Fact 1: The June 3, 1947, partition plan announced by the British government and its 1947 Indian Independence Act pertained only to the directly-administered British provinces and other territories. Note that there were 565 princely states that covered 40% of the area of pre-independent India and 23% of its population....
The fate of the Rohingya reflects the plights of ethnic minorities throughout history and across the world. The Rohingya are a persecuted Muslim minority living mainly in western Myanmar. Their origins are a subject of immense dispute and controversy. Some views hold that they are the progeny of Muslims who...
South Asian diaspora in the West is often trapped by the idea of homeland, turning socially regressive, culturally reactionary and politically right-wing. A phenomenon rooted in the ancient past has acquired new complexion in modern times. It pertains to immigrants who, for all practical purposes, live in the West but...
It is now entirely up to Pakistan’s leaders to opt out of ideological politics and choose enlightened pragmatism. In December 2008, I met General Pervez Musharraf at the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) house in Rawalpindi. The meeting was arranged by a mutual friend, retired Colonel Aslam Cheema. Musharraf had...
With the death of Fidel Castro, the last great leader in the revolutionary movements of the 20th century has gone. It is with sadness that I learned about the death of the founder of modern Cuba, Comandante Fidel Castro. For the younger generations his may not be a familiar name, but for...
Sharif is best suited to lead Pakistan out of the current situation, but he will have to make a clean break with the legacy of corruption and right-wing appeasement, argues Ishtiaq Ahmed.
No state can tolerate a challenge to its monopoly of power from within; in other words, a state within a state is a contradiction in terms of state sovereignty
There is no denying that the erstwhile modernist Pakistani leadership tried to make Pakistan both democratic and Islamic. However, no constitutional formula could find the proper balance.
Ishtiaq Ahmed, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Stockholm University, presents an introduction to his book, The Punjab, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy Through Secret British Reports and First Person Accounts.
Incidents are bound to multiply in future if both sides remain ensconced in their fanciful security cocoons built of nuclear weapons and other destructive material. International relations theory is premised on the fiction that the state is a rational actor. By a rational actor is meant that it makes rational...
