3 CDs. Begum Akhtar recorded at Aiwan-e-Ghalib in Delhi singing her heart and soul out in a 1973 concert less than a year before she died. Excellent tabla and sarangi accompaniment. Musicians are unknown alas. I have finally digitized the tapes that the Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali (1949-2001) gave me years and years ago. […]

Islamic terrorism is always portrayed as being in a class of its own by Western media, seperate from the atrocities commited by violent nationalist movements in India and elsewhere. Eqbal Ahmad discusses examples of ways in which successive US governments have promoted this idea, and the implications it has had on the subcontinent. Also discussed […]

India’s Armed Forces Special Powers Act has given its military a license to kill. An elaborate surveillance network stifles dissent. The corporate pillaging of India takes place in state-coordinated backroom deals and cover-ups. The level of corruption is staggering. Arundhati Roy describes the impact of these trends on India in general, and especially in Manipur, […]

The decades long bloodshed and destruction in Afghanistan now envelops Pakistan. From Lahore to Karachi to Peshawar the carnage increases. Home grown jihadi groups, with links to various intelligence agencies, set up to fight against India in Kashmir, have turned inward. After one such attack which killed more than 50 in northwest Pakistan, the Taliban […]

Since September 11, Pakistan is at the center of American foreign policy. Overnight, the U.S. needed Pakistan’s support for the war on Afghanistan. The payoff for the impoverished South Asian country was substantial. Sanctions were lifted, debts were forgiven and aid and loans were offered. Pakistan was created in 1947 when the British partitioned India. […]

For more than half of its existence, since its formation in 1947, Pakistan has been ruled by the military. A poet lamented, “Now each day is fair and balmy, Everywhere you look: the army.” The country hasn’t done much better with civilian leaders. Almost all of them have been notoriously corrupt. Today, another general, Pervez […]

Beyond the hoopla of robust growth rates and hype about the world’s largest democracy, India is beset by major revolts and rebellions over a vast area. Some, like the one in Kashmir, are for independence. Others, like the multiple uprisings in what the media call the “Red Corridor” are for the overthrow of the government. […]

The ads on TV whisper “Incredible India.” And then you see images of temples, colorful textiles, yogis, tigers, and the Taj. It’s almost a cliche: India, with 1.2 billion people, is the world’s largest democracy. However, democracy is more than just elections. When you examine the actual policies of the Indian state you find a […]

Touted as an emerging superpower and the world’s largest democracy, India is a very complex country with enormous internal problems such as desperate economic inequality, hunger, racism, casteism and religious bigotry. There are pogroms of Christians in Orissa and Muslims in Gujarat. Not surprisingly, the oppressed are fighting back. There is a series of mini-wars […]

There are myriad types of terrorism. But the focus is highly selective. 200,000 Indian farmers killing themselves because of debt or 4,000 children dying every day around the world because of no access to clean water are not considered. Nor are massacres of Muslims in the Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra or of Sikhs […]