Vocabulary Support

Dear Students!

Realizing your hectic study schedules, I have gird up my loins to facilitate learning to the maximum of my capabilities and time and potential. This will hopefully not only save you time, but  cater as a vast resource of vocabulary. Here is the ancillary  vocabulary support for the Article of the week.

accrue
accrue (verb) - grow by addition; "The interest accrues"
accrue , fall (verb) - come into the possession of; "The house accrued to the oldest son"

aggregation
collection , aggregation , accumulation , assemblage (noun) - several things grouped together or considered as a whole
collection , collecting , assembling , aggregation (noun) - the act of gathering something together

aggress
attack , aggress (verb) - take the initiative and go on the offensive; "The Serbs attacked the village at night"; "The visiting team started to attack"

ameliorates
better , improve , amend , ameliorate , meliorate (verb) - to make better; "The editor improved the manuscript with his changes"
better , improve , ameliorate , meliorate (verb) - get better; "The weather improved toward evening"

amplified
magnify , amplify (verb) - increase in size, volume or significance; "Her terror was magnified in her mind"
overstate , exaggerate , overdraw , hyperbolize , hyerbolise , magnify , amplify (verb) - to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth; "tended to romanticize and exaggerate this `gracious Old South' imagery"
inflate , blow up , expand , amplify (verb) - exaggerate or make bigger; "The charges were inflated"
amplify (verb) - increase the volume of; "amplify sound"

belligerence
belligerence , belligerency (noun) - hostile or warlike attitude or nature
aggressiveness , belligerence , pugnacity (noun) - a natural disposition to be hostile

besieged
besiege , beleaguer , surround , hem in , circumvent (verb) - surround so as to force to give up; "The Turks besieged Vienna"
besiege (verb) - cause to feel distressed or worried; "She was besieged by so many problems that she got discouraged"
besiege (verb) - harass, as with questions or requests; "The press photographers besieged the movie star"
besieged (adjective) - surrounded by hostile forces; "the besieged town"

betray
betray , bewray (verb) - reveal unintentionally; "Her smile betrayed her true feelings"
betray , sell (verb) - deliver to an enemy by treachery; "Judas sold Jesus"; "The spy betrayed his country"
fail , betray (verb) - disappoint, prove undependable to; abandon, forsake; "His sense of smell failed him this time"; "His strength finally failed him"; "His children failed him in the crisis"
cheat on , cheat , cuckold , betray , wander (verb) - be sexually unfaithful to one's partner in marriage; "She cheats on her husband"; "Might her husband be wandering?"
denounce , tell on , betray , give away , rat , grass , shit , shop , snitch , stag (verb) - give away information about somebody; "He told on his classmate who had cheated on the exam"
deceive , betray , lead astray (verb) - cause someone to believe an untruth; "The insurance company deceived me when they told me they were covering my house"

bravado
bravado , bluster (noun) - a swaggering show of courage

cohorts
cohort (noun) - a company of companions or supporters
cohort (noun) - a band of warriors (originally a unit of a Roman Legion)
age group , age bracket , cohort (noun) - a group people having approximately the same age

congregated
congregate (verb) - come together, usually for a purpose; "The crowds congregated in front of the Vatican on Christmas Eve"

demonise
demonize , demonise (verb) - make into a demon; "Power had demonized him"

desperately
urgently , desperately (adverb) - with great urgency; "health care reform is needed urgently"; "the soil desperately needed potash"
desperately (adverb) - in intense despair; "the child clung desperately to her mother"

deviousness
deviousness , obliqueness (noun) - the quality of being oblique and rambling indirectly
crookedness , deviousness (noun) - the quality of being deceitful and underhanded

duo
couple , pair , twosome , twain , brace , span , yoke , couplet , distich , duo , duet , dyad , duad (noun) - two items of the same kind
duet , duette , duo (noun) - two performers or singers who perform together
couple , twosome , duo , duet (noun) - a pair who associate with one another; "the engaged couple"; "an inseparable twosome"
duet , duette , duo (noun) - a musical composition for two performers

