Muhammad Abrar Ahmad

Ethnicity is a political and sociological construct that helps in identifying the socioeconomic reasons driving violent conflicts that ultimately give rise to separatism elements. India has witnessed many conflicts since its inception in 1947 and lingual, cultural and religious identities have characterized its society which is divided so badly into caste and tribal animosities today. Sikhs are the vibrant community of India but they are neglected one community as well. They joined hands with the Indian National Congress, hoping for all the promises which were made with them but later on they were refused and dejected in the audacity of the situation. Although Sikhs considered themselves as the equal citizens but the policies of Indian Hindu mindset always reminded them as the second class citizens as like other minorities residing in Bharat. The treachery of the events led towards the feelings of separatism in the Sikhs and being snubbed they felt it necessary to vow for independent homeland. The atrocities ultimately led towards the separatist movement of Khalistan but the Hindu mind set butchered them without any mercy and even their religious places were not spared and Operation Blue Star which did not spared the most sacred sanctuary of the Sikhs had observed the massacre of the Sikhs at large scale which left the Sikh nation's tortured body in to quandary of equal citizens or second class citizens. This paper deals with the political and ethnic dynamics of the Sikh separatism and government policies to manage the happenings.

Education is the foundation of better economic growth and poverty reduction, and it is impossible for any nation to progress socially, politically, economically and technologically without education. Indeed, any effort targeting reduction in poverty cannot be successful without a solid education base. Punjab undertook a number of initiatives during 1999-2008 to improve the socioeconomic indicators including education indicators. However, resource constrained economy of the province was unable to match the ever-rising needs of the education sector. To make for the resource deficiency, the Punjab Government launched some initiatives with the help of international development partners. The assistance came both in terms of financial as well as technical support. Major reform initiatives in education sectors mainly include Punjab Education Sector Reforms Programme (PESRP), and Punjab Devolved Social Services Programme (PDSSP). These interventions were major stride towards addressing the ...

Christianity is the biggest religion of the world. It spread after the death of Jesus by the teachings of his disciples in Roman Empire. Even till the end the end of fourth century C.E. it became the official religion of the Roman Empire replaced other religions that were following under Roman rule. In Medieval ages most of the reminder Europe accept Christianity. During early medieval ages church became the most influential institute of the Europe. Catholic Church was more effective even in politics. Pope was considered an authoritative institute in itself. But at the end of late medieval era, people were more conscious, they want to get rid of feudalism and religious authority. In the age of Renaissance people were much impressed by the Roman and Greek philosophy, and the humanist movement had widely spread in England, Germany and Italy. So, Martin Luther gave new dimensions to people as well as to Catholic Church. Consequently Christianity divided into two sects Catholic and Protestant.

This paper examines the geo-strategic relevance of Indo-US strategic partnership in South Asia where in India and Pakistan has antagonistic approaches regarding issues confronting one fifth population of the world. The imbalance in conventional, unconventional or nuclear weapons between India and Pakistan as a result of Indo-U.S nuclear deal and defense agreement is likely to accelerate the rise of mad race of nuclearization in South Asia and it is bound to undermine Pakistan's strategy of credible minimum deterrence capability. The strategic partnership of India and United States has not gone unnoticed in Beijing as China perceived it a direct threat to her national interests in the region. The perplexing aspect of U.S engagement in South Asia is to deal with India's long desire of dominating smaller nations of the region and Sino-Pak's convergence of geo-strategic interests regarding United States and India, security cooperation and mutual understanding on the war against terror.

This study attempts to analyze Pakistan People's party's electoral politics and campaigning with special reference to General Election 2008 in the province of the Punjab. This election has been significant in the electoral history of Pakistan because PPP showed signs of revival in the province after some time. This election in Pakistan was also significant because it demonstrated the continuity of electoral process which was restarted in 1988 and helped strengthen the democracy in the country. The charter of Democracy had provided a strong platform for the main stream parties to fight against dictatorship and even after the sudden death of Benazir Bhutto that agreement continued and both parties made seat adjustments during the election campaign. This policy of seat adjustment helped PMLN to win more seats than PPP and thus PPP lost initiative in the Punjab though remained successful at the Centre. Therefore, this paper tries to understand the electoral politics in Punjab and the role of PPP in the general election of 2008 in the province of the Punjab. The underlying hypothesis of this paper is that PPP failed to capitalize the political vacuum created by the PMLN leaders because of their exile from Pakistan. The study also conducted to investigate the place and position of the Pakistan People's Party in the political fabric of the province of the Punjab which had been under question for a long time because of the popularity of the Pakistan Muslim League and the unique leadership of Nawaz Sharif. The Paper also to find out that the People party though had not been in a position to form the Government at the provincial level since 1977 but had been one of the main popular parties in the province. Therefore, the election campaign and results are obvious proof that PPPP has been one of the main political parties in the Province and was in a position to form a coalition government which it preferred to form with the PML (N) because both these parties had concluded a Charter of Democracy in 2007 and had been cooperating with each other on various issues.

