Podcasts about west pakistan

#KASHMIR: TERROR CAMPS. BILL ROGGIO, FDD. 1954 WEST PAKISTAN

Nations, around the world often tend split and fall apart. One of the major reasons for countries breaking is language & ethnic/cultural identities (which circle back to language). East & West Pakistan split over language. India seems to be developing a North-South divide. Often the seeds of a split are buried years/decades before it actually happens. We may be dangerously flirting with one such moment no. It is not too late yet, but with delimitation looming, the point-of-no-return maybe closer than we think. 

In this episode, we are joined by historian and author Hassaan Bokhari to explore whether history is repeating itself in Bangladesh. We discuss the striking similarities between the 1971 Bangladesh movement and the 2024 protests, the role of West Pakistan, the rise of freedom fighters, and the impact of student movements. We also analyze Sheikh Hasina's leadership, Sheikh Mujeeb's legacy, and the myths surrounding the 1971 conflict.#1971  #bangladeshprotest  #hdiwpodcast  

On this week's Aftermath, Rebecca revisits the Bhola Cyclone with Dr. Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak. A professor of Economics at Yale University and founder/faculty director of the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale, Dr. Mobarak gives us incredible insight into the socio-political history between East and West Pakistan leading up to the 1970 Bhola Cyclone that struck modern-day Bangladesh. Afterward, Patreon subscribers can join Fact Checker Chris Smith and Producer Amanda Lund as they revisit the board and reassess who really belongs in The Alarmist Jail. Not on Patreon yet? Join us today and listen to the full episode! This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp.Make a one time Donation while we recover from the Eaton Canyon Fires.Join our Patreon!Join our Discord!Tell us who you think is to blame at http://thealarmistpodcast.comEmail us at thealarmistpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Instagram @thealarmistpodcastFollow us on Twitter @alarmistThe Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/alarmist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who's to blame for the Bhola Cyclone? This week, The Alarmist (Rebecca Delgado Smith) welcomes guest Scotty Landes (Bananas Podcast) to discuss the deadliest cyclone in history. How did the Bhola Cyclone claim the lives of an estimated 500,000 people off the coast of East Pakistan (modern-day Bangladesh)? Were there not enough shelters for people to evacuate to? Did the strained relationship between East and West Pakistan hold back necessary aid? Why does patriarchy once again make it up on the list? OG Producer Amanda Lund and Fact Checker Chris Smith join the conversation.This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp.Make a one time Donation while we recover from the Eaton Canyon Fires.Join our Patreon!Join our Discord!Tell us who you think is to blame at http://thealarmistpodcast.comEmail us at thealarmistpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Instagram @thealarmistpodcastFollow us on Twitter @alarmistThe Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/alarmist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode explores the pivotal 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, highlighting the conflict's roots in political and cultural disparities between East and West Pakistan. It covers the brutal military crackdown, the rise of the independence movement, and the role of India in the war, ultimately leading to Bangladesh's emergence as a sovereign nation. The lasting impacts on South Asian geopolitics and identity are also examined.

In this episode, we have with us Dr. Hassan Bokhari, the author of the novel "Forks In The Road," which explores how the 1971 War and tragedy could have been avoided. We delve into the uncomfortable truths of the 1971 war, discussing various pivotal issues that led to the conflict.Key topics include pre-partition sentiments in Bengal, the economic disparities between Bengal and Pakistan, the language conflict between Urdu and Bengali, and the roles of Ayub Khan and Mujeeb-ur-Rehman.Stay tuned for the second part of our podcast, coming soon.#1971war #history  #howdoesitwork 00:00 Highlight02:00 Pre-partition sentiments of Bengal14:00 Did Bengalis want to join India or Pakistan?22:34 Economic issues between Bengal and Pakistan31:20 Urdu vs Bengali as national language conflict41:00 Role of Ayub Khan and Mujeeb-ur-Rehman

