South Asia

Mar 19, 2006

Pathways of memory

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 19 March In recent weeks I’ve been dragging myself out of bed at an ungodly hour. Outside it’s still dark. I’m like a guilty child on Christmas morning, unable to sleep, sneaking out of the bedroom to peep at the presents spread under the tree. Only nowadays the waiting treasure,… Read more

Jan 8, 2006

Cricket and its consequences

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 8 January THE third successive instalment of what has become the annual India-Pakistan fixture is occasion for both celebration and reflection. After decades in which this premiere sporting encounter was disrupted and distorted by political antagonism, the normalisation of cricketing links over the past two years must be good news… Read more

Aug 21, 2005

Epics of resistance – Bollywood and Hollywood

Level Playing Field The Hindu, 21 August The British opening of Aamir Khan’s ‘The Rising’ was a low-key affair. In fact, there were a grand total of seven of us sitting in the darkness at the first-day screening in my local north London cinema. Yes, it’s easily the biggest ever UK opening for a Bollywood… Read more

Jul 25, 2005

Military and mullah

The Guardian, 25 July General Pervez Musharraf has expressed irritation at the “aspersions” cast on Pakistan in the British media. After his extensive efforts to prove his loyalty to the US-British “war on terror” – efforts which have exposed him to assassination attempts – the General’s frustration is understandable. The alleged Pakistani links of the… Read more

Jul 10, 2005

India: Embracing America

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 10 July THE love affair between the Indian and U.S. establishments continues to blossom. Recently, Defence ministers Pranab Mukherjee and Donald Rumsfeld signed a new 10-year deal on military cooperation. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will shortly be a guest at the White House. Early next year, we’re told, President Bush… Read more

Oct 7, 2004

Indian cricket: celebrate and reflect

The Week (Cochin), 5 October (BCCI 75th anniversary special issue) In India I saw cricket stripped of its English accoutrements, the pretensions and prejudices the game had acquired in its native land, and played and watched in a different vein. I saw cricket installed at the heart of a burgeoning popular culture, subjected to all… Read more

Apr 16, 2004

The compelling rhythms of India-Pakistan cricket

The Hindu, 16 April, 2004 The India-Pakistan series has been nearly everything a committed neutral could ask for. There have been no dead matches and no inflammatory incidents. For the most part, the contest has been closely fought and unpredictable, enriched by a succession of gritty individual performances. In the Test matches we’ve been able to savour… Read more

Mar 14, 2004

Kites and kebabs

India Today – ITPlus, March 2004 I’m grateful to cricket for many things, and one of them is that it got me to Pakistan – with its sufi shrines and elaborately painted trucks, its virtuoso kite flyers and zesty kebabs. The most rewarding travelling combines the purposeful and the aimless. Following a cricket tour in… Read more

Feb 25, 2004

Make cricket, not war?

Indian Express, February 2004 For some years now, the absence of India-Pakistan cricket has been the hole in the heart of the world game. It deprives cricket-livers of an attractive, exciting fixture and it undermines the sub-continent’s claim to be the game’s progressive new power house. More importantly, it is a constant reminder of the… Read more

Jul 2, 2002

Merchants of Death

Socialist Review, July 2002 We are being told that we can breathe a sigh of relief. India and Pakistan, it seems, have stepped back from the brink of the worst human catastrophe since the Second World War. As so often in the past, people around the planet are being assured that they can ‘learn to… Read more