South Asia Citizens Web

Given that we forget many things, given that we, at the same time, remember many things, that we beat our breasts to remember many things, it is urgent that we reflect sociologically, on what is remembered and what is forgotten, on how processes of remembering and forgetting occur. This leads me to ask, how do we make sense of the 2012 communal violence ? How will we remember it? It is important to point out that state has already embarked on the task of forgetting. And therefore, it is most important, nay urgent, that we re-think, that we counter-think, the issue of communalism.
. . . In contemporary Bangladesh, the marketing of patriotism by corporate capitalism and the corporate-owned media has succeeded in concealing, and also, in censoring communal divides and communal differences. The totalising narrative of mutual goodwill and a denial of differences, in reality, works toward strengthening the identities of “us” and “them.”

The 2012 Deutscher Memorial Lecture was delivered by Jairus Banaji as part of the Historical Materialism conference on Friday, 9 November 2012
at the Khalili Lecture Theatre, School of Oriental and African Studies,
in London.

Appeal on behalf of families of the disappeared in Sri Lanka

Women have to develop a thick skin and hit back if they are to play an effective role in Indian politics.

India’s future lie not in strengthening of castes but its complete demolition as Ambedkar had visualized and called for a complete restructuring of Indian society.