Suppose your coffee break doesn't merely take you out of work mode—it takes you out of the century. Welcome to the Time Librarians' Lounge, where every break in a work shift can deposit you in a Roman atrium, a Martian greenhouse, or a quantum crystal chamber. These aren't your typical staff rooms. They're carefully curated sanctuaries for time guardians—intended to allow them to relax, recharge, and temporarily forget the weight of keeping history intact over millennia.
Here, lounges are pieced together by threads of time. They're adorned by fashions that don't simply cut across timespaces—they merge them. Visualize steampunk coffee houses alongside Zen-like teleportation rooms, or Egyptian sunlit niches lined up with energy domes from the future. These are spaces where Cleopatra's chaise longue can be found alongside a holographic jukebox playing Beethoven reimagined by synthwave. And with Dreamina's AI image generator, you don't require a time machine to construct it—you require imagination, images, and some clever tools.
Where time-travelers sip and reset
Each Time Librarian requires a space where they can reflect, whether having just returned from 1890s Vienna or coming back from a mission to spy on some civilization in the year 4012. Their break rooms should not be attached to any period or style. These lounges need to have the feel of pockets of everywhere and nowhere—a pause button on the universal timeline.
There might be minimalist versions with nods to Japanese tea houses but subtle implications of robot staff. Others could be maximalist: constellation-coated ceilings, shelves lined with long-lost civilizations' texts, and machines vending treats from alternate realities. These lounges don't involve maintaining a fidelity to a design aesthetic. They're about cross-mingling comfort, wonder, and chrono-diplomacy of styles.
How, then, do we give life to these lounges—design and artwise? Dreamina presents a spectacular sandbox to do it in.
Relaxation turned into relics
These Time Librarians' Lounges are not merely design exercises but artifacts. They each reveal a story about how individuals stop, think, and indulge regardless of the time period. And now that you've incarnated them, what do you do with them?
Think about taking your favorite lounge designs and turning them into a series of digital collectibles. From floating meditation mats to chronos-consoles, these pieces can be standalone art objects. If you'd like to tote them around or gift them as badges of temporal cool, turn them into physical works of art via a sticker maker. Upload your Dreamina pictures and print out holographic sticker sheets packed with teacups from 3020, sundial-shaped chairs, and lunar-phase dimming chandeliers. They're cool, sci-fi mementos from nonexistent break rooms—break rooms they should have had.
How to generate images with Dreamina
Before furniture is rearranged in space-time, it begins with one thing: an idea. Or better yet, a precise visual prompt. This is where Dreamina comes in to transform timelines into texture.
Step 1: Create a rich text prompt
To start, go to the "Image generator" tab on Dreamina. This is where the blueprint of your break room is created. You’ll need to craft a prompt that doesn’t just describe the space but evokes it. Think beyond appearance—capture mood, light, emotion, and purpose. For instance, a prompt like “an interdimensional break room with Art Deco lighting, ancient scrolls, kinetic furniture from the future, and a transparent wall showing shifting galaxies” can spark incredible results. Add sensory details like temperature, materials, or sound to breathe more life into it. This is where your Time Librarians will begin to seem very real.
Step 2: Tune parameters and render
Having set your prompt, it's now time to dial in Dreamina's visual knobs. Select a model suited to your intent: maybe you'll go for a painterly feel for a more fantastical lounge or high-definition, photorealistic model for a space that's real to the touch and the eye. Then choose your aspect ratio—wide if you're imagining expansive, panoramic areas, or square when you're thinking about collectible sticker sheets or plush areas. Select your image size and resolution based on how much detail you desire. Once everything feels perfect, click "Generate," and your temporal break room will pop into existence in seconds.
Step 3: Customize and download
After your image is created, it's time to shape it even more. Employ the inpaint tool from Dreamina to add a temporal kettle onto an aged marble counter, or expand the borders of your lounge to expose more timelines and furnishings. Want to erase an eye-jarring detail? Employ the remove tool to tidy it up. Retouch enables you to tweak lighting, textures, and highlights until it emits both coziness and anachronism. Once you’re satisfied—once the chaise longue from Atlantis and the glowing tea pods from Pluto harmonize perfectly—click the “Download” icon and save your masterpiece. You’ve now captured a quiet corner of infinity.
