Myanmar and the limits of pan-Islamism
BY: Faisal Devji Since Myanmar’s latest bout of violence against the Rohingya began in 2012, there has been a slow uptick of outrage in the Muslim world. But it was only recently, once international observers described what was happening there as an ethnic cleansing, that Muslim concern became more vocal than protests in Europe or […]
Sensible road map
THE panic created by the sharp decline in the stock market was, ultimately, the final blow. With the PTI government finally accepting that Pakistan must go to the IMF, it is now time to focus on what exactly is needed to restore macroeconomic stability and implement a programme that paves the way for sustainable growth. […]
A security architecture without the mortar
In April this year, the NarendraModi government set up a Defence Planning Committee (DPC) to assist in the creation of “national security strategy, international defence engagement strategy, roadmap to build (a) defence manufacturing ecosystem, strategy to boost defence exports, and priority capability development plans”. Earlier this month, it also decided to revive the Strategic Policy […]
Dear Gen Now
Setting up #MeToo as an all-or-nothing issue will make us ignore the considerable gains already made.
By: Rama Bijapurkar Here is the sad truth. If you randomly pick any Indian woman who has stepped out of her home into the wider world of work, be it four or 40 years ago, there is a good chance that she will have a story of experiencing gender-based harassment in the workplace. Of being […]
PML-N’s endgame
BY: Arifa Noor THE grand opposition alliance seemed true — momentarily — but only till the verbal condemnation of the government was on the menu. The moment the opposition parties had to walk the talk, the PML-N was left alone to protest in front of the National Assembly, supported only by the JUI-F and the […]
A new panchayat of ideas
The 2019 elections will have to be a political struggle where the civil society articulates itself
By: Shiv Visvanathan Elections are usually party games which a democracy conducts to keep a system dynamic. But the election of 2019 is different and the nature of the difference lies in the ethical and political challenges before us. The battle of 2019 is not merely a battle between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata […]
Memory and cultural psychiatry
By: Aziz Ali Dad T S Eliot in his poem ‘The Wasteland’ deals with the theme of memory and desire. Writing about spring, he declares April as “the cruellest month, breeding, Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing, Memory and desire, stirring, Dull roots with spring rain.” This is a very pessimistic depiction of spring […]
The #MeToo reckoning
Invocation of proof beyond reasonable doubt and due process may end up defending male impunity
Mukul Kesavan Can you believe abused women on the strength of their testimony without condemning the men they accuse to the kangaroo court of public opinion? Since Raya Sarkar published a list of allegedly abusive academics on Facebook, the response to the MeToo phenomenon has evolved. The main objection then was that these men were […]
The new Cold War
The confrontation between the US and China is likely to escalate in words and deeds.
BY: Munir Akram US Vice President Pence last week declared a new Cold War against China. America has now decisively stepped into the Thucydides Trap — the Ancient Greek historian’s thesis that a confrontation between an established and a rising power is almost always inevitable. China was accused by Pence of multiple wrongs: unfair trade, […]
Renaming India: Saffronisation of public spaces
By renaming cities, streets and airports, the BJP government is trying to erase India's diverse history and identity.
BY: Rizwan Ahmad In August 2018, India’s Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government renamed the historic Mughalsarai Junction Railway Station in the state of Uttar Pradesh after the right-wing Hindu ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, most likely because the existing name referred to the Indian Muslim Mughal dynasty. Three years earlier, in May 2015, many […]
