A little over three years ago I wrote in The Hindu that at a time when interest in India and India’s interest in the world are arguably at their highest, Indian scholarship on global issues is showing few signs...
OVER recent weeks a ''reality'' television series has led a mixed group of Indian citizens on an at times hair-raising guided tour of Australia, a nation that the program's title suggests is ''Dumb, Drunk & Racist''. Having got our...
On May 24, 2012, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) made public the report submitted to it by the interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir appointed in the midst of the 2010 uprising in the Kashmir valley. The group of...
It is now becoming increasingly clear that President Barack Obama’s administration is almost desperate to forge a deal with the Taliban, against all odds. The opening of a Taliban office in Qatar and the release of high value Taliban...
We have entered the year of the Dragon. In Chinese astrology, the Dragon is the most powerful of signs, and an important symbol of the Han people. 2012 will be, in many ways, critical for China and for its...
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s recent announcement of support for the sale of uranium to India could be a catalyst for a strategic breakthrough in relations between Canberra and New Delhi. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s recent announcement of...
THE decision by the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, not to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Perth in October has caused considerable disappointment in Canberra. The absence of the head of the world's largest democracy,...
THE terror attacks in Mumbai on Wednesday are likely to end the recent thaw in India-Pakistan relations and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's hopes of a grand reconciliation in South Asia. As yet no organisation has claimed responsibility but...
Few incidents can exemplify the deep turmoil within Pakistan than the murder of the investigative reporter, Syed Saleem Shahzad. Part of a brave and often audacious community of journalists in Pakistan, Shahzad was targeted apparently because he exposed links...
It has been clear for many months now that the lack of a sustained Indian engagement with Pakistan has proved to be counterproductive, fruitless and even dangerous. The prospects, for instance, of an early prosecution of those responsible for...