South Asia Citizens Web

The Times of India, 15 Februrary 2009
Indifferent towards women’s safety
by Darshana Chaturvedi
Vadodara: Do the M S University authorities really care for its over 15,000 girl students and 450 female teachers present on the campus everyday?
The fact that MSU created a committee to address grievances of women after 60 long years of its creation only shows how seriously the safety and security of females is taken.
After much dilly-dallying, the Women’s Grievance Redressal and (…)

The Observer, 15 February 2009
A week ago, when my friends and I formed a Facebook group, the Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women, it was a delayed reaction. Earlier in the month, the Sri Ram Sena, a Hindu, right-wing group based in Karnataka state, attacked some young women in a pub in Mangalore. The men were proud of defending Indian culture from cocktail-drinking floozies.
The attack had been caught by a news crew, discussed, dissected, and was ready to be forgotten. It (…)

Mail Today
Valentine threatens caste order
Cladius II, the third century emperor of Rome, forbade marriages as young men were unwilling to leave their wives behind to join his army. Valentine, then an unknown monk, defied the rule and solemnized marriages of young couples. He did this in secret, but word got around.
He was sentenced to death, but he lost his life for a good cause. Love has never been easy, not even for cupids and match-makers.
In tradition when barbers fixed Indian (…)

[Times of India, 14 February 2009 >http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/TOP-ARTICLE—Clouded-By-Confusion/articleshow/4125898.cms]
Clouded by Confusion
A straight line can be drawn backwards from the Mangalore type of incidents to the Delhi murders of Nitish Katara and Jessica Lal. The canvas can be broadened to include the recent resurgence of honour crimes in northern India, instances of acid being thrown at women, and the backlash against women who dare to voice an (…)

Express Buzz, 12 February 2009
Self-anointed saviours
One of the greatest dangers India faces today is from the narrow, intolerant “cultural nationalism” that the Sangh Parivar has spawned in ugly manifestations of Hindutva under various names and guises. All are divisive and exclusive, preach hatred and have stoked a violence of the mind that every so often spills over in brutal and destructive orgies. The targets may be pub culture, pop culture or mod culture, with women being (…)