Designing identity beyond time
Suppose your designs take off—you launch a zine, share it on social media, or create a web gallery for hypothetical rest stops for travelers through time. What you require next is an emblem—a that defines this genre-crossing idea of pause and being present. By employing Dreamina's AI logo generator, you can design a mark that blends hourglasses with neon spirals, or gears entwined in ivy, embodying both time's stiffness and the comfort of resisting it.
This logo won't simply brand your project—it'll ground your look. And as you blow out the possibilities of your Time Librarians universe into merch, story seeds, or virtual exhibitions, the logo will be a time-stamped badge for everything restful, warped, and radically creative.
No clock strikes too close to midnight
There is no one style of breaking out the break room that spans time. You can take inspiration from the past, fantasy, science fiction, or dreams. A lounge could have a jukebox that plays centuries non-sequentially. Another could include a garden filled with plants that have gone extinct alongside those in the future that are hybrids. You're not trending to design—you're writing a new one, a genre known as "temporal comfort."
These rooms aren't merely about couches and clocks. They're about what resting means when time has no distinct meaning. They're rooms where the weight of memory is tolerable, where history can be paused, and where design is as malleable as time itself.
So go ahead—make a pot of ancient-future tea, open Dreamina, and create a break room for the ages. The Time Librarians await.
Bharatiya or Indian civilisation is the oldest and living civilisation. Over the course of history, numerous civilisations came and triumphed for some time and then disappeared without a trace. The Bharatiya or Hindu civilisation, in spite of its antiquity and centuries of oppression, is as radiant and as dynamic as a young horse which is powerful, energetic, strong and has an unyielding spirit.
It has deep roots with an unmatched heritage of learning, culture, languages, food, history, science, spirituality, arts, architecture, mathematics, philosophy, doctrines of war and peace and much more. More than all this, Hindu civilisation has the concept of Ahimsa and Compassion. Compassion towards all living beings. Animals share this planet with us. A practising Hindu will not harm even an ant. This position is unique to the Dharmic faiths, namely Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism.
Killing of animals for food or for fun is an anathema to practising Hindus. Civilisations survive on sacred principles. However, in a world where trade agreements are important, protecting sacred values is almost impossible.
This is the dilemma the Hindu majority India is facing. The cow is a sacred animal for Hindus. However, India has become a big exporter of beef. While cow and calf meat exports are prohibited, the water buffalo meat, also known as Cara meat, is legal. India has the distinction of being the world's biggest exporter of buffalo meat.
The biggest producer of buffalo meat in India is the company called 'Al-Kabeer', owned by Satish and Atul Sabharwal. It has invested £27 million (₹230 crore) on plant and machinery to have the most efficient way of killing the buffaloes and poultry. It is based in Andhra Pradesh, near Hyderabad, covering acres of land. The state of Andhra Pradesh is a leading contributor of cattle to Al-Kabeer, followed by Karnataka and Telangana.
At least 8 million to 10 million (80 lakh to 1 crore) heads of cattle are slaughtered every year to generate 950,000 (9.5 lakh) metric tonnes of beef. The Hindu holy site of Tirupati Balaji is also in Andhra Pradesh. The Sri Venkateswara Temple at Tirupati is dedicated to Lord Venkateswara, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
43% of buffalo meat is produced in Chief Minister Yogiji's Uttar Pradesh. There are at least four major meat companies whose owners are Hindu. Apart from Al-Kabeer owned by the Sabharwal brothers, Arabian Export is owned by Sunil Kapoor, MKR Frozen Food is owned by Madan Abbot. Though it has been claimed that there are even Jain owners of slaughterhouses, I could not find any. However, many Jains outside India own grocery shops and franchises selling meat, fish and eggs.
To their great credit, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance food stores in India have stopped selling any meat products. No Hindu should ever do business involving meat, fish or eggs. The negative karma hits hard in this very lifetime.
Buffalo meat is marketed in different forms. Buffaloes are de-boned, that is, the bones are removed, and de-glanded, meaning the glands are removed from the carcass. A concept called 'Nose to Tail' means that every part of the animal is eaten. The animal's liver, heart, kidneys, tongue, pancreas and even the genitalia are consumed.
The frozen Halal buffalo meat has an array of cuts like the Shank (meaning meat from below the knee), Thick Flank (cut on upper portion of hind leg), Striplon (meat from lower back of animal along the spine from ribs to rump), Brisket (from the breast or lower chest of the cow), Knuckle (top side of the leg). Animal casings are the edible outer layers of sausage made from the intestines of animals like pigs, sheep and cattle. The faeces of these animals are in the intestines.
