Posts by: sepoy

Late Great Twitter

Ranajit Guha (1923-2023)

I wish to mark the passing of Ranajit Guha (1923-2023). It is important for historians...

Slow Burn Lahore Redux

Much earlier, as in 2012, I wrote a series of small things that were meant...

XQs XXX - A Conversation with Sarah Fatima Waheed

The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting...

XQs XXIX - A Conversation with Malini Sur

The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting...

Surah-i-Fatiah as Anthem

Ammad Ali is a writer and researcher on History, Politics, Literature, Heritage and Cinema. He...

Remembering J. P. ‘Jerry’ Losty (1945-2021)

All of us, students and scholars of Mughal worlds were saddened to hear about the...

A Social Theory of Corruption

We are grateful to Prof Sudhir Chella Rajan for this excerpt from his book A...

XQs XXVIII - A Conversation with Shahla Hussain

The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting...

CM Roundtable VII on From the Ashes of 1947

For the seventh issue of CM Roundtable (CMRT), we are delighted to host a conversation...

XQs XXVII - A Conversation with Ali Raza

The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting...

Guru Nanak in an Era of Global Thought

We are grateful to Anneeth Kaur Hundle (Assistant Professor of Anthropology and the Dhan Kaur...

Remembering Sunil Kumar II

The sudden and tragic loss of Professor Sunil Kumar (1956-2021) is a great shock to...

Sunil Kumar (1956-2021)

My Buddy Saddy– Sanjay Subrahmanyam is Distinguished Professor of History and Irving & Jean Stone...

XQs XXVI - A Conversation with Nurfadzilah Yahaya

The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting...

XQs XXV - A Conversation with Jyoti Gulati Balachandran

The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting...

On A Suitable Boy

Vedita Cowaloosur on her love-affair with A Suitable Boy. Mira Nair’s adaptation of the Vikram...

XQs XXIV - A Conversation with Tahseen Shams

The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting...

XQs XXIII - A Conversation with Sai Balakrishnan

The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting...

XQs XXII - A Conversation with Sebastian Prange

The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting...

On Khalidi's The Hundred Years War

I am posting these remarks written, and made, in another time (March 04, 2020) on...

South Asia from Afar

I am posting my short remarks on “South Asia from Afar”–a series curated by Dr....

Movement

If you have watched the monsoon rain come and go, you know something about the...

XQs XXI - A Conversation with Darryl Li

The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting...

In Memoriam Zarina

CM Roundtable VI on Indian Sex Life

For the sixth issue of CM Roundtable (CMRT), we are delighted to host a conversation...

Azadi

This guest-post is written by Sarover Zaidi and Samprati Pani. All images © Sarover Zaidi...

Solidarity Statement

A statement of solidarity with those protesting CAA in Delhi by concerned anthropologists

Celebrating Allison Busch (1969-2019)

I was born in Barabanki

[The following was written by Prof CM Naim.]

XQs XX - A Conversation with Sheetal Chhabria

[The XQs (Ten Questions) series is a conversation with the authors of new and exciting...

Solidarity with JNU

Solidarity Statement condemning the attack on the Students and Professors of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New...

Solidarity Statement

Solidarity Statement Against Ongoing Police Brutality in Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University

CM Roundtable IV: Sita Under the Crescent Moon

I am grateful to Amna Chaudhry for organizing this Roundtable on the late Annie Ali...

Change

The history of this blog is also the history of blogging software. Chapati Mystery (CM)...

Matters of the State: Conference Report

We thank Professor Nayanika Mathur, keynote respondent at "Matters of State: Bureaucracy, Procedure and Power...

Chatan

I have a small piece in Herald on the history of anti-Ahmadi proselytization "The Rock...

Daisy Rockwell on "A Woman's Courtyard"

[We are very excited that Daisy Rockwell (CM's own lapata) has a new translation of...

Get Involved

This is an open call to colleagues in graduate school/early career stages to get involved...

In memoriam: Quratulain Ali Khan

Quratulain Ali Khan. Photo credit Quratulain Ali Khan. It is with immense sorrow that I...

Asma Jahangir: Through the Years

Anish Gawande is the director of the Dara Shikoh Fellowship, which promotes collaborative creative dialogue...

Who was Eqbal Ahmad?

I gave these comments at an AAAW event at Museo El Barrio some years back...

Past Pleasant

The practice of publishing old texts is common in Pakistan; British-era district gazetteers and other...

In Memory of Kavita S. Datla

Kavita Datla's keynote on Decolonization's political lives for the South-South conference pic.twitter.com/e5e7M767Vq — manan ahmed...

A Passage to America

How May I Help You? Deepak Singh (DS) is a writer, radio producer, and journalist....

How to See

I was invited to speak on Richard Eaton and Phillip Wagoner's 2014 (already seminal) book...

On FATA

Gentle Readers, My op-ed in NYT on the recent FATA/administrative developments that connects the history...

Coming from Abroad II: Refugee Nations

I opened this conversation with the question of hospitality and a fragment of the history...

Coming from Abroad

My friends and many thousand strangers to me, are gathered at various airports across United...

Thinking about the Last Hindu Emperor

Gentle Readers: A small discussion of Professor Cynthia Talbot's book The Last Hindu Emperor (2015)...

How Best to Not-Surrender

The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very...

How Best to Not-Survive

As a visually-read Muslim and an immigrant without the imagined protection of a citizenship, I...

On Writing

Gentle Readers, Today, Sep 19th, marks the official janam din for A Book of Conquest....

A Book of Conquest

Gentle Readers, It has been a while since we last spoke and much has happened--...

To Understand Understanding: An Interview with Sheldon Pollock

[@sepoy notes: I am grateful to Gayathri Raj and the Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism,...

Nanu's Poetry

[sepoy notes: A lovely memorial below via Sahar Ishtiaque Ullah who is a PhD Candidate...

The Work of Humanities

Departmental Chairs of SALC (L to R): Ulrike Stark, Gary Tubb, Wendy Doniger, Steve Collins,...

3+4=7

Here is a game we used to play in Berlin. The idea began with trying...

In Memoriam: Nasser Hussain

CM joins our colleagues in remembering Nasser Hussain, legal theorist and scholar at Amherst, who...

Rickshaw Diary

by Annie Ali Khan Karachiscapes by Zehra Nawab While returning home one night from a...

Lahore: Marks It Bears II

Yesterday's suicide attack on lower-and middle class citizens of Lahore, celebrating Easter or enjoying Sunday...

To Barney

Bernard Bate (Barney to all) was a profoundly gifted scholar of Tamil language and an...

Why Sheldon Pollock

Plates from Sheldon Pollock, "Ramayana and Political Imagination in India" The Journal of Asian Studies,...

Statement of Support with JNU from Colorado College

We, the undersigned at Colorado College, are writing to express our solidarity with the students,...

Statement of Solidarity with JNU from members of Yale University

We, the undersigned members of Yale University, strongly condemn the recent actions of the Indian...

Statement of Solidarity with JNU: from the community at Columbia University, New York

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the violence unleashed by the BJP, RSS, ABVP, and the...

#StandWithJNU: Solidarity Statement by Academics in the UK

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with the students, faculty, and staff of Jawaharlal Nehru...

Pennsylvania Scholars' Statement of Solidarity with Student Activists in India

Statement of Solidarity with Student Activists in India from activists and academics in the Pennsylvania...

Statement of Solidarity with Student Protests in India from the academic community of the University of Chicago

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the arbitrary, unconstitutional, and anti-democratic actions of the BJP/RSS/ABVP/Delhi Police...

The Past is Finally Here

Intizar Hussain, aged 92, passed away today. For all of Pakistan's history, Husain remained a...

Remembering M.M. Kalburgi

The following are remarks given at a panel "Policing Knowledge: M.M. Kalburgi, vacana poetry, and...

A Contrarian View: Race, Representation, and Islamophobia in Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced

I thank Neilesh Bose for letting CM publish this conversation on Ayad Akhtar's play, and...

Passport Tales II

This weekend was the annual Madison conference bringing together all those who work on South...

Shahid Amin Reviews II: A Few Good Men of the Empire

[Review of Ferdinand Mount, The Tears of the Rajas: Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India,...

Shahid Amin Reviews I: San Sattavan

[Professor Shahid Amin, prominent historian and author most recently of Conquest and Community: The Afterlife...

August Days

Gentle readers, It has been quiet, I know. I hope all of you are busy...

On Dissent

Over at The Hindu, a slightly longer version of my thoughts on the assassination of...

No Healer of Glass

Fanon wrote about why the anti-colonial struggle targeted doctors and intellectuals. It did so, he...

For Sabeen Mahmud

In 2007-8 as email listservs sprang up to protest Musharraf's dictatorship, I met Sabeen Mahmud,...

Sir Christopher Bayly, 1945-2015

Today's passing of Chris Bayly is truly a shock to the community of historians of...

The World of Prannath

My review of Vasudha Dalmia and Munis D. Faruqui, ed. Religious Interactions in Mughal India....

Passport Tales

I. My Pakistani passport is the most Pakistani thing about me. When I clutch it...

Whence Muhammad?

'Muhammadanism' was always a heresy, a contamination, a deviation - and hence, always needed satire....

A Matriarch in Exile

A version of this is published on Public Books on Jan 9, 2015. She moved...

Kill the Future

Kill the future Shut down twitter, facebook, linkedin, google Unplug the internet, the hydro-dam, the...

An Account of Autumn - Manūchherī

“An Account of Autumn and in Praise of Aḥmad bin Abdus Samad, Vizier of Sultan...

Editorial Notes for Opinion Editorials on "Independence Day"

Open with Nehru's "Tryst with Destiny" if you are a male* Indian/Gora author. Open with...

A Formula for Being Human

... I am a man in exile in Beirut in 1982 - cast out by...

My Dear Americans

My Dear Americans Happy July 4th, my dear Americans. Here is a short made by...

Mirages of the Mind

The early books of famed Urdu satirist Mustaq Ahmed Yousufi (b. 1922), Chiragh Talay (1961)...

Fifteen Years After Eqbal Ahmad: A Call

Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of the passing of Eqbal Ahmad (1932 - 1999). Who...

Waziristan, U.S.

I gave the following remarks on 26 March 2014. There currently exists a limit in...

Ten Years Ago Today

Very first first Today marks the tenth anniversary of this particular blog. A decade of...

Profanations II: The need for the public practice of the humanities in India

Concluding installment (part 1 here) of an essay by Prashant Keshavmurthy. ((Prashant Keshavmurthy is Assistant...

Profanations I: The Public, the Political and the Humanities in India

First installment of an essay by Prashant Keshavmurthy ((Prashant Keshavmurthy is Assistant Professor of Persian...

In Defense of The Hindus: An Alternative History

It seems like only yesterday that I was present in Foster Hall for Wendy Doniger's...

A Faiz Translation

"Dard Aye Ga Dabay Pa'oN" Faiz Ahmed Faiz in Montgomery Jail, 1956 "Prison Letters" translator...

The Delhi Durbar and the Indian Diplomat by Rafia Zakaria

a guest post by Rafia Zakaria, columnist Dawn Pakistan. A ripe 110 years ago, in...

A Delicate Touch by Prof. Veena Oldenburg

At Madison, I attended a panel "Medicene, Science, Sex" as part of the series of...

Finding an Archive for a Cultural History II

I came to Georges Perec (1936- 1982) through his Espèces d'espaces and I have never...

Finding an Archive for a Cultural History I

In the last three years, I have been researching and thinking about a volume of...

Remembering Kumkum Chatterjee

Memorial for Kumkum Chatterjee at Madison South Asia Conference 2013 Two weeks ago, a group...

Harlem

Recently, a Sikh man was called "terrorist" and "Osama" and assaulted near his house -...

Said is Dead. Long Live Said!

Dear all, On September 27th, I will be moderating an event in CCNY noting the...

Looking at Mughal(s)

Lately I have been thinking about narrativizing visual language of Mughal art. Which is a...

Seasons in the Garden of Fidelity

by Francesca Recchia, gchat status: Kabul. From Baburnama, depicts the Mughal emperor Babur (1483—1530) superintending...

Islam Contemporary featuring Daisy Rockwell

Instagram Islam and tag it #contemporary if you are in Pittsfield, MA in the dog...

XQs II: A Conversation with Kavita Datla

A regular series on CM, XQs (Ten Questions), is a conversation with the author of...

XQs I: A Conversation with Teena Purohit

The inaugural issue of a regular series on CM, XQs (Ten Questions), is a conversation...

Home

A Methodological Footnote

I wrote, The makers of Pakistan were peasants and laborers. In 1940, they passed a...

On the Elections

I have an op-ed in NYT on the subject of elections and minority rights in...

Daisy Rockwell Answers

Our lapata is interviewed at CNN's OutFront on her recent book and her "controversial" art:...

Dubai Chalo

In The State, vol IV, I have a small bit of writing "The State Shall...

William Dalrymple's Return of a King

Over at Caravan, I have a review of Dalrymple's latest on the Anglo-Afghan War. How...

The Hanging I: Shahbag and Srinagar

Millions of souls nineteenseventyone homeless on Jessore road under grey sun A million are dead,...

Drone City

[What precisely is a response to the drones? Recently Teju Cole introduced drones in first...

Berlin Sketchbook IV: Ghosts

[see earlier in the Berlin series: I, II, III (also, earlier: I, II, III) On...

Berlin Sketchbook III: Stitch

Recently, my jacket lost a button. It is a new jacket. But, one of those...

Coke Studio by Bilal Tanweer

This essay originally appeared in Critical Muslim Vol. 4 (Hurst & Co. London: 2012. eds....

Kumkum Chatterjee, 1958-2012

In 2008, I organized a panel at the Annual South Asia conference at Madison on...

Dead Bodies Amongst

The plight of Gaza civilians has shaken many a torpor-ed digital selves recently. This was...

On Dreams and Other Truths

At the recently concluded 41st Annual South Asia Conference at Madison, WI, I chaired a...

Berlin Sketchbook II: Act Out

The cricketers gather under the stone columns of Olympiastadium. The majority are brown. I knew...

Berlin Sketchbook I

the first in a new series, gentle readers. i apologize for the protracted silences here....

In Golden Hues

Musharraf Ali Farooqi's Between Clay and Dust is microscopic examination of a mood. The mood...

Feet First - Essays on Maula Jatt I

There is no real sense of how Maula Jatt changed Pakistan. Real as in what...

