Cover

The ragged backdrop

      By: Ghazi Salahuddin

Partition memories are slipping away even as the intelligence agencies continue to do what they do.

Counting the people

      By: Haris Gazdar

Sindh and Punjab first have to become part of Pakistan, before they join Southasia.

Alternative to the Westphalian rashtra

      By: Navnita Chadha Behera
How can the discipline of international relations in Southasia be real when its premises are European?

inchme and pinchme

      By: allan sealy
part of a narrative poem that starts in fatehpur sikri and ends on the pakistan border

Hate thy neighbour, hug thy enemy

      By: I A Rehman
Hardly good advice for any political relationship that has the people at its heart.

The wait for the statesman

      By: Dinesh Mishra

We have been torn apart by borders, but remain the same people.

Uniting the monsoon lands

      By: B G Verghese
Divided we squabble.

Kalidasa's cloud

      By: Sadanand Menon

The Southasia paradigm is the agenda of the regional bourgeois taking advantage of the collective impotence of failed governance.

Victims to perpetrators

      By: Suhas Chakma
The excluded eventually become the perpetrators of further exclusion; so it goes.

The colour of fringe histories

      By: Sanjay Barbora

What is today India’s Northeast is much more than what the SAARC mindset would allow it to be.

A release from majoritarianism and multiculturalism

      By: Vasuki Nesiah
Claiming a regional identity cannot be based on emphasising our collective history, but rather on the struggle for justice and political possibility.

Rise of the nuovo-rajas

      By: Jayanta Bandyopadhyay
The Southasian countries are united in their neglect of governance and exploitation of the electorate by the politician.

The stranded cyclist

      By: Jawed Naqvi

Real regional connectivity will come about when the unofficial cyclist beats the official motorcade across the border.

Not by vision alone

      By: Shamshad Ahmad

SAARC must move from declaration to implementation, and the impulse must be homegrown.

No common wealth

      By: Peter J Karthak
Why is Kuldip Nayar looking so sad and aghast at the Wagah border?

Brown bag

      By: Paromita Vohra

Peace and friendship are not about loving those just like us.

The charm and logic of connectivity

      By: C Raja Mohan

Regionalism's success will largely depend on the infrastructure that connects the east to the west, the north to the south.

Live the present

      By: Pushpesh Pant
The Southasian heart versus the Southasian head.

The tautology of cultural collaboration

      By: Abhi Subedi

SAARC needs to forget about promoting cultural exchanges; such exchanges have always been taking place.

Asha or Lata?

      By: Amitava Kumar

Finding Southasia between narrow nationalism and faceless regionalism.

Prosperity in aligned solidarity

      By: Kul Chandra Gautam

Southasian countries have a difficult time putting up a unified front at any level.

Traditional SAARC, modern Southasia

      By: Saman Kelegama

There is a tremendous amount of important work taking place outside of the official SAARC process.

Geography that binds

      By: Khalid Ansari and Sangeeta Lama

A common past is nowhere near as important as that which lies ahead.

FAQs

      By: Anmole Prasad

The reality of proximity (or not)

      By: Zafar Sobhan
‘Yes’ to regional thinking. But does SAARC have the strength to carry the weight?

Venerating localism

      By: Chandra Bhan Prasad

Why does caste not figure in the SAARC Charter?

Being South-Southasian

      By: A S Panneerselvan
The struggles in South India to end caste discrimination hold many lessons for the rest of the region.

Against Southasia

      By: Mukul Kesavan
The export of India’s pluralist democracy is the best path towards productive regionalism.

Southasian Tibet

      By: Tenzing Sonam
The long-term survival of the Tibetan nation could well rest with its Subcontinental neighbours.

Collective accountability

      By: Jennifer Latheef
The Maldives is at risk of being swamped by Bollywood and extreme Islam, even as it reels under a dictatorial regime.

Identity vs identification

      By: Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Inherent identity is significantly less important than our chosen identity. 

Six shared seasons

      By: Kaiser Haq

Between rhetoric and reality

      By: Mahendra P Lama
There may be hope if national prestige is linked to SAARC projects.

Between South and Central Asia

      By: Aunohita Mojumdar
SAARC aside, Afghans themselves are wrestling with what it means to be Southasian.