Apart from buffalo meat, India exports poultry and live goats and sheep. According to the 2023–24 statistics, India exported poultry worth £143.5 million (₹1,200 crore) and more than 7,000 metric tonnes of live exports of goats and sheep. The meat is exported to UAE, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia and many other countries, including China.
Between October 2023 to September 2024, 31,275 shipments of frozen buffalo meat were exported to China. A meat company called Fair Export, which is part of a Lulu conglomerate, has a presence in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
India's rise as a major player in meat exports is known as the Pink Revolution. It is a term coined by Durgesh Patel, who is also known as the father of the Pink Revolution in India. Started in 2014, Pink Revolution aims to modernise and optimise meat production. Durgesh Patel is obviously Hindu and Gujarati.
The blood of slaughtered buffaloes and poultry mostly ends up in the ground and rivers. The pollution renders the ground infertile and the rivers dead. The faeces and discarded animal parts further pollute the waterways. Small flecks of faeces can spread to meat in the slaughter process as hides and intestines are removed.
Meanwhile, PM Modi has chaired a high-powered meeting to improve the fishing industry. Nicknamed the Blue Revolution, £300 million (₹3,000 crore) has been allocated to focus on increasing fish production. Another scheme called PM-MISSY has been allocated £600 million (₹6,000 crore) to support fishing enterprises between the years 2023 and 2027.
As the world fish stock is running out, fish farms have started. Fish swim in their own faeces and cause great pollution.
Violence against defenceless animals rebounds on human society and it snatches away something humans crave for, which is peace, happiness and tranquillity. As India marches ahead in pursuit of material happiness, the violence towards animals will not give the country peace and happiness which should come with it.
The violence perpetrated on animals becomes like an unmovable cloud of despair, anxiety and uneasiness. It creates a nightmare situation of dystopia and negativity amongst human beings. This is especially true for India which has always lived by the principles of Ahimsa. In fact, Ahimsa is the secret to the immortality of Hindu civilisation.
This is an issue which spiritual leaders must speak out about. Their silence on the issue of condemning meat consumption and meat exports is putting the Sanatan Dharma into real danger. Hindu gurus hardly ever condemn meat eating openly and boldly.
Every Hindu child must be brought up on a plant-based diet. No Hindu home should have meat, fish and eggs. This is the bare minimum, but to cut out the immense cruelty involved in the milk industry, one should take that extra step and go vegan. I cannot emphasise enough the urgency of this matter.
I call upon the following gurus and spiritual organisations to speak up about meat eating and slaughterhouses at every event and at every lecture to protect our heritage:
Swami Avdheshanand Giri (Acharya of Juna Akhara), Ganapathi Sachchidananda, Sri, Sri, Mata Amritananda (Amma), Swami Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sadhguru Jaggi Maharaj, Mohanji (Mohanji Foundation), Sant Trilochan Darshan Das Ji (Sachkhand Nanak Dham), Baba Gurinder Singh (Radha Saomi), Namra Muni, Dalai Lama, Swami Chidanandji (Parmarth Niketan Ashram), Supreme Master Ching Hai, Lokesh Muni, Satguru Uday Singh (Namdhari Sangat), Acharyashree Ratnasundarsurishvarji, Acharyashree Hemchandrasurishvarji, Radhanath Swami (ISKCON).
Organisations: BAPS, ISKCON, RSS, Arya Samaj, Chinmaya Mission, Brahma Kumaris, all the Kathakars and all the four Shankaracharya.
(Nitin Mehta is a writer and commentator on Indian culture and philosophy. He has contributed extensively to discussions on Hinduism, spirituality, and the role of Gurus in modern society. You can find more of his work at www.nitinmehta.co.uk.)
(The views of the author need not represent the views of Eastern Eye)
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A video greeting has become louder than a conventional birthday card. Individualised greetings have become a new favourite. However, creating a video may require time, labor, and expertise. Most users lack the necessary tools and editing experience. Enter the CapCut App. It makes everything easy with the intelligent tools of its AI lab. In a matter of taps, you will be able to transform your desires into a professional emotional video.
