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).
EDITORIAL: GUJARAT 15 YEARS LATER
Vinod Mubayi and Raza Mir
The recent victory by the BJP in Maharashtra’s civic polls provides an unfortunate bookend to the commemoration of the fifteenth anniversary of the Gujarat pogrom. Maharashtra is of course adjacent to Gujarat, and has had its share of BJP-led assaults on a variety of minority communities, including Dalits and Muslims, but also women, secular activists and those protesting against pro-capitalist policies. Yet, the electoral calculus continues to favor the perpetrators of violence and intimidation. It is perhaps accurate to say that within the mainstream discourse in India, the role played by the BJP and in particular the current Prime Minister of India in the horrific massacre of a decade and a half ago, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, has been relegated to the past and is in danger of being forgotten. Read more…
DEMONETISING THE ECONOMY AGAINST THE WORKING CLASS
Gautam Mody
In the three hours between the time the Finance Minister completed his budget speech in parliament and the closing of stock markets, the two major stock market indices rose by two percentage points leaving little doubt who the Union Budget Statement 2017-18 (BS) was aimed at. Read more…
INVITATION BY RADICAL DESI (VANCOUVER)
Radical Desi invites everyone to come and join us for a rally in memory of the victims of Samjhauta Express blast that left 68 people dead on February 18, 2007. Most of the victims were Pakistani Muslims. Read more…
DU ON EDGE AFTER ATTACK ON STUDENTS
Delhi University’s North campus has come to resemble a battleground with glass bottles, stones and even lunch packets being hurled at students, as chants of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ ring through the air. Read more…
OUR RESOLVE WILL NOT FALTER, SAYS RAMJAS STUDENT WHO ORGANISED DISRUPTED SEMINAR
Anushka Baruah
‘The kind of azaadi we fight for must be clarified: we are looking for the freedom to inquire and innovate.’ Read more…
15 YEARS AFTER THE GUJARAT GENOCIDE – THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE CONTINUES
Dolores Chew
The genocide occurred in Gujarat, India, from the end of February 2002 and continued for two weeks. At least 2000 people were killed and many went missing. Many of those displaced during the violence have been unable to return to their former homes. While trials of the accused have gone ahead and sentences have been handed down the key individuals who orchestrated the genocide are still free. But the struggle for justice continues, with women at the forefront. Read more…
SOUTH ASIAN WOMEN’S COMMUNITY CENTRE (SAWCC) STATEMENT ON THE MASS SHOOTINGS IN QUEBEC MOSQUE ON SUNDAY 28TH JANUARY 2017
The South Asian Women’s Community Centre is shocked and stunned by the mass shooting resulting in deaths and serious injuries at a Quebec mosque on Sunday 28th January 2017. We offer our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the members of the Islamic Community Centre in Ste-Foy, Quebec. And we stand in solidarity with Muslim-identified Quebecers at this time. Read more…
OPEN FOR ME MY HEART: AN ANTI-RACIST FEMINIST QUEER MUSLIM RESPONSE TO SYSTEMIC XENOPHOBIA
Farha Najah
The following speech was spoken on January 30th, 2017 at a Vigil in response to the anti-Muslim murders in Sainte-Foy, Quebec. Read more…
IN PAKISTAN, TOLERANT ISLAMIC VOICES ARE BEING SILENCED
William Dalrymple
The Sehwan bombing is a result of the Saudi-funded fundamentalism that has taken a grip in the country Read more…
‘PREPLANNED INHUMAN COLLECTIVE VIOLENT ACT OF TERRORISM’: WHAT MODI GOT AWAY WITH IN THE GODHRA CASE
Manoj Mitta
On the 15th anniversary of the Godhra train burning, a recap of little-known anomalies in the case that changed the course of India’s history. Read more…
INDIA: UNION BUDGET 2017-18: INADEQUATE RESPONSE IN TIMES OF CRISIS
Arun Kumar
The Budget is an instrument of macroeconomic policy first and then anything else. If its aggregate figures are found wanting, its allocations and goals would also not be attained. In times of a shock to the economy, chances that the figures may be incorrect become greater. Assumptions underlying the preparation of the Budget have a high probability of being incorrect. Read more…
BANGLADESH’S CREEPING ISLAMISM
Anis Ahmed
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Every year on the first day of school, students across Bangladesh wait eagerly for their new textbooks. Many have few extravagances in their lives, and for them that day is as thrilling as Christmas morning in other countries. Read more…
THE DECLINING LEFT – BANGLADESH EXPECTS MORE
Mir Aftabuddin Ahmed
Suranjit Sengupta had been a stalwart of the Awami League for the last four decades or so. An articulate parliamentarian and a vociferous constitutionalist, Mr. Sengupta had been a robust voice in favour of socialist principles. Read more…
ROHINGYA INSURGENCY HERALDS WIDER WAR IN MYANMAR
Anthony Davis
The Harakah al Yaqin insurgent group, with leadership in Saudi Arabia and ties to Bangladeshi extremist groups, threatens to bring global jihad to Myanmar Read more…
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