Kashmir: Any Closer to Solution?

Creation of “soft borders” allowing the free movement of goods and people as a symbolic first step towards a closer cohesion between the two units of the Himalayan state.

The Correct Turn

Like most movements of the 20th Century that adopted what is called Political Islam as its calling card, the Kashmir militancy too collapsed under its own weight.

‘Dustbin of history’ or ‘history of sorts’

Omar Abdullah the president of the National Conference opines that complete independence for both sides of Kashmir along the Line of Control (LoC) is not a viable option at all.

It's Politics Uber Alles In Kashmir ..... And India

The BJP, while paying lip service to maintaining peace, did nothing to calm the situation in Jammu; instead, its troops have taken to the streets in other cities in India.

Kashmir Experiencing Hyderabad

In January every year all India industrial exhibition is held in Nampally, Hyderabad. Most of the businessmen taking part in the exhibition are from Srinagar.

Solving Amarnath: A New Hope in Kashmir

It demonstrates to the Kashmiris that by resorting to non-violent action, there is a room for manoeuvre and things can be changed through peaceful means.

Kashmir Liberated, Others Languish

Kashmir Singh spent 35 years in various Pakistani prisons before Ansar Burney, the caretaker minister of human rights found him and obtained a presidential pardon.

Making a new Future: Peace Dividends for India and Pakistan

India Pakistan relationships in the light of future economic and security dividends of peace.

Hindus in J&K: Elated in minority

Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir, who have been at the receiving end of militancy in the state are elated over the proposal of the UPA government to bring about a law which will decide the status of minorities on the basis of state population.

J&K: The Hopes and Despairs of the Peace Process

It has taken pretty seven long years to reach a point of hope. Therefore, the current year is really most significant for Jammu and Kashmir and it has to be keenly watched how things unfold.

A Nation without an Identity

During the last few years the political tendency among Kashmiris gave heavy emphasis on religion. Whereas, the indigenous Kashmiri struggle when it started in 1989-1990 was provoked by the socio-economic factors and a growing sense of deprivation.

Village of Women

Along the line of control in Kashmir, there is a village called Dard-nag. The hot springs here were famous for miraculous powers but even the healed complained that drinking of the waters gave them the unpleasant feeling of laughing when the heart was sad

Let us do away with Kashmir

Asked whether Pakistan was giving up its claim to Kashmir, Musharraf said, 'We will have to... yes... if this solution comes up'.

India, Pakistan and the Kashmir dispute

The number of people who have died and who are still dying in order for us to hold on to our illusory ideals are not worth the ideals.

India-Pakistan talks: the endless cycle

The two countries agreed to set up a six-member panel to counter terrorism; A nuclear safety agreement was signed; However, no progress took place on reducing troops in Kashmir and in Siachen.

A Tribute To Heritage Of Poonch

It may sound little ludicrous that had there not been this building in the decade of 1930s, the geopolitical shape of this region would have been entirely different. It was this building which enticed a royal ruler who agreed to send the son of the owner

Hang Guru, if that helps

Right from the day, the death warrants were pronounced Srinagar city is under virtual siege as it has become difficult for the government and forces and keep protesting people off streets.

Understanding Kashmir Roundtable: A Viewpoint From Jammu

This roundtable conference [May 2006] was perhaps the first dialogue between Srinagar and New Delhi where the Prime Minister strongly underlined need recognizing the regional aspirations.

Musharraf and Manmohan’s Monologues

India’s talking with only those who already agree with the Indian position, and Pakistan consulting those who only toe Islamabad’s line is not a dialogue -- it is a monologue

Invader

They wrapped my tongue around my waist,
And asked me to tell the truth
I offered them my blood to taste

Hijrat

Finding Kashmir's Pain in London

If I had brought my unhappiness to London, this is scarcely surprising: my life had been punctuated by bomb blasts, cries of loss by mothers who had lost their sons, of children whose fathers had been tortured to death. Everything was unpredictable and un

Selective Sympathy

Time has come to stop pretending that we (Indians) do not know about Kashmir. We may differ with them politically, but we can respect their rights and support them in crisis.

Earthquake and New Tears for a Paradise Lost

Any immigrant’s distance dilemma is rejuvenated by sudden reminders and the weight of memories of a home that no longer exists. And sometimes like being in an earthquake, one is jolted into thinking back and to shed new tears for one’s peopl

Will Kashmiri Pandits Ever Return to their Abode…?

Pulwama is now a sprawling township. It has changed. It became district headquarters in 1980. Nearby villages have grown in size and shape. Some paddy fields have been converted into orchards. Small-scale industries have also come into existence.

How green is their valley?

This was not 1947. People had begun to move things. Every Kashmiri Pandit had two-three bags. They were rehabilitated within a year. Our education is our strength. You won't find a jobless Pandit. Ghar khadey kar diye eik saal mein.

