South Asia Citizens Web

American Chronicle, October 28, 2008
Introduction:
Jharkhand meaning "forest tract" is the ancient name given as a whole, to the forested upland geographically known as the Chotanagpur plateau forming the north-eastern portion of the Peninsular Plateau of India. It is a region of great unevenness consisting of a succession of plateaus, hills and valleys drained by several large rivers such as the Damodar, Subernarekha, Barakar, Brahmani and Baitarani.
The plateau represent a vast area (…)

[The Times of India, 16 November 2008 >http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Sunday_TOI/Shame_not_honour_in_Killing/articleshow/3718050.cms]
Surajpur is like any of the semi-urban villages that have come to define north Indian cities. Jean-clad youngsters talking into mobile phones are as much a reality in this kasbah in Greater Noida as their hookah-smoking elders. On the face of it, it seems that the yesterday and today co-exist happily, but last week’s ‘honour killing’ of two (…)

www.sacw.net | 15 November 2008 Last month, the New Delhi-based human rights’ group Anhad, along with some 90 other organizations, held a two-day national convention on the theme, ‘Countering Fascism: Defending the Idea of India’. It was attended by scores of social activists from various parts of the country. Predictably, it received hardly any mention in the so-called ‘mainstream’ Indian media.
The first session of the convention was devoted to discussions about Hindutva. In his (…)

Dawn, 15 November 2008
A marriage is arranged
THE annals of rigged elections in Kashmir provide no precedent for the polls that will begin there on Nov 17. Even the Unionist parties, the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party, are opposed to them.
The Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami admitted on Oct 10 that “we have taken a risk”, adding, “If the political parties are not ready, then how can we conduct elections now?”
The right to advocate a boycott of (…)