On both sides of the border there are men who think that a solitary major crisis, a single lucky break of violence will be sufficient to usurp all the hopes, all the dreams of the subcontinent’s citizenry of ever coming together as one people, even if divided by borders. By Anwaar Hussain Let us state [...]

By Irfan Hussain FEW things bring patriotism rushing to the surface as being under attack. For India, the Nov 26 assault on Mumbai was very real. But for millions of Pakistanis, the accusation that their country was the base for this act of terrorism was an attack as well. For the last three weeks, they [...]

By Irfan Husain IF you do a Google search with ‘CIA + RAW + Mossad + Mumbai attacks’ as your parameters, you will get about 51,200 results. So clearly, there are thousands out there who have developed elaborate conspiracy theories to explain who was behind the recent terrorist atrocity in Mumbai. Some of these theories [...]

Post-feminist backlash – or new dawn for equal rights? By Rachel Cooke   Sometimes, you can’t see the wood for the trees. When I tell Georgina Baillie, the young woman at the centre of the scandal now known predictably as ‘Sachsgate’, that I think what happened to her was the result of good old-fashioned misogyny, [...]

Outrage over India’s handling of the Nariman House siege has given way to a colder calculation. By Kevin Peraino The smoke has finally cleared after last week’s botched hostage rescue at the Nariman House Jewish center in Mumbai, but in some Israeli security circles, the sniping has started anew. Defense Minister Ehud Barak complained last [...]

By Cernig Friday There are a lot of conflicting reports coming out of the Indian subcontinent right now, and no-one seems to have told their right hand what their left hand is doing. For instance, The UK’s Telegraph reports Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Mumbai, saying that two British citizens were among the terrorists [...]

By Anwaar Hussain According to a little heard news, the current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani has reportedly decided to drop the family prefix of Makhdoom from his name saying he wants to serve people and not be served by them. Gillani said the honorific “Makhdoom”, which means “one who is served” [...]