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

Pakistani universities ban fitted jeans, impose strict dress codes

Two universities  in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan - the northwestern province bordering Afghanistan that is ruled by Prime Minister Imran Khan's PTI  party -   have issued strict dress code policies by banning tight-fitted jeans, tee-shirts, and makeup among other things for its students, faculty as well as for its other staff members

Delhi's Nizamuddin Dargah preserving 'tradition of spring' for 800 years

When the golden yellow colour envelopes the entire country on the occasion of Basant Panchami every year, sunflowers mesmerise people, new crops of wheat and oat spread happiness everywhere and butterflies sprinkle joy and smile, a silent tradition being followed at the Hazrat Nizamuddin Aullia Dargah in the Indian capital

Pakistani influencer of viral Pawri video over the moon after Bollywood recognition

Pakistani influencer Dananeer Mobeen's viral ‘Pawri Ho Rahi Hai’ video has taken over Bollywood too

First international Holi conference in Trinidad

The National Council of Indian Culture (NCIC) will host its first international virtual Phagwa or Holi conference in Trinidad on March 13 and 14

Preserving India's world-famous Ajanta Cave art for posterity

Images of the rock sculptures and restored paintings of the Ajanta Caves,  30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 CE in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in western India,  is being digitized and restored for future generations

Manipur's 500-year-old all-women's market reopens after eleven months

Ima Keithal or Mother's Market,  dubbed as the world's largest all-women-run market located in the Manipur state capital Imphal, was formally reopened on Monday after 11 months, bringing smiles on the faces of over 3,600 women traders

Pakistan’s continued love, hate for all things Bollywood

Pakistan’s entertainment industry, going by media reports, is increasingly conscious that political relations with India are unlikely to improve anytime soon, lengthening any prospects of collaborating with Bollywood

Celebrated Pakistani designer highlights anti-dowry campaign through fashion

Celebrated Pakistani designer Ali Xeeshan, in a powerful fashion campaign, highlighted the age-old tradition of dowry practiced mostly in South Asia and rampant in Pakistan. The fashion campaign was supported by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women Pakistan

New dates for Kathmandu Triennale

Kathmandu Triennale has announced new dates for the fourth edition which will now take place from October 27 to November 27, 2021

Indian woman, P Sameera Khan, with Himalayan ambitions

A cyclist and mountaineer, she is out to prove to the world that girls are capable of doing anything without family support

Kolkata Book Fair to be dedicated to Bangabandhu

The 45th edition of the International Kolkata Book Fair, to be held in July this year, will be dedicated to Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and Bangladesh will be the country-in-focus of the event, said the organisers

Sri Lanka sets up Technical Advisory Committee for cricket development

A new Technical Advisory Committee for cricket has been appointed by Sri Lanka's Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa, the local media reported

Breaking down barriers; Bangladeshi transgenders to pursue higher studies

For the first time in the country, two Bangladeshi transgender women have been nominated to study at an international platform at Brac James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH), Brac University, a private research university in Bangladesh

Remembering Ritwik Ghatak on his 45th death anniversary: A filmmaker’s filmmaker

In 2018, noted filmmakers Kumar Shahani and Saeed Akhtar Mirza met in Delhi for a very special event

Once beggars, they are now picking up vocational skills in a reformed life

An elegant heritage building in Jaipur is playing host to 33 destitute who were left to begging on the streets and who are picking life skills thanks to an innovative Rajasthan state government initiative