DESPITE its growth as an urban metropolis of nearly 10 million, Lahore continues to exhibit some of the same characteristics found in the more provincial towns of Punjab — ethnically homogenous, socially conservative, and imbued with an entrenched sense of entitlement over time.....

Kiran Ahuja’s historical novel, set in the Amritsar of 1900-1940, traces the contrasting destinies deriving from two separate but identical acts of two classfellows, Mohan Rai and Prashant Singh. Through painstaking background research Ahuja provides a fairly faithful and realistic social ...

Poetry is what is lost in translation, claimed Robert Frost while Joseph Brodsky simply reversed the argument: “Poetry is what is gained in translation”; but Latin, the ancient language of Brodsky’s beloved Venice kept insisting: “Traduttore, traditore” (translator is a traitor). ...

In the 20th century there were very few Punjabis who didn’t have to leave their homes, from ancestral villages to opted cities and from cities to overseas. They are arguably the most uprooted nation of the world. This loss and pain of relocation is a central theme of Mazhar ...

An account of the Punjabi soldiers who became the cannon fodder of the colonising power in World War I, and the mournful songs and literature this episode in history generated in its wake World War One (WWI) began on July 28, 1914. Now that a hundred...

Punjab, the land of Harrappans, was called Sapat Sindhu in Rigveda (c. 1700-1100 BC; the first extensive composition to survive in any Indo-European language). Many historians believe that Sapat Sindhu (land of seven rivers) consisted of five rivers of today’s Punjab, ...

Irfan Malik’s diction and thematic experimentation may be western but his poetic sensibility is rooted in Punjab and he still belongs to his native land Lahore. After an equally enthralling experience of a different kind than Dunn, Irfan wrote in his poem Daal-Darr (The Fear):....

The temple was decorated with colourful flowers, flags, banners and posters and thousands of devotees could be seen praying in the gurdwara’s vast courtyard. Celebrations began early in the morning, with pilgrims cleansing themselves at the holy pond....

The lawns of the British High Commission in Islamabad are not a place where one would expect to find a war memorial. But on Tuesday morning, a new plaque sits on the lawns of this outpost of Great Britain on Pakistani soil. On it are etched the names of three gallant, brave and selfless men: ...