Why AI Videos are the Best Birthday Gifts
Birthday videos created by AI have a profound emotional impact. It allows customizing everything: voice, visuals, and effects. The CapCut App will enable you to focus on meaning, rather than mechanics. Even a video done in a few minutes can be handmade. The effect of high-resolution and bright transition makes it feel very personal. It is not only effective, but also expressive. You will have less time to edit and more time to spread happiness. Even when you took only a couple of minutes, videos are not rushed.
Composing a Heartfelt Script to Feed the AI
Start with a message that is clear and easy to understand. Write something special about the person to you. Brevity is best. A good script is full of warm wishes and a personal touch. Write a couple of bullet points in case you don't know how to begin. The CapCut app features an AI caption generator that can transform your notes into smooth, polished lines. Depending on your relationship, you can set the tone. The message of a friend can be playful, and that of a parent can be warm and respectful. Make it honest using simple language.
Selecting the Ideal Birthday-themed Graphical Style
Visions mold emotion. The CapCut App AI video maker gives you access to the fun, animated, and emotional styles. You can select Cartoon 3D, Anime, or Celebration themes. Fancy making it light-hearted? Choose something fanciful. To achieve a sentimental tone, use a lighter palette and slower, more fluid shapes. Stickers, filters, and transitions can be combined to create a unique effect. Research various themes until you find one that matches the personality of the person you are celebrating. These images make the script come to life.
Personal Touch by Adding Voiceover or Digital Avatar
Record in your voice or choose AI voicing. A recording of your message makes it more genuine. Using the CapCut App you can record your voice over. Digital avatars to present your message creatively can also be attempted. These avatars can accommodate the video theme. To add more emotion, accompany the narration with the background music. The music library available within the app assists in establishing a proper mood. Depending on your message, select something joyous or tranquil. Sound and imagery combine to make a lasting impression.
Birthday Sharing and Archiving Messages
Once you have exported, it is possible to instantly send your birthday message via messaging or social media applications. Post it on Instagram, WhatsApp, or TikTok. The CapCut App allows high-quality exports. Memories are also made in these videos. Back them up in an online folder or an archive. These are stored up over the years to create a personal video diary. Rely on templates and styles used in the future celebration. Adjust them a little, in order to make each message fresh and familiar.
Design Personalized Birthday Greeting Videos
Step 1: Tap into AI storymaker
Launchthe CapCut App and select the "AI Lab" tab from the bottom. Inside,you’ll find tools like "AI story maker", "AutoCut", and"AI tools" to make video editing easier. Choose "AI storymaker" and press "Try now" to begin creating a birthday video.
Step 2: Craft your video message
Enter your birthday message in the "Create AI story video now" field. Choose from vibrant themes like Cartoon 3D, Anime, or Realistic Film. Add a festive "Voiceover" and set the "Video ratio" to fit the destination platform. Tap "Generate" to see your greeting come alive.
Once the video is generated, you can go further. Add fun birthday music via the "Music" tab. Animate and decorate your message with the "Caption style" section by changing fonts, effects, or adding animation. To add filters, stickers, and more, use the "Go to Edit" button for complete editing access.
Step 3: Export and celebrate
When you’re happy with your greeting, tap "Export" at the top-right. Your birthday message is now ready to save or share across any platform—whether it's Instagram, TikTok, or sent privately to someone special.
Conclusion
The future of birthday greetings lies in AI-crafted creativity. The CapCut App brings that future to life today. It turns your ideas into polished, shareable videos without hassle. Personalization is no longer complicated or time-consuming. Thanks to tools like AI Lab, creating something special becomes accessible for everyone. With every birthday, you can send a message that feels real, thoughtful, and unforgettable.
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Map showing global distribution of major world religions by region
Every few years, the media boldly announces the state of world religions. However, the final messages remain the same: that the first position is held by Christianity, followed by Islam. The organisation that gathers these statistics is the US-based Centre for the Study of Global Christianity, with its headquarters at the Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts. The statistics provided by this organisation—which, as the name suggests, is very much Christian—are widely circulated by global media.
The 2025 statistics place Christianity as the biggest religion in the world, followed by Islam. Backing up the Centre is Pew Research. Pew, too, is a Christian organisation. The word “pew” refers to the benches on which people sit in a church. Pew is also financially supported by the John Templeton Foundation, which is a Christian organisation.
