India/Pakistan: ‘Peace is a process, not an event’

Posted on February 15, 2016 by beenasarwar

My first monthly column for Himal Southasian (Feb 2016 issue), a Kathmandu-based magazine I’ve been associated with since its launch in 1997. The headline derives from something I remember a Naga woman from India saying at a conference I attended in Colombo, Sri Lanka many years ago. I focus my piece on what links the Pathankot and Bacha Khan University attacks, Modi’s Christmas Day visit to Pakistan and beyond – the issue may have died out from the headlines, but remains relevant. Article below with additional links and photos.vxtvfzk
By Beena Sarwar

If Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stopover in Lahore to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on 25 December last year came as a surprise, the subsequent militant attack in India barely a week later on 2 January did not. Continue reading →

Filed under: Pakistan-India, Resistance, Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Pakistan’s “three-headed monster” bows out. RIP Comrade Sobho Gianchandani.

Posted on December 10, 2014 by beenasarwar
Babba-Sobho-Jan4-08

Dr Sarwar and Sobho Gianchandani at our house in Karachi, January 2008. It was a cold evening and both were reluctant to be photographed. Babba because he was unwell, and Sobho ji because he didn’t want to remove the muffler wrapped around his head and ears.

Sad to hear that Comrade Sobho Gianchandani is no more. He passed away in Larkana on Dec 8, nearly 95 years old. He lives on as an inspiration to all those seeking a better, more just, humane society. The last time we met was in July 2003, when he came over with his daughter and two of his grandsons to visit us as he often did when visiting Karachi. He made it a point to do so particularly after his close friend, my father Dr Sarwar passed away in 2009.

Below, my brief video profile of him for Geo TV (2003) in which he talks about his lifelong struggle for people’s rights. This, he said was his real struggle, the struggle for social justice by any name, rather than a fight against imperialism or extremism. And a 2002 feature I wrote about him (couldn’t find an online copy). Continue reading →

Filed under: Progressive politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Flood relief – Charsadda, Nowshehra, Pubbi and Peshawar motorway

Posted on August 12, 2010 by beenasarwar

Adnan Mufti, a young chartered accountant I know in Karachi, sent information about relief efforts by a group of educated, dedicated and committed individuals he knows working in parts of Charsadda, Nowshehra, Pubbi and Peshawar motorway areas. Charsadda, incidentally, was the home of Bacha Khan, the ‘Frontier Gandhi’ (see report Charsadda lies in ruins). >

Filed under: Environment | Tagged: , , , | 6 Comments »

Give the one-upmanship a rest (or, ‘Don’t knock it’)

Posted on October 6, 2009 by beenasarwar

My column for monthly Hardnews, India – (I preferred my headline below to the one they gave, ‘Knock, knock… Don’t knock it’)

PERSONAL POLITICAL
Give the one-upmanship a rest

Beena Sarwar

“Let them stew in their own mess, we are better off without them.” Sound familiar? I heard such sentiments voiced recently on three instances – and it reminded me of the globally resented American tendency for self-enrichment and self-aggrandisement, never mind the rest of the world.

The first instance was when I was on a ‘phono’ from Karachi to New Delhi for Newsx TV. Among the studio guests was G. Parthasarthy, whose outlook towards Pakistan reminded me of Vir Sanghvi and Tavleen Singh’s – ‘What’s the point of talking to Pakistan?’ ‘We are not the same people…’

Continue reading →

Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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