The Art of Rajkamal Kahlon

My friend and Berlin-based American artist, Rajkamal Kahlon's artist book, The Winning of the West,...

Master Jahangir

Here is how I introduced Jahangir earlier: I walk down towards the rooms — there...

Slow Burn Lahore VI: A Footnote

The christian colony, the milk colony, the officers colony, the even more ridiculously named murghi-khana...

Slow Burn Lahore V: Archeology of Space

The modern traveler, wrote Lévi-Strauss in Tristes Tropiques, is forever chasing after "vestiges of a...

CM Anniversary: Acht So!!

Once again, I missed it. Eight years ago this little experiment - which, in 2011...

Slow Burn Lahore IV: See Through Cement

You can't see through cement - and neither can I. When I look at Lahore...

Slow Burn Lahore III: "This is My Culture"

In Cairo, I thought I met Khizr. More likely, I found a new way of...

Slow Burn Lahore II: Meeting Old Masters

At some point in Old Lahore's life, cement won. Floors stacked like cardboard boxes, and...

Slow Burn Lahore

I sincerely apologize for the absence, gentle Readers. Let it be known that I have...

Who Lies Beneath Your Spell

I try not to say much when I am a little overwhelmed. Agha Shahid Ali...

All this mess (Or, what I remember from 2011) by Bilal Tanweer

Bilal Tanweer is a writer and translator. His fiction, poetry and translations have appeared in...

An Alternative History of 2011

I like to think I wrote a fair amount this year - maybe not as...

What is Imperialism?

The recent hissy fit thrown by historian Niall Ferguson (racist! imperialist!) because Pankaj Mishra wrote...

Review of WTWFA

Nandini Ramachandran reviews WTWFA for the Sunday Guardian: The size of its betrayal would've forced...

A debate about a Review Essay in NYT

Below the fold, a twitter-based debate on a review essay in NYT. “ This review...

The Sad and Curious Tale of MM/MJ

(A version of this review essay ran in The Friday Times, Vol. XXIII, No. 41)...

English Only

Naim Sahib, one of my teachers at Chicago, has a must-must-must read "rant" (as he...

Das Konzert war dann, kurz gefasst - perfekt

Taste the war paint on my tongue/as it's dripping with my sweat/place my gaze in...

L'Affair Ramanujan: OUP & c;

Some more important readings for you in terms of the DU/Ramanujan. - Shahid Amin (Professor,...

Uses of History: Ramanujan Edition

Some Indian Uses of History on a Rainy Day 1935. Professor of Sanskrit on cultural...

Oh, Go AAWWn

I loved the space and the wonderful people at the Asian Writers' Workshop who were...

Madison 2011

#OccupyMadisonConcourseHotel2011!! Ahem. It is the Annual Awesomeness that is the Madison conference - this is...

Nauman Naqvi on Sadequain

We were just talking about the scholastic and the imaginative that underpins some gems of...

Transformative Texts

The First out of the four experts termed the text as “appropriate” for the syllabus,...

Explaining Pakistan

I did a segment with Jerome MacDonald for Worldview at WBEZ. Please to listen and...

Remember the Rooftops

Gentle Readers, The book was launched last week. It was lovely, lovely, lovely, to have...

Why are Roses Red?

When ships are launched, they pour water or more bubbly stuff to ask the gods...

Meanwhile, Back Home

Holy Jesus, Moses and Muhammad. The power-points, I urge you to drop everything and just...

If You See Something Say Something III

I am rather stuck on the fliegender Teppich in the NPD ad. I want to...

If You See Something, Say Something II

Ich bin ein Ausländer doch Berlin ist mein zu Hause meine Heimat meine stadt hier...

The end is coming soon

The wind blows cold outside your door/it whispers words I've tried before But you don't...

A Jaundiced Eye

Jacob Silverman, Where the Wild Frontiers Are: America comes up short in South Asia, Sep...

If You See Something, Say Something

A few weeks ago, I visited Hamburg's vast harbors and storage houses. There, I saw...

Ten Short Years

The New York Police Department is doing everything it can to make sure there's not...

All is Well

I have a more detailed review of Maleeha Lodhi's edited volume Pakistan: Beyond 'The Crisis...

Splinters

The saying goes that we all have rituals - and the sayer points, often times...

Helicopters

I have a new piece up at The National, Pakistan: why the US must think...

The Hamburg Type

I recently visited Hamburg and decided, on a lark, to only photograph street typography. The...

Coming Soon

The Middle Man

I was asked, by Murtaza Vali, to write for a "Manual of Treason" which dealt...

American Democracy was a form of self-murder, always. Or of murdering somebody else.

Studies in Classic American Literature (1923) by D. H. Lawrence BENJAMIN FRANKLIN had a specious...

WTWFA Now Available on Amazon

Yes! If/when you buy it, and read it, I would appreciate comments on Amazon (be...

On Academic Blogging with Amitava Kumar

The esteemed Amitava Kumar, who wrote the foreword for the CM book, interviewed me for...

Over at The Caravan

I have a piece in Hindoostani glossy magazine The Caravan Beta. It is about my...

Announcement: CM BOOK!

Gentle Readers. It has come to this. On or about May 31, 2011 you will...

At Sea

I. Rudolph says to the sheriff, “For five long years you've tried. And you can...

Lapata ka pata

EVERYONE IN NY GO SEE LAPATA Wednesday, April 20, 5pm This Is Not That Dawn:...

Lahore Snaps XV: A City About Food

Lahore, if you want to believe me, is a city about food. The second most...

Nabi Bux Khan Baloch, 1917-2011

Belatedly, I have learned that the one of the most significant historian of Sindh, and...

Happy Birthday, CM!

April 8, 2004 is when CM was officially launched to an appreciative audience of well,...

Lahore Snaps XIV: Trees

That Lahore, of late 80s, is no longer there. Neither is the Lahore of the...

Resettling The Indus: Raising Funds

This trip had, what learned call, serendipity flowing through the pores. One such serendipitous moment...

We Are Strangers Now

No one born after 1975, in my family's circle of acquaintance, remembers the fall of...

3QD Arts & Lit Prize

I have a BEEF with the ridiculous voting thing that 3QD has - one can...

Experts

In the Fall, I am hoping to teach a class on Experts as a category...

Shahbaz Bhatti, RIP

Woke up this morning, a day before my own trip to Lahore, to see the...

Archive Fever

I spent the last few days in The Reg. For my next parlor trick, I...

Via Chicago

Heading home is always a highlight and soon enough, I will be in sweet Hyde...

Jan 25 - Feb 11

The shortest period between 1981 to 2011. Viva Egypt.

Midan Tahrir

نداےً غیب ہر ایک اولی الامر کو صدا دو کہ اپنی فردِ عمل سنبھالے اٹھے...

On Salman Taseer

Ki Muhammad se wafa tu nay to hum teray hain/ Yeh Jahan chiz hay kiya,...

Days of Anger

أيام الغضب Jan 25th. Jan 28th. It isn't a domino effect. ((The "narrative" likes to...

Tucson

The opening of Interpolation: the Safeway at Oracle and Ina: Absolutely, that was my turf....

Dominance Without Toleration III: Guns & Roses

The killer has been garlanded. Facebook fan pages, twitter clouds of praises. For his victim,...

Discovered: Lapata

Ralph Luker, at Cliopatria, announces the Annual Cliopatria Awards in the History blogosphere. Guess who...

Dominance Without Toleration II

"Most people in this country — and I am not talking about the lunatic fringe...

Empire of Empires

It seems as if the Almighty had spread before this nation charts of imperial destinies,...

Sunday Reading for 2010

We, who privilege chronological time over all else, are maddeningly a-chronos or poly-chronos in our...

Safrnama-e al-Qahirah IV

I drank a lot of tea. I drank more coffee. Yesterday, I think I had...

Safrnama-e al-Qahirah III

Khizr haunted me during my fieldwork. The legend is that he is a lost Prophet...

Safrnama-e al-Qahirah II

We were there for the sake of words. Words written by some in Europe about...

Safrnama-e al-Qahirah I

Back from Cairo bearing some deep ridges in the psyche, and in the soul. There...

Shiny Domes

I have a review of Robert D. Kaplan's new tome Monsoon up at The National...

The University of Chicago Way

It was startling to recognize my life these many years, codified Also, this bit of...

This Message Brought to you by Vinay Lal

Gentle Readers, I am sorry, but I have been drowning in writing deadlines, some of...

Two Shorts

To the many "Pakistan" related things clamoring for your desensitized attention, may I add a...

Dominance Without Toleration

1. According to the 1998 census, there are slightly more than 2 million Christians (1.59%...

Fake Talibothra

Talking briefly on twitter with Joshua Foust (whose book Afghanistan Journal you need to purchase...

Coetzee on Empire

J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians, 1979. Calf-deep in the soothing water I indulge...

We ♥ Lapata

This is a moment of serious pride for CM. This issue is going to grace...

More on Granta: Pakistan

Go read all of The Language of Developmental Literature by zunguzungu. But this brought smiles....

Peccavistan

I am currently re-reading Shame. Last I read it, I was maybe 17 or 18....

Atiya Fyzee

I have been doing some translation work on Shibli Naumani for a small project. He...

Madison 2010

As documented previously - here, and here (here) - there is a great gathering of...

Safarnama

This will be updated as events occur in real-life.

Interlude

I shall be traveling, talking, giving papers for the next three weeks. Friends and lovers...

Sunday Reading for Rob Priest

It has been a while since the Sunday reading was last done and I actually...

Yes! XII

It's open season now, innit? From the recent protests. Previously on Yes! I, II, III,...

Save The Children

I have a piece up in Express Tribune, 'If you have understanding, then why this...

Happy Burn Robert Ketton's Koran Day

Robert of Ketton's Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete(The Religion of Mahumet, the Pseudo Prophet) was the one...

Imagined Terrorists

I have a new piece, The cultural damage of the 'war on terror' up at...

I hear Uzbekistan is Nice

I just want to cry. And then, I want a new homeland.

I am a Bhains

I am a bhains. I am now dead. You must have read, recently, a particularly...

Law & Order: Mughal Sindh

This was also a seminar paper, long while ago. However, this one became a conference...

Syed Ahmed Khan and Urdu

I wrote this many, many moons ago, for a seminar - actually my first year...

Pakistan Flood 2010 Continues

Follow the #pkfloods on Twitter for latest, as always. 20 million people affected. To be...

Donate for Pakistan Flood 2010

The flooding in Pakistan is beyond imagination. You can see some of the heart-wrenching imagery...

That Map of Longings with no Limits

Amitav Ghosh, “The Ghat of the Only World”: Agha Shahid Ali in Brooklyn", 15 December,...

August 15, 2010

فیض احمد فیض / Faiz Ahmed Faiz, August, 1952 روشن کهيں بهار کے امکاں هوۓ...

August 14th, 2010

فیض احمد فیض / Faiz Ahmed Faiz, 1958 تم یہ کہتے ہو اب کوئی چارہ...

Unification 2.0

From the inbox, a great event in NYC, hosted by Brownstar Revolution: THE BROWNSTAR REVOLUTION...

Disrupt

Gordon S. Wood. In Defense of Academic History Writing, Perspectives on History, April 2010. Academic...

Tony Judt, RIP

Like few others, Judt has been a model for a long time, and his passing...

Dard Vachor Da III

The incomparable Hamid Ali Khan Bela sings. See related: Dard Vachor Da II, Dard Vachor...

Ishqiya

A guest essay by Basanti Mushtaq Bhai: Any last words? Babban: How about a joke?...

This history is hindoo

Just wanted to note here that I taped a show with Worldview last week on...

Letter from Berlin

I am still -swamped- but thought I'd let y'all know of this first (hesitant) piece...

Hospitalities

I will update this with other hospitalities in the war zone as I encounter more...

Make Humans Again

Sonam Kachru, a dear friend and colleague, gave us a beautifully rendered translation of Habba...

Riddle Me This

Life is rather hectic, gentle readers, and I cannot promise anything here for another ten...

State of Social Sciences

This is too important to ignore so y'all should go read UNESCO's World Social Science...

A Delhi Digital Project

Gentle readers, a state of perpetual bizzzie-ness is about to descend on me. (( Though...

Bilayat

I shall be in London next two days. Come say hi.

Fatwa No More

An essay by Professor Emeritus C.M. Naim, University of Chicago. A messenger brought me some...

Around the Khyber Pass

David Bordwell, John Ford, silent man One headliner is the early Ford series: all his...

The Daughter of Islam

Pakistan's originary myth is tied to a spectacular episode - I have written about this...

We Are All Ahmadi XI: Petition

I urge every reader to sign your name, begin at the beginning. To: Government of...

Sunday Reading for Weltmeisterschaft Zuschauer

The World Cup, whenever it comes, becomes such a part of my everyday that I...

Rasgulla

When: Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 5:00pm Where: 5 Holden St., North Adams, MA 01247-2423...

We Are All Ahmadi X: Desunnification

My piece, House on the Hill, June 13, 2010 in The Express Tribune about the...

This is the Cow

From Paul Bowles, Their Heads are Green and their Hands are Blue (New York: Random...

The Meta-Fictions of Miguel Syjuco

From a press-release by Asia House, UK, for Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco: For decades, the...

I am one of them

Jacqueline Rose. "'J'accuse': Dreyfus in Our Times" London Review of Books, Vol. 32 No. 11...

We Are All Ahmadi IX: Two Poems

I want to share these two poems with you. One comes from a place far...

We Are All Ahmadi VIII: For Rana Tanveer

Letters to the Editor, The Daily Times, Saturday, June 05, 2010: Sir, Last January, a...

Murgha Ban Ja

*The punishment is called "Murgha bana na" (to make one into a rooster). One is...

We Are All Ahmadi VII: Democratic Discourses

There is some confusion among the twitterati about the "tangent" in regards to the column...

We Are All Ahmadis VI: Community

I. Who exactly is a Muslim? It shouldn't surprise anyone that this is a question...

We Are All Ahmadi V: Erasures

This picture, posted by Zackintosh on his twitter feed, immediately arrested me. It was taken...

We Are All Ahmadis IV: A History

Four young men ran through the streets of Gujranwala, Pakistan, trying to escape the mob...

We Are All Ahmadi III: Laws

Pakistan Penal Code 298, 298-A, 298-B, 298-C [pdf], updated by Anti-lslamic Activities of Quadiani Group,...

