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The nationalist ambitions of individual leaders during the independence struggle, and the subsequent ethnic violence during partition, did not deter India from making itself a constitutionally safe haven for religious minorities. However, the system or its political parties are not without electoral entrenchment in religion, bolstering its agenda of communal divide through the institutionalisation of ethno-religious conflict. More than often, this communal divide is a projection of animosity between two major religions – Hinduism and Islam. The vice of this othering and vilification has led to countless pockets of violence throughout India, sometimes re-branding the entire socio-political context of the nation. Academics have explained this othering as a post-modern phenomenon, exacerbated by the socio-political or economic 'divide et impera' of the colonial rule in India. Nevertheless, answers were not provided for the resolution of this protracted, cold conflict, which has majorly been backed by religious symbolism, 'mythomoteurs', instances of cosmic war, and invocation of historical storytelling to widen the gap between us vs them. Moreover, the ontological defect of neglecting interfaith friction in western peacebuilding theories has ignored the rationale of these religious narratives in keeping the skirmish between Hindus and Muslims alive, even today, playing effectively into the hand of certain political parties to peddle their agenda of never-ending religious hatred in India. It is this religious and historical hatred that percolates and upholds every other sector of friction between Hindus and Muslims in India.

Against the background of ever greater levels of ethnic polarization between all three of Punjab's major religious traditions, and a resulting tendency for each tradition to be represented in essentialistic terms, this paper sets out to show that the historical roots of these tendencies are extremely shallow. Developing a counter-view, the paper suggests that such politically-driven understandings of the religious scene in Punjab are strongly Euro-centric in character, and argues that a greater sensitivity to the logic of popular ideas and practices, together with an awareness of the different levels at which Punjabi religion operates reveals a much higher level of overlap between the three traditions than current discourse normally allows for.

Bhutan's stated intention of keeping the value of happiness central to the development process is a suitable counter to the values and karma that prevail in most development strategies and ideals. Given present day realities of unprecedented, accelerating changes and paradigmatic shifts in economic, political, and social practices, any successful strategy for integration into global development processes must be creative in nature. It must, in other words, consist of an ongoing improvisation that is at once virtuosic and virtuous and that brings both greater resolution and resolve into the development process. In this essay the author wants to contribute to this effort by considering the broad landscape of development and trade concepts and practices and their implications for the trajectory of innovations needed to insure that development processes and greater economic interdependence are, indeed, liberating. The auhtor starts by reflecting on the context of present day patterns of development, raising some issues related to history and scale in assessing the effects of increasing global interdependence. He suggestes that present day patterns and scales of globalization have both generated and been generated by the extremely rapid and practically irreversible commodification of subsistence needs—a commodification that (paraphrasing Ivan Illich) has the effect of institutionalizing entirely new classes of the poor. Beyond a critical threshold and unless redirected—that is, informed by radically different values—present day patterns of interdependence will continue bringing about the conversion of communities that have been faring well into aggregates of individuals in need of welfare. Unchecked, the promise of globally extended, deep community will be broken.

The Haqqani network is an Afghan and Pakistani terrorist group, which is recognised as one of the most experienced and sophisticated militant organisations in the region. Launching its first activities in the 1970s in Afghanistan, it is now believed to be centrally located in Pakistan, in North Waziristan, a mountainous tribal area at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, also known as the Durand Line.

Die Wurzeln des Hindu-Nationalismus reichen in die koloniale Vergangenheit Indiens zurück. Indem die britische Kolonialmacht die indische Bevölkerung nach Kasten- und Religionszugehörigkeit klassifizierte, trug sie zum Entstehen kollektiver Identitäten bei. Die sich Anfangs des 20. Jahrhunderts abzeichnende Herausbildung einer muslimischen Gruppenidentität förderte die Ausbildung einer Hindu-Identität nachhaltig. René Schultens und Siegfried O. Wolf erörtern die organisatorische und personelle Verflechtung sowie die ideologischen Fundamente der hindu-nationalistischen Bewegung. Eine ausgeprägte Symbolik, Mobilisierungsstrategien und Proteste, die auch zu gewaltsamen Unruhen zwischen Hindus und Muslimen führten, sollen wesentlich zur Herausbildung einer Gruppenidentität und zum politischen Erstarken des Hindu-Nationalismus beitragen. Mit dem Aufstieg der hindu-nationalistischen Partei BJP offenbarte sich jedoch das Dilemma der Bewegung, die nunmehr mit dem Spannungsverhältnis zwischen moderaten und radikalen Polen ihrer Politik konfrontiert wird. Nicht nur der schwierige Spagat zwischen Vision, Ideologie und den Sachzwängen praktischer Politik, auch interne Konfliktlinien, mangelnde innerparteiliche demokratische Mechanismen und personelle Querelen schwächen die politische Bewegung. Dennoch kann festgestellt werden, dass der organisierte Hindu-Nationalismus als politische Kraft (ungewollt) zur Stabilisierung eines Quasi-Zwei-Parteiensystems, wie zuletzt bei den Bundeswahlen 2009 bewiesen wurde, und damit zur Konsolidierung der indischen Demokratie beigetragenhat.

