Balochistan Movement: Why India's Policy Took a Shift Towards Balochistan Under Narendra Modi Government

On the occasion of Independence Day speech on 15 August 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue of Baluchistan. From the Red Fort, he made reference to the freedom struggle of Balochistan, Gilgit and Baltistan and gross violation of human rights in these provinces of Pakistan. Indirectly, he pointed finger on Pakistan for the atrocities and chaos it created since partition through state policy against its own people in the Province of Balochistan and in Pak Occupied Kashmir (POK). First time in the history of India, Modi exposed the internal troubles of Pakistan and it ongoing resistant movement in the above mentioned provinces. Naturally this move generated anger in Pakistan while seen as positive development by Baloch resistant leaders. Modi’s Baloch strategy can be seen as a shift in India’s Pakistan policy. India is eager to play Balochistan as a card or pressure point against Pakistan which may be game changer in regional politics. It can also isolate Pakistan in international community for its role in violation of human rights and spreading terrorism. Pakistan has been notorious to play the blame game against India on the issue of Kashmir besides continuously supporting terrorism against India. The well prepared strategy on Balochistan under Modi administration can be seen as giving Pakistan a taste of its own medicines by countering Pakistan’s Kashmir policy. This article is an attempt to understand the Baloch conflict in the light of Modi’s policy shift towards Balochistan and further its impact on Balochistan freedom struggle. Keywords: Baluchistan, Freedom struggle, Regional politics and International community

India-Djibouti Relation: A Beginning of New Era

This paper would try to attempt two important questions. Firstly, what is the historical linkage of India-Djibouti relation and second, why Djibouti is important for India.  Recently, the Indian president Ram Nath Kovind’s first abroad trip as Head of State to Ethiopia and Djibouti is an example of India’s commitment towards re-engagement with international community especially the prolonged neglected region of Africa. In the wake of growing commercial success, India intensified its focus on Africa as a vital economic partner. In the new millennium India’s national interests has not been limited to the subcontinent but stretches till Aden and Malacca. Especially under Prime Minister of India, Narender Modi, the foreign policy of India emphasized on development and good governance under the motto Shared Efforts: Progress for All Sabka Saath, SabkaVikas (Collective Efforts Inclusive Growth). Keywords: Relation, Commitment, Re-engagement, Commercial, National Interests

Lessons from the recent publication scams

The article discusses growing number of scams by agencies, scientists and editors in publishing industry of China. It states that an authorship fee ranging from 1,600 dollars to 26,300 dollars, in journals indexed by Thomson Reuter's Science Citation Index, Thomson Reuter's Social Science Citation Index and Elsevier's Engineering Index. It mentions that that talent based system in academia can also motivate scientists to wrongly inflate their findings

Islamic studies as a university discipline: origin and development

Islamic Studies as an academic discipline is a contemporary approach of studying Islam. It is an umbrella term and draws on a variety of fields that include Islamic civilization, culture, religion, Islamic history, Islamic social sciences, Islamic scientific heritage, Islamic philosophy, Sufism, Islamic Jurisprudence, Comparative Religions, Interfaith Dialogue, Gender studies, Islamic Economics and Finance, and Human Rights. With the tools of interdisciplinarity and comparative approach it sheds light on the multiple expressions of Islam as a spiritual tradition, the role of Islamic civilization in global history and importance of Islamic discourses in the contemporary world. The idea of Islamic Studies, in its present form as a university discipline, is of recent origin. It has roots in the history of interaction and interface between the western civilization and Islam, and in the intellectual and reformative history of Muslims in the modern world. Today it is one of the most well developed disciplines not only in the subcontinent but also in Europe and USA. The present paper aims to highlight the origin, nature and development of Islamic studies as a distinct and separate-though interdisciplinary, university discipline in its present evolution across the globe. It will follow the desk and descriptive method. The paper will follow historical and analytical methodology.The discipline of Islamic studies has evolved as an independent, multidimensional and global subject shedding its early orientalist influences and presenting Islam as a religion, culture and civilization. It, as an interdisciplinary subject, has enlarged its landscape for it takes on the continuously emerging contemporary issues, Islam and Muslims are confronting, by presenting alternative/s—discourse and solutions. It has great scope to present Islam as a universal message and bringing closer the 2 cultures and civilizations— Islamic and Western

Tectonic geomorphology of the eastern extent of the Kashmir Basin Fault (KBF) zone

The Kashmir Basin Fault (KBF) is exposed as a train of discontinuous active fault traces for a strike length of ~120 km (Shah, 2013), in Kashmir, Himalayas. However, its eastern extent was not mapped previously and therefore, this study demonstrates that the active fault trace extends further east, where the geomorphic expression of active faulting is clear for a distance of ~43 km. The fault shows a very prominent dextral strike-slip motion with little to no dip-slip component associated with it, particularly, on the easternmost portion. Further west it mainly shows dip-slip motion with a slight indication of dextral strike-slip. This new active fault trace extends the total strike length of the KBF zone to ~163 km, which has implications for seismic hazard and the distribution of deformation along the NW portion of the Himalayas

Before and After 9/11: Indo-U.S. Counterterrorism Cooperation

Coined during the French Revolution to describe “the reign of terror” between 1793-94, the term “terror” originated from the Latin word “terrere,” which reflects frighten or tremble and had positive connotations (Bolz et al., 2002). Today, terrorism has transformed into a more menacing specter by adopting new techniques and using advanced mass media communication and technology. Moreover, terrorism has become a political as well as a legal and military issue that the international community cannot afford to ignore. The United States, India and the entire world community have long been struggling with the continuing threat of terrorism. Both India and the United States have been victimized by international terrorism from groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for a long time. Therefore, the need of the hour is to enhance cooperation in counterterrorism, and progress towards intelligence sharing, information exchange, operational cooperation, counterterrorism technology and equipment. The aim of this paper is to analyze India-U.S. counterterrorism cooperation as it stands today and examine how both countries are uniquely suitable for enhanced counterterrorism cooperation. Given the mutual interests and common threat, the current international security environment directly affects both nations and there is a need to focus on long term prospects of cooperation for a better relationship. Additionally, the paper will also delve into the origins, evolution and current level of Indo-U.S. counterterrorism cooperation. As a tentative case study, this paper will also examine the terrorist attack of 9/11 as a turning point in the India-U.S. counterterrorism cooperation prospect