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

Indian all-women crew run goods train

Shattering yet another glass ceiling, an Indian all-women crew piloted a goods train from Vasai Road in Maharashtra's Palghar to Gujarat's Vadodara on Tuesday, a railway official said on Wednesday

India's meat market swells on online platforms

The ongoing pandemic has resulted in a significant increase in raw meat and fish orders online and key delivery players like FreshToHome, Licious, Zappfresh and BigBasket have seen three times growth in meat orders since the outbreak of the pandemic in India

Proud father-daughter moment: Police inspector dad salutes officer daughter

It was a moment of pride for an Andhra Pradesh Police inspector when he saluted his daughter, who is the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in southern India

Milkman's daughter set to become a judge in India

In a remarkable story of grit and determination, a girl who studied under a cowshed all her life, emerged as a topper in BA, LLB and LLM and she will soon become a judge in India as she cracked the Rajasthan Judicial Service Examination

Indian films to be released in Bangladeshi movie theatres

Several associations were against the idea of releasing Indian films in Bangladesh, until the pandemic brought about survival challenges for the film industry

Pakistani girl wins global memory competition

A young girl from Pakistan has won the 29th World Memory Championships global finals, beating more than 300 competitors from all over the world

Sri Lanka's cinema theatres to get grace period for settling bills

Sri Lanka's Minister of Power and Energy – Dullas Alahapperuma has agreed to grant a one year grace period for cinema theater owners to settle due electricity bills, Sri Lanka National Film Corporation announced on Friday (Jan. 01)

Of Pakistan’s continued obsession with good, bad and ugly of Bollywood

The welcome news of ancestral homes in Peshawar belonging to Bollywood legends Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor being restored to eventually become tourist attractions in Pakistan seems to have helped in the yearend realisation of the common cultural heritage of both countries, despite their perennial political antagonisms and military rivalies

Afghan minaret listed as ICESCO heritage site

Minaret of Jam, located in western Ghor province, becomes the first site inside Afghanistan to be listed among the Islamic World Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ICESCO) heritage sites, TOLOnews reported

Cricketer Rashid Khan brings joy on Afghan faces

Afghan cricketer Rashid Khan brought rare joy to the faces of not only Afghan cricket fans but for the entire nation caught in a vortex of war and violence

Kathmandu’s umbrella street brings cheers and jeers

While the streets of Kathmandu reverberate with slogans against Nepal PM Oli government’s decision to dissolve the House of Representatives, a road section in the heart of the city echoes with laughter and chatter

Three daughters of a farmer script history, get Ph.D. together in Rajasthan village

Born to a farmer who tilled the land at night and worked at his shoe shop in the day, three sisters from a Rajasthan village scripted history as they were awarded Ph.D. degrees together from a university situated in Jhunjhunu district in India's desert state

This dog lover uses discarded TV sets to house strays

Discarded domestic items need not always be thrown away; these can also be utilized to build animal shelter homes

Bangladesh’s Osama listed as Asia's Top Outstanding Youth Marketer 2020

Youth Opportunities co-founder Osama Bin Noor has been recognized as one of Asia's Top Outstanding Youth Marketer of the Year 2020

Indian envoy seeks more bilateral collaboration through art with Bangladesh

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram K Doraiswami today laid emphasis on an increased collaboration between Bangladeshi and Indian young artists to put together new ideas of art and reach out to more people through art