Ijaz Hussain, Political and Legal Dimensions of Indus Water Treaty (Book Reviews)

Of the many issues that the partition of India in 1947 did not address in time, and were left to worsen the relations between India and Pakistan, the issue of riparian rights was only next in importance to the issue of Kashmir. In many respects the two issues have direct bearing on each other as well, as some important rivers emanate from Indian-held Kashmir. As the time passes more and more historians are coming to the conclusion that the massacre at the time of partition, the uprooting of more than 12 million people from their native homes, horrendous violence against women, burning and looting, etc, all owe mainly to the colonial administration that failed to ensure peaceful transition to two independent countries. No less than a person than a former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, described the attitude of the then British government as the ‘biggest escape of human history’. In its urge to get rid of Indian responsibility, the government of Prime Minister Clement Atlee, showed extraordinary haste in relinquishing its responsibilities without ascertaining that the partition of a country of a subcontinental size would involve a huge amount of work. It required taking into consideration all administrative and security aspects so that the two countries could move along their independent journey as good neighbours. Unfortunately, the failure of the British government, both in London and, through its viceroy, in Delhi, left a number of issues unsettled, which the two independent countries have been trying to resolve for the last seven decades. Moreover, with the passage of time, new factors emerged which further complicated the original issues.

Developing Students Writing Skills Through Feedback

Learning through feedback is currently an important topic for researchers and teachers. Feedback is an important part of teaching, which is used in our daily classroom practices in different forms i.e. written, verbal and non-verbal. In the classroom, it takes place between the teacher and the students or between or among the students. Feedback is considered to be an important learning tool if it is given and acted upon effectively. This study is an effort to find the answer to the question of how a teacher can provide feedback to the English as a Second Language (ESL) primary school students in a way, which will help them to develop their writing skills. To answer the question, an action research was conducted in a classroom setting. An attempt has been made to make the feedback constructive by describing the students' actual performance, giving encouragement and specific suggestions for further improvement. Feedback was provided in writing as well as verbally. To examine the impact of the feedback the study followed a process writing approach, in which the focus of the feedback was on: content, syntax, grammar and mechanics, organization and vocabulary. The writing process involved two cycles. Each cycle had one topic comprising of three drafts. The classroom teacher's services were utilized in planning, teaching, classroom management as well as in providing feedback to half of the class. The data has been gathered through interviews, conferencing, research memos and from students' drafts. The effects of the feedback in developing students' writing skills have been seen by analyzing the drafts of eight students and by exploring their views about the feedback. The findings show that the feedback helped the students in bringing about specific changes in different areas of their writing including content, syntax, conventions, organization and vocabulary. The students who incorporated the feedback in their writing made visible improvement while those who did not incorporate it thoroughly in their writing made less improvement. The feedback was viewed as encouraging, helpful, motivating for learning, enjoyable and thought provoking, in terms of highlighting the potential for improvement in the need areas.