We Are All Ahmadi II: One Day Later

Below are further thoughts from Prof. CM Naim. A recent NYT story commented on conspiracy...

We Are All Ahmadi

There is a mosque near my house in Berlin. I bike past it every time....

Leave My Thirteenth Century Alone!

Religion gone global: an interview with Reza Aslan NS: How do you think scholars can...

Who is an Orientalist

A.J. Arberry. British Orientalist. (London: William Collins Sons & Co, 1943): 7-11 What is Orientalism,...

Porous Borders

The February 2002 issue of Seminar, Porous Borders/Divided Selves, on the Partition should be read...

Once Haughty

via Tom, more here: A B C, for baby patriots.

Sonam Kachru Presents A Love Song by Habba Khatun

I want to thank Sonam for allowing CM to publish this (it is scheduled to...

A Pakistan native

"He usually walks around alone, looking lonely and kind of depressed usually," said Nejilia Gayden,...

Fred M. Donner: Muhammad and the Believers

It is with great pleasure that I link to an interview of my advisor, Prof....

On the Life of the Mind

This was written a little while ago, and with an eye to comment on a...

The Good Times Are Killing Me

See previously, Our Wild Frontiers...

World Exclusive: Lost Verses of Iqbal

C.M Naim sends along a world exclusive to the CM audience about a copy ad...

Snapshot

I know all of you are super-busy, so I won't, like, write 3000 words on...

Songs of Blood and Sword

I think my favorite part of Fatima Bhutto's Songs of Blood and Sword is the...

A Pictorial History of Chai in India

Philip Lutgendorf. Chai Why? The Triumph of Tea in India as Documented in the Priya...

In Memoriam, Srinivas Ramachandra Siras

Feb 18, 2010. Aligarh Muslim University professor suspended for being gay. LUCKNOW: An Aligarh Muslim...

6

Most years this date floats by, but thanks to the CM FAN PAGE ON FACEBOOK...

That Pile

Recently, I have started reading again. Just finished Hans Fallada, Alone in Berlin - which...

To Istanbul We Go

A: So, you going to visit Istanbul? Maybe, I think so. I am banking on...

Association for Asian Studies 2010

I am headed to Philadelphia, my fav. other-Chicago, for the annual Association for Asian Studies...

On the Sink of Specie

I am putting together a reading list for next term, and thought it might be...

Sewn

Maya Yazigi, "Defense and Validation in Shi'i and Sunni Tradition: The Case of Muḥammad b....

Nights I have Missed Out On

Stephen Merritt: Tiny Tim was, like yourself, a song historian. Well, he had a pick-up...

The Apocalypses of Zaid Hamid

I have a new piece up at The Review, Pakistan's new paranoia, on Zaid Hamid....

Of Dice and Men

I have now discovered Do not get angry, Dude in Germany along w/ a commemorative...

He is 95 and Awesome

Javed Akhtar on M. F. Hussain's Rights, Sunday, Mar 07, 2010: Javed Akhtar: You know,...

Sunday Reading for Translators

Abroo H. Khan. "An Interview with Dr. Muhammad Umar Memon". Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan...

99 Problems but Aid Ain't One

Yes! XI

Since moving to Berlin, I haven't watched any Fox or gone to political websites or...

Bazaar Mazaar

I really want this book. CM readers in Lahore/Karachi, with access to a post office...

Primary Evidences

Barbara D. Metcalf, the president of the AHA, is a wonderful historian of Islam in...

Dr. Abdus Salam

A long while ago, I was a Physics major. This was a default setting. My...

Strict Interpretations

Some may recall that I had pointed out Atiya Khan's critique of my piece in...

Beyond Crisis: Re-evaluating Pakistan

Very Promising new collection of essays on Pakistan. It will make a fine addition to...

Nine Lives

"When you walk you are freed from the worries of ordinary life" - Kanai Das...

Quarks

3 QUARKS DAILY PRIZE IN ARTS & LITERATURE: We are now going to do the...

Afghanistan v United States of America

Afghanistan won by 29 runs. Click for a Tribal breakdown.

Megan Fox has more Pakistani fans than Zaid Hamid

Hasan demands that this headline exist somewhere, and so it does. Here is a statistical...

Sunday Reading for the Saints

Most of my usual conversation (passing/commenting on links) has moved to twitter, so doing a...

Academic Publishing

Dear Dr. Lapata In an effort to speed up the publication schedule and work through...

Reading Tea Leaves in Pakistan

Last week I gave a small talk to a group of Model UN students at...

Thousands of Years

Doing some research, I came across an official Pakistan government publication celebrating the 5 year...

Mirza Ghalib

With thanks to Francesca Orsini, Alok Rai and his family, and Fran Pritchett, we have...

On Worldview

I am slowly cooking some posts - in the meantime, I discussed Pakistan/US on Worldview...

French Tales

Le Roi de Lahore (1877) was the second opera written by Jules Massenet (1842-1912). The...

Simon Digby, Historian

Via Naim Sahib comes the sad news that Simon Digby, 79, passed away in Delhi....

A Message from Kathy Kelly

Speaking Truth to Power by Kathy Kelly January 8, 2010 There's a phrase originating with...

`Critical Foreign Language'

And a bit behind the curve: S. 1010: National Foreign Language Coordination Act of 2009...

Obligatory Avatar Post

But the problem with my analysis is, you will say, that Cameron is not the...

Oh, End It Already

Gentle Readers, I wish you all a best of 2010. Posting will be sparse for...

More Failures

My friend Atiya Khan has a piece in The Platypus Review, The poverty of Pakistan's...

Once More With Feelings

"Yet the Army leadership is refusing to strike at the heart of the Taliban command...

The Sunday Paradigm

Sundays in Berlin are quiet affairs. The usual shops are all closed - groceries, pharmacies,...

The Seth Jones Experience

Seth G. Jones, the author of “In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan,”...

Imran Khan, Considered

In The Review, I have a review of Christopher Sanford's Imran Khan in which I...

The War Must Go On

The safe havens must be eliminated. The corruption must be stopped. The infrastructures must be...

From Minaret to Steeple

Why is the knowledge of history always the first casualty? Richard J. H. Gottheil. "The...

Swiss Holes

I wonder what the world would be saying if this game had the bearded fella...

Who is Zaid Hamid?

So, I turn to you, my collective hive brain. Who is this "Dr." "Prof." Zaid...

Kulwant Roy

Who among us hasn't dreamed of unearthing rare historical treasures in old cast-aside trunks? Ok,...

C-A-F-F-E-E

A german nursery rhyme, that I just found. I need coffee, desperately. C-a-f-f-e-e / C-o-f-f-e-e...

Word

Charles Taylor, The philosopher-citizen: In our time, we can almost fear that the public intellectual...

Delhi Sultanate

Ok, this is like catnip to me, you know? I just cannot resist. Taru Dalmia...

I Must Have

I really must.

Fragile Rock

In a (somewhat cringe-inducing*) video report at NYT, Adam B. Ellick takes aim at some...

Next Generations

Two great opportunities for students from South Asia to pursue graduate education in NY. It...

Start A War

I have a new piece up at The Review, Start A War. We expected something,...

Groß Chapati

I saw/ate a version of this (often called 'paasti') in Mianwali but here is how...

Udham Singh

Yasmin Khan, whose Great Partition is highly recommended, has an excerpt up on Random House...

What Next?

Another blast in Rawalpindi.

Sunday Readings for L. Cohen

I been sending the usual links I would hoard for this occasional post over to...

Just Islam or Just Islam

I guess the burning Obama effigy adds some to the context but enquiring minds do...

Shut Down the NEH

Seriously! In the list of horrible waste of tax-payer's hard earned money exposed by Fox...

Slackistan

Riazat Butt,Welcome to Slackistan: Pakistan's first ever slacker movie, The Guardian, Saturday 24 October 2009:...

The Nation Forum on Afghanistan

For curious bystanders: the Afghanistan: A Special Issue, Nov 9, 2009, includes a short piece...

Forgotten Afghanistan

Some reminders: 1. Remembering Afghanistan's Golden Age by Elizabeth Bumiller. Includes a multimedia essay. 2....

Sheik of Araby II

via Babu ... Ahab the Arab: Sheikh of the Burning Sand, Ray Stevens, 1962 Silently...

Tribalizing Afghanistan

Ahmad Shayeq Qassem, "Afghanistan: Imperatives of Stability Misperceived". Iranian Studies, 42:2, 247-274. Similarly, while the...

Historicizing Afghanistan

Kamyar Abdi writes in his review of Small Players of the Great Game (Journal of...

Securing Afghanistan

On October 1st, 1842 Lord Edward Law Ellenborough (1790-1871) issued a special proclamation from Simla,...

Berlin Snaps III: Die Riesen Kommen

I know that I need to do more than just put photos but, some of...

Appeal for John F. Richards Prize in South Asian History

Via Manu Bhagavan and the Society for Advancing the History of South Asia: Please support...

Berlin Snaps II

It only took a month, but I am sorta situated now. Just a week or...

Do With It What You Will

This, for some strange reason, popped up from the archives of my email. All of...

Hyderabad

I recently picked up Hyderabad: A Biography by Narendra Luther but gave up a little...

On Higher Education in Pakistan II

Continuing in the "catching up" mode ... I really should have more to say about...

Berlin Snaps I

I must say that this long hiatus has made me lose my blogging legs. Weird....

Unnoted Things

There are probably no more readers left, but CM is exiting its long hiatus. Just...

Aditya Behl 1966-2009

updated below the fold... You may have read about the sudden and tragic passing away...

Summer Slumber

It is time for the annual CM slumber. I may poke my nose here if...

SA Academic Bloggers Untie!

I am still in the weeds. But, classes are about to start around towns and...

Unification and Swat Now! 2009

Below the fold, two great events in NYC coming up. Do attend and support. In...

K. K. Aziz 1927-2009

K. K. Aziz, one of the finest historians of Pakistan, is no more. It is...

Three Poets & A Country

An event in Chicago. Friday, July 10th @ 6 at Mess Hall. Blurb below. Hope...

A Contract With The Devil

is still a binding contract. A close friend of CM (farangi) has been going through...

The Life and Death of Ahmad, T.

Nina Bernstein, Piecing Together an Immigrant's Life the U.S. Refused to See, New York Times,...

Still Lives

I really don't know what is going on here. or here. or here. or here....

Guns Optional

We want to keep this American here

Two inspiring Americans to read about today: I. Saving a Kashmiri Village After Remaking His...

They Serve Daal after Funerals

Beat extremists you can, says Obama, Anwar Iqbal, DawnTV, June 21, 2009 Any plan to...

Dard Vachor Da II

Shah Hussain (1539-94), known more popularly as Lal Hussain, was born in Lahore. He was...

Pakistan Ka Matlab Kiya III

"I'm the second Khan winning a World Cup for Pakistan, so I'm very proud of...

Pakistan Ka Matlab Kiya II

If it worked for Zia, it could work for Zardari. Pakistan beat SA in ICC...

Just a Thought VII

Iran 2009 = US 2000 or maybe Iran 2009 = US 2006 or maybe Iran...

Berlin or Bust

Well, the Chicago adventure has run its course. Off to Berlin, where I will be...

From the Inbox

I endorse both! I. Hi There, My Name is James Sandberg and I am contacting...

Pakistan Ka Matlab Kiya

My new piece is up at The Review (National), State of Decay: Twenty years of...

Paleo-Talibothra Found!!

A chance conversation reminded me of something, which led to another trip down the 'stacks...

Just a Thought VI

Via Babu, in re to this... Refugees are easily radicalized, and if the Pakistani army,...

Q is for the Qattara Depression

Via Moacir and thanks to the SMU digital collection, A Pocket Guide to Egypt, 1943....

Sheik of Araby

Tanz-Orchester Petrescu: The Sheik of Araby, c. 1922 update: Via Kerim comes the Nazi propaganda...

SF Snaps

Dr. Binayak Sen Released

After two years, Dr. Sen was finally released on bail by the Supreme Court. See...

Regarding 1971

Action for a Progressive Pakistan, a group of like-minded folks (I am a proud member)...

Dear Spencer

You have so many interlocuters here, here, here and here that to respond to your...

The Lost Population

The Swat offensive continues to generate humanitarian crisis. A crisis which the Army or the...

TXT "SWAT" TO 20222

"Americans can text the word “SWAT” — to the number 20222 and make a $5...

K. K. Aziz on Lahore

K. K. Aziz, 82, one of the most renowned historian of Pakistan, is gravely ill...

Just a Thought V

Above is a big hall full of bearded Muslims. Not just any Muslims, but members...

Help the IDPs in Pakistan

The humanitarian crisis caused by the displacements of hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis needs your...

Don't Believe Your Eyes

In 1806, James Mill (1773—1836) - father of John Stuart Mill - began writing his...

Go Go Go

You Don't Say

"(The New York Times put him on a retainer for several months after the Sept....

This Failed State Business

I know, the ubiquity is bothersome but bear with me. I. Amy Goodman and Juan...

Priorities, People

The future histories of empire will have to focus on the American penchant for building...

Crazy Party, Of Course

I actually have a post on the cinemas of Pakistan, including the Capital hall and...

By the Bay

Gentle readers, I am off to beautiful SF. If you are in the area, I...

Lahore Snaps XIII: Best Kept Secrets

My recent trip to Lahore, I happened to find myself in the Cypher Bureau. Thought...

Will Pakistan Become a Theocracy? III

I. Dear NYT editorial page, Let's talk. I know you are really into this ____...

The Silence of the Lawyers Movement

Naim Sahib in Outlook India on the plight of Sikh families under the Swat deal:...

South Asia: The Field

If one was interested in plunging the murky depths of the ways in which US...

Iqbal Bano, 1935-2009

My first cassette, paid for, was Iqbal Bano sings Faiz which was put out by...

Bats Left

Things have been dour here, lately. I was thinking we needed to talk cricket, today....

Will Pakistan Become A Theocracy? II

Read what David Kilcullen, close advisor to General Petraeus, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...

Yes! X

I am so looking forward to the next 7 years and 200 odd days left....

Indian Election Sights

I went trolling on the internets for some sights of the Indian campaigns. Not much....

Will Pakistan Become a Theocracy?

The Pakistani Parliament has now passed the bill authorizing Shari'a laws in Swat - and...

