South Asia Citizens Web

[Dawn, December 3, 2008 >http://www.dawn.com/weekly/mazdak/20080312.htm]
Even in my remote bit of paradise, news of distant disasters filters through: above the steady sound of waves breaking on the sandy beach in Sri Lanka, I was informed by several news channels about the sickening attacks on Mumbai. My Internet connection is erratic and slow, but nevertheless, I have been bombarded with emails, asking me for my take on this latest atrocity.
Over the last few years, I have travelled to (…)

The shooting of a girl in a border village in West Bengal and questions about the possibility of justice in no man’s land

Dawn, December 8, 2008 I FAIL to be impressed by India’s ‘progress’ though by most counts it has done better than the country I live in. It only goes to show how poorly Pakistan has fared.
India’s endemic problem to create a truly pluralistic society and shed itself of its caste system has now been overtaken by the tragic events in Mumbai. The illusion of prosperity that has come to the middle class and the upper ranks of the privileged few masks serious problems of poverty and (…)

The Daily Star, December 5, 2008
Out of the box
by M.B. Naqvi
PRESIDENT Zardari shocked the Indians by his reversal of the traditional Pakistani stance on nuclear deterrence, but has also drawn flak from rightwing bigwigs, both religious and military-linked.
Zardari has left many wondering why he chose to speak so unexpectedly. He said he hated atomic weapons and wanted a nuclear weapons-free South Asia; and that Pakistan would never use nukes first.
Few are sure that his reversal (…)

Down To Earth, November 30, 2008
Corporal lab
In the dusty lanes of Juhapura, clinical trials made breadwinners of poor women
When her husband took chronically ill after communal riots drove them to Juhapura, a ghetto on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, poverty made life seem unmanageable. Free will then became a matter of Rs 8,000 for 40-year-old Zainab Bi. For a sum like that she was willing to swallow an unknown pill once in three months. It wasn’t much they were asking for really, so (…)