SUBCONTINENT - ASIA - WORLD: June 2008

26 June, 2008

General Junta

Thant Myint-U

Don't force democracy in Myanmar - IHT

What to do about Burma - LRB

Roads to Mandalay - New Statesman

Mission impossible? - Guardian

Saving Burma the right way - LAT

The Myanmar dilemma: Aid vs. democracy - NPQ

Cathy Scott-Clark, Adrian Levy

Wildlife groups collude with Burma's slaughtering Junta - Observer

Come play water pistols, the colonel said. It'll be fun - Guardian

Rethinking Burma - Guardian

At home with the General - Guardian

Yale Global

Trade and Security Trump Democracy in Burma – Part I - Bertil Lintner

Trade and Security Trump Democracy in Burma – Part II - Salil Tripathi

Crisis and Response – Part II - Bertil Lintner

More

Orwell Lives in Burma Today , by Emma Larkin - WSJ

'Asian values' in Burma , by Ian Buruma - LAT

Than Shwe 'ordered troops to execute villagers' - London Times

Burmese Endure in Spite of Junta - NYT

Built to Order: Myanmar’s New Capital Isolates and Insulates Junta - NYT

24 June, 2008

Treasure, poet, feud, hashish, opium, mirage, mullah, pagan

Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures From the National Museum, Kabul

Afghanistan's Hidden Treasures. How a trove of priceless antiquities survived - National Geographic

Afghanistan's hidden treasures, hidden no more - LAT

The Silk Road, Paved in Gold - WP

Afghanistan

Afghan poet's tomb calls to lovelorn - Toronto Star

Afghan blood feud ends after 30 years - Telegraph

Afghans uncover 260 tons of hashish in record bust - WP

Opium for the Masses. Who is the Enemy in Afghanistan?
by Eric Walberg - Counterpunch

Afghanistan growing drug trade will prolong conflict 'for years to come' - Telegraph

Afghanistan: Mirage of the good war by Tariq Ali - New Left Review

Nato's lost cause. The west's 'good war' in Afghanistan has turned bad. A local solution, rather than a neocolonial one, is what's needed - by Tariq Ali - Guardian

The Rise of Afghanistan's Insurgency: State Failure and Jihad - International Security

Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan - RAND

Borderland

No Sign until the Burst of Fire: Understanding the Pakistan-Afghanistan Frontier - International Security

The Long Life of the Frontier Mullah , review of Frontier of Faith: Islam in the Indo-Afghan Borderland by Sana Haroon - The Nation

Taking Back The Frontier , by Ahmed Rashid - WP

Pagan sect at Pakistan border lives amid conservative Muslims - McClatchy

Pakistan

Leadership Void Seen in Pakistan - NYT

Why the Need to Spread the Message of Allah in an Islamic Society? The Tablighi Jamaat Movement - by Ferzana Versey - Counterpunch

A Journey Interrupted: Being Indian in Pakistan by Ferzana Versey

Turkish Schools Offer Pakistan a Gentler Vision of Islam - NYT

Pakistan Picaresque - Wilson Quarterly

Central Asia

Remote Tajik outpost on front line of drugs war - WP

Old Farming Habits Leave Uzbekistan a Legacy of Salt - NYT

23 June, 2008

Sea of Poppies

The Ibis Trilogy - homepage

A pukka old pishpash , review - Telegraph

Into the Opium Wars , review - Telegraph

And they called it poppy love , review - Guardian

Lascars, sepoys and nautch girls , review - Guardian

Sea of Poppies , review - London Times

The Sea of Poppies , review by William Dalrymple - FT

Opium financed British rule in India , interview - BBC

Descent into Chaos: How the War Against Islamic Extremism Is Being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia

PCR Project and USIP Event - Ahmed Rashid, Descent into Chaos -
notes on the book - CSIS

Descent into Chaos, A Discussion with Ahmed Rashid - audio and video - CSIS

"Descent Into Chaos": Ahmed Rashid on How the US Aid to “War on Terror” Ally Pakistan is Aiding the Taliban - interview - Democracy Now

