South Asia Citizens Web

. . . even efforts guided by the best intentions to redress violence against women here run up against the limits of change in a society where cultural practices are so powerful that few can resist them, not even the president.

Ever since 26/11, India has made massive purchases of communications intelligence equipment from secretive companies from India and abroad. In the absence of effective legal oversight, it threatens the democracy it was bought to defend.

he Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called the banning of BBC and other foreign news channels across Pakistan in the last few days arbitrary, futile and a violation of citizens’ right to information and freedom of expression.

reconciliation is something we desperately need to learn. Vast areas in the sub-continent have remained under martial law for decades. The number of orphans in the Kashmir valley run into the tens of thousands. Violence and terror have acquired a seamless trajectory. Communal and ethnic hatreds lurk beneath the surface of everyday life. The glorification of “masculine” virtue is a national pastime. And yet we Indians prefer to cling to our favourite symbolised grievances than to take the smallest steps towards comprehension and resolution.

As a developing nation, can we afford to waste time in satsangs, asks Khushwant Singh. It can scarcely be disputed that we Indians - be we Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs or Parsis - spend more time in performing religious rituals than any other people in the world.