Bharat Rakshak

Kamboja

Thanks Ramanaji. Another point of context that helps explain Sunni-Shia relations in Iraq. Although they are the minority, the Sunnis have also traditionally been the overlords -- accorded more privilege and incorporated into the ruling elites. This was first done by the Sunni Ottoman Turks when the...

Kamboja

And a bit of historical context: this area has always been the battleground between Persia and the Anatolian power -- the Ottomans and before them the Eastern Romans. The Shia Safavids (who were responsible for converting Persia from majority-Sunni to majority-Shia) lost Mesopotamia to the Sunni Ott...

Kamboja

UBji, regarding Shia majority in Iraq -- as was pointed out above, while it is true that it's ~65% Shia, that number obscures the reality, which is that the more densely populated south-east (adjacent to Iran) is heavily Shia, while the sparsely populated north-west is majority Sunni. This latter ar...

Kamboja

Touching! https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10649686_739640476091361_3085196271369799261_n.jpg?oh=f828161e4d05343e77a9536c24d71061&oe=54C7F28E Warms even my small, dark heart. I too recommend that all victims (of excess pindi chana intake) make their own remedies and rel...

Kamboja

So STFUP is proceeding along the usual ladder of probing/escalation that it duly follows whenever a new government takes office in Delhi. Diplomatic irritants (rubbing Hurriyat talks in the face of GOI), and now border ambushes, firing on BSF outposts, and targeting Hindu/Sikh civilians. It's only a...

Kamboja

It's often mystified me how Pakistan manages to fool the world, and Indians most of all, into treating it like any other country, as Shiv and others have pointed out. Part of it is certainly in how the media, western and Indian, presents the narrative: i.e. of a modern nation-state 'on par' with an ...

Kamboja

Shivji, very interesting and thought-provoking lines of discussion. Much to reply to, but in terms of a suggestion of what to call it (and it's very true that there is much in getting the name itself right); I'm going to go in a different direction and suggest: "Pakistan: Yugoslavia 2.0". ...

Kamboja

Apologies for interrupting the DK conversation, but cross-posting from the Russia thread:

Kamboja wrote:Has Modi made public what he wants in terms of policy towards Russia should he become PM? I would hope he pays more attention to cultivating the relationship than MMS has.

Kamboja

@Agnimitra, thanks for the additional detail and context. To clarify, I wasn't suggesting that the Kemalists stand to gain from the current internecine Islamist war. Still, I'm sure they derive some schadenfreude from seeing both enemies weakening each other (I know I do). And there are indirect ben...

Kamboja

Has Modi made public what he wants in terms of policy towards Russia should he become PM? I would hope he pays more attention to cultivating the relationship than MMS has.

Kamboja

I doubt Saudi or any country would ever openly threaten Russia or any other country with terrorism threat for geo-political objectives. No one at the highest level would ever do that. Likely this is Chechnian trying to gain most Eye Ball prior to Sochi when world media attention would be there .......

Kamboja

Prince Bandar making good on his promise to disrupt the Sochi games with terrorist attacks if Putin didn't stop supporting Assad?

http://www.infowars.com/saudis-threaten ... a-support/

Kamboja

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/12/20/the_end_of_erdogan Folks, interesting article worth reading about the current political battle in Turkey. A few highlights: - Erdogan's AKP (Justice and Development Party) has steadily dismantled the strictly secular military state that Ataturk and hi...

Kamboja

I am sure you have heard of the term , "if you break it - you own it". If I may ask some naive questions here: could you explain why this is the case for us? It is not obvious to me why we cannot help 'break' Pakistan, then walk away and let the pieces descend into civil war. I assume tha...

Kamboja

Just to add a data point to the racism in Islam discussion -- The Ottoman Empire had within its borders almost every ethnicity possible - Russian, Balkan, Caucasian (Armenian etc.), Persian, Arab, North African, and via trade and slaving, Western Europeans and sub-Saharan Africans. By corollary, the...

Kamboja

Kamboja, forgive my geograhpical challenge, but the map shown above seems to show Baluchistan with Afghan border? What's the issue? Suppiahji, I should have been clearer - what I meant is that, looking at that map at least, if we assume the Baloch populated areas were carved out into an independent...

Kamboja

Thanks RajeshAji, actually another wiki has a map of Balochistan by ethnicity that corroborates your point. http://i.imgur.com/4N6Nc.jpg And the infamous Ralph Peters map that caused many a browning of Paki pants seems to envision a similar outline for its free Balochistan. I am left wondering about...

Kamboja

Re: Baluch independence, I have a question for Altair and others who know the facts on the ground. My impression was that the Baluch are almost a minority in their own province -- the wiki article on Baluchistan has the Baluch-speaking population at 40%, Pashtu-speaking at 40%, and Brahui-speaking a...

Kamboja

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/inside-chinas-greatest-mystery/ Apologies if posted before. Some more background on Wang Lijun. Ethnic Mongolian, apparently made a name for himself fighting crime in Chongqing -- the article mentions greater ambitions, that the criminal networks he was...

Kamboja

Dr. Shiv, I must say your recent posts have been very thought-provoking and certainly a departure not only from much of the consensus on BRF (as it seems to me) but also from your own previous thoughts. I have a few questions for you, but before that let me lay out what I glean from your recent post...