Coming Attractions

Gentle readers, I wanted to let you all know about two forthcoming presentations. It would...

All Photoshops Are Created Equal

Shanakht was a festival of arts and performance, organized by Citizens Archive of Pakistan[website now...

CM Appreciation Society

Today marks the fifth year anniversary of this here blog. Here be the first post....

Wannabe Prezbo

Back when The Wire was ending its run, the Freaknomics blog hosted Sudhir Venkatesh watching...

The Plight of Farmers

Adaner Usmani sent this to a mutual listserv. I believe it should be noted. there...

Going Lok-al

Indian elections are around the corner and I am starting to compile links to read/follow....

Simple Truths

James Traub's cover-story, Can Pakistan be Governed? is actually fairly nuanced and one of the...

Never the Twain

These tips came a while back and I am sure y'all already seen it but...

Urdu Kay Muhallay

DK recently sent an email to some of us detailing her experiences in buying Urdu...

We Go Way Back

The flights had been going since 1956, even though they were in direct violation of...

They're All Mad

I. "The leader of the Pakistani Taliban threatened Tuesday to carry out a terrorist attack...

History Matters: A Discussion

I have greatly learned, and thoroughly enjoyed, a series of discussion on Judith Bennett's History...

On Worldview

You can catch me with Jerome McDonald on Worldview. Let me know how I did....

This Sufi Business

Doug Feith, who is certainly prosecutable, had an op-ed in NYT yesterday. The most revealing...

Manawan, Lahore 3/30

Ten or more terrorists attacked the Police Training School in Manawan, Lahore at 7:30 am....

Holi Holi Hai

I failed to note holi here. But this set of big pictures and a fortuitous...

Just a Thought IV

"Now, as the Obama administration completes its review of strategy toward the region this week,...

Pakistan Day 2009

On March 23rd, Pakistan celebrates "Pakistan Day" to commemorate the Muslim League session in Lahore...

A Response by Wendy Doniger

Wendy Doniger has graciously, and generously, agreed to respond to some of the comments at...

An Alternative History

My narrative is alternative both to the histories promulgated by some contemporary Hindus on the...

Oh, Fisk It!

Re: Patrick French. "Touting Religion, Grabbing Land." New York Times, March 17, 2009. It has...

Just a Thought III

Now that CJP is on his way to the Supreme bench, one can look ahead....

Long March 2009: Gilani Speech

Long March 2009: Gilani Speech

Deal or No Deal

I don't know if this is true but what a glorious moment even a possibility...

Just a Thought II

DK sent me a song from this promising new film, Gulaal and it occurred to...

Just a Thought

Since 2006, the ordinary people of Pakistan have repeatedly mobilized, peacefully and forcefully, in the...

The Long March to Justice II

Some Long March pics. The current news is that they are stopping all buses, trucks...

The Long March to Justice

On March 12, 1930 Gandhi marched to Dandhi - stopping in forty plus villages -...

Time Out

The Long March is destined to begin in less than 48 hours. I was hoping...

Radiostan #4: This Ghostbuster Stuff

As you all must know by now (because I told you), Samip and Tina host...

High Profile Target: Rahman Baba

Rahman Baba (~1650-1715) is perhaps the most beloved folk poet and sufi of the Pashtu...

Toss Up

Question: Why is the NYT op-ed space available only to 1. Western Journalists writing a...

Pakistan, Yorked

Sports has always been an easy target for terrorists, but this hurts. It hurts a...

Sita Sings the Blues

Go watch the whole thing, now. Then go pay your regards to Director Nina Paley....

Sharif Showdown II

The Sharif Showdown Begins

The stakes for the Long March are finally all on the table. The Pakistan Supreme...

Schools Reopen

If there is a cuter, more cheering sight than these girls in a Swat school,...

Sunday Reading for Slumdogs

update: "It's a very Masala film". Those kids are too damn cute, btw. Just in...

Reading Swat

Increasingly, I am convinced that the discourse on Pakistan within the United States needs some...

Mostly Beards

On the Big Picture: Scenes from Pakistan ("Collected here are 40 recent photos from Pakistan,...

Party Like It Is 1899

In choosing this setting for the Ball, we have sought neither to excuse or dismiss...

Opinion

U.S. policies have weakened Pakistani civilian rule, Sanjeev Bery and Manan Ahmed, Special to the...

On Drone Attacks

From The Long War Journal There have been 36 recorded cross-border attacks and attempts in...

Swat, Now

Yesterday's announcement that Zardari has made a deal with the TNSM and installed "Islamic government"...

Ocean's Latest

I usually don't watch telly, but this caught my attention. I missed the segment but...

Karhi Recipe

Per demands, interested readers can go to Awaz-e Sukhun's Karhi recipe to learn how my...

Lahore Snaps XII: Worst ODI Ever

I haven't watched a live cricket match, in person, since ... I don't know. '91?...

Lahore Snaps XI: Street Food

Lahore, wouldn't you know, has a geography made entirely of food-stuffs. The natives, even as...

Lahore Snaps X: Bakra Mandi

So, the Goats. Our family was blessed with two brand new grandsons in the past...

Lahore Snaps IX: Home Cookin'

I just got back and the first thing I missed this morning was breakfast. I...

Counterinsurgency in Punjab, 1984-1995

Violent Deaths and Enforced Disappearances During the Counterinsurgency in Punjab, India by Ensaaf is a...

Yes We Can!

Ultimately, we cannot tell either the Israelis or the Palestinians what's best for them. -...

Ahmad Hasan Dani (1920-2009)

Ahmad Hasan Dani, the leading archeologist and historian of Indus Valley as well as other...

On Pakistan

Pakistan in Peril by William Dalrymple is a review essay covering Ahmed Rashid's Descent into...

Birds of War II

Just a quick line to recommend that folks read the discussion thread on Birds of...

The Spin

He was a middle-aged man, balding, silver-dusted hair, a grey sweater, dark trousers. His belt...

Travels

Folks, I will be in Lahore for the next couple of weeks. You can follow...

Strangers in the Night

Below are the comments I gave at the Mumbai Panel, yesterday. I. Yesterday, at her...

Terror in Mumbai: Reflections on the Aftermath

Sorry for the paucity of content here. Expect things to stay muted until Feb. For...

Jaipur Literary Festival

I am pretty sure that the Jaipur Literary Festival is a mela that I need...

Zionists made me forget my Arabic

NAKED LUNCH: Blow daddy by Nadeem F. Paracha is exactly the scathingly brilliant satire that...

AHA Wrap: Low Calories Version

As professional meetups go, AHA is less painful than COMDEX but slightly worse off, sartorially...

State of the Field II

Irfan Habib, senior Mughal historian, has some thoughts in The Hindu, Subaltern studies a challenge...

State of the Field

update: On FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, there will be a roundtable discussion of the state of...

merry merry

SMSes are running around saying that India has attacked. To all my gentle readers, a...

Birds of War

The aftershocks of Mumbai continue. The incursion, last week, of Indian jets into Pakistan's airspace...

Collateral

“The only way to stop these people is to take their money, so I say...

I give up

Anyone wanna design a new look for CM that looks passable on IE/Win? I am...

HyperText

Bahār-i Dānish (Garden of Wisdom) by Munshi Ināyat Allah Kanbuh in the mid-seventeenth century. These...

Oriental Magick

The ads were in the magazine section of Pakistan News - an Urdu weekly for...

The Third Migration II

Naim Sahib has a must-read review, in Outlook India of LeT's propagandistic Ham Ma'ien Lashkar-e-Taiba...

Sums It All Up

"... in the Arab culture, the shoe is considered an insult..." oh, schadenfreude.

O RLY!?

George Packer, in the NYer: "The core problem is that Pakistan is no longer really...

Snark

Subrahmanyam deals ... Even the broad intellectual grouping known as Subaltern Studies hasn't taken domestic...

Action for a Progressive Pakistan Vigil

Friends in NYC, please attend. Friends elsewhere, please link/spread the word of this. FOR IMMEDIATE...

Look Who's Talking

Bombay Attacked VII: Challenges

Dipesh Chakrabarty has a lucid look at some of the key realities facing Indian democracy...

Kluge Prize: Thapar and Brown

What great news! The Library of Congress' 2008 Kluge Prize has been given to historians...

Moving On

I wish Angelina Jolie would just stay at that charpai and solve all our problems,...

Bombay Attacked VI: Rant Edition

Aryn Baker, in one of the most egregious example of bad reporting/analysis/pull-it-outta-your-ass-telology, quotes some "mild-mannered...

Bombay Attacked V: The Versace Edition

Rohit points to this absurd "Roots of Indian Muslim Rage" piece (Jets v Sharks!). Suketu...

Bombay Attacked IV

The attack is over. And suddenly everything must now be questioned, say the punditry. CNN...

Bombay Attacked III

Timeline to date. From BBC: The fidayeen technique - a rudimentary form of "shock and...

Bombay Attacked II

The aftermath of the horrific attack seems to be overlapping the attack itself - it...

Bombay Attacked

Initial word makes it that Lashkar-e Tayiba, who have previously been suspects in the Oct....

Future of the Textbook

Bob Stein was kind enough to invite me to a conversation with the historians (Stephen...

Life Photographs

You might have found out, by now, that Google has uploaded Life magazine's trove of...

Iran Statement

American Foreign Policy Project has released a joint statement by experts (including J. Cole and...

K'Zoo lander

A riff on the exile theme ... I wonder if this announcement means that the...

Dard Vachor Da

ماے ني! ميں کيهنوں اکهاں، درد وچهوڑ دا حال O mother! who can I ask?...

Awesomest Minus One

This will surely be regarded as the best story of 2008 (at least, I will...

The A. Q. Khan Corner I

Pakistan's nuclear godfather has suddenly emerged from seclusion (involuntary) and penned a risible column for...

Election Map

It is pretty evident that we are not living in a red America and a...

The Hope for President Elect Hussein

Moacir has already called out the media on their triumphalism. While I assert that Obama's...

Company We Keep

Rahm Emanuel: "In an interview with Ma'ariv, Emanuel's father, Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, said he was...

Autumn in Hyde Park

Lately, we have had some insanely good weather. And I found myself wandering around snapping...

Pakistan Responds

Yes! IX

courtesy e!

Blur

Some blurry snaps of the night....

The Man with the Blue Guitar

via Babu... Wallace Stevens, " ">The Man with the Blue Guitar" (excerpts) I The man...

The Winning Ticket

Our long national nightmare of our long national nightmare of peace And prosperity is finally...

Note

McCain must pick up Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, North Carolina, sez Nate Silver....

Louis "Studs" Terkel, 1912-2008

A great Chicagoan is no more. My one story about Studs Terkel involves the blues...

Rachid Khaleeede

Last night, from Sarah Palin, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow (♥!) and Jon Stewart, I heard...

Guha's Burden

At Madison, Ram Guha gave a thoroughly entertaining talk on contemporary history. It was filled...

Yes! VIII

Change, That's What's Up

90's nostalgia makes the best campaign commercial [Via Samip]

Gandhi in Western Academy

Via Rohit, I read Vinay Lal's excellent, "The Gandhi Everyone Loves to Hate", Economic &...

Yes! VII

Yes! VI

More brilliant hate: [via, boingboing] Below the fold, lies the best. A remarkable PWNGE of...

Madison 2008

The South Asia Madison conference is such a pleasant, communal affair. Every one is in...

Colin Powell is so Awesome

Colin Powell finds WMD - Upload a Document to Scribd

Yes! V

and, dare I say, two early faves:

Madison

Am off to the conference. Holla, if you see me. I will post pictures, reports,...

Yes! IV

Two Steps Back

via Dawn, Oct 14, 2008: LAHORE, Oct 14: Ulema of all major schools of thought...

Man Booker: Aravind Adiga

"I was in Australia and New York and here in England, I was at Oxford...

Troy, OH

This past weekend, I visited Troy, Ohio. Besides farangi, the duo from the excellent fivethirtyeight.com...

Yes! III

[via Sean @ 538.com, image by Brett.]

Sunday Reading for Hi Ohs

I will have some pictures up tomorrow of Ohio, including the fivethirtyeight.com road crew in...

O RLY?

"I make no claims that I can comprehend the mind of a terrorist, but as...

Yes! II

via moacir...West Plains, Mo represent!. Oh, do read the comments. Sigh. related:Yes!.

Wherein I Give Deets

The non-juicy kind, at least. Look, I know dissertations are supposed to be shameful and...

Say it like you mean it

What is with conservatives and the word 'pakistan'? First, there was that insane Christopher Hitchens...

Sepoy, PhD

I defended. Deets, soon. Have a drink for me, gentle readers.

Dhaka 1971

I don't know why the war is deemed "forgotten" by TIME, but these are powerful...

Gandhigiri

I failed to note Gandhiji's birthday yesterday. Or note these great photos: (Pawan Kumar/Reuters) (Narinder...

Chand Raat

The rooftop, chath, is the hub of Chand Raat (Night of the Moon). The point...

Only Katrina Victims Get Bailouts

Or Nobody! Ha! Anyways, before the great proletariat revolution consumes us all, I wanted to...

Alexander the Great, John McCain needs you

"Obama, doesn't understand" our grecian world.

Camera Indica

I am going to continue to pimp Big Picture. Though, honestly, this time around, I...

Tuesday Links

First, a profile of Montgomery McFate, the anthropologist who launched the Human Terrain Program, by...

Sensible Nails

This one goes to the Urduphiles, out there. A proverb was used in a newspaper...

Going Native

Via e. comes this brilliance. And I don't use the word brilliant, that casually, you...

Some Grace

Over at Big Picture, my favorite blog if you care, is a wonderful series, Observing...

Islamabad Struck Again

[gallery] All images via AP & AFP. At Least 40 Killed in Huge Explosion at...

Hanif on Zardari

From The National, UAE, Exiles' Return - a superb piece by Muhammad Hanif, author of...

Laws, Lawyers & the Lawless

A few more images from today's Daily Waqt: "In Swat, the masked members of Tehrik-e...

Zungu Notes

CM friend zunguzungu has three must-reads up, on Bush Doctrine, McCain, Obama, and all things...

, Interrupted

"If we must say something, let's at least only say true things. (( And let's...

Police Patrol by Delhi Sultunate

That is some sharp work. From his myspace page: "Taru Dalmia is a reggae and...

