Abro

  HOST: Welcome back. Today, we are stepping far back in time, not to celebrate the well-known heroes of the ancient Indian Subcontinent, but to uncover the voices that were often suppressed, censored, or simply forgotten. We are talking about two fascinating yet largely marginalized traditions: the Ajivikas and the Cārvākas, or Lokāyatas. Joining us is the eminent historian, Maria (a fictional character). Welcome, Professor. MARIA: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here. These voices—the Ajivikas and the Cārvākas—are absolutely crucial because they reveal that the history of religious thought in the Indian subcontinent was characterized by extraordinary plurality, debate, and contestation. They challenge the common narrative that ancient Indian philosophy was dominated exclusively by spiritual idealism or metaphysical speculation.   HOST: That’s a powerful opening. For our audience across India and Pakistan, who are familiar with the major traditions like Hinduis...

    Host: Hello, everyone! We in South Asia are intimately familiar with the brutal story of European colonialism—the trading companies, the extraction, the long-term imposition of political and racial control. But today, we turn our gaze eastward to examine a different, arguably more ferocious, model of imperialism that emerged in Asia itself: the Japanese expansion. Joining us is Dr. Sharma (a fictional character), a distinguished historian of 20th-century warfare. Dr. Sharma, thank you for being here. Dr. Sharma: Thank you. It is crucial for us to understand this history because it illuminates the full spectrum of colonial violence.   Host: Let’s dive straight into the heart of darkness: The Nanking Massacre. For those unfamiliar, what happened in Nanking (or Nanjing) in December 1937? Dr. Sharma: The Nanking Massacre, often referred to as the Rape of Nanking, is the darkest embodiment of this contrasting imperial model. In late 1937, after capturing the ...

      Hello, everyone. I want to begin by asking you to think about something truly profound and unsettling. Imagine a war, a conflict that brought unimaginable destruction and suffering across continents. Now, imagine a specific crime committed during that war – a crime so horrific, so widespread, that it affected hundreds of thousands of lives. Yet, for decades after the war ended, this crime was largely unspoken, unacknowledged, almost erased from public memory. Today, we're going to tackle a subject that is, without doubt, one of the most sensitive and contentious issues in modern history: the Japanese military's "comfort women" system during the Asia-Pacific War. To begin, what comes to mind when you hear the term "comfort women?" Between 1931 and 1945, an estimated 50,000 to 200,000 women were mobilised, deceived, coerced, or forced into providing sexual services for the Imperial Japanese Army across East and Southeast Asia. These numbers, ...