Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, and her party supporters attend a protest march against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and a new citizenship law, in Kolkata, India, December 16, 2019. Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri Fiction in time of fake news. Below is the text of the 2020 Clark Lecture in English Literature instituted by Trinity College, Cambridge. We …

In Askari’s view, the West became victim to depravity in its quest for progress Raza Naeem on the modernism of Muhammad Hasan Askari (1919–1978)   In order to understand the depth and causes of Muhammad Hasan Askari’s disenchantment with modernity, Marxism and “the West”, it is necessary to go over the fundamental Marxian ideas that became so distasteful to him …

In this last installment of the three-part article based on correspondence between Hassan Mirza and Professor Noam Chomsky, the internationally-acclaimed linguist and social scientist speaks about the British colonial genocidal role in South Asia and Africa, the future of South Asia, religion, the catastrophic impact of climate change, and the US-Europe imperialist-induced migration crisis.   Religion and spirituality Hassan Mirza …

  By Farman Ali   Literati of the capital have called for the promotion and dissemination of the message of love and harmony derived from the everlasting work of literary giants like Shaikh Ayaz, Gul Khan Naseer and Ajmal Khattak. This message could be spread among the people through the translation of their work in all national languages. The message …

  News Desk   From the House of God Every idol will be removed We, the pure, the faithful Who were barred from His house Will be made kings Their crowns will be flung in the air And thrones will be smashed We shall bear witness Ali Madeeh Hashmi, the grandson of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, writes that when these lines …

SDPI honors the living legend with 'Lifetime Achievement Award' for his contribution to Urdu language, literature

By Raza Naeem Raziya Sajjad Zaheer (1917-1979), who passed away in Delhi 40 years ago today, was one of Urdu’s most accomplished but least celebrated and acknowledged women writers. She was a novelist, short-story writer and translator, and a Communist activist and Progressive writer born in Ajmer in 1917. She won the Nehru Award in 1966. She had been contributing short …

Researchers have ranked the world’s most important, most threatened mountain water towers, provide new insight on mountain glacier–derived water resource systems, impacting up to 1.9 billion people globally

  Dr Asim Sajjad There is no chance of a South Asian union anytime soon. The Modi government’s revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status in August triggered yet another war of words between India and Pakistan that could at any time descend into something far more serious with consequences for generations of Indians, Pakistanis, and indeed people from …

There's more to our Hazara town than just bomb blasts: Shahida Abbasi

Policymakers, researchers and game changers from 22 countries will brainstorm on issues related to economy, trade, education, pollution, water management, emerging technologies, governance, cyber security, endangered languages, regional cooperation, human rights, women and media etc in 35 sessions.   Ali Rahmat    ISLAMABAD:  What the Fourth Industrial Revolution and digital era is about? And how it has transformed society, and every strata …

Saira Mujtaba talks to Raza Naeem about two leading lights of the Progressive Writers Association – who both passed away in the last week of October   These months not only bring a hint of winter in the air, but also a remembrance of two iconoclast Urdu writers whose writings will surely make the temperatures of the soul rise: for …

By Ghulam Amin Beg On Tuesday, September 14, 2010, I had written this article and published on the Simurgh Institute blog, which received several comments and further elaborations. The article analyzed the opinion post by Selig S. Harrison published in the New York Times in August the same year under the title, ‘China’s Discreet Hold on Pakistan’s Northern Borderlands’. Today, …

Call upon peoples of South Asia to work together for the rights of oppressed nations   Herald Report An alliance of Pakistani Left parties, civil society and peace activists condemned the Modi-led Indian government’s move to annex Jammu and Kashmir warned that the humanitarian crisis in Indian-controlled part of the Himalayan state can spiral into a dangerous conflict between the …

Article 370 enabled Kashmir to give land to the tiller. Today, that freedom is gone by Nyla Ali Khan The recent unilateral decision of Prime Minister Modi’s government to revoke Article 370 — which guaranteed the special status of Jammu and Kashmir — the dismemberment of the state, and its diminishment are, to my mind, flagrant violations of the sovereign Constitution of …