dwindling
dwindle , dwindle away , dwindle down (verb) - become smaller or lose substance; "Her savings dwindled down"
dwindling , dwindling away (noun) - a becoming gradually less; "there is no greater sadness that the dwindling away of a family"
dwindling , tapering , tapering off (adjective) - gradually decreasing until little remains

emerges
emerge (verb) - come out into view, as from concealment; "Suddenly, the proprietor emerged from his office"
issue , emerge , come out , come forth , go forth , egress (verb) - come out of; "Water issued from the hole in the wall"; "The words seemed to come out by themselves"
emerge (verb) - become known or apparent; "Some nice results emerged from the study"
emerge (verb) - come up to the surface of or rise; "He felt new emotions emerge"
come forth , emerge (verb) - happen or occur as a result of something

enervate               
enervate (verb) - weaken mentally or morally
faze , unnerve , enervate , unsettle (verb) - disturb the composure of

enjoins
enjoin (verb) - issue an injunction
order , tell , enjoin , say (verb) - give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority; "I said to him to go home"; "She ordered him to do the shopping"; "The mother told the child to get dressed"

foray
plunder , despoil , loot , reave , strip , rifle , ransack , pillage , foray (verb) - steal goods; take as spoils; "During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners"
foray (verb) - briefly enter enemy territory
foray , raid , maraud (noun) - a sudden short attack
foray (noun) - an initial attempt (especially outside your usual areas of competence); "scientists' forays into politics"

fractious
fractious , refractory , recalcitrant (adjective) - stubbornly resistant to authority or control; "a fractious animal that would not submit to the harness"; "a refractory child"
cranky , fractious , irritable , nettlesome , peevish , peckish , pettish , petulant , scratchy , testy , tetchy , techy (adjective) - easily irritated or annoyed; "an incorrigibly fractious young man"; "not the least nettlesome of his countrymen"
fractious (adjective) - unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be troublesome; "rockets were much too fractious to be tested near thickly populated areas"; "fractious components of a communication system"

fragmentation
atomization , atomisation , fragmentation (noun) - separating something into fine particles
fragmentation (noun) - the disintegration of social norms governing behavior and thought and social relationships
fragmentation (noun) - (computer science) the condition of a file that is broken up and stored in many different locations on a magnetic disk; "fragmentation slows system performance because it takes extra time to locate and assemble the parts of the fragmented file"
fragmentation (noun) - the scattering of bomb fragments after the bomb explodes

fulsome
buttery , fulsome , oily , oleaginous , smarmy , soapy , unctuous (adjective) - unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech; "buttery praise"; "gave him a fulsome introduction"; "an oily sycophantic press agent"; "oleaginous hypocrisy"; "smarmy self-importance"; "the unctuous Uriah Heep"; "soapy compliments"

harangues
harangue (verb) - deliver a harangue to; address forcefully
harangue , rant , ranting (noun) - a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion

huddle
huddle , huddle together (verb) - crowd or draw together; "let's huddle together--it's cold!"
huddle , cower (verb) - crouch or curl up; "They huddled outside in the rain"
huddle , powwow (noun) - (informal) a quick private conference
huddle (noun) - a disorganized and densely packed crowd; "a huddle of frightened women"

intervene
intervene , step in , interfere , interpose (verb) - get involved, so as to alter or hinder an action, or through force or threat of force; "Why did the U.S. not intervene earlier in WW II?"
intervene (verb) - be placed or located between other things or extend between spaces and events; "This interludes intervenes between the two movements"; "Eight days intervened"
intervene (verb) - occur between other event or between certain points of time; "the war intervened between the birth of her two children"

intimidate
intimidate (verb) - make timid or fearful; "Her boss intimidates her"
intimidate , restrain (verb) - to compel or deter by or as if by threats

