Bangladesh football fans

Goals Beyond Borders: Can Bangladesh Leverage its Football Craze as a Soft-power Tool?

Beyond the ambassadors of Brazil, Argentina, and Norway, the ambassadors of France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Morocco, and Egypt have also been drawing on their countries' football heritage to deepen cultural engagement with the football-crazy people of Bangladesh. 

Name Change and Memory Archives: Striking Divergence Between India and Pakistan

Ironically, while India continues to rename roads and institutions associated with its medieval and colonial past, Pakistan’s Punjab province has begun moving in the opposite direction.

Protective Parenting: Raising Safe Children or Fragile Adults?

Unfortunately, a growing number of parents appear apprehensive about their children becoming proficient in their mother tongue, believing that greater exposure to local languages may somehow hinder their command of English or other global languages. This perception is both unfortunate and unfounded. A strong foundation in one's mother tongue strengthens cognitive development, improves learning outcomes, and facilitates the acquisition of additional languages.

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.

More on Soft Power, Culture and Society

COVID, bear attacks take a toll on Bhutan's yak herders

Hundreds of yak herders in the remote mountains of Bhutan are facing a tough time due to COVID-19

Sri Lanka to provide insurance cover for stage artists, performers

In a salutary move that sets an example for South Asia, the Sri Lankan government has decided to provide insurance cover for stage artists and performers, according to a report in Colombopage. The move is a significant step in underlining the importance of art and culture in the country

Bhutanese movie industry face financial crisis as theatres still closed

With movie theatres in Bhutan shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet to open up even after a year, the film industry is facing an acute financial crisis

British Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed makes history, nominated for Oscar

British Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed made history as the first Muslim nominated for the Oscar for the lead actor role

Chess and camaraderie at a Kolkata traffic junction

It was around mid-1980s when a few men would be seen huddling together over chess boards every evening after office in between Gariahat and Golpark of then south Calcutta, much before the Gariahat flyover in South Kolkata came up

How Shakespeare became entrenched in 19th-century Bengal

If the works of the poet Virgil could be said to have introduced the flavour of classical literature into medieval Europe, Shakespearean drama performed the same functions in familiarising the new western-educated intelligentsia of nineteenth-century India to the rich literary world of early modern Europe, finds Sahapedia

Where Kolkata's walls breathe art

Indian cities are not known for the walls of buildings transformed into art galleries as in many parts of the world

Indian-origin crypto investor in Singapore buys $69.3 mn artwork

Singapore-based Indian Cryptocurrency investor Metakovan has bought an artwork by digital artist Beeple for $69.3 million

A new destination for Nepal's art, literature, and culture

Nepal's Chaudhary Group, through its Chaudhary Foundation, has established a Unnati Cultural Village (UCV) at Harkapur, Nawalpur, the goal of which is to offer a place where Nepali artists and writers can visit and create their art and literature

Himalayan Bodhisattva tradition at the centre of upcoming New York exhibition

Bringing together a group of paintings, sculptures, ritual objects, and illustrated manuscripts from the 11th-18th centuries, made primarily for Nepal and Tibet's monastic institutions, an upcoming exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art will spotlight the Himalayan Bodhisattva tradition

Lahore University expels couple over video of girl proposing to boy on campus

The administration of the Lahore University in Pakistan expelled two students for what they call the “gross misconduct and violation of the University’s rules”

A statue stolen 37 years ago returns to Nepal

Thirty-seven years after it was stolen and subsequently landed in the US, a stone stela of Lakshmi-Narayan depicting Hindu deities of Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi, is finally returning to its original home in Patan, a city located just across the Bagmati river from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal

Bangladesh gets first transgender news presenter, creates history

For 29-year-old Tashnuva Anan Shishir and the transgender community globally, it was indeed a historic day. The woman, who survived bullying, assault and suicide attempts, has become the first transgender to become a newsreader in Bangladesh

Livelihood impacted by COVID, famous blind Nepali singer finds solace in music

He led a very tough life. Orphaned at the age of one and losing his eyesight due to a serious head injury, he lived with his grandmother, who would do menial work or beg for survival

Shyam Benegal's biopic 'Bangabandhu' to immortalise Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, bolster ties

The 50th year of Independence is special for Bangladesh as lakhs of Bengalis died fighting for the cause of freedom. It is equally important for India as it played a pivotal role in helping them to overthrow the tyrannical rule of West Pakistan