South Asia Citizens Web

Herald, 19 September 2008
Hard on the heels of the communal violence in Orissa, we have an outbreak of communal violence in Karnataka. In both cases, it is the Christian community that has been attacked and the purported reason has been protests against conversions. The BJP is in power in both Karnataka (on its own) and Orissa (as a coalition partner).
After the attacks in Karnataka, the BJP Chief Minister of Karnataka B S Yediyurappa, a man with very strong RSS links, has assured strict (…)

Kashmir Times, September 22, 2008
A rash of angry and sustained protests by farmers have erupted all over India against the forcible acquisition of land for industrial, mining and infrastructure projects. As the mobilisations sweeping West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand through Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana, to Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra and Kerala show, land acquisition leading to displacement has become India’s single most contentious issue. Land is now the main site of struggle (…)

Dissent, Spring 2008
AFTER A PERIOD of relative impotence, the Hindu-supremacist right in India has rebounded, with the December reelection of Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Narendra Modi as chief minister in Gujarat. Modi’s role in the mass murders of Muslims in that state in February 2002 has long been so well documented that he has been denied a visa to enter the United States. Recently, moreover, extensive corroboration of his role was elicited by a hidden-camera inquiry conducted by (…)

An Open Letter to the Chief Minister of Karnataka from St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore
Dear Sir, We write to you as members of the Staff of St. Joseph’s College and as secular citizens of the state of Karnataka deeply distressed by the recent attacks on educational institutions and churches in Mangalore and elsewhere in Karnataka.
We are a college of 126 years, the very first private college of the city with a rich legacy of educating generations of students of (…)