People in more cities are joining the #NotinMyName protest against vigilante violence and mob lynching, since the first one was announced in Delhi. Scroll reported that demos were planned in 9 (later updated to 11, and counting) cities including London, Toronto, on Wednesday. Compiled below, the venues mentioned in the report as well as others: Continue reading
Filed under: Progressive politics, Resistance, Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: #NotInMyName, India, protests | 2 Comments »
Email from friend Jaspal Singh on June 25, 2017 that I meant to post earlier about a situation that feels all too familiar to Pakistanis. The long-running democratic political process in India – interrupted only by Indira Gandhi’s three-year long Emergency in 1975 is one of the reasons the country has done so much better than neighbouring Pakistan. Until the current scenario where, fuelled by signals from the top, mob lynchings and vigilante violence in the name of religion are rising. Some argue that the Emergency sowed those seeds. Read on.
Reflections. June 25,2017
Forty two years ago today, a state of emergency was declared in India by Indira Gandhi I remember that day very clearly. I had summer job in Vermont and lived in this idyllic village west of Burlington. The rolling hills were full of flowers. There was a small mountain stream in my backyard. I would wake up and go for a bath in the stream. Every where greenery and flowers. It was like being in paradise. I had no TV, no radio. So I was cut off from the world. A friend who lived close by came and told me that she had heard on the radio that the prime minister of India had declared emergency and thousands of people had been arrested.
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Filed under: democratic political process, Human rights, Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: 1975 emergency, emergency, India, Indira Gandhi, Modi, Pakistan, Trump | Leave a comment »
“It’s just a game” doesn’t apply to any cricket match between India and Pakistan. But in recent years, fans have been stepping beyond national positions to support the other team even while rooting for their own, and to point out that yes, it is just a game. And that it’s better to fight on a sports ground than the battlefield. Continue reading
Filed under: Art and activism | Tagged: #khelnedo, Cricket, icc champions trophy, India, Pakistan | 1 Comment »
Cross-posted from Aman ki Asha
Pope Francis arrives in Assisi, Italy for the World Day of Prayer for Peace at the Sacred Convent, Sept. 20, 2016. Credit: L’Osservatore Romano
India Pakistan peace supporters have participated in several global prayer vigils in past years. What have these actions accomplished? We don’t know for sure but we believe that there is power in prayer, individual and collective, by persons of any faith or secular vision. Perhaps things would be even worse if we didn’t. We share here an appeal from a humanist of the highest order. Continue reading
Filed under: Interfaith, Peace | Tagged: #pray4peace, India, interfaith, Minute for peace, Pakistan, Pope Francis, pray for peace | Leave a comment »
Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik’s piece for Raksha Bandhan at Puri beach, Odisha, with a message urging India and Pakistan to “Stop Bullets, Be Friends” (file photo, 2015)
Nice to see the mainstream media take note of this privately shared resolution urging India, Pakistan to resolve tensions through dialogue. Some pretty big names on board – check the updated list at the Aman ki Asha website at the end. Over 100 people endorsed it today, bringing the number to over 350 in just 48 hours.
Nandita Das. Photo by Marjolein
Pebbles in the pond – Lalita Ramdas in The News on Sunday
Why This Powerful Message From Indo-Pak Peaceniks Matters During Our Troubled Times – HuffPo
Indians, Pakistanis Ask Governments to Set Up ‘Uninterruptible’ Bilateral Dialogue: The Wire
Over 250 prominent Indians, Pakistanis sign powerful message for peace: Express Tribune
Indians and Pakistanis finally raise a mutual voice for peace: Hato Bacho
India-Pakistan people’s peace resolution: Throwing a pebble in the pond – Newsin.Asia
Thought Leaders from Pakistan and India call for uninterrupted, uninterruptible dialogue: Daily Times
Citizens of India and Pakistan Call for Peace: The Citizen
Indo-Pak civil society calls for uninterrupted talks: Dawn
India-Pakistan people’s peace resolution: Throwing a pebble in the pond: Aman ki Asha
Filed under: Pakistan-India, Peace | Tagged: actors, artists, doctors, India, journalists, Pakistan, Peace, soldiers for peace, teachers | Leave a comment »
Music legend Shubha Mudgal is among the signatories
A valiant effort by concerned citizens of India and Pakistan to stem the tide of hatred, bigotry and violence, this Resolution has hundreds of endorsements listed alphabetically below. The Resolution is now online at this link. Please sign and share.
Peacemongers call for India, Pakistan to resolve differences through dialogue
With tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan on the rise, some concerned citizens from India and Pakistan have come together to formulate a statement expressing their deep concern at “the current rise in animosity and antagonism between India and Pakistan”. The resolution urges “both governments and their security establishments to take all steps possible towards improving relations”. Continue reading
Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: India, Kashmir, militancy, Pakistan, Peace, terrorism | 19 Comments »
Wrote a short piece last night for the Women’s Regional Network, published on their original content blog. Honoured to be in the company of women like Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal in India, Najla Ayoubi in Afghanistan and others Pakistan taking on issues like how Street Harrassment is Hurting Afghanistan’s Democracy and Development, Young Pakistani Women Recognized for their Achievements, The Rise of Online Trolls in India, Countering Violent Extremism and more. My brief contribution Borderless Issues: Mothers in Conflict also copied below: Continue reading
Filed under: 'War on terror', 'Internally Displaced Persons', Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: Afghanistan, India, Mashal Khan, mothers, nusrat ara, Pakistan, sons, terrorism, women in conflict, women peace prize nobel | Leave a comment »
PRINCETON BLOG: Something I wrote for my class blog at Princeton University where I taught a journalism seminar this past semester, based on a lecture soon after the US Presidential elections, by Egyptian journalist Yasmine El-Rashidi, a fellow visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism with the University’s Council of Humanities
Filed under: democratic political process, Progressive politics, Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: autocracy, democracy, democratic political process, Egypt, fascism, India, Media, Muslim Brotherhood, Pakistan, Princeton blog, social media, usa | Leave a comment »
Sharing a piece I wrote with Dr. Partha Banerjee about our friend Haider “jigar”Rizvi, published by PRI on October 28, 2016, a year after he died in Lahore. Reproduced here with photos that we weren’t able to get to PRI in time.
Haider Rizvi celebrating life and love at Ghizar District, Gilgit, 2015. Photo by Qamar Abbas.
Last year around this time, we were saddened by the death of our poet and journalist friend Haider Rizvi in Lahore, Pakistan, on Oct 29, 2015. Haider had lived in New York, and was for many years a correspondent for the Inter Press Service (IPS), based at the United Nations.
With Haider’s untimely passing, we lost someone who loved to make friends irrespective of religion, color or caste — someone who believed firmly in peace.
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Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: Haider Rizvi, India, jigar, Kashmir, Pakistan, Peace, shared heritage | Leave a comment »
MEDIA STATEMENT
Activists support peace defenders in Pakistan, denounce false allegations
LONDON, Oct. 30: Some two dozen activists from Pakistan working in the fields of media, peace, culture, development and politics, USA, Canada and U.K. met in central London to discuss India-Pakistan relations and reaffirm the need for peace between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours. They reiterated the vision of Pakistan’s founder Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah that relations between the two countries should be like those of Canada and the United States.
Group photo of some of the peace activists after the meeting in London.
Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: India, Pakistan, Peace, peacemongers, south asia | 3 Comments »
Journeys to democracy 