Film screenings by Anand Patwardhan in Cambridge MA TODAY and tomorrow. My documentary at Tufts on Wednesday. The sublime musical play ‘Madho’ at Wellesley next weekend. The latest Sapan Alliance newsletter has more events and info about other events, including in Colombo. Scroll below for my conversation with Mayank Chhaya on the Sri Lanka elections, plus pix from ‘Democracy in Debt’ Global Community Screenings – some 40 events in 14 countries across 5 continents – and my notes on recent Sapan News features.
1. TODAY, Sunday, 29 Sept, 3-5 pm, at Harvard: Anand Patwardhan documentary film ‘Reason’, completed after the murder of progressive journalist Gauri Lankesh in India. RSVP here. Hosted by community organisations the Boston South Asian Coalition, Alliance for Secular and Democratic South Asia, and the Southasia Peace Action Network.
2. MONDAY, 30 Sept 7 pm at MIT: Anand Patwardhan’s new magum opus ‘the world is family’. Room 100, Building 26, MIT campus.
3. WEDNESDAY 2 Oct., 5.30 pm-7 pm, Tufts: My Pulitzer Center-supported documentary ‘Democracy in Debt: Sri Lanka Beyond the Headlines’ (702 Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Ave, Medford, MA). Chaired by eminent historian Prof. Ayesha Jalal.
Prof Jalal is a signatory to the Southasia Peace Founding Charter endorsed by nearly 100 organisations and hundreds of individuals, calling for dialogue and cooperation in Southasia. Tensions between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India have kept the region from developing but there’s no reason they can’t exhibit adult behaviour. If France and Germany can be part of the EU, why can’t these two be part of a Southasian Union? Or at least talk, and let people meet.
4. SATURDAY, 05 Oct. 6 pm at at Wellesley College – Musical play Madho’ based on the immortal love story of the 16th century Sufi poet Shah Hussain and Madho Laal, set in Lahore under Mughal emperor Akbar the Great. By Sarbpreet Singh, engineer-turned-musician and author. Free performance. RSVP here.
The play premiered at theatre group Off-Kendrik’s South Asia Theatre Fest 2024 in the Boston area last weekend. I wrote a little piece for Sapan News about it and am thrilled to have it published locally in Watertown News, as well as across the world in the Wire, India.
‘Democracy in Debt’ goes global
Global Community Screenings of ‘Democracy in Debt: Sri Lanka Beyond the Headlines’, relevant to democratic struggles beyond Sri Lanka, have taken place in some 40 places in 14 countries across five continents. Read Pragyan Srivastava‘s great curtain-raiser ahead of Sri Lanka elections last week. A recent Nehru-Fullbright Fellow from India at Rutgers, we are fortunate to have her with us at Sapan News. Thanks also to the wonderful folks who have been organising screenings in Holland, Australia, Delhi, Jaipur, London, South Africa, Brazil, Ireland, and elsewhere, including at Emerson College, Boston, last week. Some photos below.
Talking to Mayank Chhaya Reports about the Sri Lanka presidential election
Kathy Gannon in Sapan News
Thrilled to have the amazing Kathy Gannon not only be a Sapan News advisor, but also allowing us to use her articles for our syndicated feed. See her piece on being in Kabul, 11 September 2001, and thoughts on three years since the Taliban return to power, and other pieces on the site, or at Kathy’s Substack. Photo by her late friend and colleague Anja Niedringhaus whose posthumous exhibit Kathy co-curated earlier this year in New York and Boston.
Remembering ‘Ramu’ Ramdas
I wasn’t able to write an obit for dear friend Admiral ‘Ramu’ Ramdas, who I met in Hiroshima, in August 1998 along with his lovely spouse Lalita ‘Lolly’ Ramdas, both of them founder members of Southasia Peace. Glad I was able to get the elusive Zulli, married to their daughter Kavita, share his thoughts for Sapan News. A life well-lived and causes worth fighting fo
Every drop makes an ocean
The ‘Gandhi-MLK Peace Walk’ by two Indian ‘peace-walkers’ and a Japanese monk may not be sensational but it is worth supporting. Read: A journey of nonviolence across America by Pragyan Srivastava, a talented young journalist helping get Sapan News off the ground
Women lead the way in Balochistan
Young reporter Abdullah Zahid in Karachi had been following this story since December 2023, and we were finally able to publish it last month: What is driving the largest women-led rights movement in Balochistan’s recent history? Sapan News Coordinating Editor Regina Johnson did a great job working on this piece with him.