This article will argue that, given the government objective of happiness or spiritual growth of Bhutan's inhabitants, a fresh look at Buddhism is of the greatest relevance, as Buddhism provides just the perspective and insights that were lost in modern development. Moreover the author presents his personal view of the development process in Bhutan, providing the historical and cultural-psychological background in which the need for a modern understanding of Buddhism arises. Acknowledging both the shortcomings of modern development and the Buddhist culture existent in Bhutan, he conclude that an open-minded sparking dialogue between the two can strengthen both, bringing down the rain of wisdom and compassion which is the rightful inheritance of humanity.

Die Erstürmung und der Abriß der Moschee in Ayodhya im Dezember 1992 durch fanatisierte Hindus sowie die anschließende Errichtung eines provisorischen Rama-Tempels an dieser Stelle erschienen als ein Fanal: Steht Indien vor einer Wende vom "multikulturellen" Staat, von einer funktionierenden säkularen Demokratie zu einem fundamentalistischen Hindustaat, der Muslims wie Christen ausgrenzt? Dazu zu passen scheinen die Wahlerfolge, die die hindunationalistische Bharatiya Janata Partei in den letzten zehn Jahren erringen konnte. Wie ist der Erfolg des Hindunationalismus zu erklären, welches sind seine sozialen Trägergruppen, welche Organisationen instrumentalisieren hier Religion für den Machterwerb? Vor allen Dingen aber: Kann eine solche Bewegung in Indien auf Dauer Erfolg haben? Ist nicht vielmehr der Hinduismus viel zu vielfältig, als daß er zu einer geschlossenen politischen Kraft mit Aussicht auf die Machtübernahme geformt werden könnte? Bislang jedenfalls hat die indische Demokratie sich unter ungünstigsten Voraussetzungen als erstaunlich stabil erwiesen.

Anlässlich des Wahlsieges der BJP als politischer Arm des Hindunationalismus und der Bildung einer Koalitionsregierung unter Führung der BJP nach den indischen Parlamentswahlen 1998 zeichnet der Autor in seinem Beitrag den Aufstieg der BJP sowie den Niedergang der Kongress-Partei nach. Zudem werden die wesentlichen Prinzipien und Erklärungen für den Aufstieg des Hindunationalismus als politischer Einflussfaktor vorgestellt sowie die Frage erörtert, ob sich Indien nun zu einem hindunationalistischen Land entwickelt.

Headman Wiboon, an intellectual leader of Eastern Forest Conservation, has collectively learnt from the reality for several decades. Trial and error interventions were done through his practices. His life was at stake between win and loose. He did everything the others done for instance cash crop farming, airline laborforce, military officer, herbal healer or even ordinated to a Buddhist monkhood. However he loosed. When he has done different by means of learning process. Ultimately he has found the truth of sustainable happiness. It was right understanding to life as a natural ground. Be sufficient bring about sustainable happiness to life.

It is abundantly clear that the material benefits of modernization and Westernization are unfairly distributed to the people of the planet. Industrial capitalism has been built upon the violence of conquest, genocide, slavery, debt and bondage. Extermination continues today, especially that of indigenous and ethnic people. Inequality and exploitation lead to tension and conflict. Although many conflicts are expressed in ethnic terms, the underlying issues are often class based and rooted in the social structures of the global economic system. As social disparities and resistance increase, people have to be managed more and more through violent repression. Thus, we have a situation where the global economy is predominantly a military economy and the world's leading nations are producing the weapons perpetuating the situation. The common agenda of different social movements must be firmly placed on a non-violent and spiritual path. This is the only way they can overcome the violence and destructiveness of the dominant world order.

