This article is an attempt to trace the origins of Urdu and its development in India starting with the advent of Mughal rule (Persian-Arabic-Turkish were used by earlier rulers) and ending in 1947. Mughal rule began with Babar in 1526, but started moving southwards after the death of the zealot, Aurangzeb in 1707. The word Urdu derives from the Turki word...
In 2011 when his country was subject to a jihadist siege, President Bashar el-Assad’s reaction was against the norm: rather than strengthening the powers of his security services, he cut them back. Six years on, his country is in the process of emerging victorious in the most important war since Vietnam. This same type of aggression is unfolding in Latin Ame...
Colour revolutions usually occur only in the countries blessed with a US diplomatic presence. You need an American embassy to find the perspective ruler to be uplifted by a human swell and placed on the throne; you need an American embassy to bring in enough cash to cover expenses of the organised mayhem; you need an American diplomat to protect the revoluti...
The exposure of the Hate India Brigade has many inseparable perspectives; to understand the complexity of this nexus is a national responsibility and requires complete understanding of the underlying meaning of each organisation’s action. This nexus is an amalgamation of NGO’s, international powers, media and politicians that strive together...
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which burst into public life with the most high decibel media campaign, the like of which has never been seen before or since, could well enjoy the distinction of having the shortest political career ever. So opines Sree Iyer, a highly successful technocrat turned highly successful journalist. If you follow him on Twitter, you woul...
I have chosen to write to you directly on a subject that is of paramount importance to the health of millions of Indians. As a responsible scientist, I have a mandate for good global science. “Makka ki roti aur sarson ka sag”. Why has makka suddenly taken centre stage? Without going into the scientific controversy, or activism, which now surrounds the contr...
In Panjgur, Balochistan, there are three mosques and madrasas that produce Jihadis for Pakistan’s proxy wars. According to local sources, the leader of the whole Jihadi network in Panjgur is Abdul Hai, who recruits Balochi young men to fight in Afghanistan via the Madrasa Khair ul Madaris Mahmoudia in the Sordo-Sarikoran area of Panjgur (GPS coordinates 26.9...
Here is what Donald Trump should call for this morning. This is the right time to up his ante in the struggle against the Lügenpresse. All his efforts to fix the sinking ship of the US society are in vain with a breach below the waterline. If the Fake News applauds every jerk in a mantle who stops a presidential decree, the jerks will multiply and president’...
The truth hidden behind this invasion of the Fundamental Rights of Indian citizens residing in the State of Jammu & Kashmir (Permanent Residents) has not been brought to the attention of parliamentarians or jurists. I being one of the victims of this arbitrary Law, Article 35 (A), am trying to re-open the hidden pages of history and show how and why the peo...
Although the western media has largely ignored an on-going case against agricultural giant Monsanto in Los Angeles, California, for concealing research about the cancer risks associated with its money spinning weed killer, Roundup, leaked documents show that the firm reportedly influenced US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials to suppress...
The under-secretary of a large central government ministry was in conversation with a botanist. The under-secretary, whose stellar career in administration began with a high rank in the IAS examinations, and who has during his 30 years in central administration served on numerous high-level committees apart from being deputed to international agencies, took ...
A development assistant junior officer of a district cooperative bank in western Maharashtra, Kolhapur district, meets a kisan. The officer makes his way to the block of Gadhinglaj, in which three-quarters of the 38,000 hectares under cultivation are tended by households classified as small (holdings of 1 to 2 hectares) and marginal (less than a...
Some days ago, I came across THIS 2015 news report; the headline is catchy enough - ‘UN peacekeepers refused to help as aid workers were raped in South Sudan’. But it is the second part of the headline that caught my eye - Chinese troops abandoned their posts rather than engage in fighting and protecting...
Although India’s influence over Bhutan is acknowledged by China, New Delhi is keen to keep an eye on the Sino-Bhutanese negotiations, which would definitively have repercussions on India’s own engagement with China. History as well as geography has given India a huge advantage in Bhutan. In addition, India’s own rise has reduced the relative disparity in mil...
It is amazing what wealth of knowledge exists on the worldwideweb, especially when you go looking for answers to something you had no clue about. Did some digging around the www to get a perspective about the current standoff, which most people forget that Bhutan too is a part of! At first glance on a world map, the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan would not see...
The current world order is a result of two devastating world wars in which the stakeholders threw in all that they had in terms of men and material. Each of these wars was a mighty bloody affair. And then came the spoils which the victors claimed for themselves, and their lackeys, be it permanent seats at the UNSC, P-5 Status, NSG, IMF, the works. Even a...