Seven proposals

      By: John Samuel
The new Southasia will not emerge without daring to dream.

Children of '65

      By: Vijay Prashad
The Southasian-American emerged as a consequence of racialism.

Family resemblance

      By: Antara Dev Sen

Out of pluralism and a desire to know each other, thus far we have the former in plenty. Let us be seduced by culture, respecting and utilising our pluralism of identities and tongues.

The profanity of sameness

      By: Sankarshan Thakur
Each of us is guilty of Orientalist visions.

Lessons from the EU

      By: Muttukrishna Sarvananthan

That politics takes precedence to economics makes SAARC a sad effort.

Two hands to clap

      By: Mark Tully

But one hand must be India's.

The road from Kabul to Kathmandu

      By: Shahir A Zahine

A journey that would teach us a lot about harmony and co-existence.

Economy and identity

      By: Faisal Bari
Common markets can encourage the free flow of goods and services, capital and tourists, labour and ideas.

Locating the social capital

      By: Sanjib Baruah
We must have integration, but it must be for the upliftment of the marginalised.

Abandon ship

      By: Bibek Debroy

Trade and commerce will flourish, and poverty will be reduced if the neighbours selectively link themselves to India’s growth engine.

A Southasian Charter of Human Rights

      By: Neera Chandhoke
Only the enforcement of the principles of fundamental freedoms will see Southasia through.

The people's eye

      By: Aruna Roy

Democracies in Southasia will function correctly only with proper public oversight. In this, there is much to learn from the Indian experience.

The learning curve

      By: Surendra Mohan
As the Republic of Nepal federalises and democratises, it must learn from the wrong turns taken by the neighbours, so as to evolve as an example for everyone else.

Hope amidst indifference

      By: Chandni Joshi
Gender issues in Southasia remain a complex mixture of contradictions leading to opportunities.

India-A and India-B

      By: Sukumar Muralidharan
Can SAARC afford the pretensions of this unwelcome ninth member?

What neighbourhood?

      By: Vinod Mehta
Do we shun regional integration just because some Indians see no benefit from it?

Someone else's weapons

      By: Zia Mian

A nuclear-weapons-free Southasia must be championed by the smaller countries.

Towards a New World Symphony

      By: Nihal Rodrigo

The infrastructure is already in place, now SAARC must move to collaborate with China, East Asia and the West.

The organic identity

      By: Dilip Simeon

Hate is a form of stunted love, created by enforced affinity.

Lighting us up

      By: Bikash Pandey

A regional framework would be ineffectual in the absence of comprehensive national energy policies.

A new belonging

      By: Amrita Shah
Youthful creativity will succeed yet in fighting nationalist chauvinism.

Cheap talk

      By: Rohan Samarajiva
Why is it costlier to call next door than to call overseas?

One voice

      By: Rubana

Policy of happiness

      By: Kinley Dorji
Bhutan’s innovation is vesting the government with responsibility for the people’s frame of mind.

A postcolonial solidarity, finally

      By: Jayadeva Uyangoda
The People’s SAARC initiative must focus on developing modern linkages that are not based on nation-statism.

No more talk fests

      By: Sushil Khanna
Only strong economic ties that move goods and people across borders can provide the basis for forging a regional alliance.

Drop by some time...

      By: Farjad Nabi

Who are these Pakistanis always saying 'adaab' in films out of Bombay?

The boy in Gaforgaon

      By: Shahidul Alam

It was September 1988, and we had had the worst floods in a century. These people at Gaforgaon had not eaten for three days. A torn sari strung across the beams of an abandoned warehouse created the only semblance of a shelter. Their homes had been washed away. Family members had died. Yet the children had surrounded me. They wanted a picture.

A more harmonious clash

      By: Siddiq Wahid

A Southasian concept of ‘Southasia’ would accommodate all the differences running through the region.

An existential matter

      By: Kanak Mani Dixit

The future of pan-regionalism is through a strengthening of the sub-national regions.

Manmohan's vision: Exclusive interview with the Prime Minister of India

As India gets ready to hand over its chairmanship of SAARC, Himal’s editors asked Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, about his understanding of regionalism. In his written response to this set of ten questions, Prime Minister Singh recommends jettisoning “the mindsets of the past”.