The Centre for the Study of Global Christianity claims there are 2.6 billion Christians in the world. The World Christian Database contends that Catholics are the biggest denomination, with 1.27 billion followers. According to Vatican News, the global Catholic population increased by 1.15% between 2022 and 2023, rising from approximately 1.39 billion to 1.406 billion.
Not to be outdone, a Bible Society report suggests that the “hostility” and “apathy” to Christianity recorded among older generations are being replaced by “openness”, particularly among Generation Z (those born between the mid-1990s and 2010s), who “show above-average levels of warmth to spirituality”. The fact, however, is that a significant portion of Generation Z are religiously unaffiliated (“nones”). They are more likely to explore spirituality outside traditional religious institutions and may even blend elements of different faiths.
There are several dangers with Church-based statistics. There can be a self-reporting bias. The methodology employed and the context in which data is collected could involve potential bias. These are not independent surveys—they are Christian stats. Churches may highlight statistics that support their narratives while downplaying or ignoring data that contradicts their message. The way statistics are presented and interpreted can significantly influence public perception. For example, focusing on the number of people who identify as Christian can create a perception of religious strength, while ignoring the growing number of those who are religiously unaffiliated.
While this “good news” (pardon the pun) of Christianity being the biggest religion was lapped up by global media, on the ground, the situation is very different. The proportion of people in England and Wales identifying as Christian has fallen below 50% for the first time, according to census data. Some 46.2% of the population described themselves as Christian in the 2021 census.
In every country surveyed—except the Netherlands and Norway, where the religiously unaffiliated are the largest religious group—non-practising Christians make up the majority of Europe’s Christians. In many European countries, less than 5% of the population attend church. For every 100 new Catholics, more than 800 people leave the Church. In the US, 50 million people who call themselves Catholics do not do the minimum to be considered Catholic.
According to Pew Research, Hinduism is the third biggest religion, with approximately 1.2 billion adherents representing 14.9% of the world population. However, unlike Christianity, Hinduism is practised by the masses enthusiastically. And unlike Christianity, Hinduism—until now—was not a proselytising religion. The horrors perpetrated by the Catholic Church on non-Christians and the forced conversions are acts that Christ would never have approved of.
Regarding Buddhism, Pew Research calls it a major world religion with approximately 320 million followers. China, with the world’s second-largest population, has been Buddhist for thousands of years. Due to the Communist regime, Buddhism is not practised as openly as it should be. Pew Research claims that the true number of Buddhists in China cannot be ascertained because Buddhism there is mixed up with Taoism, Confucianism, and Folk Religion.
It can give a figure of Christians in Africa even though the Church has been obliged to accommodate African traditional religious practices. Christian missionaries often viewed ATRs (African Traditional Religions) as pagan and demonic, leading to the suppression and condemnation of traditional practices. African churches have dancing, playing of drums, ancestral worship, traditional healing, and spiritual healing. Christian missionaries have had to accommodate the African Church. It has yet to find a solution to the dichotomy it finds itself in. It is a matter of cognitive dissonance for the Church.
According to Pew Research, 90% of China’s population is religiously unaffiliated. This figure is ambiguous, as under the Communist regime people would be wary of being seen as affiliated to Buddhism. China’s spiritual heritage is guided by the three pillars of religion—Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. All three have incorporated each other’s ideas and blended into a Buddhist way of life, which has deeply permeated Chinese society, even if it is not formally identified as Buddhism.
I would contend that there are at least 700 million Buddhists in China. There are Buddhist-majority countries like Cambodia, Mongolia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Mongolia. Chinese Buddhism is a major religion in Hong Kong, with a large number of followers and influence on the city’s culture. Buddhism has a large following in European countries too. The total number of Buddhists could be near the one billion mark.
Numbers alone, however, do not indicate the greatness of a religion. Hinduism is by far the oldest religion in the world. It is hundreds of thousands of years old. It has traditionally been non-proselytising. It believes all paths to God—if followed properly—can lead to salvation. Even though it is so old, Hinduism is very modern at the same time. The beginning of the 21st century has seen Hinduism actively taking its message to the world. Tens of thousands of people all over the world are taking up the faith.
Millions of people practise Yoga and have become vegetarians or vegans. Hindu gurus have millions of followers. From Cape Town to Copenhagen to Cincinnati to Kolkata, the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra can be heard. The moral of the article is: do not accept Pew Research and fellow travellers as messengers of truth.