Ralph Russell (1918-2008), Subaltern Urduwala

Ralph Russell, noted Urdu scholar, and head of Urdu at SOAS from 1949-1981, has passed...

Oh the Drudgery of Punditry...

Christopher Hitchens, of much ill-repute, tries his hand at Pakistan: The very name "Pakistan" inscribes...

Oh Snap!

ALL 2008 CHAPALS MUST GO! So, the caption on this is funnier than any snark...

DFW, RIP

David Foster Wallace is gone. Deeply shocked. And saddened. Just crushingly sad. See him on...

Yes!

The golden age of political signage is upon us. [HT, wonkette.]

Murderers at Large

Pakistan, gentle readers, is imploding. Zordari has been sworn in as President at the back...

Artifacts

Also, pay attention to the masthead.

Dhoom Dhamaka!

Our friend Lapata is having an exhibition at Counter Pulse and I failed, miserably, to...

Ramadan: The Night Rides

originally posted September 13, 2007 Jagtay Raho was the ever-contradictory yell uttered at regular intervals...

Good Ice Cream at Avari

From *Daily Waqt* - published from Lahore, Sunday August 31, 2008: Obama's mother stayed in...

The Speech

I don't really need to analyze and parse what Barack Obama said last night- countless...

Charlie Wilson's New Front

Since I will be publicly auditioning for this job, I present this without comment. August...

Ahmed Faraz, 1931-2008

It is with a sad heart that I note the passing away of Ahmed Faraz....

Agency

Pakistan is in dire straits. It is a nation at a crossroads. Extremism is around...

Summer of '29

Not that I have been burning up the internets lately, but I am officially on...

Found Objects I: Rev Dr. Maulana Riff

Over the weekend, in Hyde Park, I received a flyer from a gentleman of indeterminate...

Blame Anderson

<media critique>Good God, this is some ridiculous shite.</media critique> Oh, for full effect, turn the...

Kabul Transit

Thanks to Moacir, I watched the documentary Kabul Transit. Eschewing the usual talking heads approach...

A Muslim Like Obama II

Having not heard or read this point anywhere in the cacophony over the New Yorker...

Finally

I love America. Also:1001 Nights, y'all.

Reading List

Looking over the list (love that Excel Bible), I can't help but think that any...

We don't know what we don't know

AP: Racial Profiling Eyed for Terror Probes: Terrorist Profile Could Single Out Muslims, Arabs, or...

The Third Migration

An edited version of below appeared in The Guardian's Comment is Free 06/27. I decided...

Days of Being Wild

Film scholar David Bordwell's blog is about the only thing I read on film and...

Tarsem

I highly recommend that you go out and watch Tarsem Singh Dhabdwar's The Fall. Think...

Falak Sufi Memorial Prize

via BASAS: I wanted to draw your attention to a new annual accademic prize that...

Terrorist Fist Jabs, You Guys!

While Hijab-Gate continues to roll across our screens and inboxes, the world was just made...

Frisco Eating

The only thing better than the meals I had in SF, was the company. More...

Obama: It's a G Thang

Fox News unveiled their strategy for keeping the WH for the Republicans: Next up? Obama...

Good God Man

I just had dinner at a Nile-side restaurant with two Egyptian officials and a businessman,...

Outposts of the Empire

New Zealand soliders perform the traditional warrior dance or haka during a ceremony welcoming U.S.,...

By The Bay

I will be in Sanfranchisco next week - attending Apple's annual orgy of technology and...

Mr. November

I'm the new blue blood, I'm the great white hope I'm the new blue blood......

Some Observations on Library for Indian Travelers

Edward Eastwick (1814—1883) joined the East India Company in 1836 as a cadet but was...

Surfing on Crowds

A week or so ago Stephen Mihm had an interesting article in Boston Globe, Everyone's...

This Boy Needs Therapy

Thank god May is over soon.

Jonathan Rosenbaum

I have long admired Rosenbaum as one of the two premier critics in Chicago (the...

Lahore Snaps VIII: Dupata

The shuttle-cock burqas that now envelope our collective imagination as womanly garb across the Islamicate...

Sunday Reading for Speed Racers

I watched Iron Man a few weeks ago in Copenhagen. It is a pretty boring...

Tufte Was Here

Pardon the title but being a fan of visual representation of quantitative data, and of...

Spurned Lover

Via pdcs What is it that must precede the conveying of history? Must there not...

Once a Muslim

For a while, the exemplar op-ed for ridiculousness and gross violation of logic, reason, history...

Eurabia Snaps

Some pics from my recent trip. I have like 3 times more but I got...

Hope, Right

By the end of the 7th inning, it was clear to everyone that Gavin Floyd...

Huqqa

My grandfather's huqqa held unbelievable degree of fascination for me. I would often request that...

TMBG

Courtesy of Samip.

Tick Tock XII: May 12

From Dawn: Pakistan judges to be reinstated May 12: Nawaz Sharif LAHORE, May 2 (AFP)...

Out and About

I will be in Berlin and Copenhagen next week. Any gentle readers in continental Europe...

Flat Footed

This just made my day.

on the railway

a long long time ago, a palmist told me that everything in my life will...

Sunday Reading for Chee Malabar

The revelation was Chee Malabar. I know, and knew, that Yogi B will be global....

Hiphopistan

The rhymes were flowing and beat was strong. And I had a big, huge, grin...

Devji's Red Mosque

The Winter 2008 issue of Public Culture covers "The Public Life of History" and has...

About Edward Said

From Jane Kramer's The Petition: Israel, Palestine, and a tenure battle at Barnard, New Yorker,...

New Prisons for Old

There was a news item in a Lahore daily, a few days ago. In the...

2 Legit 2 Quit

Wow, I totally missed CM's 4th anniversary. Four years, 1095 posts, 98667 comments and 207,778...

Lahore Snaps VII: An Afternoon Out

There wasn't much time to visit anyone or any place. I saw maybe a fraction...

Lahore Snaps VI: How We Roll

I have a great story ... from when I was 10 ... and it involves...

Lahore Snaps V: Signs

Some signage from Lahore. The translations are on the flickr site. (Also additional shots). Previously:...

Lahore Snaps IV: We Eat

Lahore, should you be curious, is a food-lover's paradise. The traditional North Indian cuisines (your...

Lahore Snaps III: Marks It Bears

I have been having these vivid dreams. Places and conversations continued from Lahore. Waking up...

Demystifying Pakistan

My dear friends will be casting the harsh light of scholarship and analysis onto the...

Lahore Snaps II: Where We Lived

Ancient Lahore is nigh invisible. Old Lahore lumbers on around the inner city. Sometimes, yellow...

Lahore Snaps I: Games We Play

Of course we played in the streets, in the alley, by the fountain, on the...

Monsoon Chutney

CM reader JM sends in this note for all you gentle readers. Hi! Hoping you...

Announcements

Gentle Readers, I ask so little of you. And I give you so much. Well,...

We Are Not Free

Written, produced, directed and narrated by Kiran Khalid, the short documentary on media and Pakistan,...

Bandwagon

Catching up on my NYer, I see that Salman Rushdie is now doing movie tie-in...

BFF!!

Ah Kingmaker, rejoice. But don't forget that that pesky democracy comes with responsibilities... Oh, here...

Decline Scenario

In a rather half-hearted piece for TNR, Imperial Illusions, Amartya Sen spends some time ruminating...

Oh Noez

Obama Photo Causes Stir, AP: A photograph circulating in the Internet of Democratic Sen. Barack...

6,000,000,000

"The last thing we'd want is boxes and boxes of crumpled receipts." Um, brilliant.

Rawalpundit

I appeared on Chicago Public Radio's Worldview this morning for a brief chat. Give it...

Tick Tock XI: Election Sights

Credits go to Daily Jang, and Daily Khabrain. See Tick Tock Series ... X, IX,...

Stamp Lota

A live-blog on the election results from Pakistan. update, the morning: The morning - here...

Jodhaa Akbar

"Gowarikar came before the media with half a dozen history books and said that he...

That Election Thing

The nation of Pakistan - amid bombs and terror - goes to vote tomorrow. The...

Free JSTOR

A few weeks ago, danah boyd wrote her resolve to publish only in Open Access...

Little Terrorist

Ashvin Kumar's Little Terrorist is a wonderful short that I accidently caught on the Sundance...

A Very Brief Long History of Pakistan I

Histories Ahead

BushClinton Forever is a fun exercise is prognostication. I was just explaining that in Pakistan,...

People's Resistance Street Theater

I do not remember if I have called to your attention the exemplary work being...

Primary Color

Just a few thoughts on Cover It Live - the liveblogging software: It works as...

Sunday Reading for Super Week

"The worst uncontrolled reentry in history occurred in July 1979, when Skylab, America's abandoned, 78-ton...

The Young Kipling

As you know, The Atlantic has opened up its archives for free - following NYT...

From the Inbox

The good folks at The Century Foundation sent this word: Are the United States and...

Facts

We came here from Georgia. Our family did. Horse and wagon. I pretty much know...

Let There Be A Celebration

I have been waiting, patiently and with bated breath, for this moment for a while...

In Review: Academic Tools

I haven't really rolled the mental rolodex over into 2008. Something scares me about that...

Let Them Eat Cake

Of course, one needs flour to make cake. The Dictator Formerly Known As The General...

Prison Lyrics

In 1953, when Dast-i Saba (Wind's Palm) was published, Faiz Ahmed Faiz had been in...

Nicholas Schmidle

For crying out loud. Hadh hoti hay. Our mango republic, ran by the Dictator Formerly...

Lahore High Court

The last afternoon before I left the country, we snuck to the rooftop of Lahore...

DWM

CM friend Baraka thinks that there is a stereotype about Muslim women out there that...

AHA

This past weekend, I was on a panel at the annual historian's shindig, the AHA:...

George MacDonald Fraser, 1925-2008

The hits keep on coming. George MacDonald Fraser, creator of Harry Flashman, has died at...

The Benazir They Knew

Once again, sitting here, I find myself instinctively examining the media coverage since the 27th....

Round Up X

Benazir's 19 year old son, Bilawal, has been named successor to Pakistan People's Party -...

Round Up IX

I am still terribly sad - not just for her but for the nation of...

Benazir Bhutto, 1953-2007

Benazir Bhutto was killed at a PPP rally in Rawalpindi. At least 15 other are...

Gulgee, 1926-2007

The list of legends in Pakistani art is a short list: Sadequain (1930-1987), A. R....

Two Letters & A Temper Tantrum

Two letters in today's Dawn need your attention. Guilty as Charged: Farhat Haq, a professor...

Readings on Pakistan

I am often asked to write up a single post on the broad overview of...

Bad Readin

But if this charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, then...

Good Readin

Afghanistanica on sag-e afghani. Also, on khok-i afghani. Ben on Kindle.

A Muslim Like Obama

Sir, you make a mistake listening to people who tell you how much our stand...

Oh Kashmala

I ask you, nay demand, to spend an hour listening to the The Musharraf Government...

Tick Tock X

Pervez Musharraf became a civilian today. The elections are scheduled and candidates across the country...

Missing in Pakistan

Missing in Pakistan is a short documentary written and directed by Ziad Zafar, an independent...

Crosswording India

In today's Chicago Tribune is a special geography section. Of special note is Howard Gardner's...

The Cliopatria Awards

I have been lucky enough to be a member of Cliopatria - the group blog...

The Akond of Swat

Who or why, or which, or what, is Maulana Fazlullah of Swat? Recent headlines from...

Round Up VIII

Bush has called the General an all-around great guy; the SC in Pakistan has cleared...

Sab Theek Hai

The General's crackdown on media involves the key "code of conduct" which prohibits making fun...

Teach In at Chicago

On Friday, we organized a Teach-In on Pakistan at the University of Chicago, The Past...

Sunday Reading for Resistance

Today, November 18th, 2007's New York Time op-ed page is the absolute worst piece of...

Round Up VII

Bowing to The General's pressure, UAE has shut down Geo TV transmissions from Dubai. Even...

Radio Contact

You can hear me on Chicago Public Radio's Worldview with Jerome McDonnell and ABC Radio...

Tick Tock IX: The Not Yet Nation

Several senior administration officials said that with each day that passed, more administration officials were...

Round Up VI

Following last week's military crackdown in Pakistan and the detention of hundreds of lawyers, the...

Round Up V

The high school kids in Islamabad got lathi-charged right after the footage above finishes. The...

Going Public

The tide seems to be receding. The protests are not spreading beyond the lawyers and...

Round Up IV

Bibi/Pinky was put under house arrest and then released. I think BG has it about...

Black Days

In Pakistan, a popular way of showing support is to wear a black arm-band. I...

Round Up III

U.S. gives Musharraf's government about $200 million annually and his military $100 million monthly in...

Our Cute Little Dictators

Q Dana, does the White House believe that Musharraf is now a dictator? MS. PERINO:...

Emergency Telegraph

From students and activists in Pakistan comes The Emergency Telegraph [pdf link] - the first...

Round Up II

An email from students at LUMS regarding their upcoming protests: Things to keep in mind...

Lahore Protests

Images via Flickr. The following report is from a source that wishes to remain anonymous:...

Ask

One simple question, simply stated, to every elected Senator and Congressperson, to every Presidential candidate,...

Round Up

Protests are being planned - most notably in New York/Karachi/Lahore and on Nov 7th in...

HRCP Raids

An email from Lahore confirms the crackdown on HRCP and other related groups: Today at...

The General Speaks

The printed text is a bit off from what he actually said. Below the fold,...

Tick Tock VIII: The Emergency Plus Edition

The wag will say that the nation has never left the state of emergency, but...

Examining Iqbal

Naim Sahib forwarded a correspondence in which he answers a question about the Urdu poet...

Historian as a Political Citizen

Peter Nadas gives us some clues: But then, can someone in, say, Boston, “pouring sweet...

Go Hari

I get really annoyed at this "authenticity" business (see an old complaint) about who has...

Becoming Bibi

Benazir Bhutto has always been less than the sum of her parts - ah, but...

Sunday Reading for Bazaaris

Thanks to my main man, Rajeev, we enjoyed a sunday afternoon at Soldier's Field watching...

The Return of the Native

I was going to say something but the ... She was on her way to...

Rhymes

Saira Banu weirds out the all-too precious ode to motherland by Manoj Kumar. All I...

Objects in the Mirror

I. But, another inflection, if the testament is always made in front of witnesses, a...

عید مبارک

Eid Mubarak. To all my gentle readers, a very delightful and happy Eid ul-Fitr. It...