This week we talk about student protests, curfews, and East Pakistan.We also discuss Sheikh Hasina, Myanmar, and authoritarians.Recommended Book: The Identity Trap by Yascha MounkTranscriptBangladesh is a country of about 170 million people, those people living in an area a little smaller than the US state of Illinois, a hair over 57,000 square miles.It shares a smallish southeastern border with Myanmar, and its entire southern border runs up against the Bay of Bengal, which is part of the Indian Ocean, but it's surrounded to the west, north, and most of its eastern border by India, which nearly entirely encompasses Bangladesh due to the nature of its historical formation.Back in 1905, a previously somewhat sprawling administrative region called Bengal, which has a lot history of human occupation and development, and which for the past several hundred years leading up to that point had been colonized by various Europeans, was carved-out by the British as a separate province, newly designated Eastern Bengal and Assam, at the urging of local Muslim aristocrats who were playing ball with then-governing British leaders, the lot of them having worked together to make the region one of the most profitable in British India, boasting the highest gross domestic product, and the highest per-capita income on the subcontinent, at the time.This division separated Bengal from its Hindu-dominated neighboring provinces, including nearby, and booming Calcutta, which was pissed at this development because it allowed the British to invest more directly and lavishly in an area that was already doing pretty well for itself, without risking some of that money overflowing into nearby, Hindu areas, like, for instance, Calcutta.This division also allowed local Muslim leaders to attain more political power, in part because of all that investment, but also because it freed them up to form an array of political interest groups that, because of the nature of this provincial division, allowed them to focus on the needs of Muslim citizens, and to counter the influence of remaining local Hindu landowners, and other such folks who have previously wielded an outsized portion of that power; these leaders were redistributing power in the region to Muslims over Hindus, basically, in contrast to how things worked, previously.In 1935, the British government promised to grant the Bengalese government limited provincial autonomy as part of a larger effort to set the subcontinent out on its own path, leading up to the grand decolonization effort that European nations would undergo following WWII, and though there was a significant effort to make Bengal its own country in 1946, post-war and just before the partition of British India, that effort proved futile, and those in charge of doing the carving-up instead divided the country into areas that are basically aligned with modern day India and modern day Pakistan, but two-thirds of Bengal were given to Pakistan, while one-third was given to India.This meant that a portion of Pakistan, the most populous portion, though with a smaller land area, was separated from the remainder of the country by Indian territory, and the logic of dividing things in this way was that the British wanted to basically delineate Hindu areas from Muslim areas, and while large, spread-out groups of Muslims lived roughly within the borders of modern day Pakistan, a large, more densely crowded group of Muslims lived in Bengal, hence the otherwise nonsensical-seeming decision to break a country up into two pieces in this way.Frictions developed between mainland Pakistan and the portion of Pakistan, formally Bengal, that was initially called East Bengal, and then renamed East Pakistan in 1955, almost immediately. There was a movement to get the Bengali language officially recognized as a state language, alongside Urdu, which was promoted as the exclusive federal language of Pakistan, early on, and a list of six demands were presented to the Pakistani government by East Pakistan-based politicians, all of which aimed to get the region equal representation in what they felt was a West Pakistan-biased system, despite the fact that, again, East Pakistan, formally Bengal, was the most populous part of the country, and they had the most thriving economy, as well, bringing in most of the country's income.These demands led to what's become known as the Six Points Movement, which in turn, just a few years later, kicked off the Bangladesh War of Independence, which was exactly what it sounds like: an effort by folks in East Pakistan to achieve independence from the larger government of Pakistan, which had in recent years been taken over by a military junta which, like the previous government, didn't give as much political power to Easy Pakistanis.That junta, in late March of 1971, launched a military operation called Operation Searchlight that was meant to take out separatists in East Pakistan—but in practice this meant they swooped in and started targeting academics, members of the local intelligentsia, and people of Hindu faith, alongside members of the rabble-rousing groups that were petitioning for more power in this smaller-by-landmass, but larger by population and income, segment of the country.Operation Searchlight sparked the aforementioned Bangladesh War of Independence, and nine months later, the military government's efforts during this conflict were deemed to be genocidal because of how they targeted ethnic Bengalis, killing somewhere between 300,000 and 3 million of them, while also intentionally and systematically raping hundreds of thousands of Bengali women, the soldiers who committed these acts doing so with the formal go-ahead from their government—they were told to do so, basically.These atrocities eventually pulled India into the conflict, in part because millions of Bengalis were fleeing across their border to escape the genocide, and in part because the genocide was occurring, to begin with, and that sparked the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, which eventually led to an end to that genocide when Pakistan's government surrendered at the tail-end of 1971.That victory led to, formerly Bengal, then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan. It also concretized India's military dominance in the region, and Pakistan, what remained of it, lost more than half its population, much of its economic base, and suffered a long period of embarrassment that left it questioning the basis of its militant, braggadocios approach to both nationalism and foreign policy; it was previously a well-respected and feared military force, but it became a somewhat eyes-downcast entity in the region for a while, lots of reforms eventually helping it shore-up its economy, but remnants of this period still percolate in its internal politics and government operation, to this day, including its antagonism toward India, and its support of local jihadist groups, which the government uses as a counterbalance against India and other local power structures, which it can no longer face head-on.What I'd like to talk about today is a swirl of new tumult in modern day Bangladesh, and what this moderate uproar might mean for the country's future.—Modern Bangladesh is surrounded by conflict.Myanmar's military government is in the midst of a civil war, following the recent overthrow of its democratically elected civilian government, and the subsequent rise and loose collaboration between rebel groups in various parts of the country.India is booming, and is broadly considered to be the next big power player on the world stage, though it's already a regional titan. It also continues to scuffle with Pakistan to its northwest, and with China along its shared borders, which are located just a short distance north of Bangladesh.Bangladesh's coast, along the Bay of Bengal, has long underperformed economically, despite being surrounded by some of the most impactful producers of goods in the world, and this coastline, including the one occupied by Bangladesh, has become incredibly unpredictable in recent years: regularly flooding, entire villages being swept out to sea, and freshwater sources increasingly tainted by those incursions of salt water.This area already has a lot going on, in other words, and many of those goings on seem primed for amplification in the coming years, as global power structures and economic tangles continue to flex and break and rearrange, and as the climate continues to behave in increasingly distressing ways; there's a political and military realignment happening in this part of the world, but geopolitics and global economics are also swirling and rearranging in all sorts of unpredictable ways.All of which serves as context for a recent series of protests that arose around Bangladesh beginning in July of 2024.These protests were held by mostly students who were not fans of a quota scheme that was originally implemented by the government in the wake of that 1971 war with Pakistan, this system abolished in 2018, but which was reimplemented by the country's High Court shortly before the protests began.And this system basically promised that 30% of all government jobs would go to the descendants of people who fought in that war against Pakistan, for independence, alongside some jobs for minority groups, folks from traditionally underrepresented districts, and people who are disabled—though mostly it was meant to honor the descendants of those veterans.The protesting students were pissed about this reimplementation because the country's economy isn't great at the moment, and unemployment is rife; the jobs that are available are not paying much, and are not terribly secure. About 18 million young people are currently unemployed in Bangladesh.Government jobs, in contrast, tend to provide some level of consistency and predictability, pay relatively well, and tend to stick around—folks in such jobs aren't worried about being fired or their jobs disappearing, because of their very nature. So the best jobs, by that standard, are government jobs, and nearly a third of those jobs have been promised to people who, in many cases, just happened to be born to the right parents or grandparents; and notably, the majority of folks with families who fought in that conflict, are also supporters of the current, authoritarian Bangladeshi government—so part of the criticism here is that these quotas offer a means of giving cushy, reliable jobs to supporters of the current regime, without seeming like that's what they're doing.These peaceful student protests were met with heavy resistance and violence by the government, which deployed police and soldiers who shot at protestors and shut down universities and the internet in the country, and that led to more protests, including by non-students, who were also met with at times deadly force.About 150 people have been confirmed killed, so far, though that's the government's figure, and other, independent counts have tallied more than 200 dead. Hundreds of protestors were also arrested and curfews were implemented.The Supreme Court responded to the initial protests by reducing the quota in late July, to the point that about 5% of government jobs would go to descendants of those veterans, which in practice meant about 93% of all government jobs would be divvied-out in a normal way, hiring people based on who's the best candidate.Protests largely ceased after that announcement, and the government restored internet services 11 days after shutting it down across the country. Social media platforms like WhatsApp and TikTok remain restricted, however, as these services were used to promote and organize protests.Curfews have also been relaxed somewhat, though police are reportedly sweeping through schools and cities, grabbing people who were recorded at protests, arresting thousands of them, including at least half a dozen students who led the initial protests that kicked everything off.Protest leaders are now demanding that the remaining curfews be lifted, that those who were arrested are released, charges against them dropped, and that the leaders responsible for the heavy-handed response should resign.Some protestors have also called for the country's Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, to step down, as she initially called the students traitors, though she later backtracked and said she didn't want them to be harmed.Hasina is the longest-serving Prime Minister in Bangladeshi history, having initially stepped into the position in 1996, then stepping back into the role in 2009—she's held the office ever since.She's generally considered to be an authoritarian, and has been accused of fixing elections, extrajudicial killings, and the imprisonment, or worse, of politicians and journalists who challenge her in any way.She is, given all that, then, perhaps not surprisingly blaming these protests not on the students—not any longer, at least—but instead on opposition political parties who she says are attempting to challenge her rule, and thus, the wellbeing of the country as a whole.Given that this is a relatively well-established authoritarian regime, there's a nonzero chance those who are in charge of these protests will take the win with the quota system, even though it wasn't fully removed, and step back from these other, more substantial demands that are unlikely to be met, short of perhaps a token resignation here and there by lower-run government officials who take the bullet for those higher up.Outside demands for impartial investigations into who caused what are likewise unlikely to move forward, and the government has made it pretty clear it intends to double-down on the "it's the political opposition doing this to us, and you" narrative, which could help them justify further clamping-down on these groups, even to the point of more imprisonments and killings, but bare-minimum, in such a way that it makes dislodging the current ruling party even more difficult in the future.It's possible that tumult elsewhere around the world, including in Bangladesh's own backyard, might encourage overreaction, not under reaction, from those in charge, as Myanmar's military government is having a lot of trouble with rebels, these days, and while it's not impossible that the prime minister will give in to more moderate demands, publicly apologizing for the violent response and firing some of her higher-level ministers, her government's history hints that things are more likely to tilt in the other direction, at least for the foreseeable future, and at least if the protestors fail to scale-up their operations to incorporate more of the country's population than they have, thus far.At the moment, then, things have calmed a bit in terms of protests and government responses to those protests in Bangladesh. But there are elements to this story that have made things even more volatile than they already were, and because of how uncertain so many variables in the region are right now, there's a chance we'll see this, or connected movements and storylines, bubble back up at some point in the near-future.Show Noteshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2024/bay-of-bengal-climate-change/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Hasinahttps://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/bangladesh-protests-quelled-anger-discontent-remain-2024-07-26/https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/26/bangladesh-student-protests-mass-movement-against-dictatorhttps://apnews.com/article/bangladesh-campus-violence-hasina-bc513b6d68cf5b94cfd898f3c7f153d2https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/bangladesh-student-group-vows-to-resume-protests-if-demands-not-met/article68456310.ecehttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/25/bangladesh-minister-defends-govt-response-to-protests-amid-calls-for-probehttps://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/7/24/bangladeshs-deadly-protests-explainedhttps://www.britannica.com/topic/largest-U-S-state-by-areahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladeshhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_war_of_1971 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

