Since independence
South Asian history after 1947, including 1965 and 1971.
-
How the RSS saved Srinagar?
A forwarded account, citing a book, claiming that RSS volunteers cleared snow from Srinagar airport overnight in wartime so that Indian troops could land and the airport stayed out of…
-
Live Blogging: Documenting post-war ethno-religious violence in Sri Lanka
Live notes on Dr Farzana Haniffa’s lecture on post-war ethno-religious violence in Sri Lanka, covering the 1958 and 1983 anti-Tamil violence, Muslim concentration in the East, anti-Halal campaigns and the…
-
Nasim Zehra’s Book on Kargil. Review by Maj Amin
Major Agha H Amin’s review attacks Nasim Zehra’s book on Kargil as published twenty years too late, disputes her praise of Lieutenant General Javed Hassan, and lists what he calls…
-
Live blogging – Rethinking Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
Live notes from a Cambridge lecture rethinking the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The speaker argues it was a seminal Cold War moment, that Afghanistan has been made and unmade repeatedly,…
-
Podcasts by Major Amin. India, Pakistan, Proxy Wars
Introduces Major Agha Humayun Amin’s podcasts, one covering his background in Afghanistan and his views that no actor there is truly non-state, that the Taliban are Pakistan’s proxy, and that…
-
Book Review: Limited War in South Asia
Major Agha Humayun Amin reviews Kaushik Roy and Scott Gates’s Limited War in South Asia, faulting its inaccurate maps of Pakistani corps, its exaggeration of the Indian Army’s role in…
-
1971, Majlis & Vande Mataram
Zach recounts arguing ‘Team Pak’ in a Cambridge debate on 1971, saying the case turned on Indian interference rather than Bangladeshi independence. He then weighs in on the Majlis logo…
-
Cambridge Union Debate on 1971 War
A short note on the relaunch of the Cambridge Majlis after nearly thirty years, with a debate on the 1971 war, and a link on how its members helped end…
-
How Pakistan Got Divided
Major Amin reviews General Rao Farman Ali’s How Pakistan Got Divided and finds it another disappointing book that whitewashes the real causes of 1971. He argues ethnicity was decisive, tracing…
-
How Bengalis rejected “genetic improvement”
Quotes an article on how Bangladesh made abortion safer for Rohingya rape victims, notes its figures on sexual violence in 1971, and adds a personal remark about his parents’ friendly…
