South Asia Citizens Web

The outcomes of the “judicial reform programme” run by the Italian government in Afghanistan: The case of journalist Parwiz Kambakhsh
Last October 2007 the criminals who are sitting in the Afghan government put in jail young journalist Parwiz Kambakhsh, in Balhk province (Northern Afghanistan). Parwiz was charged with blasphemy for having circulated an article downloaded from the Internet. This article focused on the women’s rights in Islamic countries. Parwiz was sentenced to death by (…)

Azamgarh district and eastern Uttar Pradesh in general have had a syncretic legacy. Jawed Naqvi recalls some of the prominent personalities who represented that spirit

The Telegraph, October 24 , 2008
Editorial
Killing Game
The moral police can extract a tragically heavy price. The explosion in Imphal that has taken 17 lives and left many injured was targeted, according to the insurgent group which claims to be its author, against a form of gambling that is alien to Meitei culture. Gambling reaches a peak during Diwali. The explosion was set off near the entrance to Ragailong, a tribal village where people from different parts of the state had (…)

Hindustan Times
Lost in the woods
October 23, 2008
Fifty years ago, in October 1958, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a short note explaining what India’s policies towards the tribals should be. He urged that tribal rights in land and forest be protected, that tribal arts and culture be respected and renewed, that the tribals themselves be involved in their own administration (thus ‘we should avoid introducing too many outsiders into tribal territory’), and that government schemes in tribal (…)

The process must begin by removing the perception that the state has abandoned the poor. Instead of seeking the survival of the poor through a dole system their interest must be at the centre of economic planning and management.