In the wake of the deadly Bhola Cyclone, 50 million Pakistanis go to the polls on December 7th, 1970 and cast their votes in a national election, which yields unexpected and destabilizing results. As the emergent factions fight for control of Pakistan's nascent democracy, the political process slowly disintegrates and the gulf between East and West Pakistan becomes irreconcilable. SOURCES: Bass, Gary K. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide. 2013. Bennet-Jones, Own. The Bhutto Dynasty. 2020. Carney, Scott. Miklian, Jason. The Vortex: A True Story of History's Deadliest Storm, an  Unspeakable War, and Liberation. 2022. Chang, Jung. Halliday, Jon. Mao: The Unknown Story. 2005. Frank, Katherine. Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. 2001. Gewen, Barry. The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and his World. 2020. Hiro, Dilip. The Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan. 2015. Hitchens, Christopher. The Trial of Henry Kissinger. 2001. Hoodbhoy, Pervez. Pakistan: Origins, Identity and Future. 2023. Jalal, Ayesha. The Struggle for Pakistan. 2014. James, Lawrence. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. 1997. Jayakar, Pupul. Indira Gandhi: A Biography. 1975. Khosa, Faisal. The Making of Martyrs in India, Pakistan & Bangladesh. 2021. K.S. Nair. December In Dacca. 2022. Keay, John. India: A History. 2000. Mookherjee, Nayanika. The Spectral Wound. 2015. Raghavan, Srinath. 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh. 2013. Rose, Leo. Sisson, Richard. War and Secession. Pakistan, India, and the Creation of Bangladesh. 1990. Saikia, Yasmin. Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh. 2011. Schendel, Willem van. A History of Bangladesh. 2009. Schwartz, Thomas Alan. Henry Kissinger and American Power. 2020. Sengupta, Nitish. Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal. 2011. Tudda, Chris. A Cold War Turning Point: Nixon and China, 1969-1972. 2012. Walsh, Declan. The Nine Lives of Pakistan. 2020. Zakaria, Anam. 1971: A People's History from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. 2019. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sumit Peer dissects the geopolitical implications of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Russia. In this insightful analysis, explore how this strategic alliance is perceived by Western powers and its impact on global politics. Understand the unfolding dynamics in South Asia, including the implications of Pakistan's internal challenges.

Ishrat Husain comes on for a fiery episode of The Pakistan Experience on the Economy of Pakistan. On this week's episode, we discuss what India got right in the 90s, Modi's Economy, The Early Years of Pakistan's Bureaucracy, Economic Disparities between East and West Pakistan, Military Governments, Ishrat Husain's tenure as State Bank Governor, Real Estate, Pervez Musharaf's Policies, 18th Amendment and Balochistan. Ishrat Husain is a Pakistani banker and economist who served as the dean of the Institute of Business Administration (2008-2016) and the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (1999-2006). He also served as Advisor to Prime Minister Imran Khan for Institutional Reforms & Austerity. The Pakistan Experience is an independently produced podcast looking to tell stories about Pakistan through conversations. Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepakistanexperience To support the channel: Jazzcash/Easypaisa - 0325 -2982912 Patreon.com/thepakistanexperience And Please stay in touch: https://twitter.com/ThePakistanExp1 https://www.facebook.com/thepakistanexperience https://instagram.com/thepakistanexpeperience The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications. Instagram.com/shehzadghiasshaikh Facebook.com/Shehzadghias/ Twitter.com/shehzad89 Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:30 Why did India get right with their Economy 7:30 Modi's Economy 14:00 Early years of Pakistan's Development, Nationalization and GDP Growth 23:00 Economic disparities between East and West Pakistan 28:58 The initial Civil-Bureucratic-Military Leadership of Pakistan 39:30 Instability destroys Economic Growth and PTI's Government 45:52 State Bank, Inflation and Aid to Military Governments 1:01:00 Instability, State Bank Policies of Ishrat Hussain and TERF 1:15:00 Mushraf's Policies, Balochistan and 18th Ammendment 1:32:00 Should bureaucrats work under Military Governments? 1:36:00 Real Estate and DHAs 1:46:30 SIFC 1:51:00 IMF and Audience Questions

In this episode, we look at the elections held in Pakistan 1947 to 1970, and the weak roots of democracy in Pakistan, from Muslim League's politics before partition to West Pakistan's hegemony over resources after partition, we see how the bureaucracy and the military leadership took control of Pakistan. Why was India able to hold elections but Pakistan did not? Why did Pakistan dismiss elected Governments in the provinces? How did Ayub Khan defeat Fatima Jinnah? Find out this and more on this explosive episode. Sources: Political Conflict of Pakistan by Mohammad Wasim More to watch: Episode on 1971: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBX4Q77ixO8 Episode on Separate Electorates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlbBkxlssAw Podcasts with Dr. Ilhan Niaz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66X3mV147JQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc39q_SRsBM Podcast with Dr. Ishrat Hussain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-n9FpXrvPU The Pakistan Experience is an independently produced podcast looking to tell stories about Pakistan through conversations. Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepakistanexperience To support the channel: Jazzcash/Easypaisa - 0325 -2982912 Patreon.com/thepakistanexperience And Please stay in touch: https://twitter.com/ThePakistanExp1 https://www.facebook.com/thepakistanexperience https://instagram.com/thepakistanexpeperience The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications. Instagram.com/shehzadghiasshaikh Facebook.com/Shehzadghias/ Twitter.com/shehzad89