jem
Jaish-i-Mohammed , Jaish-e-Muhammad , JEM , Army of Muhammad (noun) - a terrorist organization founded in 2000; a militant Islamic group active in Kashmir and closely aligned with al-Rashid Trust; seeks to secure release of imprisoned fellow militants by kidnappings

manipulative
manipulative (adjective) - skillful in influencing or controlling others to your own advantage; "the early manipulative techniques of a three-year-old child"

manly
manfully , manly (adverb) - in a manful manner; with qualities thought to befit a man; "having said her say Peggy manfully shouldered her burden and prepared to break up yet another home"
manly , manful , manlike (adjective) - possessing qualities befitting a man
male , manful , manlike , manly , virile (adjective) - characteristic of a man; "a deep male voice"; "manly sports"

nastier
nasty , awful (adjective) - offensive or even (of persons) malicious; "in a nasty mood"; "a nasty accident"; "a nasty shock"; "a nasty smell"; "a nasty trick to pull"; "Will he say nasty things at my funeral?"- Ezra Pound
nasty , tight (adjective) - exasperatingly difficult to handle or circumvent; "a nasty problem"; "a good man to have on your side in a tight situation"
filthy , foul , nasty , smutty (adjective) - characterized by obscenity; "had a filthy mouth"; "foul language"; "smutty jokes"
filthy , foul , nasty (adjective) - disgustingly dirty; filled or smeared with offensive matter; "as filthy as a pigsty"; "a foul pond"; "a nasty pigsty of a room"

nukes
nuke , atomize , atomise , zap (verb) - strike at with firepower or bombs; "zap the enemy"
atom-bomb , nuke (verb) - bomb with atomic weapons
microwave , micro-cook , zap , nuke (verb) - cook or heat in a microwave oven; "You can microwave the leftovers"
atomic warhead , nuclear warhead , thermonuclear warhead , nuke (noun) - the warhead of a missile designed to deliver an atom bomb

offing

offing (noun) - the near or foreseeable future; "there was a wedding in the offing"
offing (noun) - the part of the sea that can be seen from the shore and is beyond the anchoring area; "there was a ship in the offing"

outrageous
hideous , horrid , horrific , outrageous (adjective) - grossly offensive to decency or morality; causing horror; "subjected to outrageous cruelty"; "a hideous pattern of injustice"; "horrific conditions in the mining industry"
exorbitant , extortionate , outrageous , steep , unconscionable , usurious (adjective) - greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation; "exorbitant rent"; "extortionate prices"; "spends an outrageous amount on entertainment"; "usurious interest rate"; "unconscionable spending"

patently
obviously , evidently , manifestly , patently , apparently , plainly , plain (adverb) - unmistakably (`plain' is often used informally for `plainly'); "the answer is obviously wrong"; "she was in bed and evidently in great pain"; "he was manifestly too important to leave off the guest list"; "it is all patently nonsense"; "she has apparently been living here for some time"; "I thought he owned the property, but apparently not"; "You are plainly wrong"; "he is plain stubborn"

poignant
affecting , poignant , touching (adjective) - arousing affect; "the homecoming of the released hostages was an affecting scene"; "poignant grief cannot endure forever"; "his gratitude was simple and touching"
poignant (adjective) - keenly distressing to the mind or feelings; "poignant anxiety"

proximity
proximity , propinquity (noun) - the property of being close together
proximity (noun) - the region close around a person or thing

repatriate
repatriate (verb) - send someone back to his homeland against his will, as of refugees
repatriate (verb) - admit back into the country
repatriate (noun) - a person who has returned to the country of origin or whose citizenship has been restored

salubrious
healthy , salubrious , good for you(p) (adjective) - promoting health; healthful; "a healthy diet"; "clean healthy air"; "plenty of healthy sleep"; "healthy and normal outlets for youthful energy"; "the salubrious mountain air and water"- C.B.Davis; "carrots are good for you"
salubrious (adjective) - favorable to health of mind or body; "not the most salubrious campsite"; "one of the less salubrious suburbs"

