Articles Archives | Page 19 of 51

BJP’s cyber pirates

February 28, 2018 Editor

When India contested her first general election in 1952, the grand-old party – Congress – and its educated leader Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru won the election hands down. Since 1952, a lot has changed in India including her political spectrum with the advent of social media. No one in mainland India would have thought that social media would play a role in re-shaping the fortunes of a party and its leader. In this social media frenzied world, comes a book by one of India’s best known investigative and broadcast journalists Swati…

Who is responsible for India’s Partition & Kashmir Imbroglio?

February 26, 2018 Editor

Political tendencies not only distort and ‘present the past’ to suit their political agenda; they can go to any extent to even lie about the events and their interpretation. ‘Facts are sacred; opinions are free’ should have been the dictum for all those commenting on them, but as they say for the likes of Modi, ‘all is fair in love and war’. To promote his personal ambitions and to enhance the impact of his political agenda, he has been crossing all limits. At one level in order to glorify Sardar…

Srinagar the “SMART” Prison!

February 22, 2018 Editor

Sometime back there was talk of declaring some cities all over the country as “Smart” cities for proper development on modern lines. Srinagar was also included in the list of these cities. Incidentally, Srinagar, the City of the Sun is probably one of the oldest cities in the world. The 2000 year old city is something one should have been proud of. Only few decades back Srinagar used to be the capital of “Paradise on Earth” but not now. Description of Srinagar especially its gardens, popular avenues, chinars, the Bund…

Padmaavat: An exercise in Islamophobia

February 17, 2018 Editor

Padmaavat—a Sanjay Leela Bhansali bollywood production has hardly anything that should have made Hindutva zealots run riot on streets. I got to see the movie in a Bradford cinematic theatre, during annual sojourn with my children and grandchildren living in England. Bradford has large Asian population, mostly Pakistanis. The rush to see the highly controversial movie was obvious. You had to have an advanced online booking to get in. We were in a packed hall. No surprises that the film netted 250 crore plus globally over first few weeks of…

Peace in Kashmir would benefit all parties

February 10, 2018 Editor

A report submitted to the Indian Parliament last month blamed Pakistan for a large spike in the number of violations of the Kashmir cease-fire agreement the two countries signed back in 2003. India alleged that the Pakistani Army had indulged in firing and/or shelling on at least 860 instances in 2017, almost three times the number in the preceding year. The shelling has become so intense in recent weeks that more than 36,000 residents of villages close to the border have been moved to safety. Besides cross-border violence, last year…

Maqbool Bhat – The Martyr, A Teacher, A Scholar & A Politician

February 8, 2018 Editor

Another 11th of February has come. A citizen of Kashmir, in whatever part of the world he is, remembers Maqbool Bhat, the martyr, on this day. This is the day on which Maqbool Bhat attained martyrdom by ascending the steps to the gallows of the Indian government. It brought him immortality as he paved the way for the freedom of Kashmiri nation. People will copiously read and write on his political philosophy. Much has already been written. As a friend of humanity, a brother, a student and a politician, he had reached the pinnacle of glory.…

Mental distress in Kashmir

January 13, 2018 Editor

As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), mental health is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, we cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. In this positive sense, mental health is the foundation for individual well-being and the effective functioning of the community. According to WHO only one percent of the global workforce works in mental health and the median public expenditure on mental health per person…

Are Muslims to be blamed for Pandit Migration?

January 8, 2018January 8, 2018 Editor

Muslims need to stop being apologetic for a crime which we didn’t commit The Kashmiri Pandit“trump” card is often employed not only by the right wing parties but also by the mainstream media and the general masses of India to justify the wanton acts of brutality and oppression inflicted upon the hapless people of Kashmir. This card is also used to deny us our basic right the right to self-determination. In general the Kashmiri Muslims are held culpable for the “ethnic cleansing” and so called “genocide” of Pandits which later…

Shawl making in Kashmir

January 3, 2018January 3, 2018 Editor

The arts and crafts of Kashmir have enjoyed a well-earned fame for centuries. The pre-eminence of the decorative art can be attributed to historical conditions that shaped the cultural development of the Kashmiri people. The people of the Valley have thus developed their technical and artistic traditions over centuries. In fact art of a place is the heritage of many generations; it represents a series of consecutive layers, which reflect people’s culture through the ages. The small or big creations reflect the necessity of everyday life as well as the…

Spring of Kashmir

January 1, 2018 Editor

The word spring comes from the German word springer, which refers to “leaping from the ground”. Without going much in scientific definitions, in simple terms it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground. During my Ph. D work, I have surveyed almost all the areas of Kashmir valley for collection of aquatic plants. In all the districts of Kashmir valley, I have experienced that small springs were the primary source of drinking water and even in most parts small springs water channels…