South Asia Citizens Web

Peter Waterman, the romantic rebel and eternal dissident and internationalist passed away on the night of 16 June 2017

We are writing to you in the context of the serious repression by your Government on the people of Puthuvypeen, near Kochi who have been peacefully protesting against the LPG Import Terminal Project of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for the past 108 days. Just as we were pleased to note certain positive decisions by your Govt. on other fronts, we are constrained to note that like in any other state, people’s voices and struggles continue to be muzzled in Kerala, particularly when the justifiability of ‘development projects’, pushed against popular consent is questioned in democratic ways.

First they killed the Mahatma. And then they went after his message of empathy

A couple of days ago, I got a chance to go to Attari Railway Station and Wagha Border, on either side of which the flags of India and Pakistan are brandished with pride as well as a belligerent ferocity. I witnessed the histrionics and performativity of the Border Security Force of India and Pakistan Rangers.

Seventy years on, Punjabis on both sides of the Radcliffe Line continue to use words like ‘batwara’ or ‘vand’, the word for division, which overtook the euphoria of ‘independence’ and ‘azaadi’