sanctify
consecrate , bless , hallow , sanctify (verb) - render holy by means of religious rites
purify , purge , sanctify (verb) - make pure or free from sin or guilt; "he left the monastery purified"

shenanigans
mischief , mischief-making , mischievousness , deviltry , devilry , devilment , rascality , roguery , roguishness , shenanigan (noun) - reckless or malicious behavior that causes discomfort or annoyance in others
trickery , chicanery , chicane , guile , wile , shenanigan (noun) - the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them)

shiv
shiv (noun) - a knife used as a weapon

sidelines
sideline (verb) - remove from the center of activity or attention; place into an inferior position; "The outspoken cabinet member was sidelined by the President"
sideline , out of bounds (noun) - a line that marks the side boundary of a playing field
sideline (noun) - an auxiliary line of merchandise
avocation , by-line , hobby , pursuit , sideline , spare-time activity (noun) - an auxiliary activity

solace
comfort , soothe , console , solace (verb) - give moral or emotional strength to
consolation , solace , solacement (noun) - the comfort you feel when consoled in times of disappointment; "second place was no consolation to him"
solace , solacement (noun) - comfort in disappointment or misery
consolation , comfort , solace (noun) - the act of consoling; giving relief in affliction; "his presence was a consolation to her"

stealthily
stealthily (adverb) - in a stealthy manner; "stealthily they advanced upstream"

surged
billow , surge , heave (verb) - rise and move, as in waves or billows; "The army surged forward"
soar , soar up , soar upwards , surge , zoom (verb) - rise rapidly; "the dollar soared against the yen"
tide , surge (verb) - rise or move forward; "surging waves"
scend , surge (verb) - rise or heave upward under the influence of a natural force such as a wave; "the boats surged"
surge (verb) - see one's performance improve; "He levelled the score and then surged ahead"

swamps
swamp , drench (verb) - drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged; "The tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor"
deluge , flood , inundate , swamp (verb) - fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid; "the basement was inundated after the storm"; "The images flooded his mind"
swamp , swampland (noun) - low land that is seasonally flooded; has more woody plants than a marsh and better drainage than a bog
swamp (noun) - a situation fraught with difficulties and imponderables; "he was trapped in a medical swamp"

unison
unison (noun) - corresponding exactly; "marching in unison"
unison (noun) - occurring together or simultaneously; "the two spoke in unison"
unison (noun) - (music) two or more sounds or tones at the same pitch or in octaves; "singing in unison"

virility
virility (noun) - the masculine property of being capable of copulation and procreation
manfulness , manliness , virility (noun) - the trait of being manly; having the characteristics of an adult male

vulnerabilities
vulnerability , exposure (noun) - the state of being vulnerable or exposed; "his vulnerability to litigation"; "his exposure to ridicule"
vulnerability (noun) - susceptibility to injury or attack

warts
wart (noun) - any small rounded protuberance (as on certain plants or animals)
wart , verruca (noun) - (pathology) a firm abnormal elevated blemish on the skin; caused by a virus

Article of the week

Article of the week

Reading Tasks

ü  Read as a writer.

ü  Look at the sentence variety, diction, tense use, figures of speech, paragraph structure, the beginning and ending sentence of each paragraph, the introductory and concluding sentences.

ü  If you were writing on the same subject, how would it differ from yours?

ü  Look at the highlighted lexical chunks and look for meaning

ü  Suggest a suitable title.

ü  Post your responses on the blog.

This has been a fulsome two weeks for Pakistan and South Asia. We have had Uri, the UNGA harangues, the ‘surgical strikes’, threats of cancelling the Indus Waters Treaty, cancellation of Saarc, a patently multilateral forum that may have produced little but has the potential to do good for the masses – a dampener for Pakistan on the diplomatic front, thanks to India. In all this if there was some solace it was that Pakistan’s future looked good.