Say Wha III

"A specialist on Islam at the State Department nearly wept envisioning a “Danish-cartoons situation,” Mr....

Documents of 1857

Naim sahib has a scathing review in Outlook India of S.M. Azizuddin Husain's 1857 Revisited/دستاويزاتِ...

Gandhigiri

Today, on Bapu's birthday, here is a talkie: and a silence: And so we wait,...

Pragati

I have a small piece in this month's issue of Pragati: The Indian National Interest...

Say Wha II

About the departing Derbyshire batsman Hassan Adnan: "It's never nice informing players they have to...

Jihad For Love

Parvez Sharma's A Jihad for Love looks quite promising and I will try and seek...

In Solidarity

روشن کەيں بەار کے امکاں ەوۓ تو ەيں گلشن ميں چاک چند گريباں ەوۓ تو...

Burdens of History

"Athleticism has never been associated with Indian cricket, nor with Indians in general, and that...

Bosh

[via]

Yeh Din

As a birthday gift (contestable) to you, my gentle reader, I will post all the...

Porter on Decolonization

In the Aug 2, 2007 issue of LRB, Bernard Porter had a review essay, Trying...

Sunday Reading for the Gods

The ICC World Twenty20 is currently underway in South Africa. It is exciting and exhilarating...

Big in Japan

There is a new poll [pdf link] out that has details on Pakistani democracy, popularity...

The Prodigal Son

I quote W. G. Sebald from an old interview: "Going home is not necessarily a...

Contented Contingents

Down to The Wire I

Also see, David Simon in The Believer [via kottke]

Feistival

Feist with Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, The National and some other people.

The Terror of Arabic

This terror of a language and the official language of terror continues its march of...

Dallas & Dynasty

Via Anil came the "best commentary" yet on the Pakistani political scene. You can listen...

Story

That 'story' bit in history: Villemessant, the founder of Le Figaro, characterized the nature of...

حرام

۱) فيض تمەيں کەو رند و محتسب ميں اج شب کون فرق ايسا يە ا...

Operation Academic Freedom

Seriously. How many more things can the DePaul administration do wrong? They denied tenure to...

Etceteras

Leo Strauss ruined my graduate school experience and caused the Iraq War. Or maybe not?...

Tick Tock VII

The Supreme Court has ruled that Nawaz Sharif can return to Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif, you...

غربت نسيب

صبا سے کرتے ەيں غربت نسيب زکِر وطن تو چشمِ صبح ميں انسو ابهرنے لگتے...

The Fox Wars

The video, by Robert Greenwald, is worth watching - if only to see how little...

Qurratulain Hyder

Naim Sahib just emailed that the renowned Urdu author - Qurratulain Hyder has passed away...

Questioning Jinnah

From the Gujarati literary journal Visami Sadi [may the internet gods smile upon whomever digitized...

Say Wha

I break my reverie to state, unequivocally, that Ramchandra Guha's oped in today's NYT, India's...

Sunday Reading for Post-Partitioners

Ah, the second week in August, when every wizened old editor's attention turns to the...

Tick Tock VI

Way to go, Obama! During a state of emergency, the government can restrict the freedom...

Kala Dil General

The July/Aug 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs contains Daniel Markey's A False Choice in Pakistan....

YearlyKos

As billed, I was at the podium at 4:00, ready to change the discourse in...

Wild Frontiers of Our Localized World

How can Obama be just as wrong as Bush? Yesterday Barack Obama delivered a major...

There Are No Such Thing as Shark Attacks

And that explains, conclusively, Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Gilbert Arenas, of the Washington Wizards: There Are...

Explain

Seriously. Just because he is brown?

Textual Commentary

One of my favorite activity in the archive was to work on the marginalia of...

The Pearl Project

I just found out about it, though it had been announced back in March. In...

Tick Tock V

The Supreme Court of Pakistan, finally realizing that they can do better by not trussing...

Letter from Pakistan

Days of Rage by William Dalrymple looks at Asma Jahangir - and Lal Masjid -...

Sunday Reading for Smarty Pants

Watched Transformers and found it all too snickerworthy. I just don't know how one can...

Title Pending

I will be participating on a roundpanel, The Arc of Crisis: US Policy in the...

Calligraphers

"Urdu is sweeter when written by hand," he said. A writeup in Wired of an...

The Mosque and the Ballot

Just a few weeks ago, General Pervez Musharraf's regime seemed in severe trouble. Chief Justice...

Law of the Burqa

You live by the Burqa, you die by the Burqa. [Background: juan cole, and Nicholas...

Politics as Usual

Tick Tock IV

Griff Witte's Musharraf's Military Reaches Deep Into Pakistani Society, WaPo, June 27: "Yet in a...

Zibahkhana

Omar Ali Khan - an aficionado and connoisseur of the weird and macabre lollywod/Punjabi cinema...

South Asian Studies at ASPAC

Guest Post by Jonathan Dresner Sepoy has graciously agreed to let me guest-blog my conference...

Sir Christopher Bayly

Christopher Bayly, the Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, Fellow of St Catharine's...

Sunday Reading for Bloomers

It is really hot out there; the White Sox are in a really bad shape;...

The Outsider

It has been all-petition-all-the-time at CM lately. Which is a marked contrast to my usual...

Boycott DePaul

Finkelstein's tenure denial rankles badly those of us determined to keep our visions of activist-scholarship...

NO RLY?

Coach Woolmer not murdered (possibly not even dead but hiking with Elvis in Tashkent?). Now,...

Grey Lady Knows

Pakistan has its share of violent Islamic extremists, military and civilian. But they are clearly...

To Dream A Man

He wanted to dream a man; he wanted to dream him in minute entirety and...

Tick Tock III

Last night during the democratic debate, a history professor asked the candidates what they thought...

O RLY?

According to the Daily Mail, police in Kingston now believe Mr Woolmer died of natural...

Tick Tock II

Media rights groups have voiced growing concern over intimidation of journalists in Pakistan amid political...

Hey Malkovich, Think Fast.

I have been seriously amiss [um] in acknowledging the [somewhat disconcerting] distinction that friends &...

Temple Destruction

A commercial was droning by, as I tried to watch the NBA game and tool...

Kian and Ali

Mere speech against some injustice, against some regime of intolerance or hypocrisy, for some right,...

Free Haleh II

Shaul Bakhash, Clarence Robinson Professor of History, George Mason University, Brookings Institution senior fellow and...

You Mean Mahound?

I am no expert on Insurgencies. I don't know much about Terrorism. I have very...

Free Haleh Esfandiari

Haleh Esfandiari is the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International...

Free Dr. Binayak Sen

Dr. Binayak Sen, paediatrician and senior civil rights activist, has spent decades training and helping...

Sell That Gin, Gunga Din

Mangoes

Enough doom and gloom ... mangoes are in the market people! MANGOES. Mangoes like Sarholi,...

Troubles

"Karachi is smelling quite similar to early 90s." My dear friend, who lives and works...

Karachi is Burning

In a showdown that was seen coming, at least 33 people were killed and scores...

Free Chandramohan

Chandramohan Srilamantula is a final year post-graduate student in Graphics at Fine Arts department at...

I'll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again

First it was my Dalrymple review and now, I have gone and picked on the...

Sepoys Take Manhattan

If you are in or around NYC and you care about raging against the machine,...

Ancient Pills

Suketu Mehta's A Big Stretch, NYT, May 7th, begins with chiding the USPTO for issuing...

The Justice

It had taken the chief justice 25 hours rather than the usual 4 to reach...

Samir Dari

The Case of Samir Dari - A letter by Yigal Bronner and Neve Gordon. Not...

Chipkazilla

Kiya Aap Ye Nishaan Pehchantey Hain? Yeh Tabkari Ka Nishaan Hai. "Do you recognize this...

Funda Name

"(Our hero's name gets no points for subtlety either.)" - Karen Olsson reviews Mohsin Hamid's...

Return of the White Rabbit

A response by William Dalrymple Manan just looked through the amazingly long discussion your review...

Expectations

Attended a talk yesterday on Hindi cinema after which the conversation turned to cinema and...

1857 and Dalrymple's The Last Mughal

There is an obvious point that can be made about contestations over the meaning of...

Fredo

Connect

CM on Facebook. Wave of the future.

Soloman and Hamid

I have a long standing desire to wallop Deborah Soloman. Her latest conversation with writer...

Unfinished Symphony

As part of the Year End Clearance®, below are posts that I started at some...

Le Temps Retrouvé

It all began on April 8th, 2004....this Chapati adventure. Year One. Year Two. And now...

Tick Tock

Formally announcing the establishment of a parallel judicial system, the pro-Taliban Lal Masjid administration on...

Dusk

For now, I will let this speak for itself. Record of the conflict between the...

No One Writes to The General

In the NYT today is Pakistan's Silent Majority Is Not to Be Feared, an op-ed...

Sunday Reading for Bostonians

Had all things been normal, I would have been on a panel this Sunday morning,...

Cricket Woes

Nothing lifts the spirits more in such desperate times than the memory of a young...

Lawless in Pakistan

The headlines everywhere are filled with the scandal of District Attorneys fired for political reasons....

Bollypolitans

Oh, yeah. Desis are here. And they can write, bitches. About themselves, sure, but it's...

Luck O' The Draw

The World Cup of Cricket is currently underway. Those of you who care, already know...

Pakistan Education Project

In 1957, Francis S. Chase, the founding Dean of the Graduate School of Education, established...

Fire in the Belly

I admit that I find it extremely hard to post here. In general, for a...

Desi Comedians Don't Do Yo Mama! Jokes

At a dinner table, recently, I asserted that 'family' was largely absent from the routines...

South Siiiide

Does Kanye love chapatis? Hell Yeah, he does.

Holi Hai!

Also, please read Desi Knitter's bhang-addled holi post.

DJinnah

I admit that I have never been a big fan of Quaid-e Azam Muhammad Ali...

Mal d'archive

Come to my apartment and see my pictures of Moscow? She fell for that? What...

Zile Huma Usman, A Pakistani Tragedy

It was her wedding anniversary. She was the mother of two. She was elected to...

Samjha Nahin

According to police sources, the 14-coach train was chugging towards Panipat when the explosions occurred...

Outlaws

I absolutely demand that you read Samantha Shapiro's Hip-Hop Outlaw from NYT Magazine. It is...

Elect Barry Hussein '08

Today I met some local Hyde Parkers wanting to get Obama elected. It was nice...

Reading Manifestos

Some while ago, I wrote up my thoughts on being public intellectuals in the new...

CM Back

CM has been broken for the last month. Maybe you noticed? And I have been...

Denied Entry

Here is a subset of the recent story about Iraqis being denied asylum and other...

Based on Tragically Limited Intelligence

Toronota based desi band, Falak - who think therefore they resist - want you to...

An Open Letter to Senator Barack Obama

Dear Senator Obama, I am writing to you from Hyde Park, Chicago, as your constituent...

Forget Macau

For years, I have carried a torch for Macau. My inevitable answer to any variant...

Monsters of Midway

Alright! I gotta say that was an nicely intense game made all the more glorious...

The Silent Ones

Dink, who is survived by his wife, Rakel, and their three children, was charming, soft-spoken...

Hrant Dink

Hrant Dink, editor of Agos, was killed in Istanbul. Dink had been convicted by Turkish...

CM PwnD!

I am sure you all noticed that this site has acted flaky lately. At first,...

Islamic History at the AHA

I couldn't make it to the AHA this year. Of course, the salt to my...

Mein Hindustani Larki Hoon

Brett Lee duets with Asha Bhosle in one of the more bizarre things I have...

Common Sense

On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published, anonymously, his pamphlet, Common Sense. I actually didn't...

Sunday Reading for the New Years

I mean, really, how can EVERYTHING get cock-ed up by this Administration? A farce of...

Happy Eid & New Year

Gentle readers, may you have a splendid bakra Eid and a joyous 2007.

All India Muslim League, 1906-2006

On December 30, 1906, a group of Muslim leaders gathered in Dhaka and proposed a...

Friedman, You Are a Racist Idiot

I don't read Friedman, or any other NYT columnist, thanks [wholeheartedly] to TimeSelect. However, his...

Barack Obama II: Audacity of Hope

I don't usually read anything written by politicians during their run-up to declaring candidacy or...

The 4 Man Show

Jon Stewart has changed television around the world. Witness, the 4 Man Show at the...

That Conference Paper

In March, I am presenting on a panel at the annual meeting of the Association...

Mughal India Room

I have been thinking about digital archives in the humanities - specifically for historians -...

Kaanch

From the writing-directing-acting-webdesignin' duo, the Suhrwardy Brothers comes a Pakistani actioneer, Kaanch. I am unclear...

Play

Bats with God

A little over an year ago, I wrote about Mohammad Yousuf neé Yousuf Youhana's conversion...

Imams at the Airport

Six Imams walk into a Terminal...and then they stay right there. They were deplaned from...

Give Thanks

Freedom is the distance from here to here. ps. Yes the first sentence is grotesque....

Meeting People is Easy

On Saturday, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, conceded that the president had...

All Tied Up in Knots

I wish to inform you that in the past few weeks, I should have written...

Dear Rumsfeld

I hear they have a nice retirement colony in Cuba.

American

I haven't been able to work for any campaign this year. Did some phone banking....

Daily Chosun Link III: Pukkah Edition

I am a _tad_overwhelmed at the moment. But this weekend, I will post my talk...

Eid Saeed

Today, I will not go to work. I will stay at home and finish up...

MADiFun

A Huzzah! to my man Whitney Cox for defending his dissertation today. Much cel[r]ebration will...

Shakespeare Re-mixed

Recently, we watched Omkara - Vishal Bharadwaj's adaptation of Othello. A few nights ago, I...

Microcredit Wins

The Nobel committee continues its rampage of making-news: Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank of Bangladesh...

Best is So Yesterday

Best South Asia Blog.

Pamuk Wins

Ending the longest tease ever, the Nobel committee finally decided to give Pamuk the Literature...

Reading Between the Wickets

My friend Gerry emailed: "Every so often I like to read up on what's happening...

Put The Nuclear in N. Korea

Reports are everywhere that N. Korea has conducted a nuclear test. Remember what Bert the...

Earthquake - A Year Later

A 8:49 a.m. sirens sounded across Pakistan and people held a minute of silence. Can...

