South Asia Citizens Web

Some texts banned and blocked in India: You can read these online

The fate of Pakistan is dependent on the state’s ability to impart education that enlightens students rather than pulling them into the darkness of obscurantism

We are deeply shocked and outraged by the conferring of the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry on Ankit Garg, Superintendent of Police, Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. Ankit Garg has been named by the Adivasi school teacher, Ms. Soni Sori, in several letters to the Supreme Court, of ordering and supervising her torture and sexual violence against her, on the night of October 8th, 2011 when she was in his custody at the Dantewada police station.

Given the rather limited nature of the 1988 ban under the customs law, the Rajasthan government has little chance of success in taking any legal action against the authors who had dared to read out downloaded excerpts of Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Literary Festival. The writers were well within their rights in protesting the pressure on Rushdie to keep away from the event.

We have watched with dismay the unnecessary controversy which erupted over the presence of Salman Rushdie at the Jaipur Literary Festival. We strongly disapprove the threats - real or concocted - issued against Rushdie’s participation. The state has once again succumbed to retrogressive forces using works of creative expression for their own narrow, partisan and divisive political agendas. [. . .] SAHMAT is issuing an open invitation to Salman Rushdie to come to Delhi to deliver a lecture or participate in a discussion on literature at any time of his choosing.