Where the West has gone wrong in the war in Central Asia , review - London Times

A prophetic voice on Taliban calls out again , review - IHT

When Uncle Sam goes to war , review - Guardian

Disaster's prophet - A leading journalist warns of a looming South Asian abyss , review - MacLeans

Afghanistan crisis worse than Iraq , interview - Toronto Star

A Case of Exploding Mangoes

Mohammad Hanif lands on his feet. Talk with former pilot and journalist Mohammed Hanif about Pakistan, the Zia era, and his book A Case of Exploding Mangoes - London Times

Mangoes meet mullahs in a fine political satire , review - Independent

The Late Dictator , review - NYT

The Pakistani army - Pointed guns , review - Economist

An ambitious fictional attempt to explain the mysterious death of General Zia ul-Haq , review - London Times

'Abdul cannot get inside boiled egg' , review of Holy Warriors: a Journey into the Heart of Indian Fundamentalism by Edna Fernandes - Telegraph

Darool-Uloom Deoband issues fatwa against terrorism -
London Times

Jihad for peace , review of Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia by Ayesha Jalal

The autumn of the patriarch. A book of poetic meditations from the war-whooping leader of India, review of Twenty-one Poems by Atal Behari Vajpayee - New Statesman

Angry old man , review of My Country My Life by L.K. Advani - Economist

Hindu freedom fighter to be India's 'Statue of Liberty' - London Times

Hindus call on Raj to save the Ram Sethu holy bridge - London Times

Call for Hindu suicide squads sparks anger in India - Reuters India

Summer Camps Revive India's Ancient Sanskrit
Effort Is Part of Bitter Debate Over the Role of Hindu Language in a Diverse Society - WP

Street kids shining India

The Children's Development Bank tips the balance in favour of street children - London Times

In India, a bank for street children - LAT

Ignoring child beggars - advertisement

Inside Gate, India’s Good Life; Outside, the Servants’ Slums - NYT

Meet Mukesh Ambani. Indian to the Core, and an Oligarch - NYT

Rural Andhra, Naxalites

In the Fields, at 110 Degrees, for $2 a Day. A Guaranteed Day's Work

by P. Sainath - The Hindu/Counterpunch

State-Guaranteed Work. Making Life Brighter in Kondapur by P. Sainath - The Hindu/Counterpunch

India's Secret War , South Chhattisgarh - TIME

Notes from the Red Corridor, part reportage and part travelogue, this is an unflinching look at India’s Naxal reality - review of Red Sun - Livemint

Stop war and start talks: plea for new tactics in India's Red Corridor - London Times

East, Northeast

West Bengal

Violence on the Left: Nandigram and the Communists of West Bengal by Martha C. Nussbaum - Dissent

Where Marxists have MBAs - New Statesman

Gorkhas, Assam

Gurkhas have 200-year military tradition
Some of the world's toughest soldiers come from Nepal - SFC

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Fury. Will Gorkhaland Become a Reality? By Farzana Versey - Counterpunch

No time for tea after Darjeeling strike - London Times

Uneasy in India's independence-minded Assam by Jason Motlagh - SFC

Bhutan

Fast forward into trouble by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark - Guardian

Bhutan's ethnic cleansing - New Statesman

What use is democracy to idyllic Bhutan? by William Dalrymple - Telegraph

Wine and Curry

You've tried the food, now it's time for Indian wine - Independent

Indian wines for curry lovers reach the UK - Telegraph

Forget Napa - Meet the wines of India. Red, White, Sultry: The Wines of India - NYT

Much more than curry, review of Eating India by Chitrita Banerji - Telegraph

An Indian banquet, review of Eating India by Chitrita Banerji - Independent

Bollywood Power

Bollywood Goes to Hollywood, Seeking Bargains - NYT

Bollywood takes on the West - London Times

Bollywood and Hollywood - Close encounters - Economist

Spielberg looks to Bollywood for cash - IHT

Spielberg prepares for deal linking Hollywood with Bollywood mogul - Independent

Billionaire focused on big picture - FT

Spielberg and Ambani in talks about creating joint film venture - FT

08 June, 2008

India is sexy

India: The Place of Sex - by William Dalrymple - NYRB

The Book of Love: The Story of the Kamasutra - by James McConnachie

Reviews

Telegraph
London Times
Guardian
Washington Post

Bollywood Is India's Sexual Battleground -
AlterNet

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jihad

Afghanistan, Pakistan

Afghan Dilemmas: Defining Commitments - by Barnett R. Rubin - American Interest Online