Want to know why? There are bigger crazies across the border. Those who can let Pathankot and Uri, and then Baramula, build into a strategic collapse of order, and then search desperately for signs to prove to the world that they indeed did aggress across the Line of Control and destroyed infrastructure, of the terrorists, are sure to have taken leave of their senses. This can only happen in South Asia – that you aggress, violate, de-sanctify, and then go to town to announce your stupidity. As I said earlier, the blind sentiment that enjoins the twins-at-birth is so outrageous that it beats reason. In South Asia, what you proclaim, loudly and repeatedly, is sure to betray the opposite in reality.

There are two binds which have taken hold of India: Ajit Doval’s self-proclaimed expertise at defeating Pakistan at its games and Modi’s ‘56-inch chest’, a sign of manly virility, and thus exemplary bravado. Now as long as these two reign over India, South Asia will remain an interesting place.

The ‘surgical strikes’ that India claimed have in fact given me heart, reassuring that things are still the same everywhere and India has not yet reached the moon despite the trillion-dollar economy and the fantastic rates of growth that should on their own intimidate us all. What we face across on the other side is but a reflection of what I see here. Just as a comparison, the Pakistan Stock Exchange broke all records as the heat surged between the two countries.

And the nation, those who had been fighting each other from Fata to Balochistan to Karachi, all came together in unison to contend with the Indian challenge of belligerence. As I said, as long as India is there, and may it last long, it has only the most salubrious effect on Pakistan. If you were to read the press in Pakistan in recent weeks you would have thought that there was a major political war in the offing, and the days ahead were of great uncertainty. Yet, thanks to India, and the duo in Delhi, suitably backed by the RSS and the Shiv Sena, they all congregated in unity on Kashmir, on Wani and on facing off Indian shenanigans. Instead of dwindling under pressure, Pakistan got stronger. True to the heavenly clay from which emerges the South Asian human, even this claim has a limited life (IK’s U-turn on the parliamentary huddle).

But not all can be taken as lightly. There are two poignant developments from shores far away that must take our notice. When John Kerry, the US secretary of state, met with Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the UNGA, he apparently responded to Sharif’s complaint of the Indian highhandedness in Kashmir and against Pakistan by asking Sharif to cut down on Pakistan’s allegedly fast-paced nuclear programme.

The US may also qualify, as they have indeed repeatedly so done, as to the danger of these weapons falling in the hands of ‘the terrorists’. And someone of reasonable note from the US very recently amplified further by adding that a fractious Pakistan could soon be taken over by non-political forces, read the army, and that just might enable these weapons falling in the hands of the terrorists. Note the deviousness here. The army and the terrorists are in league; and their proximity to nuclear weapons is the ultimate threat. You call this the grand strategic objective. So then what is India up to?

Dreamt up or real, the ‘surgical strikes’ were meant to establish at least two objectives: that terrorists existed on the Pakistani side of Kashmir whom India stealthily attacked – though it is having trouble proving it to the world. And that terror and Pakistan coexist. Next, in its own strategic vision India has declared in clear terms that India will isolate Pakistan at all levels. In this they want to play on the Western fears of a Pakistan knit with terror, in cohorts with the likes of the Haqqani Network and of course the LeJ and JeM.

On the Haqqani Network, the world had better find an alternate narrative now. Long since pushed into Afghanistan, prominent members of the group only foray back to Pakistani borderlands to catch up with family that still reside here, like for a lot of other Afghans who have moved to and fro in the last four decades. Answer: the earlier the Afghans can repatriate their approximately three million refugees, the sooner the visits of the likes of the Haqqanis to Pakistan cease.

On the LeJ and the JeM, though, there is work needed all around. If India perceives them to be in the ISI’s corner then it must also accept that now was not the time for them to be activated given the returns that were likely to accrue from Pakistan taking Kashmir to the world. This was and is the Kashmir moment that could not have been lost as an opportunity. If not, India’s strategy to demonise Pakistan in these groups’ name is misplaced. Will that mean that Pakistan must still drain its swamps? Surely. That will disable the manipulative aggregation by others of its vulnerabilities.