Mard-e Momin

News arrives about the long-awaited [at least by me] adaptation of Charlie Wilson's War. Who...

Robot Cricket

The word around the cricket ground was that Abdul Qadir did not have bones in...

Keeping Company

He's always mentioning her as though there was no reason to make retching sounds at...

Little Superstar

One day we will look back at YouTube, like we look back at Napster. Until...

War Theory

"I asked Naveh why Deleuze and Guattari were so popular with the Israeli military. He...

Martin Amis is Shit

I promised, a few sundays ago, that I would tackle Martin Amis' long-ass screed. And...

Truth Out

However, Roy said that many of the suspects had been trained to resist interrogation and...

G∞gle

Happy 8th birthday, Google. You have changed everything. Remember. Don't. Be. Evil.

Give a Brutha a Break

It wasn't enough that the Pope had to go all medieval on Muhammad but now...

No, Seriously

[via]

On Daily Show

In an amazing display of cultural hipness, The General will be appearing on The Daily...

One Fine Day

I hate my birthdays and this one provides more to hate than most recent ones....

The Cool Kids Table

Malcolm Gladwell, they say, re-processes academic work for the NYer crowd [so, the nyer crowd...

Knowledge is Poison

I was in Cambridge to participate in a workshop on colonial knowledge. I had no...

Imagining

The funny bit in the new edition of Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities is Anderson's usage...

I Got Next

Shazia Sikander wins the MacArthur Fellowship. A fine artiste of miniatures and installations, Sikander brings...

Londonistan II

So the week flew by and I have done no shopping. Trudged around Oxford Street...

Londonistan I

There is something to be said for three Chicago graduates who meet in whatever part...

Guests at CM

I like having people over. I like throwing parties. I am, what the kids call,...

Sunday Reading for Previews

I _promise_ that CM will return to form soon enough. Been mulling over the cricket...

Dear Body Shop

The Body Shop has no regard for desis. None. Here is a letter written, with...

Simon Schama

Of Rough Crossings fame, gives an excellent talk at Google - on history, historiography and...

Model Non-Citizen

We have asked our missions in Washington and Beijing to investigate this because it is...

Well…

An email re: Niall Ferguson's cover story in this week's TIME: WHY THE FUCK is...

Million Google Scholars

A few weeks ago, Google announced that one can download pdfs of public domain books...

Don’t Call It a Comeback

Yeah, don't. Still, I am back - a little earlier than announced. More or less....

It’s all Macaca Down Here

This was the summer of my Macaca.

Great Summer Slumber

Gentle Readers, I bid farewell to you for the next few months. Enjoy yourselves. Have...

Mumbai 2006

What a terrible and heinous attack. There is news here here and elsewhere. I find...

Zizou

France was my pick for a while - for all the non-soccer reasons like diversity...

That Torture Thing II

Last night, I happened to catch the beginning of a Law & Order episode [don't...

India meets Pakistan

As I picked up the Onion, I couldn't help but notice the headline. The type...

Krrish

"His special powers are modest by western standards, though spectacular enough by local standards." Don't...

Get Well, Roger

All the best for a speedy recovery to our Roger Ebert!

History Carnival XXXIV

Jorge Ben is singing and I am almost over the horrid game played by Brazil....

Language of Command

Hey Clive, why don't you know any languages of India? "Why, if I had, I...

This Spectred Isle II

Priyamvada Gopal, who previously brought the heat to Niall Ferguson, has a new piece up...

The Break Dance

In case you noticed, Iraq is kinda back in the news. The Chosen One is...

Cole & c.

Philip Weiss has a short piece in the Nation on Cole, with a terrible pun...

Tiger, Dragon & Elephants

On Time's cover this week, I like how India, the perennial bride, is also the...

This Spectred Isle

Kumuda kindly drew my attention to historians Eric Hobsbawm, Niall Ferguson, Priyamvada Gopal, Linda Colley...

Nomad Fatwa I: Life

In a shameless attempt to garner more content for CM [and also to recycle some...

Hadji Girl

"dirka dirka muhammad jihad / Surpa surpa bakala / Shoulda known they were fucking with...

Paristan

Paris and Nicole trade in their designer dresses for traditional saris when they take over...

Asymmetric Reading

A briefing... but not even an empty notepad for the CIC? Oh, wait. I remember....

Run, Rabbit II

I see that Amitav Ghosh had the misfortune of reviewing Updike's The Terrorist in the...

Now What

I am glad they got Zarqawi. Very glad. He was an evil terrorist who killed...

World Cup

Tony Karon's excellent post should get you started on your path to world cup madness....

Open Calls

1. If you, or someone you know, works* on the All India Muslim League or...

Da Ban

Dawn reports that Pakistan Govt. has decided that "screening of the film [DaVinci Code], or...

Gore Warning

Go see An Inconvenient Truth. Pirate it. Distribute it. Watch it. I saw it yesterday...

Know Thy Enemy

The moon is a very important and complex symbol in Islamic culture. The horse is...

Dear NYT

What in tarnation is wrong with you? Forget the whole Clinton marriage thing that you...

Run, Rabbit

"I felt I could understand the animosity and hatred which an Islamic believer would have...

The Teacher

Ahmadinejad: We have always said that we support the popularly elected government of Iraq. But...

Dear US-Visit

Why would you keep M.I.A O.U.T of U.S.A. [via] ? But let Arundhati Roy in?...

숭례문

Sungnyemun, was built by Tae-Jo in 1396, the first king of the Lee dynasty, to...

Rip. Mix. Burn

I have to admit that I am thrilled at the positive response to the Polyglot...

Silver Cloud

Looks like I may not return from my trip home. Wireless WiMAX over all of...

Žižek Mechanics

Great post on Žižek and quantum mechanics by Uchicago's Sean Carroll. It made the innermost...

Forests and Pencils

John Updike read Kevin Kelly's article, Scan This Book! in last week's NYT [go here...

Hear that Lonesome Whistle Blow

There still are some genuine heroes around: Mark Klein, the Whistle-Blower's Evidence, Uncut released by...

Hic Locus Terriblis Est III

sepoy notes: Apparently, DaVinci Code made 200 plus million $s around the globe this weekend....

TPM Redux

Now in a handy, single serving packet: The Polyglot Manifesto.

Hic Locus Terriblis Est II

sepoy notes: It is beyond doubt that the Glorious Lord will send farangi to hell...

Hic Locus Terriblis Est

sepoy notes: At long last, I have cajoled our friend farangi back to CM. Be...

The Polyglot Manifesto II

There are, hence, two types of interlocutions required for the historian interested in future-ese. One...

The Polyglot Manifesto I

During the last few weeks, I have had occasion to think seriously about my discipline,...

Tags

"The link and the tag may be two of the most important inventions of the...

Of Mangoes, Marriages and Spices

NYRoB asked a veritable who's who of contemporary fiction to name "the single best work...

See what the world is searching for

Some fun with Google Trends: Islam: And they say Muslims aren't inquisitive about their faith....

Poor, perfect Kaavya Viswanathan

... desperate to keep impressing all the important adults who had invested in her. Not...

Raising the Bar

The ringtone in question was Shakira's Hips Don't Lie. No fightin' No fightin'.

Ghazal I

my urdu post was lost in a db transfer. i am leaving the comments. -...

A Letter in Neon

I am quite delighted that Ahmedinejad wrote a letter to Bush. "مدتی در این اندیشه...

Kotsko for Preznit

Adam Kotsko should totally run for office.

Someone Say Something

Robert Kagan and Amartya Sen were shooting the shit and chewing the fat, over at...

Brit Asians in Film

... there is a much wider experience in Britain then just going on about arranged...

Some Night

Some nights are sprinkled with magic dust.

Riz MC

Riz MC's post 9/11 Blues. He of Gitmo-movie fame. And the lyrics. Related: 3 Mohammads...

Tip Top Pakistan

Surely, we are #1 in everything!

Aside Aside

Colonial Britain in Kenya. Aside, the 'elsewhere' in the url is quite 'cute'.

Shut that Door

Well, I am glad we got to the bottom of that, then. Next, who moved...

Sí Se Puede

I noticed mostly the kids in the strollers, wrapped in flags or waving them. Noticed,...

khaled

A muslim Dr. Phil.

Haymarket

On May 4, 1886, a bomb went off in Chicago...

Shahnameh

Reza Aslan, on the Book of Kings, in the http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/books/review/30aslan.html?ex=1304049600&en=61e3e988149586f3&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">NYT.

Snaps

12 Postcards for Muharram by Amir Normandi.

kaavya

Kaavya Viswanathan was brainwashed ... by a bunch of Pakistanis hell-bent on subverting India’s credibility...

How to Fight Loneliness

Apologies for the lack of postings. It has been a busy couple of weeks. This...

Edna

Dame Edna of Pakistan. Those medieval Pakistanis...

pottery

The Best Pottery Place; and I WILL be a clay-artist there!

Mother, Will they drop the Bomb?

Nuclear Bunker Busters will Bust Nothing... fuck.

Nepal

A New Nepal is Possible. [thx Saurav]

YAY!

Congratulations! and best wishes to Sumana and Leonard.

Yahoo! Jail

Hu Jintao is in the WH today. Talking about $ and ¥, I am sure....

Doyle

When I grow up...that's who I wanna be.

eck

Best opportunity ever ... to ask, "What did you do to Iraq? and Why?"

Census Map

Muslims in America, 2000. Who are the HR for those 2.2-10.6 counties?

NoClash

Clash & No Clash. Punk meets Islam.

Partition Movie

This time with soaring music! [via]

Malkani

Gautam Malkani: Desi Irvine Welsh? [via]

Sunday Reading for Omega 3

What is it about Sunday afternoons? I sit here, watching an infomercial about Iceland health...

maggie

Maggie Cheung Is Perfect.

Introduction to South Asia

Rajeev is currently planning a course on South Asia History 1600-present [!] and pdcs is...

Kitab 2006

Nilanjana Roy on Delhi's Kitab festival. Dalybabu has a "forthcoming series of books"!

SoaP

Possible 'Surprise' endings to the new Samuel L. Jackson film Snakes on a Plane [mcsweeney's]...

Morning Before

hello, world.

Ye Gods

Nutshell.

Unlisted

Today's CHE has the pseudonymous Leah Bowman writing about the dangers, nowadays, of teaching or...

Sinno Sells

Trying to sell Arabic films in America must be - in the current political climate...

Shri Simpson

Anyone see the Simpson episode tonight? With Homer in India...Apu's cousin's name is Kavi!

Protests in Dubai

Somethings happening here...

Happy Chapati

On this second blogiversary, I would like to thank all of you gentle readers ((I...

I Declare I

Adam at the weblog has this great series 'Friday Afternoon Confessional' , I love. Especially...

Internet Neutrality

Take your stinking paws off Al Gore's internet, you damned dirty Republicans!

Pull My Teeth

You may think that there is no connection between this and this - but you'd...

MC

"...having drunk deeply from the well of India", Salman Rushdie looks back at Midnight's Children....

Muslims India

Muslim India: Prominent individuals belie the poverty of a minority left behind by the 1947...

White Boy Blues

I have issues with authenticity. ((and reality, but let's leave that aside.)) One of the...

WSF

Ananya reports from World Social Forum in Karachi. Poor girl.

Los Angeles

The narration for Los Angeles Plays Itself... for those who like places, and movies. I...

Burke

Timothy Burke on the Duke lacrosse case at Cliopatria. I cannot recommend this post highly...

Inside Man

Spike Lee's Inside Man: Quick Change meets The Negotiator and some post-9/11/NY and Bollywood remixes...

InSamity

Amartya Sen in Slate: What Clash of Civilizations? If we could just stop 'engaging' Sam...

Jill

TREMENDOUS NEWS: Jill Carroll is safe after being released by the kidnappers!

Voxtrot

Good: Voxtrot. Also Ramesh has a blog.

Maddas

That Saddam sure be nuts, yo!

Bought

Purchases today: The Wind and the Lion, A Yank in Libya. Empire wha?

Hop

Who says they don't make movies about the positive sides of terrorism? Belgium movie: Hop....

Decide and Deliberate

Mr. Bush Goes to War

Kaafi Cultures

One of my fav. classes at Chicago was with Chalapathy...so it is quite awesome that...

But the empire isn’t coming back

His Imperial Highness Prince Osman Ertugrul of Turkey and Princess Zeynep in NYC. And they...

Caption: Empire

One of the imaginary courses I want to teach in the near-future would be a...

Protests

Somethings happening here...

V

A for V for Vendetta.

Imperialism Last Tortoise

Clive of India's tortoise dies, aged 255.

Patriot Games

You know, for the kids.

AwesomeTube

Two great YouTube recommendations: Bush&Mush Press conference [thx, sonee!] and Loose Furs' Hey Chicken [thx,...

NoRuz

If you walk out of my door, the gusting wind will chill you to your...

Bulls on Parade

Over the weekend, we went to a rally marking the third anniversary of the war....

Das Kapital, anyone

The world's best books - the dude oughta read more.

Rummy

Fortunately, history is not made up of daily headlines, blogs on Web sites or the...

Amir II

Amir: The Great British-Pakistani-Muslim Hope. "Walid Phares, a professor of political science at Florida Atlantic...

Training Death

We will fight them, there. So that we don't have to fight them, here. That's...

The Lobby

Thanks to the Lobby, the United States has become the de facto enabler of Israeli...

Memory

Braids of Faith at Baba's Temple: A Hindu-Muslim Idyll. "It lies in the imagination of...

Iran Freedom Concert

This Saturday, a coalition of groups will hold an Iran Freedom Concert at Harvard. This...

Holi

هولي ⁄©€í ÿØŸÜ ÿØŸÑ کهل ÿ¨ÿßÿ™€í هيں، رنگوں ŸÖŸä⁄∫ رنگ ŸÖŸÑ ÿ¨ÿßÿ™€í هيںـ Holi hai!!!...

D on V

David Denby declares a vendetta against V for Vendetta. All surprised raise hands. I will...

Žižek on Islam

Žižek's A Glance into the Archives of Islam [thanks, Abir!]

Sunday Reading for Chasers

That Australia hit 434 in a ODI is amazing in itself. That South Africa successfully...

434

"South Africa have won the greatest one-day international in the history of the game." I...

Clash

Wafa Sultan: The force of her rhetoric, esp. at the end, is impressive.