Pakistan's Worrisome Pullback - by Ahmed Rashid - WP

Fatima Bhutto: living on the edge - by William Dalrymple - London Times

Reviews of books on jihad

The Rise of the Muslim Terrorists - by Malise Ruthven - NYRB

Jihadi Suicide Bombers: The New Wave - by Ahmed Rashid - NYRB

Jihad - latest developments

The Rebellion Within - An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism - by Lawrence Wright - The New Yorker

The Unraveling - The jihadist revolt against bin Laden - by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank - The New Republic

The New Face of Islam - A critique of radicalism is building within the heart of the Muslim world - By Christopher Dickey and Owen Matthews - Newsweek

Al-Qaeda: the cracks begin to show - by Abul Taher - London Times

06 June, 2008

Himachal, Calcutta, Assam - stories

Three articles by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark - Guardian

Valley of shadows For a decade or more, Himachal Pradesh has attracted thousands of westerners in search of Shangri-la and cheap hash. Some never return - either murdered or their names added to the growing list of the disappeared. Those who go in search of their loved ones face a hostile reception. So what is the dangerous secret of this beguiling region of north India?

Boy's town Runaways and lost children from all over India find their way to Calcutta's vast Howrah station to scavenge a living and sleep under the platforms.

Poaching for Bin Laden In the jungles of India, local animal trappers have a new breed of client: Islamic militants using the trade in rare wildlife to raise funds for their cause.

Gandhi and Churchill

Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age by Arthur Herman

Synopses and reviews

Random House

Powell's Books

Gandhi and Churchill: parallel lives, divergent world views How two very different world leaders were shaped - CS Monitor

Imperial Bedfellows - Commentary

J&K, Maharashtra - travel

Heaven's Gate - Pico Iyer on Ladakh - NYT

As the great centers of Himalayan Buddhism — Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan — are swept by the winds of change, in the Indian region of Ladakh, ancient temples stand solitary on mountaintops and the traditional ways still thrive.

In the Holy Caves of India - Simon Winchester on Ajanta - NYT

He must have been amazed.
He was named John Smith, he was a captain in the Madras Army, and he would have remained an almost forgotten British imperial figure but for a single scratched graffito that he left high on a basalt pillar in one of these caves, with, in perfectly legibly incised copperplate, his name and the date, April 1819.

Indus River

Watering the the Indus Valley - review of Empires of the Indus: the Story of a River by Alice Albinia - Telegraph

On the importance of the Indus for Gandhians and for anti-Gandhians.

Nirmala Deshpande`s ashes immersed in River Indus - Zee News

"Till the day the Indus does not flow in Hindustan, my ashes shall remain like this and the day the Indus flows in Hindustan again, that day my ashes will be submerged in its waters".
From the will of Nathuram Godse.

More on the Godse brothers
The Other Face of Fanaticism by Pankaj Mishra - NYT

India-China, India-US

India and China

GDP will not define the leadership in Asia - interview with Bill Emmott - Tehelka
Can the Elephant Dance with the Dragon? - Shashi Tharoor

Post-America, Post-Bush

An idea whose time has come - Shashi Tharoor on Fareed Zakaria's "The Post-American World", also commenting on Parag Khanna and Kishore Mahbubani - Tehelka

The Case for Restraint - Comments and Responses - by C. Raja Mohan, responding to
The Case for Restraint by Barry Posen - The American Interest Online

Foreign policy and strategy commentators

C Raja Mohan - Wikipedia article
C Raja Mohan - columns page, Indian Express

K. Subrahmanyam - Wikipedia article
The Legend that is K Subrahmanyam - Rediff

G Parthasarathy - Wikipedia article
G Parthasarathy - columns page, Rediff