Pakistan is there. It is on India’s western border (and until 1971 was also on the eastern border). It cannot be wished away; nor can India pretend it will go away. On the very day the two countries became independent, they inherited a clutch of problems that was the inevitable result of Partition. I know […]
Afghanistan has always been a frontline state. Alexander came in 327 BCE, Babar in 1504 and the British in 1836. In 1843, it became the first country in South Asia to get independence from the British – more than a hundred years before India. In 1979, the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan and since 2001, […]
In a major breakthrough, Pakistan and India announced on Wednesday that they were resuming the dialogue on outstanding issues, ending a two-year long stalemate. Read Here – Dawn Derailed three years, India-Pakistan talks back on track – The Indian Express
It is time that Pakistan and India take each other into confidence on their roles in Afghanistan. Their roles need not be mutually exclusive. India is the fifth largest donor to Afghan reconstruction. Any objection by Islamabad to India’s role in Afghanistan causes the most severe resentment in Kabul. Pakistan has the right to demand that Afghan soil […]
It does seem noteworthy that the two leaders get along far better when abroad than when back home. Perhaps this is because they are removed from the context and don’t have to prove anything to the more reactionary parts of their bases. Then again, perhaps they’re like all of us. I’ve often noticed (and I […]
There is a lot of political activity around the crisis produced by the Madhesi agitation in Nepal. But it is far from clear this is adding up to an enduring solution to a crisis that now goes to the heart of Nepal’s constitutional future. Nepal can have a vibrant and prosperous future but, as is […]
Far from the South China Sea’s unfolding turbulence, the calmer waters of the Indian Ocean are witnessing a more subtle geopolitical power play, in which China is losing its leverage over Sri Lanka to the United States. The shift comes amid a raging domestic debate in the strategically located island nation over the investigation of atrocities […]
The report that Pakistan could possess as many as 350 nuclear weapons in the next 10 years to have the world’s third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons has received a lot of attention in India. This projection is from a US think-tank, but a statement from a senior Pakistani official around the same time should concern […]
2015 marks an often overlooked anniversary, the 250th anniversary of the start of de jure British rule over India. The history of 18th century South Asia is a complicated whirlwind of competing powers and conflicting interests. By 1707, when the last great Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, died, his empire controlled most of South Asia, but was also teetering due […]
The meeting everybody wanted did not happen. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for home without meeting his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. The two leaders lived in the same hotel — the Waldorf Astoria — during the 70th UN General Assembly. Twice, they shared a room and used the same podium to address a summit meeting […]
looking beyond borders 