Nisar Ahmed Chaudhry, a resident of Maryland, was a well-known figure in diplomatic circles in the United States. He frequently interacted with think tanks and other institutes in Washington D.C. that shape U.S. foreign policy, organising roundtables and conferences on Pakistan with the contacts he cultivated in the U.S. and Pakistani officials. He often org...
China may have no short-term interest in contributing to guaranteeing security in parts of a swath of land stretching from Central Asia to the East coast of Africa, but that does not prevent the People’s Republic from preparing for a time when it may wish to build on long-standing political and military relationships in various parts of the world to project ...
Kargil Vijay Divas celebrations have commenced across the country; these events are held by Indian Army and civilians across the country to commemorate the great Indian victory in the Kargil heights against an enemy who tried to seize them duplicitously. The Indian Army began operations on 3 May 1999, and in less than three months, removed the Pakistani troo...
Periyaalwār (father of Āndāḷ) had sung two decads (Periyaalwār Tirumozhi: 4-2 &3) on Lord Vishnu residing in Tirumālirum Cholai, popularly known as “Azhagar Malai”, ‘the hill of Azhagar’. Tirumālirum Cholai means ‘the grove where Vishnu resides’. A surprising element in these two decads is that one decad makes specific mention of Then Tirumālirum Cholai (Tir...
We are in the middle of a discussion on the six verses of Pandikkovai that say that the Pandyan king Kon Nedumaran engraved the emblems of all the three Tamil dynasties on a peak in the Himalayas. After a discussion on “Panjavan” and “Pāzhi” in the previous article in this series, we are now taking up the next verse which gives a clue on Cheran kings. This ...
The verses of Pandikkovai say that Kon Nedumaran captured South Pāzhi. The word Pāzhi has the letter (zha) that is unique to Tamil. Adiyārkku Nallar in his commentary to Silappadhikaram mentioned it as South Pāli and not Pāzhi. The zhi-li change had happened. The zhi-li change is very much natural as even today the speakers of Tamil who cannot pronounce zhi,...
An early Pandyan king had reached the Himalayas and engraved the fish emblem of his dynasty and also the tiger and bow emblems of Chola and Chera dynasties alongside. The Tamil portion of the Sinnamanur Copper plates states that he engraved them on top of the Northern Mountain (Vada-varai in Tamil). This stands out from what the Cheran king Imaya Varamban ...
One king from each of the three dynasties of Tamil lands, namely Chera, Chola and Pandya, had gone all the way from Tamil lands to the Himalayas and engraved their symbols on the peak of the mountain. Three questions arise:
1) Who were the kings who made this journey? 2) In which part of the Himalayas did they engrave their symbols? 3) What...
The historical information contained in Tamil Sangam texts and even the later day texts like Silappadhikaram and the devotional verses developed during the Bhakti movement synchronize well with each other. They give better leads to get the correct interpretation of the epigraphic findings and other sources. For example, the presently available oldest ins...
Literature is considered one of the sources to decipher history as it mirrors the culture and the life of the people and also the events of the time when it was written. However this source suffers from two defects namely, the element of imagination that the author would have wielded as a matter of literary freedom and the creeping in of interpolations at so...
Recently Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi made an observation that Tamil language shows the ‘richness’ of our country. While acknowledging that Tamil is a very old language, he went on to emphasise the importance of acquainting oneself with other languages of our country for greater integration among countrymen to make “Ek Bharat, Shresht Bharat” a reality. ...
I love scientists but they will kill us all, said Jon Stewart on The Late Show with Steven Colbert. Science eased our suffering due to a pandemic that was most likely caused by science, he told the audience. (Here you can find an acerbic response to the show on the Unz Review) Is it true? Do science and the scientists save us or kill us? How far can we trust...
A major Muslim and Evangelical organization joined forces this week [July 13-ed] to significantly advance hitherto state-backed ceremonial inter-faith dialogues that seldom go beyond platitudes and lofty statements. This week’s launch at a Washington DC mosque of an inter-faith alliance and a book published by the Institute for Humanitarian Islam and the Ger...
One of the finest minds had left the world – I am referring to the demise of Stephen Hawking (14 March 2018). I used the word ‘mind’ to refer to him – wondering what his ‘mind’ or to put it precisely, his consciousness must be thinking now after having left his body and the world. The more he was talking about a role or no role for God in creation and Univer...
Security forces in Jammu and Kashmir led by the Indian army have, on many occasions, created a security environment conducive to revival of the political process. Sadly, many such opportunities have been lost by previous governments at the centre, mostly due to lack of political resolve and disconnect with the people leading to failure of initiatives taken a...
