Pakistan

This fragmented, musical novel breaks the prettiness of memory, brings irreverent humor where it should, shows the crisscross of ethnic neighborhoods in New York City, and celebrates love in the midst of violence. 

Choreographer Joti Singh reflects on her own familial connections to Ghadar history,  staged recently in her production "Red, Saffron, and Green."

In honor of our 20th anniversary, we wanted to share our perspectives on crafting this vibrant issue, which features poetry by Bushra Rehman, Purvi Shah, YaliniDream  and Ather Zia, along with a photo essay by Sabelo Narasimhan. Together, these pieces highlight the diversity of voices in the diaspora, ranging from Narasimhan’s visual documentation of protests against New York City’s Stop-and-Frisk policy to Rehman’s tongue-in-cheek take on break-ups.

This was my world, where the city met the pulse of irrepressible wildlife, where my parents and their friends created a Muslim community from scratch. It is this world and the leaving of it I recreate in my writing.

Late at night, alone but not in silence, in the capital city of Kashmir

A monthly column by South Asia Solidarity Initiative that discusses current social justice issues in South Asia and the imperative of transnational solidarity. This month, Mohamad Junaid and Balmurli Natrajan explore the need for South Asians to rise in solidarity with Kashmiris to set a new foundation for democracy and decency and ask some of the hard questions that the Indian and Pakistani establishments – as well as the Western news media – have been failing to ask.  

The Global War on Terror’s fixation on al-Qa‘ida as a roving band of "foreign fighters" allows the U.S. to claim that it is not fighting a war on Islam, but rather helping local Muslim populations rid themselves of narrow-minded interlopers  seeking to impose a puritanical brand of the religion.  This hunt for foreign fighters animates broader attempts to monitor and control Muslim diasporas outside the "west."  At the same time, the legal impunity of other foreign fighters – namely, U.S. forces and their contractors – is pushed into the background.

As Americans vote for a new presidential candidate, there is hope that Biden's proposal may have some impact in influencing a new foreign policy pact and partnership with Pakistan.

If there is one unmistakable difference between Bush's wars and Obama's wars it boils down to this: we now have a president who can almost perfectly pronounce the names of the cities and villages US troops will occupy and bomb.

Adapted from a talk at a conference titled "Obama's Occupations" held at Pomona College, December 4, 2009.