Thanks to Sapan News advisor Amena Saiyid in Washington for connecting us. Having Regina on board has helped make Sapan News so much more productive. We have an awesome team!
Kanak strikes back
When Happymon Jacob, an academic whose work I once respected, wrote a piece in Foreign Affairs magazine taking a stateist position on Southasia, there had to be rejoinder. And Kanak Mani Dixit was the person to do it. Foreign Affairs should have published it but they didn’t even get back to him about the piece he submitted. That is how we finally got Kanak’s byline in Sapan News: Head in South Asian sand. Also Sapan News Advisory Council member. p.s. Apparently some stateist types in Dilli are offended by the ‘right-side up’ map of the region. Go figure.
‘Jab we meet’
Senior journalist Lubna Jerrar Naqvi, who worked with me at Aman Ki Asha in Karachi years ago, is an alumn of Hawaii’s East-West Center. This is her second piece for Sapan News about the cross-border journalist meetings enabled by the Center: When we meet: A cross-border journalism program provides a lifeline for regional collaboration
Our syncretic culture
Sometimes the randomest encounter leads to something beautiful. Shri Ram Shaw in Delhi reached out to me after reading my two pieces (below) in an India-Pakistan WhatsApp group, and wrote this tribute to Bismillah Khan, the ‘peerless piper of Varanasi’ and a symbol of India’s syncretic culture. Much like the writer, Shri Ram grew up in Calcutta where he had a teacher from whom he learnt Urdu and the Quran.
My articles on Pakistan/India Aug 14-15 celebrations
I usually post my articles to this blog but just didn’t get around to it for these two pieces, one about how ‘peacemongers’ geared up to converge at the India-Pakistan border on Aug 14, and the other about how this convergence wasn’t allowed to take place: So near and yet so far… still, ‘It felt good to just be at the border and raise slogans for peace’ as Harsh Mander said.
Sapan bookshelf
A new historical novel shows how the Rescue and Restoration Act of 1947 failed the women it intended to serve – by Dr. Shalini Mallick, about Natasha Sharma’s book – thanks to Aekta Kapoor of eShe, and a Sapan founder member for connecting us.
Mothers and sons
Mayank Chhaya’s lovely piece on the athletes Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra, their cross-border friendship, and their wonderful mothers: After Olympian rivalry, a lesson in civility from Indian and Pakistani mothers
Bangladesh from afar
Victory for job quota reform came at a cost; now Bangladesh students seek further justice – Sapan News coordintating editor Regina Johnson‘s first piece for us – and on Southasia. Having her on board has helped make Sapan News much more productive.
Remembering Sigma
Our dearest friend and advisor Khushi Kabir in Dhaka lost her sister, the human rights advocate Sigma Huda in July, just as the protests erupted in Bangladesh. Thanks to journalist and Sapaner Mandira Nayar in Delhi for this heartfelt tribute: A passionate fighter for a fairer world bows out.
Note: Mandira is a brilliant journalist in her own right, whose grandfather the late great Kuldip Nayar would be proud of her. He is one of the visionaries whose legacy Southasia Peace Action Network aims to take forward.
NOTE: We’ve been doing this work voluntarily since March 2021. Now trying to develop Sapan News into a professional media outfit. If you believe in our mission and the work we are doing, please consider donating a (small) monthly sum to help us take our work forward. Donations to Sapan News are tax-deductible under the Sapan Foundation, a 501c3 org registered in Massachusetts.
Thank you!
Filed under: Art and activism, Southasia | Tagged: Anand Patwardhan, China, culture, democracy in debt, gauri lankesh, harvard, India, madho, MIT, News, Pakistan, south asia, sri lanka elections, tufts, wellesley |
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