Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • Cultural Luddites Who Preach Hate

    by B G Verghese , 13 February 2009

    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 (…)

  • Fundamentalists and Their Mythical Notions of Womanhood

    by Ammu Joseph, 13 February 2009

    bangaloremirror.com
    Our freedom is at stake
    Mutalik and Co have made celebrating Valentine’s Day a cause worth fighting for
    I never thought I would find myself sticking up for Valentine’s Day, which I (along with many others) have long dismissed as yet another trivial occasion for celebratory consumption, promoted by greeting card companies and related commercial establishments. That assumption is not totally unfounded. According to a widely quoted estimate by the US-based Greeting (…)

  • Kashmir Tribunal Memorandum to CM Omar Abdullah

    by Angana Chatterji, Gautam Navlakha, Khurram Parvez, Mihir Desai, Parvez Imroz, Zahir-Ud-Din, 13 February 2009

    To: Mr. Omar Abdullah Chief Minister Jammu and Kashmir
    From: The International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir
    Conveners: Dr. Angana Chatterji, Associate Professor, Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies Advocate Parvez Imroz, Founder, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society Gautam Navlakha, Editorial Consultant, Economic and Political Weekly Zahir-Ud-Din, Vice-President, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society
    Legal Counsel: (…)

  • Fundamentalists – of all stripes – stripping away the right to freely discuss their faiths

    by Johann Hari, 13 February 2009

    The Independent, 13 February 2009
    Johann Hari: Despite these riots, I stand by what I wrote
    The answer to the problems of free speech is always more free speech
    Last week, I wrote an article defending free speech for everyone – and in response there have been riots, death threats, and the arrest of an editor who published the article.
    __3__ Related articles Editor arrested for ’outraging Muslims’ Johann Hari: Why should I respect these oppressive religions?
    __3__ Here’s how it (…)

  • Backgrounders on the Sri Lankan Conflict

    by S. P. Udayakumar, 12 February 2009

    Two occasional papers from Tamil Peace Research Institute / Tamil Samadhana Aayvagam (TASA)

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