‘Ve Allah hu ma as-samad’ The Indo-Pak Grocery Store is sandwiched between a Midas Brakes and a hobby shop selling baseball memorabilia. Located in a strip mall in a working class suburb near a decaying Midwestern city, it is an unlikely monument to the nearly extinct South Asian values of pluralism, diversity and tolerance. Nevertheless
READ MOREGold and beads born of Northern Hill Garland and Incense born of Kodagu Hill Pearl of South Sea and Coral of Eastern Sea Ganga floods and benefits from the Cauvery Food of Ceylon and riches of Kazhagam. Pattinapappalai, Tamil epic from ca. 100 BCE Rivers convey to me memories of pleasure, of joy in immersing
READ MORE“Change is the only constant. The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts.” – Heraclitus I first met Natvar Bhavsar in the middle of February at his sizable SoHo loft in Lower Manhattan. He is, in the words of art critic Jay Jacobs, “the best known and most successful Indian born contemporary artist on the
READ MOREOur current economic model assumes and appears to blindly advocate that technology and free markets can be the main drivers of human progress and development, thereby also overcoming challenges such as alleviating poverty. Such arguments are not backed by the facts and are a fallacy. They must be questioned as they stand in the way
READ MOREUnlike India, Pakistan has struggled to institute democracy over the last sixty four years after gaining independence. Using the concepts of democratic transition, consolidation, stability and quality, this article investigates the impact of four sets of factors on Pakistan’s progress with democracy: structural, institutional, strategic choice and political economy. These factors emerge in Pakistan’s case
READ MOREFor decades, India has remained one of the most influential political and military powers on the Asian continent. Given the Indian population of nearly 1.2 billion, a strong and continually growing economy (GDP in terms of purchasing power parity in 2011 was four and a half trillion dollars) and the size and power of the
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