News of the coronavirus epidemic outbreak in Iran disclosed the presence of hundreds of Chinese seminarians in the religious city of Qom. Reports of the link between the outbreak of the virus and the Chinese seminarians succeed very recent news of China's policies towards its Muslim minority communities. Thus, it stands in this framing as a paradox that the Chinese government stood complacent with the travel of hundreds of its citizens to Iran for the purpose of learning about and practicing Islam. As human rights violations committed in China have been framed as the reflection of an 'anti-Islamic movement' taking place in the country and condemned by international political actors as actions against 'freedom of religion', it may be worth questioning why these two very distinct realities coexist within the same system. Part of the answer lies, perhaps, in the geographical position of the most central region in the discussion of China's violations of the basic rights of Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kirgiz, Tajiks and other Muslim minorities – Xinjiang, China's bridge to South Asia and beyond. This Focus piece is intended as a contribution to the understanding of the Chinese government's policies towards Muslim communities in China - seeking to unpiece the current consensus on China's policies as religiously oriented policies and put forward a more sensible idea of these policies as politically and economically motivated. An idea not in any way new to the context of Asia and applicable from Xinjiang, to Burma, to Delhi to Hanau.

Recently, Bangladesh celebrated its half-century of independence and victory, the Golden Jubilee, with great ceremony and circumstance. The birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect of Bangladesh, was also celebrated with due dignity. On this crucial double occasion, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has administered oaths simultaneously all over the country (United News of Bangladesh, 2021). All of the nation's citizenry shared the vision of a new Bangladesh, a Bangladesh that is corruption-free, non-communal and democratic. In other words, a future Bangladesh built in the light of the principles and ideals of the Father of the Nation - towards his Sonar Bangla (Golden Bengal). […]

The recent Easter 2020 attack in the Maldives, targeting 'several boats anchored at the harbour of Mahibadhoo island, some of which belonged to the Maldives' "apostate government" was claimed by ISIS through the Al Naba magazine (Zahir, 2020). It clearly indicates that Jihadism remains an issue of high concern in the country, as it proved fully ready to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic. These fanatics seem to be very well organised and apt in using social media: 'in social media outlets violent extremists made threats of revenge against the government. They established a Telegram channel by the name "TouristWatchMv" in January, suggesting a possible targeting of tourists in the country. It is now believed that individuals linked to the Maduvvari cell carried out the earlier attacks. (…) Individuals and small cells, networked through social media and other communications technologies, with excess to Salafi-jihadi ideology, have now taken up the cause of spreading violent extremism using various platforms like Facebook and Telegram.' (Zahir, 2020). This terrorist attack has been associated with the presence of Jihadists in the Levant war scenario. A UN agency analysing the Jihadi flux to this region observed that 'On a per capita basis, Maldives is one of the largest contributors of FTFs [Foreign Terrorist Fighters] to the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq'. […]

Pakistan ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 2010, committing to upholding the Treaty and human rights. The ICCPR, which came into force in 1976, recognised 'the inherent dignity of each individual and undertakes to promote conditions within states to allow the enjoyment of civil and political rights. Countries that have ratified the Covenant are obligated to protect and preserve basic human rights and to take administrative, judicial, and legislative measures in order to protect the rights enshrined in the treaty. This Policy Brief argues that Pakistan plays a doublegame as a member of the ICCPR that also persecutes religious minorities. The oppression of minorities has become systemic in Pakistan's top-down and bottom-up jihad nexus of state and non-state actors forming alliances to work together in targeting minorities. From 2018 until 2020, Pakistan will sit as an elected member on the Human Rights Council. This is a timely opportunity for Pakistan to effectively implement the rights enshrined in the ICCPR to its domestic legal order and take urgent steps to bring an end to violations of religious freedom. First and foremost, this report will examine the 9 March 2018 Islamabad High Court ruling on religious minorities that states every Pakistani citizens' religious affiliation must be written on their identity cards. Second, this report will analyse Pakistan's historical and socio-political development and national educational system that have radicalized Pakistani society. Third, Pakistan's blasphemy laws, namely Section 295-C is Pakistan's most severe provision for punishing by death the use of derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet will be investigated. And lastly, cases of Christian persecutions will be illustrated to detail the severity of the issue.

This policy brief argues that Afghanistan is far from stability and that misconceptions leading to other conclusions further erode the potential of progress and peace in the country and region. While the presence and support of the international community is vital, there must be a shift in its approach in Afghanistan; foremost with regards to its willingness to negotiate with the Taliban. Furthermore, although maintaining and improving security is essential, it does not tackle jihadist indoctrination, the root cause of the Taliban's success. In addition it is essential to view the situation in Afghanistan through a regional prism, thus acknowledging the impactful role of Pakistan, Iran, Central Asian States and India. Since women and minorities are especially under attack in countries impacted by religious extremism, this paper also highlights their plight.