https://www.scmp.com/rss/512430/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com A foot-tapping Bollywood retro tune that emerges from a compact stereo at a tiny spice store in Queens, New York City, evokes memories of the grand old days of Hindi cinema. More than 50 years have passed since the song Ae Meri Zohra Jabeen burst onto the scene as the part of the soundtrack of the 1965 film Waqt by acclaimed Indian director Yash Chopra, but its appeal has been enduring, notably the chorus “dil ko jitne ka faan, jo tujh meh hai kanhi nehi” (“no one knows how to win a heart, the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3213143/bollywoods-father-romance-yash-chopra-celebrated-new-netflix-docuseries-hindi-cinema?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3213143/bollywoods-father-romance-yash-chopra-celebrated-new-netflix-docuseries-hindi-cinema?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Mar 2023 06:00:15 +0000 Temple roofs, restaurants, a Sunday breakfast market and character-laden signs are visible reminders of Chinese life in central Kolkata’s Tiretta Bazaar, the oldest such settlement in South Asia. They neatly highlight the city’s Chinese settlers and their history, one which in recent decades has been fading knowledge for many, and either unknown or irrelevant to many more. Today, though, the neighbourhood is on the rise, thanks to visitors interested in such heritage, Instagram influencers, and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3209089/indian-chinatowns-forgotten-history-comes-alive-kolkata-walking-tours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3209089/indian-chinatowns-forgotten-history-comes-alive-kolkata-walking-tours?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Feb 2023 08:00:09 +0000 Walking down the old serpentine lanes of New Delhi, Rana Safvi is on a mission to hunt down and document the many monuments, shrines and structures that shine a light on India’s extensive past. On a recent morning, the premodern historian ventured out to trace Mughal-period shrines in Shahjahanabad – an area of the capital known today as Chandni Chowk that corresponds to the original 17-century walled city named for Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. Safvi, a schoolteacher-turned-veteran writer on... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3204281/indias-muslim-multi-faith-past-focus-through-one-womans-quest-combat-altered-history?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3204281/indias-muslim-multi-faith-past-focus-through-one-womans-quest-combat-altered-history?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Dec 2022 04:00:08 +0000 At the 1937 inauguration of the first Sino-Indian cultural centre in India, co-founder Rabindranath Tagore paid homage to a friendship that began centuries ago. The foundations of that bond, the Nobel-winning poet noted, “were laid 1,800 years back with patience and sacrifice”. With the similar concepts of “acceptance and peaceful coexistence”, Tagore and co-founder Tan Yun-Shan – a noted Chinese scholar and the first director of the Cheena Bhavan Institute of Chinese Language and Culture –... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3200964/friends-foes-can-china-and-indias-ancient-links-offer-hints-mending-rift?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3200964/friends-foes-can-china-and-indias-ancient-links-offer-hints-mending-rift?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Nov 2022 08:00:16 +0000 The aroma of heritage Awadhi dishes like galawti kebab and yakhni pulao fills the evening air at an open terrace of a four-storey building in east Kolkata. Within this industrial complex a food quest is taking place. It is being led by Manzilat Fatima, who sees herself as the face of “Kolkata’s Muslim Food”. The Indian lawyer-turned-chef, who descends from the royal Awadh family, had a hectic day at her tastefully self-named Manzilat’s terrace restaurant and diner service, and quickly finds time... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3194458/indian-chef-trying-be-face-kolkatas-muslim-food?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3194458/indian-chef-trying-be-face-kolkatas-muslim-food?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Oct 2022 04:00:12 +0000 At dusk, the narrow lanes of Dal Mandi in downtown Varanasi spring to life. Rows of shops in the northern Indian city offer colourful wares, from the famous Banarasi silk saris, costume jewellery and kitschy toys, to groceries like grains and pulses, to which the area owes its name. Dal Mandi, which means “wholesale market of pulses” in Hindi, was the city’s granary market and hub of public entertainment around the 17th century. In its heyday, it was a connoisseur’s delight, with courtly... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3188662/indias-tabla-tradition-fades-drum-craftsmans-heart?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3188662/indias-tabla-tradition-fades-drum-craftsmans-heart?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Aug 2022 06:00:15 +0000 Ahead of the general election in 2024, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is extending its war on meat by going beyond beef – despite the constant backlash Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has faced for politicising food. The most recent effort reiterates on the idea of a pure Hindu State (Hindu Rashtra), as declared by the first chief and founder of Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS), Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, who believed that “Hindu culture needs to be fostered first”. The RSS... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3183828/indias-war-meat-could-be-critical-pm-modis-bjp-2024-election?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3183828/indias-war-meat-could-be-critical-pm-modis-bjp-2024-election?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Jul 2022 03:30:18 +0000 Few landmarks are as evocative of their home country as India’s Taj Mahal. Decades of photographs, film appearances and tourism campaigns have cemented the celebrated structure’s hold on the public imagination. Even when seen on a faded 1950s tourism poster in the corner of a Rajasthan tea shack – its marble-white dome and towering minarets turning to yellow in the scorching desert heat – the Taj Mahal still beckons to travellers from across the ages. It is India writ large. Or, as historian... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3179386/was-indias-taj-mahal-hindu-temple-only-if-you-believe-revisionist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3179386/was-indias-taj-mahal-hindu-temple-only-if-you-believe-revisionist?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 May 2022 03:30:22 +0000 The concert hall was full, the air filled with anticipation and a blissful blend of perfumes. The good and the great, the cultured and influential of Delhi were waiting to hear one of the greatest artists of musical history, Pakistan’s Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It was July 1996 and a sudden shower had washed away the dust from the streets outside, leaving the drenched earth emitting a pungent aroma as raw as the emotion of the audience. This was the second time in 15 years that the seminal singer,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3177640/indians-divided-pakistan-politics-find-solace-forbidden-culture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3177640/indians-divided-pakistan-politics-find-solace-forbidden-culture?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 May 2022 06:00:23 +0000 The first call to prayer floats out of the dainty, whitewashed mosque, infusing the cold morning air of Banaras. Wrapped in a blanket and a coarsely knitted cap, Bechan Yadav sits near the entrance of the dargah, a Muslim shrine, enjoying the warmth of a dying fire of twigs and branches. Bechan, a devout Hindu popularly called Bechan Baba, is the caretaker of the Chowkhamba mosque – also known as Anarwali Masjid and Char-o-Dervish, literally meaning “four Sufi saints”. The 70-year-old has just... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3176038/india-hindu-caretaker-350-year-old-mosque-says-its-one-god?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3176038/india-hindu-caretaker-350-year-old-mosque-says-its-one-god?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 May 2022 06:30:24 +0000