South Asia Citizens Web

The February 2021 announcement of a renewed ceasefire by Pakistan and India was greeted by both cautious welcome and considerable scepticism. Tensions between the two countries plunged to their nadir after August 2019, when the Indian government removed the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and locked down the former state.

film maker John Abraham (1937–1987), who started the Odessa Collective in Kochi in 1984 and whose second feature film (made in Tamil) ‘Donkey in a Brahmin Village’ (Agraharathil Kazhuthai, 1977) was banned in Tamilnad.

25.03.2021 I write this letter urging you to withdraw the proposal of the Ministry of Law and Justice to prohibit the sale, buying, keeping or transporting of beef or its products, in addition, to banning the slaughter of cows, calves, bulls or bullocks in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep as it is a violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution and against the wishes of the people of Lakshadweep.

a citizens appeal to reject hatred. In Bengali [Bangla] (March 2021)

24 March marks the anniversary of India’s harsh nationwide COVID 19 lockdown when we witnessed an unparalleled impact on the country’s poor, particularly internal migrants who comprise a 140 million-strong workforce. In 2020, India saw the largest urban-rural exodus in its history, with millions of workers arduously trying to get to their homes on foot or remaining in hostile conditions on construction sites, factory floors, head loading markets, hotels and dhabas, and brick kilns, in shared rooms or makeshift homes in the open. They did this while battling decimated savings, homelessness, starvation, and the fear of contracting a virus about which little was known at the time. One of the most heart wrenching and shameful events that continue to haunt us was the death of 16 workers near Aurangabad, as they were en route home following a rail track.