South Asia Citizens Web

The News, December 17, 2008
Our India myths
Much has been made of the Indian government’s ”irresponsible” accusations directed at the government of Pakistan following the Mumbai attacks. It is implicitly assumed that Islamabad is entitled to lodge a “defence,” given what is said to be lack of concrete evidence corroborating New Delhi’s claims that Pakistanis were responsible for the carnage.
And so, the Pakistani military has jumped into the fray. After a gap of many years, the old (…)

Schools or Hate-Labs? by Apoorvanand (Published by: Human Rights Law Network, New Delhi (contact@hrln.org); Year: 2008 / Price: Rs.50)
Besides aiming to provide information, one of the main purposes of an educational system and the textbooks used therein is to mould students’ worldviews in a particular fashion. This is what educationists refer to as the ‘hidden curriculum’ of education. Through it, the educational authorities of a state seeks to frame a certain perspective through which (…)

laws in over three dozen countries,
from India to Uganda and from Nigeria to Papua New Guinea, derive from
a single law on homosexual conduct that British colonial rulers
imposed on India in 1860. This year, the High Court in Delhi ended
hearings in a years-long case seeking to decriminalize homosexual
conduct there.

Pakistan may be facing the most crucial moment of its existence. Its back is pushed to the wall, and it seems to have been left with no choice but to do what it should have done several years ago. It should have, on its own, abandoned the policy of using proxy warriors for ill-conceived security objectives, and reined in the religious warlords who have been repeatedly challenging the writ of the state.
Sadly, the realization has come not from how the jehadi organisations have lately turned (…)

The News, December 18, 2008
In his article, "Behind the Crisis in Swat" (The News, Nov 27), Sartaj Khan argues that the current religious militancy raging in Swat is a class war. He writes: ’the militants are targeting the khans regardless of their political affiliations and have given their fight a class dimension."
The fact is that the Islamist militants are targeting those khans who are politically active and influential. These are the khans who can be a hurdle in the way of the (…)