South Asia Citizens Web

I grew up critical of Nehru and Indira. I was against the Emergency. I was criticised for that but never abused like I have been now. This is the nature of fascism. The man has the might of the corporate world behind him, and most of the media. Modi is a man who has no inner life. Nehru, our first prime minister, had an abundant inner life.

Fifty years ago this week, Duke Ellington and his band played in a concert he later called one of the most memorable of his life. The performance was in Kabul, in Afghanistan, and even though Ellington was at the height of his fame, almost all traces of it have been lost.

Mumbai was known as the Manchester of India and, more recently, the erstwhile “cottonopolis”. But by the mid-1990s, there were only 54 mills left, most taken over by the central government’s National Textile Corporation after falling irretrievably “sick”.

"Yahi hota hai, ishq karne se maar daalte hai" ’This is what happens. If you fall in love, you are killed’ NB - The sheer brutality of what is happening to women, especially young women and children, the hatred of young lovers (I would have burnt my daughter alive for premarital sex: Delhi gang-rape lawyer) - should make us think again about India’s ’greatest security threat’. If Asaram Bapu’s lawyer can tell the court that the accuser has a disease that draws her to men, is this not (…)

Praful Bidwai, India’s well known progressive commentator speaking on the need to reduce the power of military and militarism in India. He was speaking on the eve of by the India National Convention of Pakistan India People’s Forum on 20th September 2013 at an open public meeting held at the Ghalib Institute in New Delhi, India. (This audio recording was made by HK and is made available for educational and non commercial via sacw.net)