Muslim Inventions

List o' cool things Muslims done did. And 1001 more.

Basant 2006

Mullahs killed Basant! Have they no mercy? Let us have our syncretic fun, dammit [via...

Sophie

Sophie is coming!

Islamophobia

A story on WaPo was picked up on MSNBC who had their own insta-polls. 60K...

Mahatama and Bush

If Bush met Gandhi, pdcs' excellent oped. Do read.

Nightmares

Last night I dreamt that my dissertation got published and the ISI kidnapped me for...

Sultan of Swing

Seldom is it that my worlds collide so drastically. But, a simple one-line email frrom...

Reza Aslan

Reza, how you say...fisked by haroon. I wish I had seen the show.

Go Bush

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it...

Blogspot Blocked?

Via Danial comes news that Pakistan has blocked blogspot. Though KO on the linked article...

Paging DesiKnitter

A subversive knit in time...[for desiknitter]

On Papers and Conferences

Two weeks ago, I went to Berkeley to present a paper. It was a mere...

Outlook History

Historians strike back in the Outlook: Romila Thapar on California textbook controversies and Vinay Lal...

Daily Chosun Link II

Daily Chosun continues to astound with analysis: When Girls Want Sex

Faith

From two links gathered over the last two days. One Jain. One Shi'a. In eternal...

Requests

My readers are such lovely people. They know that I am just goofing off under...

Akbar is available

If there is one news story that can make me write 10 blog posts [and...

So Not Good

This = very bad. No, really. V.E.R.Y. B.A.D.

They Know Not Cricket

"Cricket as Art". An amazing Radio 3 presentation by Darkus Howe on CLR James and...

Dear Malcolm

On this day in 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated. Slate has a wonderful collection of...

More Work

[haris]chandra writes about our berkeley conference. I wholeheartedly agree - in principle.

نيا نيا کون

What is needed now are new ideas, neither neoconservative nor realist, for how America is...

Noor

Hers, after all, is a remarkable chapter in the history of Muslims in Britain and...

Sharif Likes It

These cartoons are a riot. Great work!

Sharif Don’t Like It

Danial reports that there was at least one peaceful protest against the rise in greenhouse...

Zirdast

I am off to Berkeley for the next few days and the weekend. I am...

A Texting Issue

The history that such nationalists would impose upon students is invariably a sanitized one, cleansed...

Pakistani Mobs

Danial has a post w/ pics of violent mobs in Lahore protesting the two recent...

101 Professors

Horowitz has a new book called The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America....

The Trial

Dahlia Lithwick on the Moussaoui trial. I have had a lil' intellectual crush on Dahlia...

Google Historian

Google helps read the historical archive. the Manuscript kind.

Daily Chosun Link

Your Daily Chosun Link o' da Moment: Erotic Art Reflects Conservative Korea's Passionate Side ....

Detainee 032

Stuff that nightmares are made of...justice at gitmo [via ralph]

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World

At least Mel Brooks is getting the irony here. I don't want to read anything...

4 Squares

zp tagged me. I don't usually do anything w/ regards to memes but hey, I...

Fearless Nadia

Fearless Nadia is no more. R.I.P. nadia, may they always play Sher-e Baghdad. Doh!

Virtual Hajj

Via Land of Lime, I hear about the Virtual Abhisheka which has to be the...

A Clash of Fanaticisms

Naim Sahib's piece on the cartoons in Outlook India, A Clash of Fanaticisms is up....

CyberSleuthing

Wikipedia and Senate staff Hijinks.

Sundance Film

HA HA HA America. Fuckin' Brilliant.

Mother India

"Maqbool Fida Husain's ... latest work, part of a series to be auctioned in aid...

Save Orientalism

A review of Robert Irwin's For Lust of Knowin, a book written to de-de-re-re-bunk Said's...

Amir and Hanif

"You're in this incredible position. You're a good Muslim boy, an Asian boy, but everyone...

Arab Cartoon

Jihan Auratani's cartoon in Al Dastur shows the two-faced West; in the left hand the...

Kurtlar Vadisi Irak

Kurtlar Vadisi Irak - the Turkish remake of Delta Force and True Lies. Paging CM's...

Invade or Die

Mr Bush told the Mr Blair that the US was so worried about the failure...

vote or die

Go Vote in the Second Annual Brass Crescent Awards. Some fine nominations. I voted for...

Figure of Speech

I have been asked to weigh in on the Muhammad in cartoon bruhumhum. Oblivious readers...

Picture This

"... we respect the right of any human being to practise his or her religion,...

Hazaroon Kranti

The title leaves a tad to be desired but Sudhir Mishra's Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi really...

Niall, niall

After going to the future, our intrepid historian is going to the past. Now he...

The Body in the Basement

Paging Miss Marple...

CurryNRice Girl

I will hollar at you, o curry n rice girl [thx Bea!]

Year of the Dog

Happy New Year, gentle readers.

Aram III

Thank you, Michael Aram, for doing the right thing.

Intolerable

Putting Senator Durbin in a turban and calling him a terrorist is the stupidest shit...

Electoral Blast

FIS/Algeria/1992 or Sinn Féin/PIRA/1970? My money is on re-juvenated unilateralism in Tel Aviv and Washington....

Desicritics

It should be duly noted that DesiCritics has launched with the power of a thousand...

appropriate my culture

Remember Norma Khouri? Another hoaxer exposed. This one became Navajo. And got the first break...

my heritage

For the record, I am half punjabi, half kashmiri, half korean and half kannadiga. Thought...

in Halo2

I should have mentioned this earlier, but I am thinking about holding my conference on...

The Baluchistan Issue II

Via Watandost, I learned that Carnegie Papers just released a report on Baluchistan called Pakistan:...

1857

"What makes a young kid - of any faith, in any part of the world...

squiggles

my urdu post was lost in a db transfer. i am leaving the comments.

Open Source

Show on Pakistan @ Open Source Radio.

Middle East Studies Greatest Hits

The enterprising scholars at American University Cairo thought it worthwhile to poll M.E. professors [and...

Zork Lives

For those of us who know wtf Zork is...You are standing inside a White House....

khabrain

While each may deserve a rich post, I will suffice to note the following: -...

Paradise Now

Haven't seen it but the winner of Golden Globe's Best Foreign Film looks worth the...

The Parrot II

Some stories never die.

on conflict

Nathaniel has a nice post on Dr. King that you should read.

Blegh

I get tired of telling this to people. But, once again: Repeat after me: "BLOGGING...

Juan on MLK Day

What Dr. King would have said about Iraq....

Contra Niall

Niall Ferguson, the über-historian, has one of those cute historian-of-the-future columns in the Telegraph/LAT. Kinda...

Ahmedinejad

The conference will be followed by a seminar on Loch Ness: The Secret Deadly Weapon...

Benjamin Aislabie

Benjamin Aislabie (1774-1842) was a wine merchant with holdings in the West Indies. He was...

Stampede

Every year pilgrims get crushed to death in Mina or Arafat. In 2004, 244 died....

Jill

My thoughts and prayers are for Jill Carroll. May she return safe and soon.

iTunes

I know I have immaculate taste in Music but I'd rather keep that information to...

Give This Guy a Book Contract

Come, little Iqbal, I* will tell you about Pakistani bowlers. As a genetic anomaly, they...

Aram II

The Case Against Michael Aram now has an online house. Please visit and publicize the...

No.

Decline and Fall of Cricket.

Oil Pipe Dreams

Finally saw Syriana last night. It is, I think, the first post 9/11 movie that...

Letterman Lights It

And you think John Stewart is the shit? Seriously, watch the thing.

Insomnia

I have had a stressful week or more. And last night, found myself staring at...

Blonde Ambition

I wouldn't publish Sir Vidia either but, this is indeed absurd and, really academia is...

Indian Playboy

Not Nude, Not Playboy, to Not take India by a storm.

Ismail & Philip

Ismail Kadare, who won the International Booker this year, has a short story in the...

walk the earth, meet people

The coolest resolution from one of my fav. blogs. "Like Caine from "Kung Fu."

2006

there is only one resolution for 2006: Defend my dissertation. To the 325358 unique visitors...

Leap Second

Why would they want to add a second to the year? Because it gives them...

Why God?

This is so tragic. I fucking hate guns.

Amazon Reviewer

A believer reviews. Hil.a.ri.ous.

somebody do something

Honor killings. solution?

Slate Annual Movie Club

One of my year-end pleasures is reading Slate's Annual Movie Club w/ a rotating roster...

A New Year Verse

You say there is no choice left, now - Faiz, Jan 1958.

Tragic

My sympathy and prayers to the family of Lt. Michael Cleary [news comes via Paul]....

Free Corporation

If you haven't seen The Corporation - a fairly decent documentary about that evil entity...

Yoo Suck

Yoo Suck. How could a mid-level lawyer do all this? [via TPM].

Angry Arab on Munich

Angry Arab on Munich's dehumanization of Palestinians and other angry truths.

Packer

Kerry Packer who changed cricket forever, passed away.

Dabbe Trailer

D@bbe gets a trailer [via Twitch and in horrible WMV]. Paging Elizabeth for a review....

Lets Hack This, Eh?

Not happy with the technical limitations but Santa got me The Complete New Yorker! w00t!...

Brass Crescent Awards

Brass Crescent Awards Nominations. Go nominate your fav. blog/blogger of the "Islamsphere" [?]

مبارکاں - Felicitations

First, Happy Birthday to my dear Amma. & Merry Xmas, Happy Hanukkah to all my...

Radioactive Muslims

"It's not a whole lot different from smelling marijuana muslims."

Manhola on Munich

... it is Avner's humanity, however compromised, that gives "Munich" the weight of a moral...

The Posner Rule

And the scariest Op-Ed of the Year award goes to ...

Hearts and Mind Department

Ahistoricality kindly drew my attention to a recent poll on attitudes towards US, UbL and...

Bad Signals

Q: I wanted to ask you a question. Do you think the government has the...

No I in Team

I love this picture. Not since the heydey of Imran-led World Cup champions have I...

Sunday Reading for Damn Dirty Apes

Saw King Kong on Friday. I must have been 9 or 10, maybe younger, when...

WireTapped

He is a president, not a king. God Bless, Russ.

Path to Victory

Say what we will about the adventures of The Chosen One in Iraq, yesterday was...

The Balls Song

"There is an old Pakistani drinking song that roughly translated is called 'We have hold...

delhi

Leningrad dur ast. [via DesiPundit]

Hajis

Chris Bray on the use of Haji at Camp Buehring, Kuwait.

Founding Fathers

Caleb shakes the big stick of history at the White House. I think he is...

To Jeff Bezos

Dear Jeff, I am a long-term Amazon.com customer and someone very appreciative of the efforts...

Decemberists

Grad Rock has officially arrived.

Tandoori

Kevin fisks "I hope UConn students aren’t offended by Tandori chicken".

India Photog

India by Jeff Mather. I like the tenements, but where are the tenants?

Generous Prince

The "unique, enigmatic and colorful" Prince Alwaleed bin Talal who is "the ultimate bridge to...

Riot

wogs, lebos, text messages, and riots in sydney. Messed up.

Hello Delhi

14.5 things to do on a 14.5 hours long flight from Chicago to Delhi

We Dig: Music of 2005

I was toying with the idea of doing a top 5 or so albums of...

Pinter’s Nobel Speech

What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed. Harold...

Blind Logic

Saudi "justice" [via Acorn]

Poem Perfect

Patient and steady with all he must bear, goes the first line of The Leader...

Let Them Say It

In my last post, I mentioned the fall of Baghdad at the hands of Hulegu...

License to Ill

My favorite bits in this roadside billboard that will go up in North Carolina is...

Manic Muslim

Just Another Manic Muslim. This deserves your attention. The masjid uncle bit is priceless.

Desi Monopoly

Desi Monopoly is here. Bani'a Edition, next.

squiggles

my urdu post was lost in a db transfer. i am leaving the comments

Ashes to Ashes

There was England with six series wins in a row, including the little matter of...

Normal

She was absolutely normal as a kid.

Grad School

Go. Don't Go. Go. No. Maybe. Never. Yes. No. On going to graduate school at...

Dabbe

Maybe Elizabeth can tell us what apocalyptic nightmare is in this Turkish horror movie.

The Gall

My favorite bit in the newly unveiled National Strategy for Victory in Iraq aka Plan...

Busted

Blogs, Borders and Google. [via Kottke]

Monday Matters

There must be a deep-boned tiredness that comes from working the field all day. Maybe...

Telegraph

Victorian Internet: "The next problem was to cross the sea. Britain, as an island with...

Ms World Traveller

Ms. World in Bombay/Pune.

squiggles

My urdu post got severely messed in a DB transfer. I am leaving the comments....

Notflix

A solitary Netflix has sat on top of my tv for the last month. It...

Jolie Good III

Anjo Jojo in Pakistan. God bless her.

For Raver

I know Raver likes elephants. Here is the full print by Ramesh Sharma.

Papers, Please

"There are good people with bad papers; and bad people with good papers." - Bertold...

Win20

Happy 20th, Windows! "The system requirements for Windows 1.0 were 256KB of RAM, DOS 2.0...

Flu

I am miserable. Is it bird? Is it superman? All I know is that I...

Scott Stantis

Obtuse political satire as hateful wingnuttery.

Jolie Good 2

JoPitt will visit Pakistan; dressed in azure-blue shalwar and a white kurta, no less.

Misnomer

What are they still calling him a 'Dirty Bomb' Padilla for?

Injustices

I want to draw your attention to two cases that share nothing except your sense...

Umps Suck

An Affront to Cricket.

White Flight

"The two schools, put another way that parents rarely articulate so bluntly, are too Asian"....

Pledge R Us

$5.8 billion pledged for Pakistan. "General Musharraf promised accountability as the money is spent". Righhht....

They

When the late-night comedians of 2021 reach for a Bush joke [and forward then, there...

Worst Album Covers

Pitchfork does Worst Album Covers: Dancing turtles are among the reasons why so many have...

Ramadan on Riots

Tariq Ramadan talks about the French riots. Some of the questions are truly moronic, though....

Fisk Prager

Idjits at LAT. Juan Cole takes 'em apart.

Fatwas

Reza Aslan in LAT today: "Islam has no equivalent of the Catholic tradition of excommunication,...

Mystic Test

Guardian's Richard Williams is in Multan covering the first Eng-Pak test. Multan is a city...