Taliban suicide bombing

When the Machinery of Terror Becomes Television Spectacle: Taliban's War Museum Reporting Needs Broader Contextualisation

The Taliban may curate the museum. The newsroom must curate the context. Without that context, international television risks giving an extremist movement something it has always sought, not necessarily agreement, but attention; not necessarily legitimacy, but spectacle. 

Three Young Karachi Rappers: And a Working-Class Neighborhood Becomes its Own Historian

 

For an Indian audience, the most meaningful response to W.R.A.P. is not the comforting declaration that Indians and Pakistanis are identical. Such a claim can erase real histories and differences as readily as nationalism exaggerates them. 

Erasing Colonial Symbols Won't Feed India's Families: A Call for Economic Pragmatism

But tearing down a clubhouse will not lower a family's grocery bill or write a line of exportable code. India's chance to close the gap with the economies that outran it will not wait for a hearing date in September, and neither should the country's attention.

Taslima Nasrin’s Return and the Politics of Selective Protection

Taslima Nasrin’s homecoming deserves to be welcomed. A writer should be able to return to a city she considers home without fearing violence. The harder test will come when the symbolism fades. Will the government protect her if her criticism becomes inconvenient to the people now celebrating her return?

More on Soft Power, Culture and Society

Indian Army provides food to migrant labourers in Jammu and Kashmir amid heavy snowfall; evacuates pregnant women

In a widely appreciated gesture, hundreds of migrant labourers were provided cooked food and winter clothing by the Indian Army amid biting cold and heavy snowfall in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir

Supreme Court of Pakistan to get its first female judge

The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) has confirmed the appointment of Justice Ayesha Malik to the country’s top court amid strong protest by lawyers who have been opposing her elevation as it supersedes several senior judges

Sri Lanka to cultivate more rubber plantations to enhance forest cover to 30 percent

Sri Lanka plans to increase forest cover from currently 29.3 percent to 30 percent by 2025 by cultivating rubber plants over an area of 500 hectares

South Asia’s first hybrid school with online classes and on-ground sports

Since the pandemic began in early 2020, much has changed in the education sector across the world

Pakistan struggles to appoint first female judge in top court amid protests by lawyers

Lawyers in Pakistan are gearing up to resist the appointment of Ayesha Malik, currently a judge in Lahore High Court, to the Supreme Court

Tourists throng snowbound Kashmir, as administration opens up more scenic places for swelling visitors

After two dismal summer seasons for tourism in Kashmir due to the pandemic, winter has brought cheer back to the valley

Church and temple share Christmas joy in Kerala

In times of social disharmony in inter-community ties, a church and a temple in Kerala are epitomising the traditional 'idea of India'

Thirty years on, prayers fill 125-year-old St Luke's Church in Kashmir

Prayers were held on Wednesday in the oldest church in Srinagar for the first time in over 30 years, with the St. Luke's Church seeing worshippers standing and praying just days ahead of Christmas

Cricketers get all the attention, rues Pakistan's title-winning boxer

Pakistan's champion pugilist Muhammad Waseem, nicknamed 'Falcon' for his speedy and sharp boxing style, has topped the World Boxing Association's (WBA) flyweight division list for the first time in four years

Yohani, Sri Lanka’s 28-year-old music sensation, to be gifted land in Colombo by the government

The Sri Lankan government is gifting a plot of land to Yohani, the 28-year old singing sensation who rose to international fame - particularly in South Asia and in the Arab world - with her super hit Manike Mange Hithe song

Kashmiri paper mache products are much in demand in Christmas

If it is Christmas, it has to be Kashmir's famed paper mache products made by Iqbal Hussain Khan.  National Award winner Iqbal Khan, 60, is busy dispatching thousands of paper mache art and craft items for customers in India and Europe ahead of December 25

India overtakes China as largest source country for international students

India has overtaken China as the world's largest source country of international students

Neena Gupta of Kolkata wins Ramanujan Prize 2021: 'More women are now pursuing maths'

Neena Gupta, a mathematician and professor at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, has been awarded the 2021 Ramanujan Prize for young mathematicians from developing countries

Durga Puja in Kolkata now on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage List

Durga Puja festival in Kolkata was is now inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage list—a development that Prime Minister Narendra Modi said is a matter of great pride and joy for every Indian

India’s award-winning film ‘Chhichhore‘ to be shown in China

India’s National Award-winning film Chhichhore, which starred late actor Sushant Singh Rajput who had committed suicide, and Shraddha Kapoor in leading roles, is going to be shown in China where Bollywood films enjoy great popularity