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The Fifth Floor

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Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

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The Fifth Floor: India's mixed religious communities

Documentaries

India's mixed religious communities

03/06/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, India's mixed religious communities

The place where Hindus and Muslims live together in peace, even within the same family

Hindu-Muslim co-existence; Pele and pop culture; attitude adjustment in Thailand; remembering Tiananmen; a Saudi and Iranian cyber spat; and BBC Uzbek's poets. With David Amanor.

Religious strife is never out of the headlines - and unfortunately India has seen its unfair share, especially between Hindus and Muslims. However, in Rajasthan in northern India there's a community of people who follow the traditions of both Hinduism and Islam. Shakeel Akhtar of BBC Urdu has been to meet some of them.

Pele and Pop Culture 
He was the world's most loved footballer and hero to a nation. As Pele prepares to sell his sporting memorabilia, the Fifth Floor's Bruno Garcez remembers the movies, music and comics which made Pele a star of Brazilian pop culture. 

"Attitude adjustment" in Thailand
In Thailand, critics of the military regime are not finding it easy to share their views. The United Nations has criticised the current crackdown on public debate, including the practise known as "attitude adjustment" - essentially a brief period of incarceration by the military. Issariya Praithongyaem of BBC Thai explains what's going on.    

Rembering May 35th...
Activists in China have had to find creative ways of referring to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and the brutal army crackdown on June 4 because key words and dates  are blocked. This year, one man used word play on a label for 'Sichuan Wine' as an oblique reference.  Howard Zhang from BBC Chinese takes us through the code-words and shares memories of the day itself. 

A Saudi and Iranian cyber spat 
There are reports this week that Saudi Arabia and Iran have been involved in a series of back and forth cyber attacks which have seen websites on both sides taken down, insults posted on official pages and pictures of Saddam Hussein posted on Iranian pages. BBC Monitoring's Shahin Azimi logs on with David to shed light on the story behind this skirmish on the world wide web.

The poets of BBC Uzbek 
All but one member of the BBC Uzbek team are poets.  The country has a long poetic tradition that survived the Soviet era to permeate modern literary culture - and it even touches current affairs journalism.  David Amanor speaks to Pahlavon Sodiq, who is a well-known published poet, and Rustam Qobil, who is not.

And the inimitable Fifi Haroon curates her pick of the week's whackier online offerings.

credit:  Shib Shankar Chatterjee

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