The furore around Pakistan’s Aurat March still hasn’t died down. Here’s what critics won’t admit

Television anchors have dedicated complete shows to what they describe as the ‘dishonourable’ and ‘objectionable’ posters that were displayed at the event.

Haroon Khalid

· Mar 21, 2019 · 08:00 am

For Partition migrants, ugly nationalism in India and Pakistan is stealing their histories

Lahore, Delhi, Karachi and Bombay were considered our cities collectively. Not any more.

Haroon Khalid

· Mar 11, 2019 · 08:00 am

Pakistan’s Balakot is linked to puritanical Islam – but it also has a syncretic religious tradition

The city targeted by the IAF venerates a shrine which is also claimed by Sikhs. It is also the final resting place of the Islamist icon Syed Ahmad Barelvi.

Haroon Khalid

· Mar 04, 2019 · 08:00 am

What’s common in the attacks in India on Kashmiris and violence in Pakistan against Hindus, Sikhs?

They are driven by the same chauvinistic nationalism whose essence is the hatred of the ‘other’.

Haroon Khalid

· Feb 25, 2019 · 08:00 am

How the Chishti Sufi order indigenised Islam in South Asia by reinterpreting Hindu traditions

Qawwali is a prime example.

Haroon Khalid

· Feb 19, 2019 · 08:00 am

Why there’s nothing wrong if Valentine’s Day becomes part of Pakistan’s culture

The very institutions that today argue for returning to a ‘pure’ culture are a product of cultural borrowing and sharing.

Haroon Khalid

· Feb 14, 2019 · 08:00 am

This Pakistani shrine received offerings of phallic symbols for ages. But now they are deemed vulgar

As a more mainstream interpretation of religion has taken root, idiosyncratic traditions have slowly been elbowed out.

Haroon Khalid

· Feb 03, 2019 · 12:30 pm

As Pakistan decides against reviving Basant festival, Lahore loses another cultural marker

The spring festival of kite flying was banned 10 years ago not for being ‘un-Islamic’ but dangerous.

Haroon Khalid

· Jan 27, 2019 · 12:30 pm

Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh: How did the attire of the Sikh gurus change so dramatically?

If the first guru’s attire was meant to obfuscate his religious identity, the tenth guru’s clothing was meant to make him stand out.

Haroon Khalid

· Jan 18, 2019 · 12:30 pm

This ruined Pakistani shrine linked with Guru Nanak tells of Sikhism’s lost architectural traditions

Gurdwara Rori Sahib outside Lahore is dilapidated, the floor where once Guru Granth Sahib was recited dug up, probably in the hope of finding treasure.

Haroon Khalid

· Jan 11, 2019 · 06:30 pm

A forgotten shrine in a village near Lahore stands witness to the havoc wreaked by Ahmed Shah Abdali

When Lahore city’s protective walls kept the 18th century Afghan king out, the frustrated ruler and his soldiers attacked villages in the vicinity instead.

Haroon Khalid

· Jan 04, 2019 · 12:30 pm

The legend of Pakistan’s saint of fertility shows how Islam adopted South Asia’s cultic traditions

Aban Shah’s folk tale also serves as a critique of the hegemony of the Syed caste over spiritual matters.

Haroon Khalid

· Dec 21, 2018 · 12:30 pm