So then, how does it all add up? Well, a war at this moment would surely enervate an already stretched and besieged Pakistan. Were this to also mean further political fragmentation, with a Balochistan that could be externally activated through the likes of Brahamdagh Bugti, and a thoroughly devastated Fata at the mercy of the nastier TTP affiliates from across the Afghan border under external influence again, it just might give meaning to a broken Pakistan making its nukes insecure. Will the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) then cause the world to intervene to take over control?

War is serious business, but in the hands of such characters the threat ameliorates. They know not how to begin one, much less fight one or make a nice story of it. As a consequence, South Asia trundles along, warts and all, safe in its ineptitude.

By : Shazad Chaudhry

Courtesy : The News, October, 16

Article of the week

Note: 1. Try to find and memorize the meaning of the highlighted words.

2. Try to give the writing a suitable title.

3. What is the gist of the article, express your agreement/disagreement with the author.

Post-retirement, after a brief stint at diplomacy, I joined the bandwagon of peaceniks. A leopard hardly changes its spots but try I did. For more than seven years I, with other colleagues, met my counterparts from the academic, diplomatic and the military worlds from India on regular intervals – sometimes seven to eight times a year – in different compositions grappling with the issues that plagued the relationship between India and Pakistan.

We agreed to place Kashmir on the back-burner; we gave eminence to terrorism as India’s preferred topic of discussion and even played around with Musharraf’s four-points, or NS’ Chenab formulation, and looked at accepting the LoC as a permanent border, something India always relished but shrunk away from as soon as we showed willingness for it to be discussed; never sure if Pakistanis were playing a trick gaining them more advantage than India could fathom.

We discussed nuclear doctrines and the associated concerns threadbare; even as much as formulating likely doctrines of strategic application. We reached a consensus on Siachen, and the modalities of its operationalisation, but then the Indians shrank away from it too under immense domestic pressure of its own political and military establishment. Those who agreed on a consensual modus operandi to resolve Siachen were hounded, and later excommunicated in Delhi, promising never again to venture on that road. If Siachen could have been done, Sir Creek was already done.

These two out of the way, we could have then spent our energies on any of the floating mechanisms to do Kashmir. But the Indian establishment simply could not dare itself to break its own stranglehold. In each of these cases the Pakistanis were the most enterprising, ever ready to think anew, and move things forward even if it meant moving away from its stated positions. Whenever we came back and fed our conclusions into the regular Pakistani establishment, political or military, we were never discouraged. India was another story. We have since lost those years and the effort spent at moving on beyond what has held us back.

The year 1971 was a bad one, perhaps the most tumultuous in terms of its adverse impact on Pakistani psychology and mental make-up. Pakistan was broken into two, losing half of it to India in a war. It seems crass but there is no other way to put it. This had been preceded by a surreptitious Indian intervention in East Pakistan where over years a sentiment of hate and an army of dissidents was prepared, trained and unleashed against the Pakistani administration in East Pakistan. Pakistan’s own political make-up was no less instrumental in making that possible.

India followed this in 1983 against Sri Lanka, creating, supporting and sustaining the Tamil Tigers, at that time the most ruthless terror organisation in the world. If using irregulars as rebels and creating terror groups was first introduced by a nation it was thence, by the Indian government and its military as national policy. Narendra Modi publicly boasted of it most recently in Dhaka.

In 1974 India exploded a nuclear device. A vanquished Pakistan was forever crestfallen. The Indian domination was complete changing the strategic calculus between the two forever. But then luck and a lots of grit helped. Pakistan stood up, gathered itself under ZAB, announced its entry into the world in its new avatar, and went on to develop its own nuclear equivalence. By 1984 Pakistan had a bomb. India’s nuclear domination was neutralised. A new strategic reality governed South Asia. By 1998, it all got firmly and formally rooted. India would not be the hegemon in South Asia.