Democratic enlightenment and cultural production

      By: Partha Chatterjee

Given the dominance of India, shared regional consciousness will emerge not through political agreements, but through collective, non-official, cultural efforts.

Media gang-up

      By: Sevanti Ninan

Media organisations can do the most for regional cooperation – from a visa-for-all campaign, to rebroadcasting of teleserials from across the borders.

Barriers big and small

      By: Graham Shaw
A standard must be sought to bring about ‘documentation equality’ among the national archives of the Subcontinent.

Beyond countryhood

      By: Samrat Upadhyay
A Nepali from Nepal has every right to enjoy misti doi.

Redefining education

      By: Sudharshan Seneviratne

A liberal education that promotes inter-culturalism rather than multiculturalism – that’s the way out of fundamentalism

Arrested development

      By: Nalaka Gunawardene

Regional broadcasting is an enticing idea, but the babus’ SAVE initiative was and remains worthless.

my teacher talks of a sri lankan english

      By: sumathy

Big Brother statism

      By: Dolly Kikon
Universities are regrettably complicit in SAARC’s state-centrism.

Healing Southasia

      By: Sanjeev Jain
The unwell of our region face rising costs and an acute absence of civic involvement in health care.

Sausages on curfew break

      By: Naeem Mohaiemen

Can art be called Islamic?

      By: A R Nagori

Commentary

Southasia's open moment

      By: Prashant Jha

In New Delhi, South Block's new neighbourhood policy is opposed by the 'Southasia sceptics'. The neighbours could help themselves by bringing down their own mental barriers about New Delhi's intentions.

Report

Renewed Kashmiri tinderbox

      By: Riyaz Masroor

The June agitation in the Kashmir Valley was about much more than 99 acres of land.

Opinion

Protecting kin

      By: Ella Rolfe

Despite their obvious geopolitical differences, does Nepal have anything to learn from India in its treatment of Tibetan refugees?

The emergent peoplehood of Southasia

      By: B P Giri

The move towards a regional ‘crossborder society’ is well underway, as we encounter the daily assault of news about cricket matches, political assassinations, natural disasters and the shenanigans of the rich and famous. Besieged by such phenomena, we look around only to find that we are the same people.

Sighting

Games of self-respect: A colony at the Olympics

      By: Boria Majumdar and Nalin Mehta

India’s entry into the Olympic games, during the early 1920s, was as much an assertion of nationalistic pride as anything else.

Southasiasphere

A Napoleonic bahadur

      By: C K Lal

Flowers of veneration,
At somebody’s feet.
Placed by creepers,
Washed away by waves.
– Shambhunath Singh in Samay ki shila par

Review

Despite parliamentary democracy

      By: S Anand

In 1952, having resigned from Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet as law minister, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar contested in the first general elections in independent India from the Bombay City North constituency, a double-member constituency that was required to return both a general and a Scheduled Caste candidate. He lost to a Congress candidate, Narayan Sadoba Kajrolkar, who had earlier been Ambedkar’s personal assistant. The Congress had been able to prove that a nonentity could humble the mighty leader.

Girls in the shadow

      By: Vijay Prashad

So long as young, Southasian, English-language authors follow the beaten path of the Rushdian baroque ‘magical realism’, critics will celebrate them. When they depart from this road of tropical hallucination, however, they are often given short shrift. This is what makes the young author present works that will be easily digested by the critics, even while the average reader is forced to plough through style over substance.

Regional television (almost) on demand

      By: Sevanti Ninan

Watching television on the Internet has its pluses and minuses. It can never rival a good television set, but a good television portal on the web is one situation in which the advantages outweigh the drawbacks.

Perennial periphery

      By: Kunda Dixit

There are centres within centres and peripheries outside of peripheries. The Western press has always regarded Southasia as a periphery to be included in the news line-up, usually when another 100,000 people have been killed in a cyclone in Bangladesh; if there is another coup in Pakistan; when the casualty level is higher than 100 in a battle in Jaffna, or if the royal family is massacred in Nepal.

On the way up

Form vs content

      By: Kanak Mani Dixit