Sparsh

1- Why Pandits aren't returning to roots ? : The Pandits, though, will tell you another story: of murders and village loudspeakers issuing threats. Jagmohan is rarely the central figure that Kashmiri Muslim makes him out to be. 2- Will Pakistanis put their national interest first? by Harini Calamur :If there is any country in the world that is a poster child for dictatorship, it is Pakistan. Over the last two and half decades at least, Pakistan seems to have been more stable and more prosperous under its military dictators than its “democratically” elected leaders. 3- Islamic Banking System: Threats and Opportunities --- The Islamic banking system is an important component of Islamic finance. Islamic finance has unique features because its foundation is laid on the principles and rules of Islamic law (sharia), which states that everything is owned by Allah and man has only been permitted to use it. 4- The predicament of the Islamic Republic by Hamid Dabashi. Green Movement...

1- How China reports the Arab world :- In a post made to his Chinese-language weblog on April 15, Ezzat Shahrour, chief correspondent for al-Jazeera Arabic in Beijing, voiced his frustration with Chinese state media reporting on the upheaval in the Arab world this year. 2- The rules of entrapment :- The noise against Tehelka after last week’s cover story was to be expected. Much more surprising was the confusion over the ethics of political baiting. 3- Haaretz prides itself on being the conscience of Israel. Does it have a future? :- by David Remnick 4- James Gosling joins Google, what can startups learn? :- Cultivating talent is not about hiring only those people who will work on assignments or wait on benches for projects that are in the sales pipeline. You also require people who are not in the thick of daily grind; those who can think up new paradigms and new ways to doing things without the pressure of how it will impact the company's next quarter's bottom-line. ...

1- State legitimacy and resistance : State derives its legitimacy from its institutions. Its these institutions that give State credibility and roots to live in the society of hostile crowds. 2- The ‘Viral’ Revolutions of Our Times – Post national Reflections by Aditya Nigam 3- Interview to Devinder Sharma :- On Food Crisis and Corruption. An Interview with One World South Asia: "Corruption has fuelled India's economic growth. 4- Growth and other concerns by Amartya Sen 5- Comments and Responses by the author : Socialism of 21st Century : Author Sunil 6-  An Interview with Guernica Magazine . In the wake of sedition charges by the Indian government, Arundhati Roy describes the stupidest question she gets asked, the cuss-word that made her respect the power of language, and the limits of preaching nonviolence. 7- The multi-individual society By Pratap Bhanu Mehta - An look on liberalism and multiculturalism. 8- Reluctant heroes : International recognition o...

When an individual fights in enabling the voices of the powerless to be heard and exposes the corrupt game behind power corridors, one faces the persecution from the people in power. Julain Assange (wikileaks) commitment to transparency, peace and justice by exposing and holding governments to account for closed room deals, human rights abuses and for fearless challenges to censorship in any form is cheer worthy. Exclusive: The Wikileaks Manifesto , by Julian Assange. Interview of Julian Assange ; I have also written on wikileaks before on my blog. : Why the world needs WikiLeaks ! Read more in detail and well crafted : Wikileaks is Good for You and Me Personal Stand on Transparency: Capitalism and Democratic political system may not be an effective model, but it provides relative more space to an individual. Nationalism has always served the regional interest of the elites. Socialism and Islam are forms of political nihilism, and that both contend that the life of the ind...

I often blog about culture but partially global politics. I do care about injustice, but the global scale and systematic nature of it has left me stunned. There is so much attempt to curb our freedom, liberty and public information in the name of secrecy and security. This blog post is compiled in the span of 30 minutes as soon as I became aware of about Wikileak. Wikileaks is an international organization, based in Sweden. It publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive documents while preserving the anonymity of sources. It has set a new standard in free information flow across the world. Afghanistan War Logs, Baghdad airstrike video, Guantánamo Bay procedures, 2008 Peru oil scandal and Toxic dumping in Africa: The Minton report are few important leaks of the secret government documents. You can read more about them in encyclopedia . It is more productive to engage with, rather than censor. There is an intimate and indissoluble link between inte...

