I really don’t know what is going on here. or here. or here. or here. or here. or here. or here. or here. But, I totally know what’s going on here. Jack Wilkes for LIFE in India, 1945. There are some amazing shots of Jinnah, and perhaps the best visual depiction of the true colonial [...]
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Two inspiring Americans to read about today: I. Saving a Kashmiri Village After Remaking His Life, NYT, June 25 2009, tells the story of Todd Shea and his hospital, Comprehensive Disaster Relief Services, in Chikar. There is a video-essay attached to the story that you should watch. Shea’s flickr stream. And a link for you [...]
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Beat extremists you can, says Obama, Anwar Iqbal, DawnTV, June 21, 2009 Any plan to visit Pakistan in the near future?’ ‘I would love to visit. As you know, I had Pakistani roommates in college who were very close friends of mine. I went to visit them when I was still in college; was in [...]
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Shah Hussain (1539-94), known more popularly as Lal Hussain, was born in Lahore. He was a sufi in the Qadiri order, prone to expressing his devotion through song, mystical dance and exuberance. Naturally, he had a rough time with some of the elders in Lahore who looked askance at his public repudiation of beards and [...]
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“I’m the second Khan winning a World Cup for Pakistan, so I’m very proud of my Khans,” said Younis. “This is my dream. I dreamed all the time of lifting the World Cup. My thinking in all my career is that I will be remembered for a team like 1992. I was not in the [...]
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If it worked for Zia, it could work for Zardari. Pakistan beat SA in ICC Twenty20 World Cup Semis. Why not? ps. I cannot believe my blood pressure still goes up watching these things.
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(sepoy sez: you can find an introduction to purdah on the about CM page) Greetings CM readers, Sepoy has generously offered me a spot on his soapbox, a turn at the helm, a cameo in his story? Um a chance to reach out to some gentle minds…I would like to begin by discussing the current [...]
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Iran 2009 = US 2000 or maybe Iran 2009 = US 2006 or maybe Iran 2009 = US 2008 or maybe Iran 2009 = Pakistan 2007. I grow weary of all the punditry but the images are arresting. I especially love the one above, which appeared on NYT. The banner states: Patience, Dawn is Near. [...]
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Well, the Chicago adventure has run its course. Off to Berlin, where I will be joining the Freie Universität faculty as a Juniorprofessur of South Asia history in the Department of History and Cultural Studies and the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies. Which means: Transitions! The good news, I presume, is that [...]
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I endorse both!
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My new piece is up at The Review (National), State of Decay: Twenty years of military dictatorships, under Ayub Khan and Zia ul Haq, cemented the rule of the few over the many. Their policies led to the emergence of specific grievances by sub-nationalist groups in Baluchistan and Sindh. In the decade of Pervez Musharraf’s [...]
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A chance conversation reminded me of something, which led to another trip down the ‘stacks in Reg and Google Books and, lo and behold, I may have hit at the birthplace of TALIBOTHRA! Now, understand that this is an exercise in what professional historians call “speculative scholarship”. As a professional historian, I believe it is [...]
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Via Babu, in re to this… Refugees are easily radicalized, and if the Pakistani army, which carries out counterinsurgency with a bludgeon, continues to create thousands of new ones, with no government plan for their return to Swat and the reconstruction of their homes, it’s quite possible that the long-bearded men under the black-and-white flags [...]
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Via Moacir and thanks to the SMU digital collection, A Pocket Guide to Egypt, 1943. Democracy is a free, open way of life that is threatened by a system of oppression. That’s why we’re in this war. Democracy is built on the right of free choice – the right of man to worship God in [...]
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Tanz-Orchester Petrescu: The Sheik of Araby, c. 1922 update: Via Kerim comes the Nazi propaganda version of the Sheikh of Araby.
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