Activist and Journalist Aslam Khwaja comes on the podcast to discuss his book, "People's Movement of Pakistan", that goes into the details of the torture camps during Zia-ul-Haq's dictatorship, PPP, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the Movement for the Restoration for Democracy, Politics and the current political climate. Born in Hyderabad, Sindh on 25th December 1962, Aslam Khwaja joined Left politics in late 1970s, during General Zia Martial Law with the students wing of Communist Party of Pakistan. Aslam Khwaja has also written and translated more than two dozen books in Sindhi, Urdu and English. The Pakistan Experience is an independently produced podcast looking to tell stories about Pakistan through conversations. Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepakistanexperience To support the channel: Jazzcash/Easypaisa - 0325 -2982912 Patreon.com/thepakistanexperience And Please stay in touch: https://twitter.com/ThePakistanExp1https://www.facebook.com/thepakistanexperiencehttps://instagram.com/thepakistanexpeperience The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications. Instagram.com/shehzadghiasshaikh Facebook.com/Shehzadghias/ Twitter.com/shehzad89 Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 01:55 Khwaja's Book, Zil e Shah, Zia's cruelty and MRD, leaders standing with their workers 17:39 Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case, first elections, and Radio Pakistan Dhaka's resistance 27:02 West Pakistan's apathy, hypocrisy of PTI, and why didn't the awam resist in 1971 35:55 Bhutto's role in creation of Bangladesh, his anti-people actions, his role in bringing politics to the people, and Liyari 53:00 Bhutto's legacy, abandoning leftist ideals, why there weren't nationwide protests 1:04:59 Dictators attempting to turn politicians, Musharaf's state funeral, Nusrat Bhutto and anti-Zia politics 1:17:44 Why PPP's Sindh isn't like PMLN's Punjab, Sindh Cafe, Benazir's return in 1986, separation of state and its people 1:26:33 Difference between now and then, alignment of movements for unified resistance, PTI's attempt to reverse 18th amendment 1:37:39 PTI's politics, Benazir's rise and MRD's role 1:46:06 How Aslam Khwaja was arrested, meeting his torturer, and seeing humanity even in distress 1:57:23 Audience Questions

"Pakistan Pakistan, populous multiethnic country of South Asia. Having a predominately Indo-Iranian speaking population, Pakistan has historically and culturally been associated with its neighbours Iran, Afghanistan, and India. Since Pakistan and India achieved independence in 1947, Pakistan has bee" "--START AD- #TheMummichogblogOfMalta Amazon Top and Flash Deals(Affiliate Link - You will support our translations if you purchase through the following link) - https://amzn.to/3CqsdJH Compare all the top travel sites in just one search to find the best hotel deals at HotelsCombined - awarded world's best hotel price comparison site. (Affiliate Link - You will support our translations if you purchase through the following link) - https://www.hotelscombined.com/?a_aid=20558 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."""" #Jesus #Catholic. Smooth Radio Malta is Malta's number one digital radio station, playing Your Relaxing Favourites - Smooth provides a ‘clutter free' mix, appealing to a core 35-59 audience offering soft adult contemporary classics. We operate a playlist of popular tracks which is updated on a regular basis. https://smooth.com.mt/listen/ Follow on Telegram: https://t.me/themummichogblogdotcom END AD---" "n distinguished from its larger southeastern neighbour by its overwhelmingly Muslim population (as opposed to the predominance of Hindus in India). Pakistan has struggled throughout its existence to attain political stability and sustained social development. Its capital is Islamabad, in the foothills of the Himalayas in the northern part of the country, and its largest city is Karachi, in the south on the coast of the Arabian Sea. Pakistan Pakistan Mohammed Ali Jinnah Mohammed Ali Jinnah tomb of Mohammed Ali Jinnah tomb of Mohammed Ali Jinnah Pakistan was brought into being at the time of the partition of British India, in response to the demands of Islamic nationalists: as articulated by the All India Muslim League under the leadership of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, India's Muslims would receive just representation only in their own country. From independence until 1971, Pakistan (both de facto and in law) consisted of two regions—West Pakistan, in the Indus River basin in the northwestern portion of the Indian subcontinent, and East Pakistan, located more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the east in the vast delta of the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system. In response to grave internal political problems that erupted in civil war in 1971, East Pakistan was proclaimed the independent country of Bangladesh. Gilgit-Baltistan: Hunza River valley Gilgit-Baltistan: Hunza River valley Pakistan encompasses a rich diversity of landscapes, starting in the northwest, from the soaring Pamirs and the Karakoram Range through a maze of mountain ranges, a complex of valleys, and inhospitable plateaus, down to the remarkably even surface of the fertile Indus River plain, which drains southward into the Arabian Sea. It contains a section of the ancient Silk Road and the Khyber Pass, the famous passageway that has brought outside influences into the otherwise isolated subcontinent. Lofty peaks such as K2 and Nanga Parbat, in the Pakistani-administered region of Kashmir, present a challenging lure to mountain climbers. Along the Indus River, the artery of the country, the ancient site of Mohenjo-daro marks one of the cradles of civilization. Yet, politically and culturally, Pakistan has struggled to define itself. Established as a parliamentary democracy that espoused secular ideas, the country has experienced repeated military coups, and religion—that is to say, adherence to the values of Sunni Islam—has increasingly become a standard by which political leaders are measured. In addition, parts of northern Pakistan—particularly the areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa formerly designated as Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)—have become a haven for members of several

It's been MONTHS since I've sat at my desk, put my headphones back on, dusted off the microphone and tuned back in. I'm about to take you on an emotional rollercoaster with this episode as we delve into my mother's past as well as many of your parents pasts as well. To fully understand the background of this fight for freedom in Bangladesh, we need to travel back to 1947, when India won its independence from the British. At this time India was a huge country, even bigger than it is today, but after British rule there ended, the country split into two new states: India and Pakistan, who would both rule themselves. Pakistan was split across two areas - Pakistan and East Pakistan - which were 1,240 miles apart. Partition happened in this way because the majority of Indian people were part of the Hindu religion, but the people living in the areas that became Pakistan and East Pakistan, were mainly Muslim. Although the people living in East and West Pakistan were both Muslim, they had little else in common with different cultures and language. Most people in East Pakistan were part of a racial group called Bengali, and were the majority in Pakistan overall. However they feared being dominated and controlled by minority group in West Pakistan. Over time people living in East Pakistan began to feel more and more controlled by the government in West Pakistan. To tell her perspective of this story, I invite my mother Nazma Begum on to the podcast who witnessed the war unravel and is still somewhat suffering from the generational trauma it carried with it. Just as a disclaimer, me and Ma are not historians so please keep in mind that not all of the information disclosed will be factually correct. Our aim was to provide a perspective and we hope you enjoyed our conversation, see you next time!