1-  One grey issue needs our attention :  The real tragedy of the media’s surrender to the state is that journalists have stopped reading books, especially history books. Speaking at the Fifth Al Jazeera annual forum Robert Fisk laments the state driven semantics that take over and alter grave debates:  Journalism and 'the words of power' ; 2- Media does not act out of grief or out of some sense of compulsion at the death of any celebrity. Media is merely pandering to the lowest common denominator for commercial considerations as the stories that combine sex, glamour and death find a ready market. So its like justification of drug peddler for giving drugs to victims as given by media on defencing its coverage of sensational gossips and celebrity lifestyles. 3- Let me remind you, there is a public service broadcast also in this mob of news channels for serving citizens of this  nation. That is called Prasar Bharati. B G Verghesse covers necessity of publ...

There is one incredible India and one untouchable India. - Manjula Pradeep; Tradition are poured inside the child through their parents first. All of the parents teach their children about ethics and values. Still, parents themselves practice some form of caste and religious discrimination. The rituals of marriage and eating's give children first hand knowledge and practice of discrimination. Our education system gives very little information about caste atrocities. There should be complete restructuring of society which openly commits caste discrimination and it is not told as a crime for normal routine. The Governments in the past have viewed the communal riots or caste atrocities as a matter of law and order, and hence they have failed to evolve a just society. There is a rise of an individual and followed by a group in opportunist way on the name of caste. The badlands of India in its small villages, have their own on-going caste wars, con-men and utter lawlessness. The lesson ...

Hours of crisis at both national and international level. Naxalite, artificial food scarcity, communalism, border problem with aggressive china and disintegrating Pakistan; It would be far better for India if its government gets off those commanding heights of the economy, and addresses basic problem like health care, illiteracy etc. How to make accountability of the corrupt, self-serving political and bureaucratic elite to ensure social and economic justice for those it had claimed ? Cut the services provided to officers and make them managers. Its time for Inclusive and Integrated development. I had faith in the people. They had good wishes for upheaval of everyone but the path design requires merit not popular support. Hence, I fear populist democracy as sometimes behave like celebrity culture. Looking for guidance towards west is hopeless. The uniqueness is in individual not in the society. A group is diverse with its unit having own characteristic. Hence westernized concept of...

Frederick Douglass had written over a century ago. “ Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them … . The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” Naxal problem is making up a civil war like situation in India. And we are talking the losses in the terms of loss of life in encounters. The big picture is going beyond our imagination and tales of exploitation of dalits , labours and adivasis is echoing the real India. Shoma Chaudhary examines the tricky and dangerous terrain of Operation Green Hunt , the offensive against Naxals, might blow up in our faces: " Dalits and adivasis comprise a staggering one fourth of India’s population, yet are disproportionately destitute and low on the Human Development Index scale. Worse, they suffer the most humiliation and indignity: the proverbial insult on injury. Our country represents a show where 77 percent of Indi...

With 'Lyrics of life ' , A blog devoted to the poetry only is started by me. I will try to transfer all of mine favorite poems from my blog into this to give it more space and voice. And for reading purpose, here comes a good post. 1- If Lahore is Pak’s soul, and Islamabad its mind, then Karachi—in all its scrappy glory—is Pakistan’s guts. I consider Pakistanis as our brothers whose fate is inter twisted with us. Taliban has grown so much that even journalist fear to venture in SWAT valley. Journalists don’t talk about fear much. It goes against the grain of the culture; the lone wolf, the impassive observer, the tough guy in tough places telling tough truths. Are they slave of our own public images? Then change your perspective by reading e-magazine by Pulitzer center on crisis reporting. ' Killing Fields ' film is must watch for everyone who wants to witness the cruelty of genocide and war. #The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper journalism...