Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
INDIAN MAOISTS ON THE VERGE OF VICTORY – WHO ARE THEY DEFEATING?
Daya Varma
The Adivasis.are neither the poorest of the poor of India nor a significant fraction of the country’s rural poor. By focusing on the Adivasis, the Maoists have garnered widespread support among the liberal left, the social activists and the ex-Naxalites. The sum total of all this does not threaten the Indian state but rather the Indian communist movement.
WHAT IS AT STAKE IN NEPAL?
Daya Varma
Recent protests on the streets of Nepal led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), ostensibly demanding civilian supremacy are in essence intended to ensure the integration of the cadres of the Peoples Liberation Army into the main Armed Forces of Nepal.
CITIES UNDER SIEGE – REVIVAL OF TERRORIST ATTACKS IN PAKISTAN
Kiran Omar
The Pakistan military’s campaign against the Taliban gave people a much needed respite. However, the Taliban are still considered by a substantial section of the population as fighters against foreign interference. The US drone attacks generate public anger against the US and the Pakistani civilian regime. The government’s inability to win public support has made Pakistan a nation of nebulous and uncertain identity.
PAKISTAN MUST ACCEPT INDIA’S OFFER OF PEACE
I.A. Rehman
Pakistan must give a positive response to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s offer of peace in the larger interest of winning the battle for democracy, tolerance and social justice as well as against terrorism in both countries.
THE SAUDI-ISATION OF PAKISTAN
Pervez Hoodbhoy
Contrary to the common belief in Pakistan that Islamic radicalism is only a regional problem and madrassas are the sole source of breeding jihadis, extremism is being bred at a ferocious rate in public and private schools, which may eventually lead to Pakistan’s demise as a nation state.
WILL THE MINDSET FROM THE PAST CHANGE?
Amit Bhaduri & Romila Thapar
Two eminent academics of India trace the place of Adivasis from ancient times to the present violent conflict involving the Adivasis, Maoists and the government and suggest dialog amongst the three parties as a way out of the present impasse.
INVADING THE SECULAR SPACE
Ram Puniyani
Gurus and Babas (god men) are being welcomed by state institutions in India. The living god Satya Sai Baba of Puthaparthi was recently invited by the Maharashtra Chief Minister designate, Ashok Chavan. This is in total violation of the secular constitution of the country, the consequences of which are grave for the country.
NEPAL: BHATTARAI ASSURES MAOISTS WILL NOT TAKE UP ARMS AGAIN
The Vice-Chairman of the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Dr. Baburam Bhattarai recently told editors of major media outlets that resumption of armed struggle will only invite foreign intervention and make Nepal another Afghanistan.
SRI LANKA: AUTHORITARIANISM AND THE CONSTITUTION
Shanie / Notebook Of A Nobody
The authoritarianism in Sri Lanka is of recent origin. Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga was the only President with the vision and the courage to abolish the Executive Presidency. Constitutional reforms are needed as was done in India when Dr B R Ambedkar headed the drafting of the Constitution.
LIFE IS CHEAP IN BANGLADESH
Rater Zonaki
The state of emergency and the spate of political persecution ended after the elections in 2008 and yet the Directorate General of the Forces Intelligence, responsible for killing and torture of that period has the clout to threaten journalists against exposure of their sordid past.
DOUSING THE REICHSTAG FIRE
Jawed Naqvi
Poet and wit Asraar ul Haq Majaaz returned home one night to find policemen crawling all over his ancestral house in Lucknow. Family members looked distraught. Cupboards and lofts had been ransacked. A senior police officer, torch in hand, was trying to figure out who might have done it.
Majaaz thoroughly surveyed the situation from all possible angles that a tipsy man could. Then he buttoned his crumpled sherwani, stroked the ringlets in his hair thoughtfully, and proclaimed with an air of finality: ‘Ye to kisi chor ki harkat maaloom hoti hai.’ (This looks like the work of a thief!)
ASSOCIATION OF INDIAN MUSLIMS OF AMERICA HAILS LIEBERHAN REPORT
The Association of Indian Muslims of America (Silver Spring, MD, USA) thanks and congratulates Justice Lieberhan for a very fair and just enquiry and report on the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992. We admire his courage in listing 68 individuals as directly responsible for this crime against the nation. Indeed some of them are very powerful people.
FIRST ANNIVERSARY IF THE TERRORIST ATTACK IN MUMBAI
The terrorist attack last November in Mumbai that left 163 people dead has evoked different kind of responses from within India and Pakistan as well as abroad. Some have compared it with 9/11 demanding US-type retaliation. Some have been sane asking for restraint. Some are simply shocked. Like the anniversary of the Babri Mosque demolition, the anniversary of the Mumbai terrorist attack has attracted numerous commentaries. Below is one from a Pakistani national living in the US whose emotional link with Mumbai is through daily stories narrated by her parents in Karachi.
BOOK REVIEW
FEMINISM IN ISLAM: SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS CONVERGENCES
by
Margot Badran
(Oneworld Publications, Oxford, 2009, pp.349)
Reviewed by: Yoginder Sikand
OBITUARY: MOHAMMAD BAQIR NAQVI (1928 -2009)
Tapan Kumar Bose
Mohammad Baqir Naqvi, a senior journalist, peace and human rights activist, died at a hospital in Karachi on November 7, 2009, Saturday afternoon. He was 81. He left behind his wife, two sons and a daughter.