The Colonial expansionist policy reached it natural limits in India annexing Punjab on 29 March, 1849. It not only ushered an era of political stability after a long gap but new developmental activities were also taken up that were advantageous to colonial interests. This study explores, investigates and analyses the origins and development of the Lyallpur with the view to understand its historical significance. Regarding historical analysis of Lyallpur, it is impossible to study it in disassociation with Canal colonization in Punjab in late 19 th century. Studies already have been made on the economic and political dimensions of the Canal colonies which, to a great extent, are important to understand political economy but the social dimensions particularly of social engineering of the British Raj is yet to looked in depth to have broader picture of history of Lyallpur, Punjab and India. In this regard, in the article is an effort to bridge the gap in the existing literature on the colonial history of Lyallpur. Earlier writings have pointed out that the project of Canal colonies served biggest pride of the British Raj as it proved successful in mobilizing communities, exploring new resources and generating land revenues. It helped the Raj to introduce multiple reforms and to protect and promote feudal aristocracy of the Punjab. Slowly but surely it transformed the barren land into productive agricultural tracts Therefore, it is of great importance to revisit the historical background of the emergence of Lyallpur as part of mega project of Canal colonies.

The history of Subcontinent remembers the year of 1947 as a year of political chaos where leading communities of Indian Subcontinent comprising Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims strived to secure their territorial ambitions in wake of partition of India. In this strife, Punjab gained cardinal status where its leading stakeholders comprising Sikh and Muslim communities had to face irreconcilable differences towards each other. These unbridgeable differences led to partition of Punjab. The paper aims at exploring the rationale of Sikh proposals regarding their plan of partition in a comparative fashion with its opposite perspectives. The Sikh community aligned with Congress and opted for accession to India instead of Punjab. The article analyzes that alliance of Sikh community with Congress rendered them unsuccessful to materialize their ambition of having Azad Punjab or Khalistan, however it served Congress' ambition of giving a truncated and moth eaten piece of land to Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Moreover, it is analyzed that Sikh community could not gain autonomy or sovereignty; instead they preferred Hindu domination to Muslim domination. The major ambitions of Sikh comprised securing their stakes in canal colonies, preserving their holy shrines, and eschewing large scale Sikh migration. However, they failed to achieve none of their objectives. The study attempts to find out the rationale and objectives behind Sikh community's demand of division of Punjab; moreover, it attempts to explore the extent of success in pursuit of these ambitions.

The partition of India in 1947 caused grave bloodshed, ethnic cleansing, brutality and mass migration from both sides of the border. The Punjab became a severe battle field among the communities, namely Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, who had been peacefully living together for centuries. The partition historiography tends to blame for such bloody incidents to other communities. But in fact, there were individuals on both sides of the borders who not only did not take part in killing or looting, but also put their life in danger to save the life and property of their friends and neighbors from other communities. This paper is an attempt to explore and investigate the oral accounts of those people who showed humanity and remained good friends and responsible neighbor despite a religious frenzy in 1947. This paper also exclusively encapsulates with the stories of happiness (assistance and friendship during partition) across the borders, is overlooked by historians of the both India and Pakistan, which in fact will reflect the true face and culture of Punjab.

Historically, Sea has been an important tool for supremacy and dominance over nations. The Sea Ports remained important in modern world politics but are getting more multifaceted with an upsurge in world's commercial activities. Moreover, the ports in contemporary era are subjected to materialize two pronged objectives of strategic leverage and an economic gateway. Owing to greater strategic depth in several Asian countries, their access to sea routes through their own land routes is costly. It has obliged them to search for the shortest access to sea routes to gain a competitive edge over their trade competitors. In this context, the development of Gwadar port in Pakistan by China and Chabahar port in Iran by India is driven by competition for geographic control to secure resources and markets and also by fear of strategic encirclement. The two ports, Gwadar and Chabahar, have huge importance, both in monetary and geographic perspective, not only for Pakistan and India but also for China, Iran, and Central Asian Republics (CARs). The paper intends to delve into the importance of these ports in the region of Middle East, South Asia, and Central Asia. Moreover, it also encapsulates its impacts of regional economic integration in comparison.