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HT Image In hindsight we know that at the time of Independence, Pakistan’s Quaid-eAzam MA Jinnah had advanced tuberculosis and died just over a year later on September 11, 1948. Jinnah’s illness was a closely guarded secret, known only to a small inner circle. Today we ask: What if we had known back then? What […]

Some call this an age of mass distraction. I pick up my phone to make a call and before I know it I’m swirling down the rabbit hole of pings and updates, phone call quickly forgotten only to be substituted by a hastily remembered text message much later. I struggle with information overload. That guy

HT Image Given their history, I’m wary about the construction of yet another memorial in India. But the idea of a national war memorial, poised to leap from intent to drawing board, 55 years after it was first proposed is exciting. When completed, it will honour the nearly 22,500 men from the armed forces killed

HT Image Atrocities against Dalits are hardly new, even if the sense of impunity to the gau rakshaks is. Dalits have been denied entry into temples, access to drinking water and beaten for the most minor ‘transgressions’. Beyond the politics lies the far greater moral question of social justice. How does any modern nation tolerate

To dump the carcasses of cows outside administrative offices is a dramatic signal that sends an unambiguous message: Dalits can no longer be taken for granted To dump the carcasses of cows outside administrative offices is a dramatic signal that sends an unambiguous message: Dalits can no longer be taken for granted.(AFP Photo) The yatra

Passed by Parliament, the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Bill fails our children, again India employs 4.35 million children between the ages of five and 14, according to Census 2011.(HT File Photo) Ten years ago Mehboob Hossain didn’t know the meaning of the word future. Ten years ago Hossain, now 20, worked in a zari

In the narratives we weave, Kashmiri citizens must be blamed for their own swift repression. In the Kashmiri narrative, the crackdown is yet another instance of the mainland’s immoral suppression of the natural Kashmiri longing for azadi. Neither side is prepared to hear the other A man injured during clashes in Srinagar, July 10(AP) At

On June 24, a software engineer Swathi was attacked by a man with a knife in Chennai. As she lay bleeding, not one commuter came forward to help. Partly it’s a reluctance to get involved in a long-drawn legal process including police questioning and court appearances. Partly it’s a fear that intervention could lead to

A tragedy can be the starting point of change, and while changing laws don’t always immediately result in social change, scrapping Section 377 would at least be a beginning, and a fitting homage to 49 dead in Orlando. It would affirm their humanity — and ours India along with 74 other countries continues to criminalise

HT Image The failure of the Supreme Court to recognise just how damaging criminal defamation is to free speech is only the latest in a series of assaults. The point about free speech that has been reiterated more than once is that it necessarily includes the right to cause offence The newest controversy to erupt

The failure of the Supreme Court to recognise just how damaging criminal defamation is to free speech is only the latest in a series of assaults. The point about free speech that has been reiterated more than once is that it necessarily includes the right to cause offence. MUMBAI, INDIA It’s ironic that we continue

Nearly 540 million people are in the grip of drought. Here’s what you can do: Find NGOs working in drought-affected areas. Reach out to them with donations in cash, kind and your time. At the very least try empathy, listen to stories, embrace compassion Nearly 540 million people, 40% of our citizens in 11 states