The Workers Library: ‘Souls in the Kalyug:’

An Unending Struggle for Justice: A Rare Insight into the Everyday Lives of Migrant Workers in India

While the overall picture is depressing, Ramaswami also describes hopeful strands within the social fabric of workers’ lives such as the mutual support and 'bhaichara' (fellowship) between men across ethnic, religious and caste boundaries that become more fluid within the city. The inter-religious and inter-caste ties forged between workers can be seen as small glimmers of hope in the context of the rising tide of Hindutva politics over the past decades. 

Suman Kalyanpur: A Silken Echo Falls Silent

Today, as we bid farewell to the Dhaka-born singer once fondly called the “Dhake ki malmal,” one is reminded that the softest fabrics often endure the longest. Her voice was just that. Fine, delicate, yet enduring beyond time. And now, as that voice falls silent, it leaves behind not an emptiness, but an echo. An echo that will continue to drift through radio waves, old recordings and the private corners of memory. 

Aurat March is About Women's Identity: Movement for Gender Justice in Pakistan and Across the Region

Two girls stood silently holding a placard that read: ‘Forcing your daughter to get married is forcing her to get raped.’ The message speaks to a reality across the South Asian region where the priority for most families is to get their daughters married. On a sheet where attendees were penning messages to their mothers -- words they could not say aloud -- an anonymous note read: “Would you rather see me married or alive?”

Homage to an Iconic Ray Film Whose Popularity Spans Generations and Cultures

The result was a phenomenal script with a stellar cast and a music which not only took the storyline ahead but also paused to reflect upon each moment. Satyajit’s rendition of the story has several of his beliefs reflected, including his anti-war stance, his love for performative arts, including various forms of classical dance, his love for history and regional history, amidst others, his stance against caste and class discrimination and oppression of the poor and the tyranny and subjugation of the ruling class

More on Culture and Society

Indian doctors do 'breathing lung transplant' in Hyderabad

India has become one of a handful of nations where a "breathing lung transplant" can be conducted

World’s largest sapphire found in Sri Lanka; owner ready to sell

The world’s largest single natural blue sapphire has been found in Sri Lanka, according to the National Gem and Jewellery Authority

One-minute Bhutanese film on climate change wins Best Documentary Award

A one-minute Bhutanese film “Snow Lion and The Glaciologist”  has won the Best Documentary Award at the International Mobile Film Festival during the awards ceremony on World Climate Day in Paris on December 8

Much ado over a water bottle: Pakistan opposition politician Bilawal Bhutto under fire for not opening bottle himself

Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has come under fire from the public for asking Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani, a man much senior to him in politics, to open a water bottle for him at a press conference

College principal among 40 people indicted in Pakistan over 'objectionable gesture and vulgar dance'

At least 40 people in Pakistan, including a college principal, have been indicted over 'objectionable gesture and vulgar dance' at a college festival after video clips of these events went viral on social media

Malala urges US for more support to Afghan women; says Afghanistan will suffer if girls don’t learn

The United States should do more to support Afghan women and their right to education and work, Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize awardee and human rights activist Malala Yousafzai told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

First transgender elected as rural council head in Bangladesh

In a sign of changing times, a transgender person, Nazrul Islam Ritu, has been elected as the chairperson of the Union Parishad - a rural council - of Trilochanpur Union of Kaliganj in Jhenaidha district of Bangladesh

Australia India Film Council to build on 'dosti' between the two countries

An Australia India Film Council has been formed to forge greater cultural, economic and creative collaboration between the two countries that are deepening and diversifying their "strategic partnership" across all areas

Women take on rightwing bullies at Christian prayer hall in India

Rightwing activists from the Hindu ultranationalist Bajrang Dal allegedly barged into a Christian prayer hall in Belur city in Karnataka in south India on Sunday, accused the group of conversion and pushed around the faithful before the women in the congregation forced them to leave

Sikhs protest over Pakistani fashion model posing bareheaded in front of Kartarpur Gurdwara: Pakistani minister seeks apology from designer, model

Angry protests by Sikhs and others in India over a fashion model posing bareheaded and with her back to the revered Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan forced the Pakistani fashion brand Mannat to apologise for posting the pictures, while Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry demanded that the model tender an apology for the disrespect

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai now graduates from Oxford University

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who survived an attack in 2012 from a Taliban gunman in her native Pakistan while returning home from school,  has graduated from Oxford University with a philosophy, politics and economics degree

'Afghan girl', the face of Afghanistan's conflict and suffering, gets refuge in Italy

Sharbat Gula, the famous green-eyed “Afghan Girl” whose iconic photo in 1985 by a National Geographic photographer became the face of the Afghan conflict, has been given asylum by Italy,  Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office said

A cricket lover's dream: Dubai offers to host India-Pakistan bilateral series

A bilateral cricket series between India and Pakistan is a cricket lover's dream but, with the current political and diplomatic tensions between the two countries, that seems a distant proposition

Monkeys as unsung Covid heroes: India's Covaxin was successfully tested on 20 monkeys first

India became the fifth country to isolate a strain of the coronavirus as the country recorded several milestones in its fight against the diseases - tracing the contacts of the first case diagnosed in India in January 2020

Pakistani cricket team felt they were 'playing in Pakistan', not Bangladesh

The Pakistan cricket team has received so much crowd support during their Bangladesh tour that after playing in Dhaka and getting enthusiastic support from Bangladeshi supporters, the Pakistani cricketers said that it seems that they are playing in Pakistan and not in Dhaka