Ironically, the forced migration also laid the seeds of a diaspora in countries where Indians of another generation looking for better economic opportunities would not have normally settled.

The question is can South Asia's political leadership take that flight of imagination to open the doors to cross-border cultural engagement and let the fusion of regional harmonies create a new cultural identity for South Asia?

If only the leaders in both India and Pakistan would listen for once to the voices of young people and the dreamers, and not be swayed by the fanatics, no time can be short enough to make a new beginning, not just for India and Pakistan, but for the two billion people of South Asia, writes Tarun Basu for South Asia Monitor

In 2011, India's Ministry of External Affairs commissioned a commemorative volume to coincide with the India-Africa Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that was jointly released by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the 50-odd African heads of government

The values that are glorified today ironically are those that were always held anathema by classical Hindu society - majoritarianism, intolerance, hatred, and revanchism, writes Tarun Basu for South Asia Monitor 

Will this demonstrable assertion of sportsmanship lead to a revival of bilateral sporting ties, particularly cricket, in the near future?

The world has moved on, but Pakistan - and its ideological fellow traveler, the Taliban - seem to be caught in a regressive time warp from which it is unable to extricate itself, writes Tarun Basu for South Asia Monitor

Knowledgeable observers, including diplomats who have served there, feet that no Afghan government could ignore India in the long run, because Islamabad could never give what Kabul received from India, something built on the foundation of strong historical, cultural, and people-to-people bonds, writes Tarun Basu for South Asia Monitor…