6:37 pm  •  7 May 2013  •  7 notes

Just one of the awesome pieces of art from The Filmy Owl.

4:28 am  •  7 April 2013  •  7 notes

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/shadeism-digging-deeper

4:52 am  •  14 March 2013  •  8 notes

As you face life, you will be asked to choose between struggling for the realisation of a peaceful society that embraces pluralism, versus submitting to one that promotes intolerance and is built upon fear. Do not be led astray by those who seek the latter by playing on religious and racial differences, for they are shallow beings driven by avarice and a limited world-view. Today, these individuals may wield influence and drive insecurity amongst Christians, Hindus, Parsis, and the multiple perspectives within Islam, but their reign need not last forever. Endeavour instead to understand why Islamic civilization made great scientific and social progress in its early centuries, particularly in centres of knowledge such as Baghdad, Cairo, and Toledo. Learn from the examples of Islamic regimes which actively protected the populations of other faiths.

Arsalan Ali Faheem guest blogs at Himal Southasian.

8:46 am  •  27 February 2013  •  8 notes

4:45 am  •  21 February 2013  •  1 note

Paro Taktsang, also known as Tiger’s Nest. Paro, Bhutan. 

12:52 am  •  21 February 2013  •  49 notes

The Lavish Affair

INFO

LINKS

QUESTIONS

If you ever feel like watching a movie on gender discrimination and how a woman takes matters in her own hands in Malayalam, (a language that originates from India) here is 22 Female Kottayam. It is a 2012 movie and it will leave you with plenty to think about.

2:49 am  •  19 February 2013  •  8 notes

Hey, I thought some of the followers in NYC area would be interested in attending this conference. The likes of Arjun Appadurai and Prabhat Patnaik will be giving talks with time allotted for audience interaction. The topics range from inequality and political conflict to literary spaces and architecture and art.

For schedule and more information:

http://grey-sweatshirt.tumblr.com/post/42201790982/global-south-asia-conference-ft-arjun-appadurai

1:25 pm  •  3 February 2013  •  6 notes

The committee headed by former chief justice of India JS Verma sought comments from the public in general, particularly eminent jurists, legal professionals, NGOs, women’s groups and civil society members on reviewing the existing laws in a bid to provide quicker justice and stringent punishment in cases of aggravated sexual assault, an official statement said.

The comments can be sent at justice.verma@nic.in or through FAX at 011-23092675.

9:56 pm  •  27 December 2012  •  1 note



When liberalisation struck in the 1990s, most of the children of the transition took to it well. The upper ranks of the social pyramid would have had an easy time anyway; success was preordained for them, as were trips abroad that allowed access to foreign goods. Just below them, those who had relied upon relatives from abroad or on ‘fancy markets’ in major cities could now go to mid-market malls for their loot – and at least touch it. The vast bulk of the population – those who walked, for instance, and those who farmed the land – made few gains, and indeed lost a great deal in the new era. For them, the goods were a rebuke, the malls temples in which they had become untouchable

Delving into ‘The Harappa Files’, and Sarnath Banerjee’s insights into India today.

3:15 am  •  25 December 2012  •  4 notes

Whatever its imperfections, the 13th Amendment is the only guarantee Sri Lanka’s minorities have of any modicum of power. Decapitating it would prove conclusively that the Rajapaksas have no intention of ensuring minority rights. Vellupillai Prabhakaran maintained that in the absence of the LTTE, Colombo will render Tamils powerless and reduce them to their pre-1987 status of second-class citizens. If the 13th Amendment is axed – or becomes a dead letter – Prabhakaran’s warnings will resonate amongst hapless Lankan Tamils, providing separatism with a new relevance and a second life.

Tisaranee Gunasekara explores how
the Rajapaksas have browbeaten the judiciary, undermined devolution, and seeded new conflicts

3:15 am  •  25 December 2012  •  2 notes



With two parties represented, the parliament remains stable, but it falls far short of representing the diverse range of political opinions held in Bhutan. Unless these disparate voices are given a platform from which to be heard – both during and after the electoral campaigns – a cohesive, vibrant and inclusive government remains a distant dream.

I P Adhikari on the rules of the game in Bhutan’s upcoming elections

3:14 am  •  25 December 2012  •  1 note

Hey guys, my friend Saif Ansari who’s friend Hena Ashraf is producing/writing/directing a film called ‘Small Delights’ about a young Muslim American and can use all the help she can get. It’s a great script — it’s about a teenage Muslim American girl born and raised in NY with a penchant for electronica. 

If you want to see more of the Muslim American narrative in film, then please contribute whatever you can. There are 10 days left to help Hena meet her fundraising goal. She has 80% so far.

http://www.indiegogo.com/smalldelights?c=home

p.s. the music they used for this video is pretty cool.

9:04 pm  •  11 December 2012  •  8 notes

Tisaranee Gunasekara unpacks how in overcoming the Eastern Province’s challenge to their power, the Rajapaksas have browbeaten the judiciary, undermined devolution, and seeded new conflicts in Sri Lanka.

“Hitherto, only the most diehard Sinhala supremacists decried the 13th Amendment as pro-LTTE and pro-separatist. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s public endorsement of those outré views marks a menacing new turn in Lankan politics. That dangerously fallacious equation repackages the 13th Amendment as a threat to national security, enabling the Rajapaksas to condemn its supporters and defenders as traitors.”

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5:24 am  •  6 December 2012  •  1 note

To simply look at today’s India with ‘quiet amusement’ as Laxman’s Common Man does would not do. That is the pose of the critic of Nehruvianism – one who had faith in its ideals but scoffed at its practice. Banerjee has no faith in the vision of Manmohan Singh’s liberalisation. He paints the gloom that shrouds the ordinary person who must confront the State, but it is not enough to be gloomy for that would not capture the contradictions of ‘India Shining’. Banerjee’s drawings are lively, colourful and often funny. His are not the darkened pencil drawings that are so often used to evoke dystopia. India is not that; that would be too simple. As the Orientalists used to say – maliciously – India contains multitudes, a little this and a little that, with the palimpsest experienced differently depending on where you stand on the class ladder. Liberalisation emerges from the carapace of bureaucracy – the former benefitting those for whom the Nikes were within reach during the 1970s, and the latter encaging those who did not know what Nikes were or are. The new order does not invalidate the old but absorbs it. That is why the skeletal remains of the State and of cultural artefacts reveal themselves in Banerjee’s book, pestering those who would like to void life of its history.

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5:24 am  •  6 December 2012