The 1979 was remarkable too. The Soviet Union rolled into Afghanistan and threatened to roll back the existing order so firmly established since WWII. Soon the US moved in through Pakistan to counter the Soviets and gave birth to what was to later plague the region perennially: the mujahideen, the prototype Taliban – the Islamic guerrilla who would counter the Soviet onslaught. After a ten-year long struggle, the mujahid won and the Soviet Union was demolished. Quite conveniently, the US left both the baby and the bath water in Pakistani hands and decamped. But it left Pakistan with the wherewithal and the idea of using irregulars as a force multiplier.

The possibility of a war pervasive, given that zero movement had taken place on the political front to resolve their lingering issues, the use of the non-state actor afforded a strategic cut-out between full-on conventional wars between the two nations. The perversity is obvious, but the ‘irregulars’ have kept the two from a direct steel-on-steel confrontation as had been the norm till 1990.

In 1990, Pakistan allegedly stirred the Kashmir pot with some of the released irregulars from Afghanistan. It went on for a while till it all became quiet again in 1996. The year 1998 brought the nuclear reality to South Asia and all went back to the drawing board. Instead of forging cooperative mechanisms under the newer realities and challenges, sub-national wars took hold. Both nations entered a phase of being in a war while not being in a war. India’s PM has since confirmed using the same tactics against Pakistan in Fata, Balochistan and Karachi.

Come 2016, and another phase of fourth generation warfare. Parts of western Pakistan blew up as did Indian-occupied Kashmir along with a concurrently running intifada by the Kashmiri freedom fighters. Unable to control the valley, India resorted to upping the ante against Pakistan and the dangers of conflict hovered once again; this time between two nuclear neighbours.

Reactions within Pakistan have been varied. While India has launched parallel offensives politically and diplomatically, it has threatened military action too by pinning blame on Pakistan for militancy in Kashmir. Pakistan has denied this vehemently, but has also been forced to introspect to obviate the cleavages that give cause for others to suspect a Pakistani hand for anything that goes wrong in India. While having been in a long war against terror groups targeting Pakistan over this entire period it has in earnest decided to eliminate any remnants that may have earlier had some connection with militancy in Kashmir as well. This is a major policy shift enunciated clearly by the political and military establishment. Such strategic correction of the course though has its consequences.

One, the Kashmir issue remains unresolved. Two, the Kashmiris are divested of any support, psychological or material, that may have helped them sustain their struggle. Three, with the wounds of unresolved issues still festering, the chance of a regular conventional war becomes a possibility. Four, such a war will easily degenerate into a nuclear exchange due to escalatory consequences. Five, India, unchecked and relentless, will once again dominate and drive South Asia at its whims. And six, a South Asia that has known peace through a strategic balance along the full spectrum will stand denuded of such assurance.

Unless an international mechanism is invoked right away and issues such as Kashmir and those that plague India-Pakistan are addressed, the region stands closer to a conventional-nuclear conflict. What the non-state actor first absorbed will now lie in the fold of the state to respond to. That only means a certain slide into annihilation. The two countries desperately lack a conflict-containing mechanism and only depend on the rationality of opposing actors to avoid an Armageddon.

Without a dialogue and without an international compact to address the underlying issues, the region is nowhere close to finding stability. Both India and Pakistan will do well to heed its imminence.

Reading and tasks

By Rimsha Ali Shah

“Airports offer an almost mystical space for retrospection. In the eerie stillness of air travel, confined to my seat, was when I started realizing one of the better weeks of my life was over.  I had been in Baltimore at a conference which aimed to inspire interfaith harmony, an opportunity offered to me on my Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program,” recalls YES alumnus Abdul Moeed Asad as he took us through the journey of organizing his first conference on interfaith harmony in Lahore.