In a major blow to the last bastion of left-liberals, Jawaharlal Nehru University held its first ever commemoration of Kargil Martyrs on 23 July 2017, where Vice Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar set the cat among the pigeons by asking Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, General V.K. Singh and veterans such as Maj Gen G.D. Bakshi for help in procuring a tank for ...
The show trial of a somewhat arbitrarily selected group of 21 surviving Nazis at Nuremberg during 1945-46 was US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson’s show. Jackson was the chief prosecutor. As a long-time admirer of Jackson, I always assumed that he did a good job. My admiration for Jackson stems from his defense of law as a shield of the people rather th...
India is widely known as the largest importer of Russian defence industry products, and Russia is India’s main supplier of weapons. India has been cooperating in the military and technical sphere with many other countries, including such technologically advanced powerhouses as the USA, France, South Korea and Japan. Therefore, Russia’s leadership in the Indi...
Many confound what they think with what they know. With Marx, personal notions of Marxism often justify arbitrary conclusions, reflecting the perceiver’s prejudice, fancy or indoctrination. Any related discussion turns then into a vicious circle of arguments searching for proofs, and proofs that are but someone’s opinions. Furthermore, various currently-popu...
That astute observation is not mine, but Indrani Bagchi’s writing for the Indian Economic Times: Pakistan could end up as a version of China’s North Korea exercise in South Asia, kind of like screen villain Ajit’s ‘liquid oxygen’ punishment: its nuclear weapons would keep it ‘alive’, but its economy would not let it ‘live’, and the Inter-Services Intelligen...
“Will he sign, or won’t he?” – Moscow’s John Bull pub customers tried to second-guess the US President. The pub on the Nikitsky Boulevard in the centre of Moscow is a good watering hole that is frequented by the Foreign Office minor officials and sundry intelligentsia. – He won’t sign his own surrender, fervently said A Pint of Bitter. – No way! He would not...
Some time back, a set of intellectuals, returned awards they had won in the field of literature. This prompted a friend to cook up a limerick inspired by a couplet by the poet Ghalib and a song in a Hindi movie: Sometimes a thought rises in my heart// If there was no ‘Award Wapsi’ what would happen? // Were awards ever won, we would not know // Then what wou...
Bowing to the military supremacy in Islamabad, Pakistan’s Supreme Court on July 28, 2017 disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from holding public office for life after an exposé of Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca’s financial dealings showed that three of Sharif’s children owned offshore companies. There was no trial, no reading of evidence, recording or ...
After months of negotiations, Sri Lanka has signed the $1.1 billion agreement to allow the China state infrastructure company to take control of the Hambantota port. According to the agreement signed on July 29, 2017, Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) agreed to sell 70 percent stake in the port to China Merchant Holdings Co. Ltd. (CMHC); the CMHC would run th...
Richard North Patterson is an accomplished writer of best-selling fiction who has apparently decided to apply his writing skills, in his old age, as a propagandist for the US Ruling Elites. He has long shown his compliant willingness to use his considerable language skills to propagate the constant lies on which US foreign policy is built, and has been duly ...
Although it has been over five weeks since the face-off between Indian and Chinese troops started in the strategically important Doklam area in the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction, there is no sign of easing of tensions. It all started in mid-June when Indian troops joined the Royal Bhutanese army to physically prevent Chinese PLA engineers from constructing...
Washington and Brussels’ response to foreign affairs challenges, as they face their own political and economic disasters and decline, has been to impose economic sanctions, boycotts and issue increasingly reckless military threats against rival nations. The ruling and main opposition parties in the US and EU have taken over the major media, turning ‘news pro...
President Ram Nath Kovind’s pointed omission of Jawaharlal Nehru and his progeny in his first presidential speech to parliamentarians has not gone down well with Congressmen and other secularists. Congressmen have availed of this opportunity to exhibit once again their loyalty to their first family, while some secularists have sought to remind us of Nehru’s ...
President Trump’s policy in the Greater Middle East is beginning to materialise. While up until now, the United States and their allies have been attempting to destroy states and impose chaos, they are now legitimising alliances against the jihadists. Although in theory, Iran, Syria and the Hezbollah are still enemies to be defeated, in practice, they have b...
Agriculture has always being viewed as an integrated activity, including crop production, resource conservation, and livestock, in one seamless whole. The present scenario in Indian agricultural academia has witnessed fragmentation and division over the years. The rising trend of inter-disciplinary specialisation and compartmentalisation of related disciplin...