South Asia Citizens Web

Habib Tanvir, the legend of contemporary Indian theatre, was also a writer, poet, actor, organiser of progressive writers and people’s theatre - passed away on June 8, 2009 at Bhopal . Habib Tanvir, whose plays make him a true citizen of the world will always be remembered for his abiding commitment to the values of secularism and progressive ideas.

That economic prowess spawns supremacist ideologies is a lesson best learnt from 19th century colonialism in the Afro-Asian region and in Europe’s conquest of the Americas. The Chinese on their part were forever prone to believing that non-yellow races were barbarian. Their recent economic prosperity has not brought any perceptible shift in that belief. Has India’s chosen neo-liberal economic model set it on a road to deepening social rifts with a matching new grammar of bias?

Sunday Leader, 7 June 2009
War may have ended but not emergency rule
The state of Emergency in peacetime
by Asanga Welikala
In response to a call by the opposition and civil society to lift the state of emergency and to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in consequence of the end of the war, the Leader of the House, Nimal Siripala de Silva informed parliament on Tuesday, May 26, 2009, that the government has no intention of doing so at present. The stated reasons are that (…)

In order to mobilize the Indian citizens against this growing nucolonization, to resist the nuclearization of the country, and to protect our people from nuclear threats and the environment from nuclear waste and radiation, an umbrella organization (tentatively named as the National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements) has been founded with eight committees on Documentation, Economic Analysis, Legal, Mass Media, International Liaison, Translation, Health, and Direct Action.

We, the undersigned organizations, peoples’ movements and concerned citizens committed to building a world free from nuclear exploitation, nuclear business, nuclear power and nuclear weapons, do hereby declare the following: