Sikhs fight for rights in the largest democracy in the world
Guest blogged by Kirpa Kaur
A few weeks ago, India joined the world in mourning the loss of Nelson Mandela, the former South African president and anti-apartheid revolutionary whose armed resistance and leadership rendered him a “terrorist†and imprisoned for 27 years. Prime Minister Manmohan...
Sikhi Is Part of the Solution: Ending Gendercide
Gendercide is a well-known problem in India. The BBC and ABC 20/20 have highlighted this issue. The low sex-ratio in Punjab, India shows how the soil, which gave birth to Sikhi is not devoid of this problem. The land on which our Gurus proclaimed the equality of women when others considered her impure...
Letter from Kashmir
Posted by Mehmaan (Guest) in Human Rights, India, Politics, World News on 07 15th, 2010 | 82 Comments
Guest Blogged by Amritpan
Earlier this week I received an email letter from Kashmir. This was not the first such letter from Kashmir, nor I fear, will it be the last. I’ve read this letter once, twice, again and again and still cannot begin to explain the helplessness, anger, and despair that...
Solar-electric rickshaws in Delhi
On your next trip to India, how will you travel? Train, car, metro? How about in a solar-electric powered cycle rickshaw? Because now you can.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, a government body, made a motor powered by a solar powered battery to decrease the effort required to pedal...
A neoliberal development pathway for Punjab?
Earlier this month TLH discussed how the unseasonably dry summer in Punjab is threatening its agriculture and economy. This week, the Punjab Assembly adopted a resolution authorizing the development of additional Special Economic Zones, or SEZs, while streamlining and supporting the existence of pre-existing...
Money Is Available But No Punjabi Teachers
Posted by Phulkari in General, India, News, Preservation, Punjab, Punjabi on 07 16th, 2009 | 9 Comments
Punjab has been divided numerous times. Both during and after partition. Anita Rau Badami eloquently writes, “First it was Partition and half our land disappeared. Now our own leaders are chopping it up like a piece of meat”. The Punjabi language was one thing we hoped would cross borders despite...
India denies USCIRF; maybe Sikhs should use Twitter
Oh India. You can’t hide the skeletons in your closet forever.
It appears that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom was on its way to India this week. (The USCIRF is a federal group that works to promote freedom of thought, conscience and religion; protect people from abuses...
Wal-Mart debuts in Punjab
This past weekend Wal-Mart opened its first* Indian-based store in Amritsar, spreading its global brand to one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. As part of a larger strategy to develop a presence in India, this is the first of fifteen new stores that will open over the next few years. [source]
However,...
This Is Who We Are
In remembrance of the 25th anniversary of the Darbar Sahib attack, I’m re-posting a piece I had written for sikhchic.com‘s “1984 & I” series:
This Is Who We Are
Years ago, I was giving a local church group a tour of our Gurdwara. While I was showing them around the langar...
Silencing truth through rape; an inquiry of the Sikh struggle survives
Cynthia Mahmood, author of the groundbreaking work, “Fighting for Faith and Nation,” just published an incredibly personal and powerful account of her rape and assault, possibly by Indian police, in an attempt to silence her anthropological work on Sikhs in Punjab in the early 1990s. ...
Let The Truth Be Heard
Earlier this month, worldwide Human Rights organization Amnesty International released a news article on the plight of Sikh Massacre victims of 1984, still awaiting justice after 25 years. This came shortly after the Delhi Court delayed ruling on Jagdish Tytler, due to the CBI’s inability to...
The Great Sikh Hope
I remember that night…election night, watching on TV students rejoicing in the streets outside of Howard University (a local Historically Black University). I’m not sure how much of it was about Obama’s policy, or just the “historic” nature of the event, but it was all...
A State of Denial
I recently stumbled on a report from the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHC), titled Torture in India 2008: A State of Denial. This document claims to be “the first nationwide assessment of the use of torture in India.”
ACHC is a Delhi-based organization focused on protecting human rights...
India’s Role in Darfur: Not just China and al-Bashir in Sudan
Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC), issued an arrest warrant for current President of Sudan, Omer Hassan Al-Bashir. Al-Bashir has been charged with five counts of crimes against humanity: murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape. He also faces two counts of war crimes. ...
“Slumdog Millionaire”: What To Do Once the Glitz And Glamour Is Gone?
Posted by Phulkari in Activism, Human Rights, India, Media, Organizations on 02 26th, 2009 | 14 Comments
Amidst all the “Slumdog Millionaire” Oscar hysteria, some have been asking how are we ACTUALLY going to combat the issues of poverty in Indian slums? I heard on “Entertainment Tonight”, or some show like that, the movie’s directors/producers have set up a trust-fund for the child-stars...
India’s Shoot-Out Cops
Posted by Maple Leaf Sikh in Activism, General, Human Rights, India, Law, Punjab on 02 15th, 2009 | 30 Comments
We recently posted on Ensaaf’s new report that studies the all too common practice of extra-judicial killings (usually referred to as ‘encounters’) and the mass cremations that followed by the Punjab police forces during the 1980s and 1990s. Well it looks like these practices were...
UN grades India’s freedom of religion for religious minorities
The UN Special Rapporteur for freedom of religion or belief visited India last year and just released her report on the country, highlighting, among other things 2 matters that are of special concern to Sikhs: (1) the situation of religious or belief minorities (generally) and (2) justice for victims...