Kamboja

My god, that Tharoor speech was absolutely *filled* with digs at the Pakis done firmly tongue in cheek!! Two lines in quick succession had me laughing out loud: 'I heard from a Pakistani former ambassador the idea to cooperate on wind energy: we have the technology and you have the wind!', and right...

Kamboja

Cross-posting There is some evidence for this, but its not so black and white. Modern Iran is a compelling case in point. Under the appearances of an adrenalized Islamist swagger lies an alter ego where Islamism is weak. And a great part of it has to do with the aspirations and even the rebellious n...

Kamboja

Cross-posting There is some evidence for this, but its not so black and white. Modern Iran is a compelling case in point. Under the appearances of an adrenalized Islamist swagger lies an alter ego where Islamism is weak. And a great part of it has to do with the aspirations and even the rebellious n...

Kamboja

Posting reply to this post by Kamboja in the TSP main thread. Mods, I apologize if this crosses the line of what is allowed to be said but I strongly believe it to be true. ... This disturbing but effective strategy also contains the key to the reversal of Islamic fortunes: and that is to liberate ...

Kamboja

Hearing the stories of many on this thread of the abduction, rape and 'conversion' of Hindu and Sikh (and other religions as well) girls set off a tube light in my head. Mods, I apologize if this crosses the line of what is allowed to be said but I strongly believe it to be true. This uber-masculine...

Kamboja

interesting take on why Kiya nahi will not fight the Taliban any more in the Friday Times: The ghosts that haunt Kayani Citing a staggering statistic, Gen Kayani let us into what's really beginning to haunt his institution: That the army has suffered 12,829 casualties since 2001, including 3,097 ki...

Kamboja

Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, died in New York after a long battle with cancer, the Saudi royal court said in a statement.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 97488.html

Kamboja

There is no better way for us to render the UNSC (even more) irrelevant than by encouraging our Chini brothers and supporting a permanent seat for the Pakis. Perhaps with her decades years months-long stalwart experience, Mr. Madam Hina 'Rub-Any' Khar can be the Paki rep to the UN, just as the Hack-...

Kamboja

So, you have to let them know that their Ayeshas and little Abdul*n will pay the price for their terrorist actions. I think they would catch on real fast and desist in exporting terror. I am sure this possibility has crossed the minds of policy makers in Delhi, but the problem is that the crore com...

Kamboja

Iqbal's Letter to Jinnah '... Also the insertion of Jawaharlal’s socialism into the body-politic of Hinduism is likely to cause much bloodshed among the Hindus themselves. The issue between social democracy and Brahmanism is not dissimilar to the one between Brahmanism and Buddhism. Whether the fat...

Kamboja

... Islamic tanzeems are the Pakistan army's special forces. In 1965 the TSPA used the SSG in mufti. That failed, but trained men in civilian garb has been the TSPA's modus operandi for 5 decades now. I suspect that there is a worry in official Indian circles that as the Pakistan state structure co...

Kamboja

Bji, I am in agreement with you on almost all counts. My initial post might have given the impression that I disagree more than I agree with Sultana's views, whereas on the contrary I think most of her criticisms are absolutely on point -- which is why I wanted to share my impressions of her book. W...

Kamboja

Folks, just finished A God Who Hates by Wafa Sultana -- an interesting, if polemical criticism of Islam. The author was born and raised in Syria and the book is a combination of description of her childhood and youth in smaller cities in Syria and criticism of Islam based on her experiences as well ...

Kamboja

There is an element of timing and constraints that is important and, perhaps, is not factoring into the discussion of Unkil's attitude to TSPA. We are asking the questions: If Unkil is really so strong, how come they have never 'turned the screws' on TSP? OTOH they have showered largesse and arms on...

Kamboja

... However,BRF instinct tells me that Pakistan Army and ISI are upto something very nasty and obnoxious.Rabbani is just a diversion to slow things down for people looking into Pakistan. Army & ISI are just waiting for the right moment to assert their image again. meaning: A new major terrorist...

Kamboja

Maybe I am just unable to get over my hatred of the Pakis, but talking of making overtures to them at this stage to soften the anti-Indian/anti-Hindu stance in that benighted land leaves me with a terribly bitter aftertaste. Most of all I think it would be counterproductive to make any overtures at ...

Kamboja

India and the world will at some level have to deal and address Literal Islam. Literal Islam is at odds with pluralist, secular setups. No pluralist and secular type setup can forever exist with literal Islam as the latter is meant to subsume the former. This thing about 'wiping out Muslims' is not...

Kamboja

Apologies if posted before -- but I find Pat Condell an incredibly eloquent critic of the more aggressive aspects of Islamism. Highly recommend checking out his other vids, in this one he's talking about Islamic cultural terrorism and Islamophobia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=377kKBi6anQ&feat...

Kamboja

http://pakteahouse.net/2011/06/06/pakistan-and-principle-of-hegelian-contradiction/ From the chai ghar. A reminder to me that there are still a few in that benighted land who can see the inherent problem of Pakistan -- it is these few islands of (relative) enlightenment who will need to lead the mas...

Kamboja · Re: People's Republic of China Nov 22, 2009 Restive provinces in maroon

Restive provinces in maroon

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