A few updates from this week:
Sri Lanka is facing severe flooding. Sbarkkum reports major damage to rail and road networks, with Dutch support expected for reconstruction.
Sana Aiyarโs โWorld at MITโ video touches on her life and work
Sam Dalrymple has a clip on Lahore and Delhiโanother reminder of how closely the two cities mirror each other despite partition.
Pakistanโs minority rights bill is worth watching.
If Pakistan wishes to criticise India, or any state, it must first show what genuine protection of minorities looks like. This bill is a test. Letโs see if it holds.
On the cultural side, Ella Wadia (QeAโs great-granddaughter) made her debut at LaBalโa striking continuation of a very old Bombay lineage.
AOC remarks that Trumpโs economy is being held up by an โAI bubble,โ a claim now making the rounds in US media.
Kabir shares a comedy sketch about Indian mothers picking up Pakistani Urdu from dramas; a small cultural bleed that still amuses both sides.
And finally, Razib has a major piece out on the Aryans; one of his clearest treatments of the subject to date.
This minority bill is actually amazing — I wasnโt expecting anything like this, especially after the post-Pak-India war situation and the CDFโs reiteration of the two-nation theory.
The “two nation theory” has nothing to do with the rights of minorities within Pakistan. The whole point of the “two nation theory” was to achieve Pakistan. The argument was that Hindus and Muslims were two distinct nations and should each have their own nation-state. Now that Pakistan has been achieved, non-Muslims citizens of Pakistan should have their rights protected. This is what the August 11 speech (“You are free to go to your temples etc..”) was about.
On Ella Wadia: She is QeA’s great great grandaughter (his grandson Nusli’s granddaughter).
Rights protected doesn’t mean equal rights.
That’s true. But as we’ve discussed several times before, Pakistan is an “Islamic Republic” not a secular state. India is a secular state (on paper).
In an Islamic Republic, the President, PM, COAS etc must all be Muslim. That doesn’t mean that non-Muslim citizens haven’t risen to high offices such as Justice Cornelius and Justice Bhagwandas.
Ideally, I would love Pakistan to be a secular state but for most mainstream Pakistanis that would defeat the entire point of Pakistan.
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“Who Gets to Be Indian? ft. Ram Puniyani”
The pilot episode of “Beyond the Taj: The Story of India’s Minorities”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPBcT8-Czek
“Biryani and Paan: A Look at the Lost Muslim Cities of Hindustan”
by Sophia Khan
https://apinksamosa.substack.com/p/biryani-and-paan-a-look-at-the-lost?
Wonderful wonderful piece
like greeks pining for constantinople.
Rubbish. It again conflates Pakistan with Muslims.
Says that Pakistan “lost” these cities.
How? They were never part of “Pakistan” at any point in time.
And majority of the Muslims did not leave and their descendants are Indian citizens.
The article is literally titled “The Lost Muslim cities of Hindustan”. So your point that these cities were never part of Pakistan is irrelevant to the discussion.
Many of us Pakistanis have ancestors who were from Lucknow, Delhi, Agra etc. My own paternal grandmother was from Agra.
As the author points out in the article, many Indians lament the loss of Lahore. I can make the same point you did and say that Lahore was never part of the nation-state of “India” that was created on August 15, 1947. But that doesn’t take away from the pain of those Indians whose families were uprooted from Lahore. So don’t minimize the pain of those of us who lost Agra and Lucknow.
British “India” existed whose successor state is India. And Lahore was a part of “India”.
I know you like to deny it but India got independence, Pakistan was “formed”.
there is a reason the ROI inherited the capital, the parliament, the UN membership, the cricket team, the hockey team, the olympic records etc.
That’s like saying “Russia” came into being in 92 and “China” in 49 but they were both successor states.
By extending your logic, most Pakistanis (at that time) left in 71 so was “Pakistan” formed in 1971?
Also Lahore has almost no Hindus left so lamenting it is justified.
Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad most Muslims did not leave including the Nawab of Mahmudabad and Nizam of Hyderabad who were the biggest Muslims of those cities.
I don’t think you understand the concept of a nation-state. I’m not going to constantly re-litigate this with you. It’s honestly not worth my time.
Lahore was not part of “India” simply because “India” as a NATION-STATE did not exist until August 15, 1947. Lahore was part of BRITISH India and part of the Mughal Empire. Those are both different entities than the Republic of India.
This is simply a historical fact. There are no two opinions on this.
Raja Sahab Mahmudabad migrated to Iraq in 1945 and then moved to Pakistan in 1957. He eventually settled in London. So you are factually incorrect on that point as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Amir_Ahmed_Khan
I agree with BB –
RoI is the successor state of British India legally. It was a sub-sovereign entity.
That’s not the point. The historical fact is that there was no nation-state called “India” before August 15, 1947.
“Soundscapes: Sounds of the Sacred”
By Arieb Azhar
https://www.dawn.com/news/1959709/soundscape-sounds-of-the-sacred
david pallman writes about the myth of the andulussian paradise.
https://www.facebook.com/share/1DMnJyDibJ/
Why I say Asoka and Chandragupta Mayura in Sri Lankan Memory for over 2000 year.
This is a visit the Bike guys to Sonebhandar (or Son Bhandar Caves) refers to two ancient, man-made rock-cut caves in Rajgir, Bihar, India
The bhandar are supposed to the wealth of Bimbisara (Asokas father).
This location is the site of the First Buddhist Council. A whole chapter in the Mahavamsa
The DharmaChakra now the Symbol of India was first a Buddhist Logo (see rock cut in video)
https://web.facebook.com/reel/1654378898873105
An English version of the info in above video
https://youtu.be/Rsoa_Er7gUo
oh! god, the father was a hyderbadi. !!!
sorry context?