Weekend Reads

  • The court verdict against Nawaz Sharif could be the beginning of a period of political instability in Pakistan, writes Ayesha Siddiqa in the Indian Express.
  • We need to rescue Jawaharlal Nehru from his descendants, writes Ramachandra Guha in the Hindustan Times.
  • Nitish Kumar’s supposed popularity in Bihar is not borne out in electoral numbers. So how has he been chief minister for nearly 13 years since 2005, asks Praveen Chakravarty in IndiaSpend.
  • It’s not about corruption, contradictions, or the Centre. Lalu Yadav’s bastion Raghopur’s sense of betrayal regarding Nitish comes from that fleeting promise of development, writes Vandita Mishra in the Indian Express.
  • Pakistan’s courts shouldn’t do the work of voters, write Nisid Hajari and Clive Crook in BloombergQuint.com.
  • In the Telegraph, Mukul Kesavan charts Nitish Kumar’s carer from provincial zamindar to political zombie.
  • In the Business Line, Anasu Chatterjee writes about the dynamics of a Muslim ghetto in Kolkata.
  • In Aeon Arika Okren asks, is linguistics a science?
  • John Nash’s notion of equilibrium is ubiquitous in economic theory, but a new study shows that it is often impossible to reach efficiently, explains Erica Klarreich in Quanta.
  • In Mint, Sankhayan Ghosh writes on the life and time of Hindi film director Saeed Mirza.
  • Mithali Raj, “Captain Cool” who reads Rumi, is India’s new sporting icon, writes Aasheesh Sharma in the Hindustan Times.