A Changed Landscape of Kashmir Conflict

They (Hurriyat leaders) clearly made home their point that any future solution of the Kashmir issue must be initiated by the Kashmiris, themselves. They further said that they would not accept, as has been a practice in the past that Kashmir is conferred

Last Rites in Kashmir or a New Journey?

The Kashmir issue really has no solution that can resolve this problem to everyone’s delight. Then why are Generals smiling? What have they stumbled on in Kashmir?

Ride Across the River

For one long instant, I have the feeling that I’ve been transported back to that day. That any second now, as we drive past, the bicycle will explode and send sharp bits of metal slicing into my flesh. As it once did to 38-year-old Major Abhimanyu S

Border Crossings

The same border bears very different meanings: it all depends on who is crossing it, and where.

Remembering Maqbool Butt

He stood for a united, independent and secular Kashmir, something which was unpalatable to the two countries that are laying a claim to it.

Indian Troop Reduction in Kashmir: Merely Symbolic?

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unexpectedly announced on Nov 11 that improvements in security and economic conditions have allowed for a reduction in troops in Kashmir this winter.

Musharraf’s Radical Kashmir Proposals

President General Pervez Musharraf’s newly announced proposals on solving the Kashmir dispute, while unprecedented, elicited a cool reception from India

Kashmir: Everyone has lost in their own way

Four displaced women in Kashmir talk about their lives to Indian journalist and peace activist Sonia Jabbar in Autumn’s Final Country a devastating and sensitive film...

Re-thinking Kashmir

The documentary Crossing The Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, India

India-Pakistan: Friends on Visa

When people from India and Pakistan meet, peace seems the most favoured option.

Rethinking Pakistan’s Kashmir Policy

A proposal that has a realistic chance to succeed envisions both India and Pakistan retaining the Kashmiri territory currently under their control but having a soft border in place of the Line of Control to allow for the movement of goods and people.

Rethinking Plebiscite In Kashmir

By declaring that 'we have left aside' the United Nation Security Council resolutions for a solution to Kashmir, General Pervez Musharraf shattered a long-held taboo.

Imposed solution

New British High Commissioner says a solution of Kashmir imposed by international community on India-Pakistan won’t by sustainable; impetus for peaceful settlement should come from the two neighbours

Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand and Kashmir

Indians have an uncanny knack for sniffing out an NRI. Mr. Butt was no exception. As soon as he identified us as the migratory birds from a distant land, he upgraded the product on display.

Kashmir from the Left

Challenge yourself to dream a little -- The recent verbal pugilism by India and Pakistan at the United Nations reminded this reporter of a “Discussion Forum on Kashmir” held in San Francisco at the end of last month.

Vajpayee’s Srinagar offer of Talks to Pakistan

Instead of strife and warfare in South and Central Asia, need for Economic and multi-facet cooperation like Asean & EU- begin with a gas pipe line for a lasting solution.

A Tale of Two Fugitives

While one is known to inhabit jungles somewhere in the Western Ghats at the tri-junction of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, in southern India, the other has his last living address somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan

The Razor’s Edge

The United States seems to be losing the proverbial battle for the “hearts and minds” of the Afghans. The biggest problem was that the United States was not prepared for the post-war situation and had no plans to tackle the problems

President Pervez Musharaff’s Views

The present line of control, he asserted, is the issue over which the two countries have fought three wars. So how can that be a solution to the problem, he asked with all the emphasis he could invoke.

Terror in Okara

Pakistan cannot bear the shock of nearly a million of its own people being dispossessed

The Beginning of the End of the Kashmir Problem

Do not underestimate either the love or the hatred that the peoples of the two countries are capable of having towards each other

Pakistan and India - Lets Compromise

The program began by applauding Indian PM Vajpayee’s concession to meet Jamali, his Pakistani counter-part

Dangerous Precedents

emerging international scenario in the wake of Iraq war

Survival of the Fittest

If Pakistan is next then what are the options?

Kashmir: Time for a Radical Approach?

The Kashmiris are not even a foot note and Ram Babu and Allah Rakha the perennial losers.

They Shoot Kashmiri Pandits, Dont They?

They say they will act as a “buffer against the export of jehad into India”. They who ran away?

Excavating India

I say, thank god for Babar, for the dear departed Mughal badshah has revealed how the purring cats are jumping on a hot tin roof.

Stop Indian Atrocities in Kashmir

Lets put an end to all atrocities - without being selective.

Dam it?

Protest against the extension of Mangla Dam continues despite the mainstream media's ignorance

A Work In Progress

Jinnah put Pakistan in such a location that the future state would always be involved in the geo-politics of world

The Kashmir Committee: Ram in U.S

Ram Jethmalani, to further the agenda of KC, recently made a trip to US

The Unmaking Of Gujrat

The key players in these elections and therefore Indian polity seem like characters in a drama of the absurd.