All too predictably, the crisis in Myanmar has rapidly spiralled out of control with what we were told were “peaceful” “pro-democracy” protesters transforming into heavily armed militants fighting Myanmar’s central government, its police force and its armed forces with war weapons. Of course, the protests were never peaceful. The Western media only claimed a...
The Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo are vying for the top-spot for the most troubled major sporting events in history. Not only did the coronavirus pandemic fall on the Japanese, due to which the Olympic Games had to be postponed for a year, but also the remaining days before the opening (July 23), there is still no clear understanding of the pr...
How we view the world around us is shaped – to a very large extent – by a culture that provides us with a very narrow aperture. It focuses our attention on the particular, the literal, the immediate. That is apparent in our public life as well as in our mundane personal lives. Go into a store to ask a clerk where in the mall a particular restaurant is locate...
The philosopher Aristotle trained the emperor Alexander the Great to respect the cultures and leaders of the conquered countries. His empire, so particular, never exploited its subjects. Each century of international relations is marked by the initiatives of a few exceptional men. Their approach to their countries’ foreign relations is based on common princi...
When Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid recently sparked a war of words with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki he was doing more than resisting Central European attempts at rewriting the history and legacy of the Holocaust and right-wing nationalistic flirting with anti-Semitic tropes. The war centred on a bill debated in the Polish parliament that ...
A few days ago, the US left the ancient city of Bagram in Parwan province of Afghanistan where they had maintained an air base for almost two decades. With this, 90 per cent of the US forces in Afghanistan have left the country. The contingent remaining now is for guarding the United States Embassy in Kabul and Kabul International Airport. Along with Bagram ...
I had a dream. I had a dream that….I’d remember my dreams. They’ve eluded me almost my whole life. Waking up – anywhere, at any hour – I simply couldn’t recall what had gone through my subconscious during those long phases of sleep set aside for dreams. What riches of adventure I missed? What agonies of the soul I’d avoided? No idea. A psychiatrist friend of...
The generally reliable Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed but knowledgeable source, has reported that Joe Biden’s administration is considering “sharply reducing the number of US anti-missile systems in the Middle East in a major realignment of its military footprint there”. Many politicians, both in the Persian Gulf region and in the US, responded by pl...
Notwithstanding the setbacks due to the Covid pandemic, Sri Lanka has improved its rating to 87 (from 94 in 2019), according to the latest report on the performance of 164 countries in achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The UN Agenda of Sustainable Development adopted by UN members in 2015, identified 17 SDGs to be achieved by the year 2030, c...
Recent announcements by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of plans to turn the kingdom into a transportation and logistics hub that connects continents take to a new level Saudi efforts to replace the United Arab Emirates and Qatar as the Middle East’s go-to addresses. Prince Mohammed’s plans, which include the creation of a new national carrier alongside Sau...
The Russian Direct Line is a unique exercise in direct democracy: Russian citizens call up their president and he answers their queries and solves their problems, like a Nordic konung a thousand years ago. Russia came into being as a chain of Nordic princedoms that practiced this sort of direct access to their ruler; early Russian princes and Tsars posed the...
The Third World War, which pitted 119 states against each other in Syria, ended with the victory of Syria, Iran and Russia and the military defeat of the 116 Western states and allies. The time has come for the losers to acknowledge their crimes and pay back the damage and costs they have caused (at least 400,000 dead and $400 billion in damage in Syria, $10...
We cannot live in a society without rules. If they are unjust, we revolt and change them. This is inevitable, because what seems right at one time is not necessarily right at another. In any case, we need an order, otherwise each one becomes the enemy of all. What is true for men is also true for peoples. In 1945, the Yalta Conference laid the foundations...
Education is emerging as a major flashpoint in competing visions of a future Muslim world. Rival concepts being instilled in a next generation are likely to shape what amounts to a battle for the soul of Islam. Reports earlier this year published by the Israel-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE) chart t...
While the US is in initial talks with Iran to revive the JCPOA and there is a possibility of Iran’s re-entry in the European/western markets, it remains that a fundamental shift in the form of a ‘look East’ policy has already taken place. While China and Iran have already signed a multi-billion dollar deal as a means to integrate Iran with China’s Belt & Roa...
In recent months a crisis situation in the USA food supply has been growing and is about to assume alarming dimensions that could become catastrophic. Atop the existing corona pandemic lockdowns and unemployment, a looming agriculture crisis as well could tip inflation measures to cause a financial crisis as interest rates rise. The ingredients are many, but...