South Asia Citizens Web

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, for better or worse, was a large presence on the political landscape of India for fifty years. In a fragmented sociopolitical and religious ethos, he represented the pluralism that would bind the people of Jammu and Kashmir together for a long time. Such personages leave indelible marks of their work and contributions on societies for which they have tirelessly worked, and their work, for the most part, traverses religious, class, and party fault lines.

NB: Many decades ago, during the opposition to the Vietnam war, democrats the world over were internationalist in their outlook. Sufficiently large numbers of them refused to align with one-sided ideologies, and supported democratic movements across the geopolitical divisions of the Cold War. Yes, there were political dogmatists then too, but the anti-Vietnam war movement - or the now-forgotten but highly successful anti-MX missile movement of the 1980's (European Nuclear Disarmament) (…)

Bangladesh has become a dangerous place for anyone who dares to cross an invisible line set by Islamic extremists intent on silencing dissenting voices with knives and guns.

10 May 2016: A dharna was called in solidarity with the hunger striking students of JNU; Jantar Mantar, New Delhi

Perpetrators of sexual violence escape justice, while their victims are trapped between exhortations by women’s advocacy groups not to ‘suffer quietly’ and the social stigma attached to sexual violence.