Husain Haqqani at UC Berkeley

Pakistan has to revisit its relationship with India

Jihad – The Misperceptions

It would be unfair to mistrust the dedication and valour of the jihadis

Islamic Utopia?

Reconciling Islam and Modernity

The Election Burp

Don’t stand around wondering what to do, trying to please everybody—take a stick and throw it.

Myopic, Malevolent, Megalomaniac

Musharraf knows that PPP (P) and PML (N) would not like to join hands with MMA because it displeases USA

Road Blocks in Normalising Relations

If cross border terrorism ceases, facilitating a dialogue between India and Pakistan, will a dividend of long term peace follow?

Piece of What?

I left home for a gathering of peaceniks and ended up at the social event of the year. The card in my hand said ‘Arundhati Roy: keynote speaker: seminar on peace and freedom in south Asia’

Peace in South Asia

Arundhati Roy gave the Pakistanis a glimpse of what free-thinking is

India’s Potential Lose-Lose-Lose Scenario

India may actually be helping Pakistan in the long run, not harming it, with its current war hysteria

Of Errant Politicians And The Kashmir Cause

In politics being good is not necessarily good enough

The Pattern of Violence

if the man at the helm sees the larger picture

Deja Vu

General Musharraf should be open and honest

The Panel of Vendettas at UC Berkley

A true hero would make a radical notion and never back track

An Interview with Noam Chomsky

I don’t feel that I have important messages to convey

The Wages of Obedience

The systemic failure of a whole class of people to think honestly and seriously, in short a failure to do their job as political analysts

Empty Vessels And All That Jazz

do you think he is up to task to rid us of feudals next?

Pakistanis in Afghanistan, Nothing New

The more the government cuts back on the opportunities available to the Mullah to interact with the citizen, the more the government is cutting back on the Mullahs sources of revenue

Indian Diplomacy : Time To Recheck

The year saw a marked upswing in new Delhi’s relations with the US, Russia, Japan, Germany and France

Enough is Enough

Some of us, like Noah’s family, will be saved

India, Pakistan and America’s Mixed Signals

War is the last thing that we need there

Running Naked

Looking at the current India, Pakistan conflict as Manto would have

Is Jehad Passe’?

it is too early to say that the military has changed its spots

The Clash Of Un-Civilizations And Osama-ism

It is misleading to think and give an impression that these issues will just disappear if Osama is captured or killed today.

Whither Democracy?

Musharraf appears to have killed two birds with one stone

A Letter Home

An American teacher’s perspective

A Decision to Regret

the Afghans have always resisted a government imposed from abroad

Jihad: Paradoxes and Defining Moments

There will always be a lunatic fringe in the Muslim society

Love On The Line Of Control, a Story by Col Dharam Pal

There seems to be a lot of acrimony and bad-blood between some Indian and Pakistani contributors ...

Explaining it to an American Friend

godspeed and prudence in this time of grieving

Caught In Between

Pakistan is on the defensive almost constantly

No Fault Of Mine

We nurture a strange vision of patriotism in India these days. As Pakistan yells at us, accusing us of misdeeds, we must shout louder still. Meantime, Kashmir bleeds. So do we all.

A Medley of Internal Contradictions

Shedding tears for the plight of Indian Muslims is also a case of internal contradictions

The Countdown Begins

... the contours of Pakistan’s emerging political scenario point to the first signs of an uneasy coexistence between the military regime and the political forces ...

The Indo-Pak Summit, Kashmir and the Taj Mahal

One cannot expect a solution from just one summit on the complex Kashmir problem ...

An Eulogy For The Hawks

Your administrations’ talks with President Musharraf

Talking to Vajpayee

Vajpayee has demonstrated that he can be different

The Winds of Change

When the world’s only superpower changes direction, smaller states, especially those located on the periphery of potential conflict, have to be nimble in adjusting their policies.

The Chicken Hawks Of Pakistan

The military should accept the fact that it is a dictatorship

The Soft Option

How can we say that Pakistan is misrepresenting the term ’jehad’ with regard to Kashmir when we Indians are doing the same?

A Different Story

The winds of change are slowly whispering their way across the South Asian sub-continent

The Imperatives of Power

A physically injured leader has won hands down against the leader of a psychologically injured nation in the world of diplomacy

Faith, Religion and National Direction

A winner makes commitments, a loser makes promises

Lahore Notes, March 2000

I took the famous Bus to Lahore

Where Mountains Move

The Story of Chagai

Khuda Hafiz, Kashmir?

I am a militant. According to a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member ...

Indians and Pakistanis Must Start Anew

The richest resource on the earth can only be human resources

The People’s Initiative

Exposure to ordinary people serves as a powerful perception changer ...