This week's interview features Wg. Cdr. Jai Singh Gahlawat, who saw action flying Hunters during the 1971 War for the Liberation Bangladesh, for which he was awarded a Vir Chakra. In great detail, he takes us with him as he mounts attacks deep in West Pakistan. Wg. Cdr. Gahlawat is also one of the Air Force's few A1 instructors, and we discuss those experiences too.Wg. Cdr. Gahlawat's profile is here. http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/11280. His Vir Chakra citation is a really thrilling read.00:00:00 Guest introduction, journey into IAF00:13:13 Commencement of hostilities00:15:50 First mission: Strike Sakesar Radar00:36:52 Destroying bridge in Kathua00:43:38 Being attacked by 6 Mirages00:48:00 Destroying tanks in Chhamb00:53:10 Nearly shot down own Hunters00:56:06 Becoming an A-1 Instructor

A long-term study of climate and conflict determined that in places with large populations and a history of political exclusion of ethnic groups, nearly one-third of the wars initiated in the last 40 years were preceded by a climate disaster. So, what is the connection between climate emergencies and armed conflict? Why do climate disasters escalate political disputes? And what can we do about it? Scott Carney is an investigative journalist, anthropologist, and New York Times bestselling author. Dr. Jason Miklian serves as a senior researcher at the Center for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo. Together they are the authors of The Vortex: A True Story of History's Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation. On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Scott and Jason join Ross to discuss the geopolitical landscape of South Asia after World War II and explain how the 1970 Bhola Cyclone led to the genocide of 3 million people and triggered the Indo-Pakistani War. Scott and Jason describe how the conflict between West Pakistan, East Pakistan (later, Bangladesh) and India played out geopolitically with the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union and offer insight into President Nixon and Pakistani President Yahya Khan's roles in furthering the Sino-Soviet split. Listen in to understand why climate disasters serve as catalysts for war, what lessons we can learn from the fight for Bangladesh, and what we can do to prevent armed conflict in the wake of climate emergencies moving forward. Connect with Nori Purchase Nori Carbon Removals Nori's website Nori on Twitter Check out our other podcast, Carbon Removal Newsroom Resources The Vortex: A True Story of History's Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation by Scott Carney and Jason Miklian Scott Carney Scott Carney on YouTube Center for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo What Doesn't Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude, and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength by Scott Carney Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh George Kennan and Containment The Sino-Soviet Split ‘Fortress India: Why Is Delhi Building a Berline Wall to Keep Out Its Bangladeshi Neighbors?' in Foreign Policy The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

Wing Commander Aspari Raghunath was commissioned in 1964 as a navigator and later was trained on Canberra Bomber in 1966 under the command of the-then Sqn. Ldr. P Gautam. As a Flight Lieutenant, he again served under Wing Commander P Gautam during Bangladesh Liberation war in 1971 and carried out bombing missions over West Pakistan as well as East Pakistan. He was awarded Vir Chakra for his role in this war. He served the Indian Air Force as an Instructor, Local Examiner, Systems Test Navigator on various aircraft at ASTE, the premier Test Flying Centre of IAF in addition to operational flying, administrative and counter-intelligence duties. He took premature retirement from Air Force in 1986, and was Senior Vice President of Kirloskar Group of Industries till 2015. Listen to his amazing story here! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/gmbwithkay/message

50 yrs ago Bangladesh got her liberation from (West) Pakistan and 16th of December is remembered as Vijay Diwas. A poor impoverished, ravaged, flooded nation - was dismissed by the likes of American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and called a 'Basket Case' Today as India remembers the 1971 War to Liberate Bangladesh - the nation itself has become the fastest growing in Asia ... with a per capita income, that is greater than that of India. As we celebrate Bangladesh's independence and the decisive role India played in this historic occasion - there is also need to Introspect on how our small neighbour has done so well in the past decade - while we have been going downhill.

Phryma leptostachya, or lopseed, is a perennial herb. of the genus Phryma, native to eastern North America (roughly, everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains) and Asia (Japan, Nepal, India and West Pakistan), and consists of either one or two species, depending on whether the American and Asian species are considered separate or not.

Continuing with theme of the 1971 war for the Liberation of Bangladesh, we interview Gp. Capt. Anil Kumar "Toots" Ghosh, who flew long-range night bomber missions in a Canberra every night of the war. From their base in Agra, Canberras hit targets in both northern West Pakistan, and around Dacca in the East. Gp. Capt. Ghosh's career profile is here: http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/6525More articles and information on Canberras available here: https://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/aircraft/past/canberras.html