During the recent Kumbh Mela, half a billion Hindus came together at the confluence of the three holy rivers—Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati. Which other religion can bring together such numbers of people? Only a dynamic faith can do that.
(Nitin Mehta is a writer and commentator on Indian culture and philosophy. He has contributed extensively to discussions on Hinduism, spirituality, and the role of Gurus in modern society. You can find more of his work at www.nitinmehta.co.uk.)
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An Indian soldier stands guard as national flags wave in the background
After the dastardly killing of 25 Hindus by terrorists in Pahalgam, India delivered a devastating blow to Pakistan. It sent the message that India will not tolerate terrorist attacks anymore. However, India seems to have lost the propaganda war. In any battle, propaganda plays a huge role.
There are two interpretations of how the brief conflict was suddenly brought to a close. The Indian interpretation is that the Pakistani commanders urged India to stop the conflict and India agreed. This in itself raises some crucial questions. If the enemy is urging you to stop, why would you? Certainly the great Chanakya's response would be to take full advantage of the enemy's weakness. Did India get any cast-iron guarantees that Pakistan will stop state-sponsored terrorist attacks? Did India ask for the immediate release of Sudhir Kulbushan Yadav who is in a Pakistani jail for nine years on false spying charges?
The Pakistani interpretation is that it was President Trump who brought an end to the conflict. Indeed, Pakistan has proposed that Trump should be given a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the conflict! On a world stage, it looks more plausible that Trump succeeded in putting pressure on India and he is trumpeting his success to the world.
I believe in India's version of events. However, India should show the world the proof by sharing the transcript of the conversation with the Pakistani generals. By not sharing with the world the proof of India's position, it is putting itself at a disadvantage. I for one cannot see any reason to keep the conversation a secret.
India has won every confrontation with Pakistan but at the negotiating table it has always lost out. Thus, the military gains have always been neutralised by Pakistan on the negotiating table. Here is a history of conflicts with Pakistan in which India gave away all the gains at the negotiating table.
In 1965, Pakistan launched Operation Gibraltar against India. It was designed to infiltrate soldiers into Jammu and Kashmir and cause an uprising. Under international pressure, the then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri went to Tashkent and signed a peace treaty with Pakistan. While there, he died mysteriously.
The treaty called upon both sides not to interfere in each other's affairs. It was not worth the paper it was written on.
In 1971, another war broke out between India and Pakistan. India won the war which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh. Even though India won the war, it failed to grasp any long-term gains. Indeed, Bangladesh was quick to ask the Indian army to leave once they had been liberated. The same Bangladesh today has turned against India and is persecuting Hindus.
Following the 1971 war, the then PM Indira Gandhi and Pakistan PM Bhutto signed a Shimla Agreement. Both nations committed to establish peaceful coexistence and mutual respect. Again, an agreement not worth the piece of paper it was written on. Indian forces had captured around 15,010 km² (5,795 sq mi) of land during the war but returned it after the Shimla Agreement as a gesture of goodwill.
In 1984, under the Prime Minister of Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian Army launched Operation Meghdoot, a military operation to seize control of the Siachen Glacier. This operation was a preemptive move as it was believed that Pakistan was also planning to take control of the glacier. In spite of the Pakistani attacks, India granted it Most Favoured Nation for trade status in 1996. However, Pakistan did not reciprocate. India withdrew its MFN status to Pakistan following the 2019 Pulwama attack.
On 24 December 1999, Indian Airlines Flight 814, commonly known as IC 814, was hijacked by five members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. A plan to send in commandos to neutralise terrorists did not materialise. The then PM Vajpayee agreed to release three terrorists in exchange for the release of 160 passengers.
Of the terrorists released, Omar Sheikh went on to finance one of the hijackers of the 9/11 attacks and the kidnap and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Maulana Masood Azhar formed Jaish-e-Mohammed, a United Nations designated terrorist organisation. Maulana Masood was the mastermind behind the Parliament attacks in 2001, the 2016 attacks on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, and the killing of CRPF jawans in 2019 in Pulwama. He is responsible for hundreds of Indian deaths.
After the attack on the parliament in 2001, the then PM Vajpayee mobilised the army to attack Pakistan. Once again, due to international pressure, Vajpayee stopped the army.
