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: SOUTH ASIA ON THE BRINK: MALIGN CONSEQUENCES OF THE TWO-NATION THEORY
Vinod Mubayi
O, what a fall was there my countrymen,
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down
Whilst bloody treason flourish’d over us
This Shakesperean lament over the fate of a country is a fitting coda to the situation South Asia finds itself in at this juncture: 75 years after the Partition of British ruled India into two states on the basis of religious identity defined by the so-called two-nation theory.
Read more…BULLDOZERS, DISCRIMINATORY LAWS AND DEMONIZATION OF MINORITIES: COMMUNAL VIOLENCE 2022
Irfan Engineer and Neha Dabhade
The Hindu right wing weaponized Hindu festivals to foment communal rights in 2022, according to the monitoring of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) based on the reports that appeared in three English newspapers of The Hindu, Indian Express and Times of India. In the year 2022, these newspapers reported 40 incidents of communal riots in India.
Read more…FORCIBLE CONVERSIONS IN NARAYANPUR AND CHHATTISGARH
Irfan Engineer
PART 1
The Hindu nationalists have quite successfully propagated that Christians are converting Hindus with either inducements, fraud or through coercion on such a large scale that there would be a demographic imbalance sooner rather than later.
Read more…GREEN HERRING: WHY INDIA’S POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IS BRAGGING ABOUT WINNING A WAR WITH PAKISTAN
Sushant Singh
In October 2022, Narendra Modi donned battle fatigues and boasted of military preparedness while spending a few hours with soldiers in Kargil, where India and Pakistan last fought a limited war in 1999. COURTESY PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU
Read more…HINDU SOCIETY IS AT WAR, NATURAL FOR PEOPLE TO BE AGGRESSIVE: RSS CHIEF MOHAN BHAGWAT
The Wire Analysis
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat, in words that rationalise and almost justify the sharp rise in communal temperature as well as mob impunity over the past few years, told the Organiser in an interview; “Hindu society has been at war for over 1000 years – this fight has been going on against foreign aggressions, foreign influence and foreign conspiracies. Sangh has offered its support to this cause, there are many who have spoken about it. And it is because of all these that the Hindu society has awakened. It is but natural for people those at war to be aggressive.”
Read more…UNPACKING DIGITAL BANGLADESH
Zara Rahman
On 12 December 2021, Bangladeshi media highlighted the country’s digital policy achievements to commemorate 13 years to the day since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina first called for a ‘Digital Bangladesh’.
Read more…BOOK REVIEW: ‘UNVEILING JAZBAA’ CAPTURES THE UNDYING SPIRIT OF PAKISTAN WOMEN’S CRICKET
Abhinav Chakraborty
Unveiling Jazbaa: A History of Pakistan Women’s Cricket
By Aayush Puthran
Westland Sport
Pages: 288
Price: Rs.599
A great book about sport, they say, is never just about sport.
Read more…THE ANATOMY OF URDU: HOW THE LANGUAGE OF STATE-MAKING IN PAKISTAN CONTRIBUTES TO THE ERASURE OF REGIONAL LANGUAGES
Hurmat Ali Shah
A language doesn’t belong to its people. But perhaps people belong to a language. I belong to Urdu as much as I belong to Pashto or English. Language carries cultural-historical memory and, by extension, collective human wisdom. It makes us human.
Read more… Top - Home