While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways.Audio narration by Ad-Auris.  India Policy Watch #1: Satyam Eva Jayate?  Insights on burning policy issues in India- RSJWe often talk about truth, disinformation and radically networked societies in this newsletter. Our interest in these issues is often on account of news stories around us. But that’s not all. We find there’s a more fundamental shift on the understanding of truth that’s underway in societies around the world. That is what fascinates us about truth. Now, truth or its nature is the basis of all philosophy from the time Socrates started asking questions of fellow Athenians at the public square many centuries ago. Yet we come back to the question of truth and certainty again and again over the course of our history. Not because attaining the truth is an epistemological necessity for our race. That it might be. Instead understanding the nature of truth is important to control it. And those who control the truth control power. Not only for the present but far into the future. So what’s the point of this random discourse on truth at the start? Truth Is The First CasualtyThere were a few news stories over the past couple of weeks that made me wonder about where we are on truth in India today. First, the kerfuffle between Twitter and the Indian government. A lot of commentary on this topic conflate two issues - one, Twitter not complying (yet) to certain parts of the new IT intermediary guidelines and two, Twitter tagging certain tweets by BJP spokespersons on the Congress ‘toolkit’ case as manipulated media. The first point is of limited interest to me. There are new guidelines and they must be followed if you want to be treated as an intermediary in India. Others have complied and Twitter has been lax. The second point is interesting. Twitter claims it has a global policy on tagging certain tweets as manipulated media and that’s what it followed in the Congress ‘toolkit’ case too. This claim has been attacked by many. Some have questioned Twitter’s commitment to free speech and alleged it suppresses right wing handles more than others. I haven’t seen any credible data to support this so I don’t know. But, more importantly, invoking freedom of speech argument here betrays a poor understanding of the concept. Free speech is a right of the citizens that has to be protected from the state which holds a legitimate monopoly on violence (Weber). Suppression of free speech is an issue only when the state is involved. Private entities don’t have that monopoly on violence. If they suppress free speech on their platform, well, there are other platforms. The other attack on Twitter is more credible. Who is Twitter to arbitrate on truth? How does Twitter know what’s the truth? These questions are closely linked to the other news story about a viral video involving an attack on a Muslim man in Ghaziabad. The UP police filed an FIR against Twitter and Mohammed Zubair among others for creating communal divide and intending to disrupt public peace. Zubair is the co-founder of AltNews, a fake news busting media outlet. Zubair and AltNews had done the forensic work debunking the Congress toolkit document on Twitter. It is possible that work could have been the reason for Twitter to have tagged certain tweets as manipulated. Now AltNews was being accused by the state for spreading fake news. Life has came full circle in two weeks for Zubair. Why has the question of truth become so fraught in our lives? Why are we inundated with versions of truth on social media each with its compelling argument and logic? Have we lost objectivity while looking for balance while reporting on truth? These are tough questions. I have no answers. Easy or otherwise. But since we have come so far with piece, like Crime Master Gogo, we need to go back with some takeaways. Truth And TruthfulnessWe live in times where we are suspicious of every claim of truth. We look for who is making the claim, we investigate it, we check on their politics and we debunk the claim if there’s even a whiff of their allegiance to the other side of the political divide from us. This is now the norm.Of course this has always been the case in politics. Political parties are formed on the basis of the belief among the members that theirs is the right path. That the party knows the truth that will lead the society or the nation to the lofty goals set out in the constitution. Politics has always been about '“our truth” versus “their truth”. It is a contestation on versions of truth.This we lived with. But the problem of our times is how deeply politics has pervaded every sphere. There’s not even a sliver of convergence on truths in any subject these days because politics cannot countenance it. No inch can be yielded to “their truth” anywhere. So, the effort on all sides is to bury the others in an avalanche of lies. The more tenuous your truth, the greater the desire to fight with an arsenal of lies. Bernard Williams, the great analytical British philosopher, wrote about this in his last book, Truth and Truthfulness (2002). For Williams, truth is a cultural value to be defended against the onslaught of lies. The accuracy and the sincerity with which we identify and then speak the truth across all social forms is worthy of a good fight. Else, we lose everything. I have excerpted from the first couple of pages of the book below. Williams had presaged the current times of the widespread suspicion of truth even before the advent of social media: “Two currents of ideas are very prominent in modern thought and culture. On the one hand, there is an intense commitment to truthfulness - or, at any rate, a pervasive suspiciousness, a readiness against being fooled, an eagerness to see through appearances to the real structures and motives that lie behind them. Always familiar in politics, it stretches to historical understanding, to the social sciences, and even to interpretations of discoveries and research in the natural sciences.Together with this demand for truthfulness, however, or (to put it less positively) this reflex against deceptiveness, there is an equally pervasive suspicion about truth itself: whether there is such a thing; if there is, whether it can be more than relative or subjective or something of that kind; altogether, whether we should bother about it, in carrying on our activities or in giving an account of them. These two things, the devotion to truthfulness and the suspicion directed to the idea of truth, are connected to one another. The desire for truthfulness drives a process of criticism which weakens the assurance that there is any secure of unqualifiedly stateable truth. Suspicion fastens, for instance, on history. Accounts which have been offered as telling the truth about the past often turn out to be biased, ideological, or self-serving. But attempts to replace these distortions with “the truth” may once more encounter the same kind of objection, and then the question arises, whether any historical account can aim to be, simply true: whether objective truth, or truth at all, can honestly (or, as we naturally put it, truthfully) be regarded as the aim of our inquiries into the past. Similar arguments, if not quite the same, have run their course in other fields. But if truth cannot be the aim of our inquiries, then it must surely be more honest or truthful to stop pretending that it is, and to accept that.We can see how the demand for truthfulness and the rejection of truth can go together. However, this does not mean that they can happily co-exist or that the situation is stable. If you do not really believe in the existence of truth, what is the passion for truthfulness a passion for? Or - as we might also put it - in pursuing truthfulness, what are you supposedly being true to? This is not an abstract difficulty or just a paradox. It has consequences for real politics, and it signals a danger that our intellectual activities, particularly in the humanities may tear themselves to pieces.…. My question is: how can we address this situation? Can the notions of truth and truthfulness be intellectually stabilised, in such a way that what we understand about truth and our chances of arriving at it can be made to fit with our need for truthfulness? I believe this to be a basic problem for present-day philosophy.” Pluralism, Balance And ObjectivityThe other challenge to truth has come from a total lack of understanding of the concept of value pluralism among the media. The construct, popularised by Isaiah Berlin, allows for two or more incommensurable values to be held at the same time by a polity each of which may be true and still be at odds with one another. For Berlin, these differences are unlike a titanic battle between the right and the wrong; instead they are about accepting contradictions and differences in values which then deliver diversity and strength to a society. The media has distorted the notion of pluralism to some kind of an elusive ‘balance’ in its coverage of any issue. Both sides must be represented is a common refrain. The role of the media is to unearth truth through objectivity. Balance doesn’t help in that. That the earth is round is a truth objectively established. Of course, there are ‘flat earthers’ still who think otherwise. The role of media is not to give air time to both in in the interest of pluralism or balance. That’s lazy journalism and an invitation to untruths of every stripe to be concocted to crowd out the truth. This is what has happened. Social media platforms have accentuated this generation of untruths. Over time these turn into ‘versions of truths’ which get quoted by mainstream media aiming for a balance by presenting both sides of the story. It is a systematic perversion of truth. We All Have Our Truths NowThere’s also the failure of liberalism to defend stoutly the core values it stands for in the past decade. It has been attacked from the outside by those with conventional suspicion of the liberals. But liberal ideas have withered under the attack from within from the supporters of relativism, moral scepticism and extreme identity politics. The reverence of relativism among the liberals has meant there’s no objective truth for them anymore. Everything is true in its context. Therefore, everything is false too. This ambiguity has meant everyone can claim their own truth based on some kind of a lived experience. Nothing is sacred in general anymore because everything can be questioned. Simultaneously, everything is sacred in particular because there’s a never ending contest to be purer than the next person. It is difficult to even define a truth in these circumstances. Forget defending it. This absence of a rigid commitment to an ideology by the liberals would lead to moral panic, anarchy and philistinism as Leo Strauss had warned. This is where we seem to have arrived.Lastly, there’s a vast majority who watch this battle of different versions of truth from the sidelines. They think of themselves as the audience. They aren’t. It is they who are being played in the arena. Yet, often, they know the truth and they see through the game. But they remain onlookers, reluctant to take sides and ever willing to be taken in by what’s unfolding in front of them. When truth is no longer valuable, it is they who end up paying the highest price. Like Ramdhari Singh Dinkar wrote:समर शेष है, नहीं पाप का भागी केवल व्याघ्र,जो तटस्थ हैं, समय लिखेगा उनका भी अपराध।