Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • Book Review: Across Time and Continents - A Tribute to Victor G. Kiernan

    by Mushirul Hasan, 21 January 2004

    Victor G. Kiernan, historian and translator of Iqbal and Faiz turned ninety recently. MUSHIRUL HASAN reviews a commemorative collection of his essays.

  • What should minorities do

    by M B Naqvi, 24 November 2003

    For minorities, including smaller sects of Islam, should not organise themselves communally. Instead of being protected, they may only help set up a cycle of revenge violence. Their best chance lies in the liberals in the given majority being mobilised for promoting tolerance and peaceful conditions. Counter violence, in the name of either defence (deterrence) or revenge is to step on a slippery slope, which is sure to promote even greater counter mobilisation by the majority. When a minority organizes a militia, it does so at its own peril. For, the majority is sure to ask: they are organizing (uniting) against whom? Its extremists are sure to magnify the danger from the minority and intensify their mobilization, making it more effective or murderous.

  • India: Harassement and intimidation of Mallika Sarabhai because she speak out against the Gujarat riots

    25 October 2003

    (sacw.net, 25 October 2003)
    A letter From Mallika Sarabhai
    My dear friends,
    Over the last 20 months many of you have been aware of my stand against the anti muslim pogrom that happened in Gujarat. With many of you I have had personal conversations, and many of you know that I have had to go underground and that I and Darpana [The 60 year old performing arts institute in Ahmedabad, begun by Mrinalini Sarabhai, Mallika’s mother.] have been harassed and threatened continuously, amongst (…)

  • Tributes to Abu Abraham, 1924-2002

    24 September 2003

    Abu Abraham was a celebrated political cartoonist and journalist. The abiding themes of his cartoons and in his newspaper columns in later years was the argument for a secular India and disapproval of the increasing division of Indian society on communal and sectarian lines and of the Hindutva brigade that came to power in the country.

  • The day I fell out of love with India | Luke Harding

    20 September 2003

    As a young backpacker Luke Harding found India charming and eccentric. Fifteen years later he returned as the Guardian’s correspondent. Now, after finishing his time there, he recalls how one terrible incident of sectarian violence in Gujarat brought his love affair with the country to an end

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