Rounded Analysis On Contested Issues; Spotlighting Blind Spots; Politics, Religion, Travel, Books
Pakistan's discriminatory constitution bars non-Muslim citizens from holding the top two political posts but they have quotas in jobs and legislature and Pakistani Hindus have excelled in different spheres of life
Arthashastra, a two-millennia-old treatise on statecraft and the art of government, is believed to have been unread for almost a thousand years until its discovery in the early 20th century
Bharatiya Janata Party's projection as the only bulwark against the belligerent neighbour Pakistan and its alleged allies within has paid rich political dividends to India's ruling party, making any breakthrough in hostile ties between the two countries increasingly difficult
Many Nepalese conceded the constitution may be imperfect but is federal, republican, and secular and can be amended to accommodate the concerns of disgruntled ethnic groups but there was more to India’s disapproval
From Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor to Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, Indian film stars have ruled hearts in both India and Pakistan but only a handful enjoyed the level of adulation that Madhuri Dixit did across the divide
India was disadvantaged more geographically than demographically when Pakistan-backed irregulars marched from the tribal northwest to wrest Muslim-majority Kashmir in October 1947
Yadav was catapulted to the highest echelons of power when he forged a formidable alliance of Muslims and the communities (around 85 percent of the population) historically disadvantaged under the Hindu caste system in the 1980s and 1990s. Congress’s failure in protecting Muslims when they faced increasing violence as the Hindu nationalists vied for power worked in helping Yadav cement the alliance.
Equality was the essence of the Prophet’s teachings, which first resonated with marginalised people such as women and slaves in seventh-century Arabia with entrenched notions of superiority
The secular Muslim-majority nations include Indonesia, which embodies pluralism in every sense and refutes the wilful inaccuracies perpetuated to fuel Islamophobia
Arabs began acquiring Sanskrit texts before they sourced nearly all of the Graeco-Roman philosophical and scientific works to usher in the Islamic Golden Age from the eighth-century onwards