Translation: This war over truth is eternal. Your adversary isn’t alone in the wrong. Those on the sidelines, unwilling to take a stand are culpable too. In time, they will face a reckoning. India Policy Watch #2: When Federating Units are ExtinguishableInsights on burning policy issues in India— Pranay KotasthaneMany reports of restoration of J&K’s statehood came out this week. In what appeared to be a step towards restoration, the PM and HM met leaders of significant political parties of the J&K Union Territory. And so it appears that a former state in the Indian Union — reduced to a UT a couple of years ago — might soon become a state again, albeit a truncated one, and on terms different from the ones before August 2019. Any issue involving J&K is a Pandora’s Box. So, for a moment, keep the particularities of J&K aside and consider this question: what does the Indian government’s flip-flop story tell us about the nature of federalism in India? Before answering this question, let’s take a detour to our western neighbour. As in many other areas, it teaches us what not to do. The One Unit ProgrammeThe four provinces of Pakistan as we know today didn’t exist between 14th October 1955 and 1 July 1970. These provinces, along with erstwhile princely states, were merged together into a single unit: the One Unit called West Pakistan. The primary reason was to create parity between the eastern and western wings of the country. East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan and the whole of its western wing became West Pakistan. Provincial governments of Sindh, NWFP, Balochistan, and West Punjab were dismissed and these units were relegated to being merely divisions of the province of West Pakistan.The One Unit of West Pakistan (1955–1970). Source: modified from wikimediaIn 1954, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Bogra, is believed to have expressed this hope:There will be no Bengalis, no Punjabis, no Sindhis, no Pathans, no Balochis, no Bahawalpuris, no Khairpuris. The disappearance of these groups will strengthen the integrity of Pakistan.We know how that turned out.Now, look at this from a federalism angle. Most federations have a centripetal bias meaning that the union is stronger than the states. But if provincial governments can be dismissed with the ease as it was done in Pakistan, can that system even be called a federal one?Perhaps not. I came across a key differentiation between federalism and decentralisation that sheds some light on this question in A Review of Indian Fiscal Federalism by Dr Govinda Rao:A federal system is the one in which the entire set of powers — legislative, fiscal and regulatory — are divided in the Constitution or conventions between different levels of government. There is a measure of permanency in the assignments and in particular, the powers given to lower level governments cannot be extinguished by higher level governments (Breton, 2000). Thus, checks and balances to safeguard the system is an inherent part of the federal system whereas, decentralisation does not necessarily entail that. In other words, all federal systems are decentralized whereas all decentralized systems are not federal. The Constitution and other institutions set up to ensure checks and balances and safeguard the domains of different levels of government are inherent components of a federal system.Seen from this lens, the Pakistani system was decentralised but not federal.What about the Indian system?Article 3 of the Indian constitution permits the Parliament to, by law:(a) form a new State by separation of territory from any State or by uniting two or more States or parts of States or by uniting any territory to a part of any State;(b) increase the area of any State;(c) diminish the area of any State;(d) alter the boundaries of any State;(e) alter the name of any State;At the same time, the ‘basic structure doctrine’ recognises Federalism as one of the basic and hence unalterable components of the Indian constitution. So, in all likelihood, if the Indian union were to embark on a One-Unit or Four-Units programme of its own, the Supreme Court would come in its way. In other words, the ‘measure of permanency of the Indian federation’ rests on the role of the judiciary.What about the J&K Reorganisation Act?Now, we return to the central question. Does J&K’s conversion into a UT go against the basic structure doctrine? I’m not competent to analyse the legal aspects of this question. As it stands, several cases are pending before the Supreme Court which argue that the act was unconstitutional because it goes against the basic structure doctrine. Even after two years, the Court hasn’t made a decision yet.From a non-legal perspective, it does seem to me that the J&K reorganisation goes against the spirit of federalism. This is perhaps the first time a full-fledged state of the Indian union has been converted into a union territory. This is an important distinction because the powers that J&K enjoyed as a state were in one fell swoop ‘extinguished’ by the Indian government. A notification in Oct 2020 allowing non-residents to own immovable property in the union territory illustrates this point further. This was not allowed under J&K’s pre-independence State Subject Laws. Many border states and regions in India still have such restrictions. Even beyond India, it is not unusual for peripheries of nation-states to be accorded special status, as a quid pro quo for accepting a higher sovereign. The undoing of this arrangement with J&K by a union government rule militates against ‘permanency in assignments of powers’ to lower levels of governments, a key requirement of federal systems.In sum, even if we keep the specifics of J&K aside, India took a step back on the issue of federalism on August 5, 2019. The move towards reversing some of the damage caused is welcome and much-needed. Pakistan should warn us about the costs of sacrificing federalism at the altar of national integration.Other good articles on the One Unit scheme:Formation of One Unit, The NewsFlashback: One Unit: a dark chapter in our history, DawnIndia Policy Watch #3: Phrases that Should Fall into DisuseInsights on burning policy issues in India— Pranay KotasthaneWords have meanings. They indicate the quality of a nation’s policy discourse. With this idea in mind, we are compiling a running list of words and phrases that should disappear from India’s public discourse. Here’s the first instalment.Haves and Have-nots. You would have come across this phrase in many policy discussions. It is easy to present every policy problem as an eternal class struggle between the ‘haves and the have-nots’. And yet, this understanding is misplaced. A speaker at an event I attended a few years ago said that ‘there is no such thing as haves vs have-nots. Instead, there are haves and want-to-haves’. A lightbulb went off in my head.The underlying story behind the haves/have-nots formulation is a zero-sum one. The implicit causality is that the haves have it because the have-nots don’t. The haves are the villains merely because they are successful, rich, or privileged. Structured this way, only one kind of policy recommendation can surface — take things away from the haves and distribute them to the have-nots. The alternate formulation of haves and want-to-haves has a positive sum game at its core. It acknowledges that individuals from both groups are united by the same purpose — to make their lives better off. It doesn’t vilify the haves. The policy recommendations derived from this perspective focus on the ways to increase opportunities for the want-to-haves. A language of confrontation is replaced by a language of competition.Centre/Central GovernmentThe DMK government in Tamil Nadu has raised this issue in recent times. And they are right. ‘Centre’ and ‘Central government’ are terms that are not mentioned even once in the Indian constitution. Not only is it inaccurate to call the union government as the central government, this formulation implicitly assumes that Delhi and the Union government are at the centre while other Indian places and state governments are at the periphery. Given that the Indian constitution explicitly devolves certain powers to states, there is no scope for a government that can claim centrality over the others. This is what well-known constitutional expert Subhash C Kashyap has to say on the matter:“From the point of the usage of the words, 'centre' indicates a point in the middle of a circle, whereas 'Union' is the whole circle. In India, the relationship between the so-called 'Centre' and States, as per the Constitution, is actually a relationship between the whole and its parts. The relation between the whole and its parts is definitely different from the relation between a centre and its periphery”.Population Bomb/Population Explosion.It is a national pastime to blame overpopulation for India’s problems. Maybe, population was a problem in the last decades of the Raj and the early years of the Republic. But those Malthusian concerns have long become irrelevant. India’s total fertility rate has dropped from six in 1950s to near replacement levels of 2.2 in 2020. This decline has happened across religions and regions in India. Note what the Population Foundation of India says:“Religion has little to do with fertility levels. Muslim dominated countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh, have out-performed India in terms of falling birth rates.  Even within India, the fertility rates among Muslims in Kerala is lower than the fertility rates among Hindus in Bihar. States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh have proven that it is not religion that matters.  What has made the difference is education, employment opportunities and accessibility of contraceptives. In neighbouring Sri Lanka, fertility rates were stabilised by simply increasing the age at marriage, a move that was made more effective by ensuring girls were educated.”In fact, we might soon have the problem of a falling working-age population. By 2035, the dependency ratio — the proportion of working-age population to non-working age population — is expected to peak. So, we should get rid of Malthusian notions of overpopulation from our public discourse. Blame undergovernance, not overpopulation, as my colleague Nitin Pai says.HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters[Article] “Don't Give Up on Truth” in the Persuasion: Yascha Mounk and Jonathan Rauch discuss the dangers of disinformation, the limits on robust debate, and why truth is fundamental to preserving democracies around the world. [Article] The Population Foundation of India has a note on Lessons for India as China calls off two-child policy. Again, a case of a neighbour helpfully reminding India of the mistakes it should avoid.[Interview] The News Minute speaks to Subhash Kashyap on the differences between ‘centre’ and ‘union’.[Podcast] On Puliyabaazi, Saurabh and Pranay discuss China’s three-child policy, rising petrol prices in India, and implications of the economic and social disparities between India’s southern and northern states. Get on the email list at publicpolicy.substack.com