“The central idea of the Baltimore conference was enough to inspire because the issue of interfaith harmony has always been strangely personal.  In my opinion, the lack of meaningful interactions with minorities is the key concern.  Therefore, I decided to inspire the same passion for interfaith harmony among the youth of Pakistan through an interfaith conference, to kindle the drive in youth to promote peace, harmony and foster friendships untainted by bias.”

The Better Understanding for a Better World (BUBW) conference was held from July 14 – 16, 2016 in Lahore at the Forman Christian College.  This intercultural, interfaith and leadership conference engaged 55 high school students from different faiths in dialogue, discussion and cultural visits to the Walled City of Lahore and Katas Raj temples.  The event had immense support from the volunteers of Seeds of Peace.  This project was made possible with the help of an alumni small grant from the Pakistan-U. S. Alumni Network (PUAN).  All alumni of various U.S. government-sponsored exchange programs in Pakistan are eligible to apply for the grant of up to $5,000 USD to enable them to give back to their communities.

High School Students Bond Over Interfaith Harmony 

Minaal Minan, a student of Lahore Grammar School, attended the conference because she wanted to learn about interfaith harmony.  “It was the first time that I interacted with Christian, Sikh, and Hindu students and had candid discussions with them on interfaith harmony, their culture, customs, and values and vice versa.”

With the aim to enable a meaningful dialogue that gave participants a chance to voice their fears and concerns, the conference planning team designed a program that included group activities promoting teamwork, presentations from the participants on their religious practices followed by a discussion on stereotypes, religious intolerance, and peace promotion.  The conference also catalyzed friendships through collaborative artwork and performance art.  Participants painted messages of peace and tolerance on canvases, using colors as their medium of expression, and performed together on cultural songs.

Group activity tears down walls by encouraging candid conversation among participants

Seeds of Peace volunteer for the conference, Shahzaib Kazmi shares, “The idea behind bringing people from different faiths together was to encourage youngsters to think for themselves; understand, empathize, and draw parallels among their varying religious beliefs to give birth to a society that is tolerant and united.”

Maryam Shahzad belongs to the Christian community in Pakistan.  “Before BUBW, I had never interacted with Hindus.  In my head, I thought they were unfriendly, but I am glad that I was wrong.  Over the past three days, I have made new friends who are Hindus and I can safely say these friendships will last a lifetime!”

Rana had enrolled for the conference because he wanted to interact with people from different faiths.  “My favorite activity of the conference was the dialogue that allowed us to discuss issues and stereotypes with one another.  I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that many participants shared similar views on so many topics.  In three days, I have learned about so many similarities between Muslims and Hindus and Muslims and Christians.”

The participants also traveled to Old Lahore for a tour of the Walled City of Lahore.  The conference planning team also toured the Katas Raj Temples and learned more about its religious significance.   One of the participants commented, “The tour was quite enriching!  We saw the mosques, the forts, the Church and the Hindu temple.  It gave us a great opportunity to break stereotypes by understanding each other’s world.”

Visit of Walled City promotes understanding of different faiths

Jessica, a student belonging to the Christian community, spoke about the impact the conference had on her.  “On the first day everyone was in their shell and there were groups of students divided by beliefs.  But on day two, the ambiance had completely changed!  No one was sitting in groups and everyone had formed a cordial relationship.  I am hopeful that the bonding created over the past three days will enable us to empower even more youngsters to fight hostility and promote peace.”

For Moeed, the success of the conference was evident in the intellectual and emotional bonding that had taken place over the three-day conference.  “At the end of the conference, I could see the passion in the tear-filled eyes and the heartfelt speeches which, for me, was an indicator of the impact that the three days had on the participants.”

1.	interfaith
2.	stereotypes
3.	bonding
4.	ambiance
5.	kindle
6.	retrospection
7.	empathize
8.	eerie
9.	hostility
10.	candid

1. Find out the meaning of the following words, and note down in your vocabulary folder.



2. Give the article a suitable title.

3. What is the importance of intercultural harmony for today's Pakistani community?

4. Share some of your measure to strengthen interfaith harmony in particular in Pakistan and the world in general?