Sufis and Ajmer Sharif Dargah

Sufism's ethos can be instrumental in healing societal rifts, fostering a culture of coexistence

Sufism’s relationship with other religions is characterized by respect and recognition of shared values. Sufi leaders often participate in interfaith initiatives, promoting cooperation and understanding. This engagement not only builds bridges between communities but also fosters a sense of secularism, where religious authority does not dominate public life.

When festivals become tools of hatred not harmony

What needs to be understood for prevention is that most of the time these processions, which are well armed, deliberately decide to pass through Muslim majority areas, with loud music and provocative and abusive slogans. It has become a pattern that someone will climb over the mosque and replace the green flag with saffron flag and the crowds down below dance and give a big applause.

'Blasphemy' fears threaten centuries-old interfaith harmony in historic Pakistan district on India border

"Hindus and Muslims are one Sindhi nation. No extremist can divide us. We Hindus do not show disrespect towards the Kaaba," said Hindu teacher Khushal Premee. “We do not even sleep with our feet pointed in that direction,” he said, listing other ways in which his community shows respect to their Muslim neighbours in Umerkot

Ratan Tata: Business with a gentlemanly grace

Minus any of the JRD charisma, and in fact distinctly uncharismatic as he was, Ratan Tata still stood out as a gentlemanly leader who kept a sense of grace and an understated manner in a business world that has gotten all too loud and flamboyant

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When the music died: Afghanistan’s performing arts fall silent under Taliban rule

The famed Afghanistan National Institute of Music, the country’s only music school, had to shut down its campus in Kabul after the Taliban's crackdown. It has temporarily relocated to Lisbon, Portugal, where 273 students, faculty members and staff have been granted asylum.

Audacity to play: The remarkable story of women’s cricket in Pakistan

That the writer is Indian and male makes this book all the more remarkable. Puthran has captured not just the state of the sport in Pakistan but also the social, political, religious and administrative challenges women cricketers here face at every step. 

Empowering youth for carbon neutrality: Making campuses living laboratories for Net Zero

India's pledge to attain Net-Zero carbon emissions by 2070, articulated by PM Modi at COP26 in Glasgow, UK  underscores the nation's determination to combat climate change. In this context, higher education institutions take center stage for moulding future-ready policymakers.

A Bollywood film and a tragic tale: Poor road safety awareness remains region's blight

In India alone, some 150,000 people lose their lives to road crashes every year, with more than five times that number injured or maimed for life. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka have equally dismal or worse statistics in the matter of road safety.

Mantra of happiness: Live in the moment

Too much planning brings misery because we cannot predict the forces of the future and hence have no control over them. This obviously leads us to worry about the outcome. We should therefore follow the American maxim; “We will cross the bridge when we come to it”.

“Oppenheimer” and the Bhagavad Gita: How the Hindu scripture became the American physicist's moral compass

There was something profoundly moving to note that a deep philosophical insight given by Krishna Dvaipayana better known as Ved-Vyasa, the creator of the Gita and the Mahabharat, many millennia ago, should come to underpin the most defining event of the 20th century and beyond.

When folk culture gets commercialised, the visual language of nature gets lost

What we see in the problematic use of folk culture in Modern Indian art is the way the celebration of nature has been privatised and turned into a consumer item that becomes a part of the art industry. 

Partition stories and intertwined histories: Beyond religious hatred and political rivalries

The nation-states of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh categorise their citizens by nationality alone, with no room for emotion or relationship. People are separated from each other through violent narratives and intractable borders.

Why India's federal system holds over Pakistan's

The elite in Pakistan was not committed to pre-independence reorganization, and the lack of this linguistic federal adjustment created tensions that India survived.

Was Oppenheimer's Gita quote accurate?

In Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32) Lord Krishna says that “I am the "Kal" (Mighty Time) – destroyer of the world”.  Oppenheimer said “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”, and this is extensively quoted.

Is reading your mind now going to be a reality? Breakthrough device by Indian American student

The creation of the device has opened exciting possibilities in the field of brain-computer interface technology.

Cinema that defies norms and transcends borders in South Asia

The discussion highlighted how Pakistani movie and theatregoers lament the banning of Indian films in Pakistan and Indian audiences clamour for Pakistani dramas. Commonalities of language, music and culture developed over thousands of years cannot be erased, as elements in both countries are trying to do, rewriting history and marginalising ‘the other’.

Nine South Asian languages are now on Google’s AI chatbot Bard

The languages are Bengali (spoken in Bangladesh and India), Gujarati, Hindi (spoken in India and Nepal), Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil (spoken in India and Sri Lanka), Telugu and Urdu (spoken in India and Pakistan).

India gets back more stolen antiquities from the US

The operation targeting Kapoor began around 2011 after a tipoff from Indian officials and discovered a web of crime spanning India  Afghanistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Remembering W. Khan and his love affair with the harmonium

This 12 July marked the 100th birthday of an airline executive who died young – an accomplished Urdu poet and, above all, “an amazing practitioner of Indian classical music” who elevated the humble harmonium to a solo instrument