South Asia Citizens Web

17 February 2014 Statement that the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University [New Delhi], issued on the decision of Penguin Books India to withdraw Wendy Doniger’s book and pulp existing copies.

Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) announces march to Parliament against the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) on 18 February 2014, 1 PM at Ramlila Maidan (New Delhi)

Between the clear misogynists and the sympathetic rationalisers, women should be anxious about the outcome of the peace talks with the TTP

[ The Hindu, 16 Jan 2014 ; The Friday Times (Lahore), 17 Jan 2014 ]
“Hey there mister can you tell me what happened to the seeds I’ve sown
Can you give me a reason sir as to why they’ve never grown?
They’ve just blown around from town to town
Till they’re back out on these fields
Where they fall from my hand
Back into the dirt of this hard land”
– Bruce Springsteen, This Hard Land
Few moments in the past century evoked as much hope in its stakeholders than the emergence of (…)

The surrender of a major publishing firm (Penguin India) over Professor Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus, an Alternative History, in a recent out-of-court settlement that involves the withdrawal of the book and the pulping of its copies, has rightly aroused much disquiet among all circles committed to freedom of speech and respect for scholarly disagreements.