In the magazine   JAFFNA SPECIAL: 'Waiting for the Jaffna train' by Ahilan Kadirgamar |   February Issue   COMMENTARY: India's new NSA Shiv Shankar Menon and the India's foreign policy challenges | COMMENTARY: The new Rajapaksean regime | Letter to the whole-timer--Kanak Mani Dixit addresses Maoist ex-combatants on the future of the party |   February Issue   COMMENTARY: India's new NSA Shiv Shankar Menon and the India's foreign policy challenges | COMMENTARY: The new Rajapaksean regime | Letter to the whole-timer--Kanak Mani Dixit addresses Maoist ex-combatants on the future of the party |   February Issue   COMMENTARY: India's new NSA Shiv Shankar Menon and the India's foreign policy challenges | COMMENTARY: The new Rajapaksean regime | Letter to the whole-timer--Kanak Mani Dixit addresses Maoist ex-combatants on the future of the party |  

August 2008 Vol 21 No 8

southasia exists The following is a compendium of 75 contributions by a spectrum of Southasian thinkers on who we are, how we should organise, and the possibilities ahead. As the SAARC organistaion enters its 23rd year, it is time to delve seriously into concepts surrounding regional identity.

This special issue has been supported by Panos South Asia.


Cover Stories

Does the past matter?

The ragged backdrop
      By: Ghazi Salahuddin
Counting the people
      By: Haris Gazdar
Alternative to the Westphalian rashtra
      By: Navnita Chadha Behera
inchme and pinchme
      By: allan sealy
Hate thy neighbour, hug thy enemy
      By: I A Rehman
The wait for the statesman
      By: Dinesh Mishra
Uniting the monsoon lands
      By: B G Verghese
Kalidasa's cloud
      By: Sadanand Menon
Victims to perpetrators
      By: Suhas Chakma
The colour of fringe histories
      By: Sanjay Barbora
Rise of the nuovo-rajas
      By: Jayanta Bandyopadhyay
Can art be called Islamic?
      By: A R Nagori

Who is a Southasian?

Brown bag
      By: Paromita Vohra
Live the present
      By: Pushpesh Pant
Asha or Lata?
      By: Amitava Kumar
Geography that binds
      By: Khalid Ansari and Sangeeta Lama
FAQs
      By: Anmole Prasad
Being South-Southasian
      By: A S Panneerselvan
Southasian Tibet
      By: Tenzing Sonam
Identity vs identification
      By: Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Six shared seasons
      By: Kaiser Haq
Between South and Central Asia
      By: Aunohita Mojumdar
Children of '65
      By: Vijay Prashad
The profanity of sameness
      By: Sankarshan Thakur

Integration from above

Lessons from the EU
      By: Muttukrishna Sarvananthan
Economy and identity
      By: Faisal Bari
Abandon ship
      By: Bibek Debroy
The learning curve
      By: Surendra Mohan
India-A and India-B
      By: Sukumar Muralidharan
Towards a New World Symphony
      By: Nihal Rodrigo
Lighting us up
      By: Bikash Pandey
Cheap talk
      By: Rohan Samarajiva
A postcolonial solidarity, finally
      By: Jayadeva Uyangoda
No more talk fests
      By: Sushil Khanna
The boy in Gaforgaon
      By: Shahidul Alam

Integration from below

Democratic enlightenment and cultural production
      By: Partha Chatterjee
Media gang-up
      By: Sevanti Ninan
Barriers big and small
      By: Graham Shaw
Beyond countryhood
      By: Samrat Upadhyay
Redefining education
      By: Sudharshan Seneviratne
Arrested development
      By: Nalaka Gunawardene
Big Brother statism
      By: Dolly Kikon
Healing Southasia
      By: Sanjeev Jain
Sausages on curfew break
      By: Naeem Mohaiemen

SAARC-ological gardens

The stranded cyclist
      By: Jawed Naqvi
Not by vision alone
      By: Shamshad Ahmad
No common wealth
      By: Peter J Karthak
The charm and logic of connectivity
      By: C Raja Mohan
The tautology of cultural collaboration
      By: Abhi Subedi
Prosperity in aligned solidarity
      By: Kul Chandra Gautam
Traditional SAARC, modern Southasia
      By: Saman Kelegama
The reality of proximity (or not)
      By: Zafar Sobhan
Venerating localism
      By: Chandra Bhan Prasad
Against Southasia
      By: Mukul Kesavan
Collective accountability
      By: Jennifer Latheef
Between rhetoric and reality
      By: Mahendra P Lama
Seven proposals
      By: John Samuel
Two hands to clap
      By: Mark Tully

