Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • Recommendations to The Congressional Task Force on International Religious Freedom

    by Angana Chatterji, 27 January 2009

    Religious violence and the religionization of social life by Hindu nationalist organizations have continued to endanger life and livelihood for minorities in India, as witnessed in Gujarat (2002), Jammu-Kashmir (2008), Orissa (2007-2008), Karnataka (2008), Assam (2008), and elsewhere. The violence against Christian minority communities in Orissa in August-October 2008 was not unexpected.

  • Sri Ram Sena should be strongly disciplined; its origins thoroughly investigated

    by Sahmat, 27 January 2009

    SAHMAT 8 Vithalbhai Patel House, Rafi Marg New Delhi 110 001 Telephones: 23711276/ 23351424 email: sahmat@vsnl.com
    27.1.2009
    Press Statement
    We join all right-thinking people in condemning the criminal assault on a group of women at a Mangalore pub by hooligans operating under the banner of the Sri Ram Sene. We remind the public that this group (whose name has been spelt as it is in phonetic loyalty to the Kannada language) is the same as the Sri Ram Sena, which carried out an attack (…)

  • Cultural logic of communalism

    by K N Panikkar, 27 January 2009

    In the communal conception of nation, culture not only occupies a central place but defines its character by its identity with religion. The nation, therefore, is a cultural construct, with culture being understood as an integral part of religion.

  • The Ideological and institutional Incorporation of Dalits Into Hindutva maelstorm

    by Subhash Gatade, 27 January 2009

    sacw.net, 27 January 2009
    There are many lower orders in the Hindu society whose economic, political and social needs are the same as those of majority of Muslims and they would be far more ready to make a common cause with the Muslims for achieving common ends than they would with the high caste hindus who have denied and deprived them of ordinary human rights for centuries. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar - Writings and Speeches Vol 8., P. 359
    (“[U]ntouchability, is a kind of disease of the (…)

  • NHRC’s Most Friendly Inquiry on Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh

    by K Balagopal, 26 January 2009

    The Supreme Court, which is hearing writ petitions on the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh asked the National Human Rights Commission to constitute a fact finding committee that would prepare a report on allegations “relating to violation of human rights by the Naxalites and Salwa Judum”. The report, prepared by a group set up by the police wing of the NHRC makes no pretence of neutrality or objectivity. It reads like a partisan statement, whose tone and tenor is to protect the Salwa Judum and its image from being tarnished by allegations of crime.

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