Sunset from a mountaintop in Sri Lanka. Photo by SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda.

Patriotism not About Hating Another Country: South Asia's Shared Inheritance Deserves a Future Beyond Perpetual Hostility

I claim Tagore and Iqbal. I claim the music of Lata Mangeshkar and Mehdi Hassan.I claim the shared cultural inheritance of South Asia in all its richness and contradictions. History divided states. It could not divide memory. The food we eat, the stories we tell, the languages we speak, and the melodies that move us still carry echoes of a shared past.

Vision of Shared Humanity: Path of Dharma For Peaceful and Purposeful Living in an Interconnected World

It does not ask anyone to abandon their religion. A Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jew, or secular humanist can walk the path of Dharma without contradiction. Dharma is not a replacement for religion. It is a shared ethical foundation beneath all religions — the ground on which they all, at their best, already stand.

Pakistan's Literary Festivals Inject Oxygen into Constrained Intellectual Spaces, but Cross-Border Exchanges Remain Frozen

Inspired by the Jaipur Lit Fest, Pakistan’s first literary festival took place in the country’s largest city Karachi in 2010. Subsequently replicated in Lahore and Islamabad, such festivals now take place around the country, from the agricultural and industrial hub of Faisalabad, formerly Lyallpur, to the port city of Gwadar on the Balochistan coast. 

An Unending Struggle for Justice: A Rare Insight into the Everyday Lives of Migrant Workers in India

While the overall picture is depressing, Ramaswami also describes hopeful strands within the social fabric of workers’ lives such as the mutual support and 'bhaichara' (fellowship) between men across ethnic, religious and caste boundaries that become more fluid within the city. The inter-religious and inter-caste ties forged between workers can be seen as small glimmers of hope in the context of the rising tide of Hindutva politics over the past decades. 

More on Culture and Society

Rediscovering Suchitra Sen in Bangladesh: Tracing the portrait of a glamorous actress on an easel of the past

As busy evenings of youngsters flock over to Roopkawthar Kabbo, the narrative of the legend from yesteryears reverberates through each cup served and, for the uninitiated, these cups are the connecting dots of time when an answer comes with the query of “Who is this?”.

The poet who never gave up: Is Tagore relevant today?

And yet, it is perhaps the reminder of these unfulfilled dreams, a never-ending quest, that is most relevant today, as we struggle through challenges that are at once global and personal, intricately and inextricably intertwined.

Music without borders: Dama Dam Mast Qalandar and a qawwali night at Boston

“Between the first Pakistani win at the Grammys, the first Pakistani film to be selected at the Cannes Film Festival, a Pakistani song topping the most-searched list on Google, local actors featured in international series, and the highest-grossing film in the history of Pakistani cinema, 2022 has been a banner year for Pakistani art,’ observes Surbhi Gupta, South Asia Editor at New Lines magazine.

Traditional Chinese medicine demand fuels illegal orchid trade in Nepal

According to a policy brief prepared by the Kathmandu-based NGO Greenhood Nepal, which is spearheading a project focused on illegal trade and sustainable use of medicinal orchids in Nepal, the decline in their numbers has been attributed to unsustainable harvesting and international trade of the plants used in ayurvedic as well as traditional Chinese medicine.

Literary festivals are flourishing in Pakistan; interest in native literature waning

Pakistani writers are not only writing about love and romance, but also on feminism, religion, culture, socio-political, ethnic, and identity issues.

Hockey, friendship, Partition, and the pangs of separation: Old Lahore remembered through a documentary

Every scene in this intimately filmed documentary tugs at the heartstrings. The pain of separation felt so palpable to me that I wept with the characters.

Millets in gastronomic glory at five-course UN luncheon to promote 'humble foodgrain'

Jaishankar told reporters before the luncheon that he hoped to “familiarise the members of the Security Council” with “all the virtues of millets”.

Illuminating forgotten pasts: English translations of Ghalib’s Chirag-e-Dair

The rediscovery of Ghalib in the English translation of Chirag-e-Dair as a modern cosmopolitan man who can appreciate the port town of Calcutta, find spirituality in the Hindu temple town of Banaras, and firmly situate himself in Persianate traditions of West Asia opens up a history of cultural exchange to the contemporary South Asian reader

India, Bangladesh bolstering ties through Silchar-Sylhet Festival

The Silchar-Sylhet festival aimed at strengthening the longstanding bonds of friendship between the two neighboring nations, which share a wide range of complementary traditions, cultures, and other things.  The festival once again demonstrated the closeness between India and Bangladesh, and improved mutual understanding.

Colombo's iconic Lighthouse Clock Tower is a silent sentinel of time

This is the story of the beginning of the oldest clock tower in Asia and the only lighthouse clock tower in the world.

'Made like a Gun':Romancing the Royal Enfield Bullet in the service of the Indian Armed Forces

The record-breaking Tornadoes display team of the Army Service Corps was formed in 1982, debuting at the 9th Asian Games in New Delhi. It has since participated in more than 1,000 major international and national events, always riding Royal Enfield Bullets. 

US returns looted antiquities to India, Pakistan

The network supplied the international art market with stolen antiquities from countries including, but not limited to, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, the prosecutor's office said.

The amazing adventures of a Lithuanian scholar in the Indian subcontinent

The re-connection with Poska, in many ways, underlines the deep-rooted connectivity between the Indian sub-continent and Eurasia along with the eastern and central parts of Europe, much of which remains forgotten or ignored.

Humorous ghost stories in Bengali literature: Connecting oral literature tradition to the modern digital age

Over the years, these relate to representations of various regions of eastern India and, at times, the extended and larger region of erstwhile Bengal, including the present country of Bangladesh. Many of these stories also help to understand how identities are constructed across time and space in folklore and in written literature.

Bollywood’s first faltering steps abroad: The challenges of shooting of Africa mein Hind(1939-1940)

Seth Govind Das invited Basu to direct a movie based on Indian connectivity with Africa.