Reaching southasia

Family resemblance
      By: Antara Dev Sen
The road from Kabul to Kathmandu
      By: Shahir A Zahine
Locating the social capital
      By: Sanjib Baruah
A Southasian Charter of Human Rights
      By: Neera Chandhoke
The people's eye
      By: Aruna Roy
Hope amidst indifference
      By: Chandni Joshi
What neighbourhood?
      By: Vinod Mehta
Someone else's weapons
      By: Zia Mian
The organic identity
      By: Dilip Simeon
A new belonging
      By: Amrita Shah
One voice
      By: Rubana
Policy of happiness
      By: Kinley Dorji
Drop by some time...
      By: Farjad Nabi
A more harmonious clash
      By: Siddiq Wahid
An existential matter
      By: Kanak Mani Dixit

Rest of the magazine

Special Report

Fresh paradigms for peace: Evolving a new framework for negotiations in North Southasia

Excerpts from the eighth Panos-Himal Roundtable, 6-7 October 2009, in Salzburg.


Photo Feature

Bihari highway

      By: Alex Masi

Commentary

Beyond violence (India)

Choosing between a corporate-driven elite government and a ‘revolutionary’ force given over to the use of armed might.

The big 'C' (Afghanistan)

The season’s new fashion is in, and this fall, in Afghanistan, it is corruption.

'And every tree that has fruit'

A fig-mangled carcass of a Christ tree.

The president and the general (Sri Lanka)

Can peace and democracy trump authoritarianism, militarism and nationalism one more time and deliver peace?




Report

Bulletin from the battlefield

      By: Paromita Vohra
Self-proclaimed protectors of Hinduism in parts of South India have kicked up a row over inter-religious marriages.

Deoband's battle for survival and relevance

      By: Luv Puri
Given new security restrictions and internal obduracy, one of the region’s most important schools of Islam stands at a crossroads.

Path to Salvation?

      By: Iqbal Khattak
Even as the Pakistan Army goes on an all-out offensive against home-grown militants, the insurgents themselves have stepped up their attacks on the Pakistani public.

Between invisible friends

      By: Delwar Hussain
Bangladeshis thrive in and work against the ‘grey area’ of subtle acceptance of un-discussed alternative sexualities.

The new relationship(s)

      By: Carey L Biron and Thierry Dodin
The increasing intimacy between Kathmandu and Beijing highlights Nepal’s hope to ease its longstanding dependency on India.

Sighting

Polo on the Coromandel

      By: Namit Arora
Seven centuries have passed since Marco Polo opened Western eyes to the Subcontinent, yet his account continues to resonate.

Analysis

From criminal savage to habitual offender

      By: Ipshita Sengupta
The work of attaining justice for India’s denotified tribes goes on.

Is it over?

      By: Aunohita Mojumdar
Afghanistan’s elections went on and on, but offered more questions than answers.


Essay

Two Very Different Processes

      By: Darini Rajasingham Senanayake
Lessons from Sri Lanka and Aceh, Indonesia, five years after the tsunami.

Time and a place

Finding Srinagar's geography of peace

      By: Riyaz Wani
The summer capital is undergoing a massive physical makeover. But its spirit remains troubled.

Interview

'Violating the Constitution cannot be excused'

Interview with Abdullah Abdullah, former Afghan Foreign Minister.


Reflections

Majuli Going Under

      By: Rimli Borooah
A culturally unique island is crumbling against the force of the mighty Brahmaputra.

Southasian Briefs

Round-up of regional news



Southasiasphere

The Allure of Walls

      By: C K Lal

Manmade walls are not meant to be climbed; they can be breached, broken but not mounted while standing intact.


On the way up

Dhan Ta Ran!

      By: Kanak Mani Dixit


Web Exclusive


Joseph Mathai gives us an insider's take on India's publishing industry and Tehelka's Readership Survey.

Also, on the blog, Rohini Hensman on Avatar and Adivasi; Our Jaipur Lit Fest coverage, including audio of Javed Akhtar and Gulzar







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