Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
WE HOPE 2012 BRING SOME RELIEF TO THE OPPRESSED AND MARGINALIZED OF SOUTH ASIA!
SLOW MARCH TOWARDS A HINDU INDIA
Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma
Independent India’s leaders declared that the country belonged equally to all its citizens; Jinnah said the same thing for Pakistan on the eve of its independence. Unlike Pakistan, which declared itself an Islamic republic, India did not change its stated objective of secularism but neither did it take firm steps to ensure that this objective was realized in practice.. There are many victims of this failure but Muslims, the largest single religious community after Hindus are its worst victims as is clear from the article” Persistent Exclusion of Muslims in India” by Ayesha Pervez in this issue of the Bulletin. Read more…
PERSISTENT EXCLUSION OF MUSLIMS IN INDIA
(www.infochangeindia.org: December 13, 2011)
India’s Human Development Report 2011 cites only a minuscule improvement in the socio-economic status of Muslims in India compared with other excluded groups. Read more…
MEDIEVAL ARABIC WRITING IN INDIA
Vinod Mubayi
In contemporary understanding in India, which is derived mostly from what is taught as history in schools, the interaction of India with Arab-Muslim countries after the advent of Islam is depicted purely in a one-sided way, as one of conquest, loot, and plunder. No one denies the presence of conquest and loot in history but it is hardly unique to India or the Arab countries. Read more…
BEHENJI: THE PRAGMATIST POLITICIAN
Ram Puniyani
With elections looming over Uttar Pradesh horizon, recently (Nov 2011) UP Chief Minister Mayawati declared that her cabinet has approved the proposal to divide the UP state into four smaller states. She declared that only a dalit-OBC Chief Minister should be able to solve the problems of dalit-OBCs. Read more…
INDIA’S INCOME INEQUALITY HAS DOUBLED IN 20 YEARS
(7 Dec, 2011, 09.40AM IST, TNN: Supplied by Sukla Sen)
New Delhi: Inequality in earnings has doubled in India over the last two decades, making it the worst performer on this count of all emerging economies. The top 10% of wage earners now make 12 times more than the bottom 10%, up from a ratio of six in the 1990s. Read more…
ALTERNATIVE SPACES
Shumita Didi Sandhu
“Our home had always been a space open for all our parent’s friends, our friends and everyone in between! It was peopled at all times with very old relatives, some comrades who were passing through, writers, poets, musicians, singers, painters, .theatre people, even dancers who may be using the space for a rehearsal, mehfil, informal exhibition. Read more…
SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY’S HARVARD UNIVERSITY SUMMER SCHOOL CANCELLED
Radhika Jain and Kevin J. Wu (CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS, December 07, 2011, Supplied by Sukla Sen)
A vote for the approval of the 2012 Summer School course catalog, which faculty acknowledged would normally take no more than one minute, generated a heated debate when Comparative Religion Professor Diana L. Eck proposed an amendment to exclude Swamy’s Economics S-110 and Economics S-1316 from the catalog. Read more…
CRPP LED BY SAR GEELANI A MAOIST FRONT ORGANISATION, SAYS THE GOVERNMENT
(PTI December 7, 2011)
Government Wednesday named Committee for Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) led by Delhi University teacher SAR Geelani, who was acquitted in Parliament attack case, as a CPI(Maoist) front organisation. The reference to CRPP as a Maoist front organisation came in a written reply in Rajya Sabha by Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Home Affairs. Read more…
PERSECUTION OF MINORITIES IN PAKISTAN, NEVER ENDS EVEN AFTER DEATH
(European Organization for Pakistani Minorities: www.eopm.org; December 7, 2011)
Even in death, the Ahmadiyya community faces persecution. In a gruesome incident late Saturday night, 29 graves in an Ahmadi graveyard were desecrated in Dunyapur; district Lodhran, around 100 kilometres away from Multan. Read more…
INDIAN ‘REPUBLIC KILLING ITS OWN CHILDREN’
Bernard D’Mello
Kishenji Fought for a Better World. Read more…
OBITUARY: David Montgomery
The Guardian Sunday 11 December 2011
David Montgomery’s practical experience of industrial relations – rare among American academics – came from the time he spent in the 1950s as an industrial organiser for the Communist party. Read more…
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