Negotiating Peace in Kashmir

President Clinton should also exhort the Indian leaders

When Pakistan Defeated Herself...

there was no way for it [India] to convincingly prove that Pakistan indeed harbored territorial ambitions on i-Kashmir

A Rumor Of Lies

Pakistan, as a nation, seems to have entered a political terra incognita from which it is unlikely to return

TIEcon 2000 Generates Hope

Entrepreneurship in the 21st. Century

Eqbal Ahmad: Post - Pokhran Days

The mountain had turned white. I wondered how much pain had been felt by nature ...

Why Clinton should visit Pakistan

The Americans simply cannot sideline Pakistan...

Let us Not be Foolish

Mistakes, misunderstandings and downright hate have led us too long in India-Pakistan relations...

The Millenium Manifesto or ’Ikeesween Sadi Dastoor’

Kashmir does not belong to Pakistan regardless of historical events during partition...

Resolving the Hijack Crisis

The timing of the IC-814 hijack crisis portends several things

Pakistan: Rapprochement with India ‘unstoppable’

One thing is clear: people want peace with India

Compilation of Opinions on the Military Takeover in Pakistan

Peoples opinions and reactions

Text of Speech by Gen. Pervez Musharraf

The choice before us on Oct 12th was between saving the body - that is the nation, at the cost of a limb - which is the Constitution, or saving the limb and losing the whole body

Why An Interim Civilian Government will Fail

Putting up a front government will achieve simply nothing

Masala Democracy

Only in South Asia would a masala mix of militancy, neglect of the masses, and elite politics pass for democracy

Love in the Time of Kargil

I am Indian. My wife, Mona, is Pakistani. We got married in Toronto last week

Kargil and the Myth of Losing the Media War

Consider for a moment that you are NOT a Pakistani

Save India

A martial law administration has to take over the country

Kargil: A view from Pakistan

What gives in the mountains?

After the defeat

An analysis of the Kargil conflict and the ensuing defeat for Pakistan.

A Road To Siachen

An analysis of the Pakistani military thought and its interests in the present crisis

Falsehoods Galore

Pakistan has thus turned into an oligarchy well versed in the art of making things disappear

Kargil Issue

I begin the issue right from 1947 when India and Pakistan were planned to be two separate countries

India’s Failure of Imagination

No one in India, it seems, has a clue what people across the border in Pakistan are thinking

A Visit to Pakistan

Could it be that there is a feeling that India does not accept the existence of Pakistan?

Why Not This One?

Of Sharifs, Bhuttos, missiles and carrots.

Why Vajpayee’s Trip to Lahore Was a Failure

Vajpayee’s bus trip can be described in one word: nothing

Need for a Confederation

India had never been a Nation, it is still not one

Getting Ready for ‘Bus Diplomacy’

Vajpayee and Sharif get creative. First bombs then bus rides.

A Forgotten Incident

India and Pakistan go to war!

A Line Runs Through It

Siachen-Kargil: India, Pakistan, Kashmir and forgotton lessons of history

Is Impeachment Realistic

Scandal and sex are easier to start than explain. Just ask the President.

India is South Asia’s Natural Hegemon

Pakistan is more an army with a state than a state with an army.

Talking of Talks

...the Prime Ministers have had a telephone talk

And now, the army!

A scathing commentary with strong opinions

Pride and Potatoes: Trade with India

Is importing Potatoes a source of pride?

Modern Armies and Their Invincible Plans

The minister was apparently on lunch break and had been for some years

Reconfiguration of the South Asian Polities

Mr. Sharif wants to transform himself into Amir-ul-Momineen....a title used by the Taliban chief.

Nuclear Bomb for Sale

the demand for nuclear bombs outstripped that of mangoes, movies, health services, designer labels, paan, clean water,

Nuclear South Asia: An Explanation to America

The US and the rest of the world needs to help in the resolution of this issue because if we don’t address it now we will all hear about it later.

Onwards to the Nuclear Abyss

India, Pakistan and the March of Folly

Living with the Bomb

A 2-5 minute flight time, almost zero chances of interception, and the impossibility of recall

Getting to Yes

Not to test was to permanently accept Indian domination.

Statesmanship Needed

Mr. Bhutto’’s decision to go nuclear would prove pivotal quarter of a century later

Say No to Indian and Pakistani Bombs

...against the ideologies of hate created and promoted by our governments

Imperatives For Economic Development Of Pakistan

So how can we hammer out a consensus around the proposition that we have to rapidly raise the standard of living of the people in Pakistan?

The Pakistani Connection: An Opinion

Pakistani media watchers have to be concerned today because people and the newspapers in this country have recently started mentioning Iraq and Pakistan in the same breath.

Human Chain Across Kashmir

We have done this because we are angry with the United Nations for not getting its resolutions (for plebiscite) implemented.