Main Vaapas Aunga

When Poison Enters the System: Impunity, Vigilantism and South Asia’s Internal Security Failure

Across South Asia, the difference between prejudice and collapse is not the existence of hate. Every society has it in varying shades.  The difference is whether the majoritarian state internalizes hate against the ‘other’,  whether FIRs get diluted, trials get delayed, mobs get garlanded  and impunity driven violence against minorities becomes low-cost. When that happens, the poison is not outside the system. It becomes the system.

In the Quiet Spaces Between Strangers, Sonia Bahl’s Eighteen Inches Apart

And perhaps this is precisely what many readers, particularly South Asian readers navigating fractured contemporary lives, have been missing without fully realising it: fiction willing to slow down long enough to notice the fragile, passing intimacies through which people continue surviving one another.

Robert A.F. Thurman, an academic with a Buddhist monk’s soul

Thurman said that Tibet was not an individual nation-state question but something that goes far beyond that. “It is not about a people yearning for freedom from an invading state. It is about a very valuable society struggling to keep its centuries-old tradition of intellectual evolution alive.” He said that while he was hopeful that the problem would be resolved soon, “and during His Holiness’ lifetime,” it was hard to put a timeframe to it.

A White Strip Exposes New Political Faultlines in Cosmopolitan Mumbai

The perceived push from a political leadership that has roots in Gujarat, the split in the locally rooted Shiv Sena that was engineered, the resentment it brewed among ordinary citizens and the history of Maharashtra -- which was born on May 1, 1960 after a bitter struggle that split the erstwhile Bombay State into two distinct linguistic states of Maharashtra and Gujarat -- are all complex and contributory factors to the evolving political unrest in middle-class Mumbai. 

More on Culture and Society

ICC not to press charges on match-fixing allegations in two Test matches featuring India

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided not to press charges under its anti-corruption code against any of the participants featuring in a documentary broadcast by Al Jazeera that alleged two Test matches featuring India had been ‘fixed’

Life is hard for LGBTQ community in Pakistan amid COVID-19 pandemic

The life of a person belonging to the LGBTQ community is becoming difficult in Pakistan amid COVID-19 pandemic spread in the Islamic country

Pakistani actor Veena Malik under fire for anti-Semitic tweet

Pakistani actor Veena Malik is facing trolls on Twitter and other social media platforms after she posted an anti-Semitic tweet 'quoting' Adolf Hitler

'Grateful to serve my people': Shikhar Dhawan on donating oxygen concentrators

Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan took to social media to inform that he had donated oxygen concentrators to Gurugram Police as a part of his efforts to "serve my people in this pandemic"

Pakistani actor donates Rs 2 million for Hindu boy’s surgery

Well known Pakistani TV host and actor Fahad Mustafa has donated Rs 2 million for  the life-saving surgery of a three-year-old Hindu boy, Dipesh, according to a Dawn report

Bangladesh illustrators body wins award in Pakistan fest

DhakaYeah, a platform created by a group of anonymous illustrators, won the Alliance Française Pakistan - People's Choice Award for their work The Break

India remain on top of ICC Men’s Test team rankings

The ICC World Test Championship finalists India, New Zealand remain the top two teams in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test Team Rankings after the annual update

India’s first Olympic-bound woman fencer thanks parents for sustaining her dream

Sabre Fencer Bhavani Devi, who created history by becoming the first Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympic Games, said she was looking forward to giving off her best performance in Tokyo2020

Three Nepali sisters summit Everest together creating history

Three Nepali sisters, attempting to set a world record by climbing the highest mountains of all seven continents, on Wednesday successfully scaled the world's highest peak Mount Everest

World-famous Kashmiri Pashmina: Safeguarding the future of a priceless craft

It was decided to continue such discussions among stakeholders in the coming days to draw up a comprehensive road map for the promotion of the priceless Pashmina craft 

ICC tribunal clears Sri Lanka’s Avishka Gunawardene of corruption charges

The International Cricket Council (ICC)’s independent Anti-Corruption Tribunal has unanimously cleared former Sri Lanka player Avishka Gunawardene of two charges of match-fixing and failing to disclose corrupt approaches

Pakistani short film wins triple award in New York City film fest

Pakistani filmmaker Shoaib Sultan's short film Darya Kay Iss Par (Across the River) has bagged three awards at the New York City International Film Festival (NYCIFF)

Sri Lankan actress Piumi Hansamali to work in India’s Malayalam film industry

Sri Lankan model-turned-actress Piumi Hansamali will be sharing screen space with veteran actor Jackson Anthony for a Malayalam production in India

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan contributes Rs 2 cr for 400-bed Covid facility at Delhi gurdwara

Superstar Amitabh Bachchan has donated Rs 2 crore/ 20 million rupees for the Covid-care center at Rakab Ganj Gurdwara in Delhi, scheduled to operate from Monday, said Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Manjinder Singh Sirsa

Of sex work and Ray's women: A nuanced look on the maestro's birth centenary

The representation of the sex worker in Indian celluloid seldom displays an attempt at non-voyeurism. Satyajit Ray, on the other hand, took a more nuanced look at the sex worker