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Southasian Briefs

Round-up of regional news

Voices

Opinions from the region

Sighting

New frontiers

      By: Iqbal Khattak

The people of some of Pakistan’s strategically placed frontier areas are finally getting political rights. Not everyone is happy about this.

Reflections

For another's duty

      By: Aunohita Mojumdar

In Afghanistan, foreign journalist Stephen Farrell was freed in a dramatic ‘rescue’ in early September. His interpreter, Sultan Munadi, is dead.

Bindaas to Videshi

      By: Richard Boyle

Words of Southasian origin are steadily making their way into the Oxford English Dictionary.

Cover

Charting change

      By: Kunda Dixit

From the Himalaya to Male, there are clear signs that climate change is real.

Frontline nation

Interview with President Mohamed Nasheed.

The need for a Southasian perspective

      By: Shyam Saran

We tend not to comprehend how ecologically inter-connected we are in the region.

Beyond sun and dung

Interview with Rajendra Pachauri, head of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

Glaciers take the heat

      By: Smriti Mallapaty

The receding glaciers of the Himalaya offer a critical case study of the region’s approach to climate change.

Hard science

Interview with remote sensing expert Pradeep Kumar Mool.

The coming crisis

      By: Afsan Chowdhury

From Bangladesh to India … and then the rest?

Weaker and worse

      By: David Sasson

Understanding the limits of America’s international climate posture.

This frog won't leap

      By: Vijay Prashad

China and India must collaborate to force the West to pay for past excesses rather than plead for a ‘humanistic’ approach that delivers concessions.

Uncertainty, unclear risks and compromised commitments

      By: Jayanta Bandyopadhyay and N Sundararaman

Considering the predicted impacts of anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming on Southasia, the region has reasons for concern and immediate action.

2009: Is human activity making the earth warmer?

      By: Karen Haydock

A comic strip on global warming.

Southasian front

      By: Rishikesh R Bhandary

A common regional platform is necessary, but India might not be the ideal leader.

Leading the way

      By: Jessica Ayers and Saleemul Huq

Bangladesh is the unquestioned leader on formulating adaptation policies to deal with the ramifications of climate change.

India's 'stage three' fantasy

      By: Rahul Goswami

It does not look like India’s nuclear industry is up to the task of providing ‘clean energy’ to fuel India’s energy demand.

Equalising burden-sharing

      By: Mukul Sanwal

While the impact of climate change is global, the response is piecemeal and there is an increasing burden on the developing countries, and the poor living there.

Save or splurge?

      By: Huo Weiya

As the push for a ‘low-carbon’ lifestyle gains currency around the world, China’s social environment challenges the implementation of the concept.

Elite extravagance

      By: Nagraj Adve

The international climate discussion will go nowhere until class and capitalism are understood as central.

The need for old wine

      By: Samir Nazareth

It turns out, indigenous practices and innovations meant to sow equity and sustanibility will be useful in the battle against climate change. 

Scepticism chic

      By: Darryl D'monte

Journalists must introspect about their own shortcomings when it comes to climate change.

No doomsday

      By: Patrick Hodder and Brian Martin

Framing global warming as an emergency is not effective in mobilising governments or citizens. It may even have the opposite effect.

No more a cycle of the season

      By: Puspesh Pant

Do the curly oaks of Uttarkhand still store chilled water?

The Gift

      By: Rabi Thapa

Climate change! They could take their climate change and stuff it, all the way to Kyoto, Bali and Copenhagen.

Razors, the mig and climate change

      By: Dilip D'Souza

Without climate change to blame, we would have had to take responsibility for our actions.

Barsha elegy

      By: Kaiser Haq

It was Hegel, if I remember rightly, who said that one understands the meaning of something only when it is a thing of the past.

A people in translation

      By: Fariha Sarawat

Apnar bari kothai?

The muezzin's island

      By: Simon Shareef

Alas, thought the muezzin dismayed, nature’s laws have all but failed.

Analysis

A 'patriotic' loan

      By: B Skanthakumar

After years of refusing to become tied to the strings attached to IMF monies, Sri Lanka has agreed to a massive new loan. But will it be enough to lift the economy from its current morass?

Toronto Eelam

      By: Dave Besseling

With the largest numbers of Sri Lankan Tamils outside the island, dreams of a separate Tamil homeland are still nurtured in Canada.

Catharsis in stone

      By: Dilnaz Boga

Young Kashmiris, armed only with a few stones, risk everything to protest on the streets.

Seeding bhasa

      By: Himansu S Mohapatra

The interaction of English and the languages of Southasia is often lamented for having led to a deterioration of the latter.

Report

Sandals, salwaars and security

      By: Anup Kaphle

A stage in our name

      By: Moushumi Basu

A translation movement seeks to bring the experience of Adivasi and Dalit writers to the attention of a larger readership.

Photo Feature

Band-i-Amir's silences

      By: Anne Feenstra

Afghanistan’s only national park is ready for visitors.

Fiction

Enter the body

      By: V V Ganeshananthan

Southasiasphere

Hope rises in the East

      By: C K Lal

Mediafile

Tidbits from the region's media

Profile

Level-headed romance

      By: Deepa A

For author Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, the headscarf is about choice, and arranged marriage need not be scorned.

Commentary

Control the temperature!

Bookshelf

Reviews of the latest books from and on Southasia

Review

Three-minute harangue

      By: A Angelo D'Silva

How much time does a filmmaker need to make a point about climate change?

The value of the raindrop: 'Anil Agarwal reader' edited by Pratap Pandey and Sunita Narain

      By: Neeta Deshpande

Historical simulacrum: 'Bangladesh and Pakistan' by William B Milam

      By: Safiya Aftab

A package of small glories: 'The prayer room' by Shanthi Sekaran

      By: T K Dalton

Veiled passions: 'Othappu' by Sarah Joseph and 'Amen' by Sister Jesme

      By: Manjula Padmanabhan

Colonialism by another name: 'Beyond counter-insurgency' by Sanjib Baruah

      By: C K Lal

On the way up

The lord of the beasts

      By: Kanak Mani Dixit