Afghan women in burkha in markets

The Empty Chair at Islamabad: When Taliban Saw Women's Rights Subordinated by Islamic Law

The Taliban, therefore, is not challenging whether Islam should shape women’s rights. Both the OIC and the Taliban begin from that premise. The disagreement is over what Islamic rights mean and, more importantly, who has the authority to define them. 

Who Defines Where Home is? Confronting Partition Trauma and its Aftermath Eight Decades Later

As of January this year, at least 296 Bangladeshis have died in border areas over the past decade, as India’s Border Security Forces (BSF) pushes “illegal Bangladeshis” across the border in the dead of night.

'The Election Commission Expose': A Seminal Moment for Indian Journalism

It is true that only a handful of newspapers have the resources and persistence to pursue big stories of the kind that came alive in the EC exposé. Nevertheless, to the extent that it inspires others to pursue even smaller news stories with steadfastness this could potentially redeem the otherwise sordid state of affairs in the Indian media.

India-Mongolia Buddhist Partnership: A Civilisational Bridge Linking India’s Buddhist Heritage with Mongolia’s Contemporary Revival

The profound emotional connection was vividly evident in 2022 when, as the Indian delegation accompanying the relics entered the Gandan monastery, members of the crowd reached out to touch them, expressing their reverence for those who had come "from the land of the Buddha".

More on Soft Power, Culture, Society and Gender

Ring Out ABC From Life, To Ring In XYZ In Life

In an age of constant noise and hurry, we can reclaim balance by cultivating positive habits. Dropping ABC can help us in developing an attitude of serenity, contentment, letting go, and gratitude. With this mind, quality time with nature, or other soul-uplifting activities, can heal us. All this, in turn, can create a sanctuary of tranquility, peace, and happiness within us.

The Untold Story Of Sweet Sorghum: Needs To Be Promoted As Food And Fodder Source

Sweet sorghum is also an excellent fodder crop, and we feel that leafy and high-sugar yielding varieties like Madhura-2 can be very suitable for this purpose. India has a serious green fodder production deficit. What is needed is good R&D to evaluate and market sweet sorghum in this segment. This may  help position sweet sorghum as an industrial crop and may provide the necessary incentive to grow it. The Indian government has to make a policy decision on promoting sweet sorghum as an excellent food and fodder source. It is already promoting millet as a healthy food and with better support price, sweet sorghum can flourish.

When The West Lost Face - And Afghanistan Collapsed Like A House of Cards

Afghanistan had become an example of what an ever-increasing number of Americans were referring to as endless wars. The Taliban - not the US and NATO - would come to represent the strongest military might in Afghanistan, Stoltenberg said in a candid admission. In a phone conversation  with Stoltenberg after the withdrawal announcement then Afghan President Asraf Ghani expressed his  disappointment and gave the phone to his vice-president  Amrullah Saleh  who thundered that “We have been abandoned. Jihad has defeated NATO.”

Ancient Indian Philosophers Understood Primacy Of Time Like Modern Physicists

In Bhagwad Gita also the primacy of time is shown when Lord Kishna shows Arjun his Virat form and utters the famous words “I have become the Mighty Time - the creator and destroyer of the worlds”. Interestingly, this shloka was misinterpreted by Robert Oppenheimer after the atomic bomb blast in 1945 when he quoted Gita stating “I have become Death”, instead of "I have become the Mighty Time".

Remembering Dr. Richard Cash: A Heroic Figure Whose Legacy Pioneered A Road Safety Model In Bangladesh

The evolution of this grassroots initiative in Bangladesh offers a model for other nations seeking to better address the crisis of road traffic injuries. It also provides insights into the vital importance of the collaborative process in creating broad support for the development and sustenance of such national programmes. While technology is often seen as the remedy for all our problems, the success of such community-based programmes is an important reminder to focus first on people, using technology as a tool, not as an end in itself.

JNU: A Bastion Of Resistance Against Ideological Conformity

JNU has stood against authoritarianism, market-driven education policies, and ideological conformity for decades, serving as a defiant emblem of resistance. The JNUSU election results last week by virtue of scale and impact on student and larger national politics may be deemed as extraneous. However, in spatial understanding of power dynamics, it metaphorically stands as a symbol of resistance at the heart of the nation’s capital.

Cultural Reflection: Celebrating the aesthetics of everyday Indian images

Even coffee-table books, despite their visual focus, rarely abandon text altogether. They rely on commentary to contextualize the images. Goyal takes the opposite approach. Her photographs, painstakingly gathered from her travels across India, are not documentation but an invitation to look, to remember, to imagine. The result is a deeply personal journey for each reader, or rather, viewer.

The Art Of Living: How To Live A Good And Meaningful Life

Spirituality is not religion.  It is the state of mind that makes it understand that the truth is beyond the barriers of worldliness, religion, caste, creed, race, or geographical boundaries.  It connects us to marvels of nature in a deep way, and subsequently to Universal Consciousness or the mind of God.

Unraveling The Threads of Grief, Love, And Womanhood: Complexities Of Daughter-Father Relationships In South Asian Contexts

By the end of the book, what lingers is not just sorrow, but a quiet insistence that women’s inner worlds deserve to be witnessed. Mohua invites her readers, especially women, to stop apologizing for their contradictions, to speak even when their voices tremble.  

Death Of A Singer: Zubeen Garg's Songs Will Unite, Inspire and Embolden

In 2006, the popularity of Zubeen’s song “Ya Ali” in the film Gangster brought him fame and told the people of Assam that their native son was an honoured figure on a much wider stage. This is the song a Pakistani band sang recently in Karachi in tribute to their late Indian colleague, a move embraced across borders, prevailing over the current tensions between the two countries.

How Vivid Illustrations Shaped Bengali Folklore Down The Ages: Creative Process Began 175 Years Ago

In the present era of AI and simulated visual and audio-visual graphic representations, the contributions of the first Bengali illustrations remain pivotal as they underscore the significance of a long history of various thought processes and diligent efforts which went behind shaping a path for generations of graphic artists in the decades to come to explore imagination and a world of fantasy.

Journey Of A Celebrated Pakistani Architect: Balancing Between Modernity And Tradition

Rising demand for housing and infrastructure, coupled with environmental challenges, remain primary issues around the world. These issues are exacerbated in countries like Pakistan where millions still live at or below the poverty line, in flimsy dwellings on the outskirts of cities, on river flood plains or near refuse sites.

'You Can Kill a Person, But Not an Idea'

“This was a film that needed to be made, so thank you,” said award-winning Indian filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, who helped bring After Sabeen to Indian audiences and whose own film ‘Reason’ highlights such killings in India.

Is The Equilibrium Lost? Need For Humanity To Reawaken Its Humaneness

Ultimately, it comes down to standing firm for what is pure and ethical, and standing against what is impure and unethical in our society today. Such conflicts can be resolved only at the level of higher understanding — the very foundation of what may be called Higher Morality.

English as agency: Language Provides Pathways Of Mobility For Marginalized Communities

What makes the book powerful is its refusal to romanticize either side of the debate. It acknowledges that local language education, when disconnected from global opportunities, can also reproduce exclusion. But it also warns against treating English as a silver bullet, instead framing it as one tool among many for dismantling structural inequalities. The book’s central contribution is to show, through stories and analysis, how subaltern learners themselves are redefining English, not as a colonial burden but as a means of agency, solidarity, and leadership.