it is printed on. That such a book could be compiled by a professor of History is indeed a sad commentary on the state of academic research at some Indian universities.
Web | Oct 01, 2007
Appreciation
Last week, our jury chose Jnanpith winner, 'Urdu's Marquez', Qurratulain Hyder as one of the
60 heroes of independent India. And now the news that one of the world's major writers is no more.
Web | Aug 21, 2007
Outrage
The first attack on Taslima Nasrin ended when the police arrived at the Press Club and rescued her, but the other attack continues and its target, howsoever unwittingly, is not her alone but the always fragile democracy in India.
UpdatesWeb | Aug 13, 2007
Muharram
How much do we know about Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar (this year, January 20 - February 18)? Must it not be a time to reflect on the oppression being done around us—by us as well as by others—to those who are different and helpless?
Web | Feb 06, 2007
Recall
A Sentimental Essay in Three Scenes—1906: All India Muslim League formed; 1945-46: elections that settled the political fate of South Asia; June 3, 1947: Jinnah's speech broadcast on radio ...
Web | Jan 11, 2007
Opinion
A heated discussion presently rages in the American media. The United States faces a 'defeat' in Iraq, granted, but how big is that defeat going to be? As the great American sage Yogi Berra once reminded us, "It ain't over till it's over."
Web | Dec 04, 2006
Opinion
Yes, so the drawing and publishing of the 12 cartoons was racism and Islamophobia posturing as hypocritical free-expression. But if that was blasphemous, how should one label the deed of adding highly offensive pictures that had never been published to the 'media-kit'? Or those 'protesters' who never squeak at egregious crimes?
Web | Feb 08, 2006
History
Dr. Zakir Husain got almost killed in August 1947 at Jalandhar but for the help he got from two strangers, one a Hindu and another a Sikh. Years later he described the incident in a letter, reproduced here in a translation by C.M. Naim.
Web | Oct 29, 2004