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Pakistan and Islam: An Ideological Confusion
It would seem self-evident that, as a Muslim homeland built in the name of Islam, Pakistan would be better equipped than most states to define the role of Islam in national politics. Yet, the debate on the place of Islam in national life has raged on, muddied by the claims and counter-claims of its many…
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What Sex Meant in Ancient Greece
In Plato’s Symposium, Aristophanes tells a story about the origin of human beings. According to his myth, humans descend from creature who had spherical bodies, genitals on the outside, four hands and feet, two faces each, and were divided into three genders: one group had two male genitals; the second group had two female genitals;…
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What is Emotion?
The word emotion is a modern invention — and not a particularly helpful one. The first books to use the word in the title do not appear until the 19th century. The most famous of these is The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, by Charles Darwin, which was published in 1872. Philosophers…
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Heraclitus: The Introvert Philosopher from Ancient Greece
Heraclitus (540–480 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher who earned the reputation of ‘the riddler’. The title was fair too — consider what he had to say on the subject of death: Death is all things we see awake; all we see asleep is sleep. Obscurity was a trait that Heraclitus happily embraced. One commentator…
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The Story of India-Pakistan Partition: Part Three
“The exchange of population is uncivilised. The exchange of population would testify to unalterable and unnecessary hostility between peoples who are akin in blood, customs and economic and cultural interests.” Louis Fischer Following the India-Pakistan partition, the migration of their respective populations had begun. It was one of the biggest migrations in history. The Partition…
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Sacred Hymns from The Guru Granth Sahib
In medieval India, there were some who were trying to combine the elements of Hinduism and Islam. The Mughal emperor Akbar (1556–1605) was one. He wasn’t the first, though. Many spiritual movements were going on — poets were telling their stories, as they always had. In the middle of all this, Sikhism emerged. The founder…
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The Story of India-Pakistan Partition: Part Two
In the first part of our India-Pakistan partition series, we observed the events leading up to the independence day in 1947. Now let’s take a step further. The day of independence arrived and the Union Jack over the old Lucknow residency, which had never been lowered by day or night, was hauled down at sunset…
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