South Asia Citizens Web

THE relationship of women with the state in Pakistan appears to depend on three interrelated sets of relationships: (i) the relation between the state and the individual citizen; (ii) the relation between the state and the ethnic or religious group to which a citizen belongs; and (iii) the relation between women and the ethnic or religious group with which they identify.

The Telegraph, December 2, 2008
The contentious history of citizenship, which lies behind the Assam bombings, emanates from the Partition, writes Sanjib Baruah
Even by the standards of a place quite used to political violence, the serial terror bombings in Assam of a month ago had crossed a threshold. While asking who did it, we have not asked what created the political space for this dangerous turn. So there is a tendency to think that there may be a technocratic answer, like border (…)

Inter Press Service, December 3, 2008
India Mulling Tough Options Against Pakistan
by Praful Bidwai
NEW DELHI, Dec 3 (IPS) - United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in the Indian capital Wednesday to try and soothe nerves frayed by last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, but is likely to face an uphill task in defusing mounting suspicion and tension between India and Pakistan.
Many Indian policymakers have adopted a hardened posture against Pakistan in the belief (…)

When nationalism rears its head, the beast of 24-hour television news fuels conflict.

www.sacw.net, 3 December 2008 I was in Singapore for a seminar on secularism when horrible terrorist attack took place in Mumbai on the evening of 26th November. I came to know about it through BBC television report. From there I had to go to Istanbul for another seminar on religion and democracy and returned to Mumbai on 1st December when all was over and hence could not react to these barbaric events in time.
Many questions are troubling our minds - who were these terrorists and why did (…)