Tariq Ali is a British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is the author of many books, including Pakistan: Military Rule or People's Power (1970), Can Pakistan Survive? The Death of a State (1983), Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (2002). Tariq Ali comes back on the podcast to discuss dynastic politics, the PPP that was, if there is any reason to be hopeful in PDM, 1971, Fatima Jinnah, and the Pakistani left. Does the left in Pakistan need to consolidate? Does it need to update its manifesto? Do we need a revolution in Pakistan? Did India want to take over West Pakistan in 1971? Watch on this deep dive podcast with the legend himself, Tariq Ali. There is also a hilarious Hamlet story in there. Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepakistanexperience And Please stay in touch: https://twitter.com/ThePakistanExp1 https://www.facebook.com/thepakistanexperience https://instagram.com/thepakistanexpeperience The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications. He can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tinder. https://www.facebook.com/Shehzadgs/ https://twitter.com/shehzad89 https://instagram.com/shehzadghiasshaikh

In the early 1970s the more religiously tolerant East Pakistan broke away from West Pakistan to form the new nation of Bangladesh. Sadly, though it was founded as a secular state it later fell into Islamist extremism. In these episodes we learn the details of that history from someone who lived it. These aired in 2015.

Karishma Ali (@KarishmaAli22) of Chitral in remote north-west Pakistan is the first girl from her hometown to have played football and Australian rules football at a national and international level. She has represented Pakistan in football at the Jubilee Games in Dubai, and was part of the first women's team from Pakistan to participate in an AFL International Cup in 2017. Karishma is also the founder of the groundbreaking Chitral Women's Sports Club and Chitral Women's Handicrafts Centre. For these pioneering exploits and her incredible leadership, Karishma has received deserved accolades which has seen her featured on Forbes Asia’s 30 under 30 list, Milan Fashion Week and FIFA.com among many others. Karishma joins me for a wide-ranging discussion on the impact sport has played on her life, how she continues to be a driving force for her community and now on a much broader level. Show Notes: https://www.abidimam.com/karishma

Herinneringen aan een ziekenhuisje in noordwest Pakistan zoals Harriet Tom daar gewerkt heeft.

  Photos from Addis and Jim’s Service Addis and Jim Chapman’s Peace Corps Story Where and when did you serve? What did you do? We served in what was then West Pakistan from 1961-63. Ours was the first multidisciplinary project in PC — nurses, teachers, lab techs, librarian, agriculture specialists, even a brick mason. Jobs [...] The post Serving in the First Year – Addis and Jim Chapman, West Pakistan 1961-63 appeared first on My Peace Corps Story.

Since August 1947 the events surrounding Partition have been a staple of art, music, drama and fiction. Writer and spiritual teacher John Siddique draws on his Indian and Irish roots as he reflects on what Partition means to him. He reflects on the 70-year cultural legacy, identifying patterns and drawing lessons from literature, film and poetry. As the British withdrew after 300 years the subcontinent was partitioned into two independent nation states: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. It prompted one of the greatest migrations in human history. Ten million people were displaced as Muslims trekked to West Pakistan and East Pakistan (modern day Bangladesh), while millions of Hindus and Sikhs headed in the opposite direction. The resulting carnage saw massacres, arson, forced conversions, mass abductions, and savage sexual violence. It is estimated that in excess of a million people died and 75,000 women were raped, many of whom were then disfigured or dismembered.John ​says he found suffering, but also beauty, in the short stories of Saadat Hassan Manto. And he ​recommends Deepa Mehta's film, Earth, based on the novel Ice Candy Man, ​for its unflinching and human portrayal of events.Produced by Matt Willis at 7digital.

Nearly 70 years ago, British India was partitioned along mostly religious lines - Muslims in the newly-created East and West Pakistan; Hindus, Sikhs and others in what remained of India. But, of course, it was never that simple. Here, Professor Ali Asani talks about the distinctiveness of South Asian Islam and the way in which political narratives emerged in the period leading up to Partition.

In 1947, two days after India became an independent nation, the plans to partition the country into a Hindu India and Muslim East and West Pakistan were announced. British policies of divide and rule, combined with hastily drawn up boundaries and a lack of a real understanding about the possible outcome led to ethnic violence on an enormous scale. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory.

In 1947, two days after India became an independent nation, the plans to partition the country into a Hindu India and Muslim East and West Pakistan were announced. British policies of divide and rule, combined with hastily drawn up boundaries and a lack of a real understanding about the possible outcome led to ethnic violence on an enormous scale. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sanghita Datta presents her paper 'Dis-locating the local: A study of the migrants originating from the Indian enclaves' in Parallel session V(E) of the conference Examining Migration Dynamics: Networks and Beyond, 24-26 Sept 2013 Borders divide nations and with it, it also divides localities irrespective of class and religion. The partition of India happened in two folds:- firstly with Pakistan and secondly with Bangladesh. In this entire process of drawing and re- drawing of borders the residue, in this entire process, are the inhabitants of borders. This has been a similar experience in case of all those who have been uprooted due to war and have been displaced internally due to various reasons. The Radcliffe Commission's ‘Blunder Line', demarcated the boundary line between India and Pakistan-East and West Pakistan separately. It gave rise to a number of boundary disputes about the adversarial possession of enclaves. The major bone of contention are the 106 enclaves (locally known as ‘chits') of India in having a total area of 20,957.07 acres situated within Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan). This paper is an attempt to find answers to the big question of how and what motivated the inhabitants of the Enclave region to migrate and how the actual migration cycle took place. Based on unstructured interviews and mixed sampling techniques it traces the experiences of these migrants and there four decades of struggle to stay in India, mostly without legal citizenship in the two bordering districts of West Bengal:- Darjeeling and Coochbehar. Set on the backdrop of partition, the experience of travelling back to the mainland as a complete "alien" makes the journey different and the settling process sets them apart from the rest of the migration taking place in the country.

It is 40 years since the beginning of the war between East and West Pakistan which resulted in the formation of Bangladesh as an independent country. Junaid Ahmed reports.