The Amar Jawan Jyoti -- an upturned rifle with a helmet customarily marking a battlefield grave -- amounted to nothing short of a poor apology for a war memorial at India Gate
Why Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalists Adore Israel? An Alternative Reading
These myth-based narratives reveal a deeper psychological impulse: the desire to anchor Sinhalese Buddhist identity within a framework of global uniqueness and divine purpose. While Sri Lanka’s diplomatic relations with Israel have fluctuated since independence, Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist sentiment continues to exhibit a strong emotional affinity toward Israel.
A Distracted Generation And The Erosion Of State Capacity In India
India’s youth are growing up in an ecosystem defined by continuous stimulation and accelerated consumption of information. Attention is fragmented, patience for complexity is declining, and long-form engagement—essential for policy, administration, and strategic thinking—is increasingly marginal. This is not a cultural lament. It is a structural shift with direct consequences for how future administrators, policymakers, and institutional leaders are formed.
India’s outreach to West Asia and Africa: Strengthening Global South Leadership
By engaging Jordan, Ethiopia and Oman, India demonstrated its capacity to operate across geopolitical divides while remaining anchored in Global South solidarity. These visits were not isolated diplomatic events but part of a sustained effort to reshape international engagement through inclusivity, responsibility, and shared growth. As global uncertainties persist, India’s outreach to West Asia and Africa strengthens its claim to leadership rooted in partnership and a collective vision for a more equitable world order.
Growing Mistrust, Fragile Sunni-Shia Political Balance Deepen Gilgit-Baltistan Unrest
The security situation deteriorated further in 2025. A terrorist attack on a Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts checkpost resulted in two fatalities and one injury, heightening tensions. Protests later resumed in Sost, disrupting trade between Pakistan and China via the Khunjerab Pass. The year culminated in two high-profile attacks on October 5, when unidentified gunmen ambushed Maulana Qazi Nisar Ahmed, Ameer of the Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan, near the police headquarters in Gilgit, injuring him and several others. On the same day, Malik Inayat-ur-Rehman, the Chief Court Judge of Gilgit-Baltistan, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt near the City Hospital.
More on Perspective
South Asia's divisive politics: Modi election speech stirs up an 'artificial' boundary issue between India and Nepal
India’s position on the boundary issue is “well known, consistent and unambiguous”, the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said, days after political parties in Nepal stoked a simmering territorial dispute in Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Kalapani, especially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned road construction in Lipulekh at an election rally in Uttarakhand state
No travel ban; instead India offers vaccines, life-saving drugs to Africa
Even as most countries began slapping travel bans on African countries, India has offered support for Africa to combat the newly-emerged Omicron variant of the Covid-19 pandemic, including through supply of vaccines, life-saving drugs, PPE kits, gloves and ventilators
Cross red lines at your own peril in Pakistan: Message to opposition and media
The Asma Jahangir Conference in Pakistan last week sparked a somewhat balanced and much-needed discussion on the issues concerning the country
Rising above hate, a Hindu businessman and a Sikh gurdwara offer prayer space to Muslims
In a country known for its traditional inter-faith tolerance and harmony, one of the headline news for the last few months has been how groups of right-wing Hindus, supported by local leaders of India's ruling BJP of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have been obstructing and protesting against the offering of namaz in public places by Muslim citizens in Gurugram, a satellite city of capital New Delhi
Decoding Pakistan NSA Moeed Yusuf's refusal to attend India-hosted regional conference on Afghanistan
On 15 August 2021, the day the Taliban seized power militarily in Kabul, the world watched with trepidation the scenes of an ignominious end to the twenty-year-long efforts of the US to prop up a democratic government there
A Middle East Quad? Scope for synergies, but divergences over Iran
Within the new Middle East/West Asia Quad, there is space for trilateral economic cooperation between India, the UAE and Israel
Fake tea issue: Solution to Indian tea industry's problems lies in cooperation with Nepal and Bangladesh
India should assist Nepal and Bangladesh to obtain GI certification for their teas
The spirit of sport: When hate took a back seat
Will this demonstrable assertion of sportsmanship lead to a revival of bilateral sporting ties, particularly cricket, in the near future?
Making sense of New Delhi’s restrained response to Bangladesh’s anti-Hindu violence
The recent widespread anti-Hindu violence will not make any difference to the bilateral ties between India and Bangladesh, said Dinesh K Patnaik, Director General, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), calling the recent events “small incidents”
Anti-Hindu violence does not symbolise Bangladesh; it is terrorism in the name of religion
‘Bangladesh Finalizes Agreement to Build Buddhist Monastery in Lumbini, Nepal’ was the headline of the Hong Kong-based Global Buddhist Door’s news headline on October 11
US extrajudicial killings and ‘Western Immorality’
Since the last decade, the US drone strike has caused numerous casualties worldwide, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia
Will Pakistan’s terror exports ever stop?
Senior Indian Army sources asserted that the Pakistani youth's plea for surrender, as soon as his mate was killed, was a definite indication that he was not so convinced about the 'jihad' narrative but had taken on the cross-border 'task' out of financial compulsion
Women step up for peace in South Asia
The SAU aims to bring together peacebuilders and particularly women from the region to work towards a political and economic South Asian Union, along the lines of the European Union, by 2030
Which has a 'better behaved' media - US or India?
Trump also gave the Indian media backhanded compliments when he met with Modi in 2019