LeT, the other terrorist organisation co-founded by Hafiz Saeed, is also responsible for many attacks on India. The blasts in Delhi in October 2005 which killed 44, train blasts in 2006 which killed over 200 people, and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in November 2008 that claimed 166 lives. The outfit also masterminded the Uri army base attack killing 19 soldiers in September 2016.
For the first time under Prime Minister Modi, India took offensive action. On 29 September 2016, teams of Indian Army Para (Special Forces) crossed the Line of Control into Pakistani-administered Kashmir to attack targets up to a kilometre within territory held by Pakistan. Around 35 to 40 Pakistani soldiers were killed or injured.
Between May and July 1999, a war took place between India and Pakistan after the latter occupied the Indian territory of Kargil. India successfully dislodged the Pakistani occupiers. In the conflict, 527 Indian soldiers were killed and 1,363 wounded. India's Jat Regiment managed to occupy a strategically important mountain peak on the Pakistani side of the LoC near Dras, Point 5070, and subsequently named it Balwan.
In 2010, a bomb blast in a crowded bakery in the city of Pune killed 9 people and wounded 57. Through all this, cultural exchanges were going on between the two countries.
We often talk about how Prithviraj Chouhan defeated Mohammad Ghouri many times and let him go free. However, in 1192, when Ghouri attacked with a larger army, Prithviraj Chouhan was defeated and killed mercilessly.
It seems to me that in spite of wave after waves of attacks from Pakistan, we have given them the opportunity to come back. I am sure Prithviraj Chouhan must be watching from Heaven and thinking that at least they cannot blame him only anymore. “They are doing the same today,” he must think.
With the new bonhomie between Trump and Pakistan, India might have missed a golden opportunity of neutralising Pakistan — instead they have been given a chance to attack India again.
I am a great fan of Modiji. He has transformed India but my love for Hindu Dharma and Mother India compels me to speak out.
(Nitin Mehta is a writer and commentator on Indian culture and philosophy. He has contributed extensively to discussions on Hinduism, spirituality, and the role of Gurus in modern society. You can find more of his work at www.nitinmehta.co.uk.)
The former PM of India, Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency in 1975. In London, the newly formed Friends of India Society was organising protests and campaigning for the restoration of democracy. On Saturday, 24 April 1976, an international conference was held at Alexandra Palace.
Shiva Naipaul, the famous Trinidadian writer of Indian origin, wrote the following article in The London Times newspaper. Here is a brief summary of what he wrote:
A Philosophical Threat to Mrs Gandhi’s Political Power
The event was a well-organised affair. Each centre of Indian settlement in this country—Coventry, Bradford, Leicester and Southall—supplied a delegation. In addition, there were overseas delegates from a dozen countries, including solitary representatives from Venezuela and Hong Kong. On the other hand, the strength and quality of its (Friends of India’s) democratic convictions remain an altogether more debatable proposition.
"Take the delegate from Croydon. (That is me!) He was a young man dressed in traditional style—white pyjama trousers and white kurta. Surveying his fellow delegates from the rostrum, he exuded fearless conviction. Ever since the granting of independence, he observed, relentless efforts had been made to suppress the Hindu view of life. His voice rose as he warmed to his theme. 'All the history books will tell you that Alexander the Great defeated Porus. But it was the other way round. It was Porus who defeated Alexander. Through the distortions of so-called history, a sense of defeatism has been instilled in the Indian people.' It was a speech devoid of logical coherence (!). But the applause was loud and passionate."
Shiva Naipaul concluded the article by saying that with this type of opposition, Indira Gandhi had nothing to worry about in terms of power politics.
Well, history has proved Shiva wrong. India has become a mature democracy, a role model to most countries in the world, and a world economic and cultural power. Shiva himself acknowledged that India had proved him wrong.
P.S. On one occasion, on a bitterly cold winter morning, we demonstrated outside the Indian High Commission. We decided to go for a coffee and left our banners on the corner of a nearby shop. When we came back, the banners were gone. To coordinate a united opposition to the Emergency, Jayantibhai Patel held discussions with the Communist Party of India, London chapter. They would open the discussion with a quotation from a book of Marx or Mao! Jayantibhai told me that sometimes in later years, he would bump into them at grocery shops.
(Nitin Mehta is a writer and commentator on Indian culture and philosophy. He has contributed extensively to discussions on Hinduism, spirituality, and the role of Gurus in modern society. You can find more of his work at www.nitinmehta.co.uk.)