SAJAforum

MEDIA WATCH: Gay Rights and the Indian Press

On June 29, hundreds of people in Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta joined an ebullient rainbow of slogan-chanting marchers demanding more rights for gay people in India. (Jyoti Gupta, my colleague on SAJAforum, covered the coverage; flag graphic from here)

For several years, I have been trying to gauge attitudes in the Indian media towards gay issues and to draw some general conclusions. Although one often hears that Indian society as a whole is not welcoming towards gay people — whether it is conservatives or gay rights activists making the claim — the Indian media, and indeed the Western media reporting on India, are full of gay-themed stories. The question is not whether there is coverage of gay people and the issues that concern them, but rather how they are portrayed.

[Note that whenever I say “gay” in this piece, I mean Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT), and whatever other sexual and gender identities people choose for themselves. I am not a fan of acronyms that try to be all-inclusive because they end up excluding people. The term "queer," a convenient catch-all, is often eschewed by journalists because although it is a word that has been reclaimed by the gay community as a positive label, in some contexts it retains its original derogatory sense.]

All the Indian newspapers whose coverage I regularly follow reported on the marches: The Times of India, the Hindustan Times, and Express India (before and after, actually) as well as NDTV, where it is a “most read” story. It received wide coverage in the West, and I read articles about it in The Guardian, AFP, the BBC, The Washington Post, and even in Gulf News (Dubai) and The Scotsman. Newsweek and Time also had pieces. Notably absent was The New York Times, but their correspondent seems to have been tied up with writing a hard-hitting piece on the stalled nuclear deal.

I found Western and Indian coverage of the event largely indistinguishable, which was surprising because there often is quite a difference. The articles said what happened--several hundred people gathered in Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta and marched--why it was important for the marchers (because homosexuality, or as the Indian Penal Code colorfully states it “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” is illegal in India and they want this changed) and who opposes it (among others, the BJP, which is the main party of the Hindu Right).

HISTORY: Videos from the HistoryChannel.com

Today is Independence Day in the U.S. and there's a lot of history in the air (though the holiday is more about fireworks and BBQs). I was on HistoryChannel.com and found they have a collection of video clips about the history of South Asia. Go to the site and type in INDIA or PAKISTAN to see some of the videos. Post your comments below.

BANGLADESH: Proclamations of Independence papers missing

The Bangladesh Proclamations of Independence documents that were drafted on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's first president, have reportedly gone missing.

These were the original handwritten documents, which served as its provisional constitution throughout the war.

The government has now handed photocopies to the national archive.

Please post your comments below.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Prof. Manu Bhagavan's new ideas

Prof. Manu Bhagavan, who teaches history at Hunter College in New York, sent us this:

My article, "A New Hope: India, the United Nations and the Making of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," has just been published by Modern Asian Studies (copyright Cambridge University Press) and is now online at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?iid=643648; the article will also be released in the print version of the journal in 2009.

This piece makes several important new claims, including:

1. calling for a major new interpretation of India's famous foreign policy of "non-alignment."
2. reinterpreting Jawaharlal Nehru's intellectual vision for India and the world.
3. providing new frameworks for understanding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
4. 4. rethinking the hopes and dreams for the UN invested by India and other postcolonial states.

Here is the official abstract:
Abstract: This article explores India's role in the development and design
of the United Nations, refracted through the Commission that drafted the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Through an analysis of sovereignty,
citizenship, nationality, and human rights from the 1940s to 1956, the paper
discusses what India hoped the UN to be, and more generally what they
intended for the new world order and for themselves.  The paper challenges
existing interpretations of international affairs in this period.  It seeks
to reform our understanding of Jawaharlal Nehru's intellectual vision, and
in the process attempts to recast the very concept of postcoloniality.

See his full note below, with contact info. Post your comments below.

EDUCATION: A conservative Christian take on British rule

A couple weeks ago a group known as CAPEEM sent out a press release related to its ongoing effort to change how California textbooks cover Hinduism (earlier SAJAforum coverage here):

California Parents for the Equalization of Educational Materials (CAPEEM) scored a major victory on Tuesday when Judge Frank C. Damrell, Jr. of the United States District Court of the Eastern District of California rejected the defendants' motion to dismiss CAPEEM's lawsuit to correct inaccuracies in sixth grade history textbooks. CAPEEM's complaint contends that the process to adopt the textbooks discriminated against Hindus and that the textbooks indulge in indoctrination of Abrahamic religions while using disparaging language against Hinduism.

On the other end, Hindu Press International took note of a conservative Christian organization, Educational Research Analsysts, run by Mel and Norma Gabler in Longview, Texas. The group reviews textbooks and part of its mission is to discredit evolution, encourage "respect for Judeo-Christian morals" and promote the benefits of free enterprise (more at their website).

The group also has recommendations for how high school textbooks should handle world history, saying they should "Prevent stereotypes of whites-as-oppressors and people-of-color-as-victims from slanting discussions of Western imperialism..."

To accomplish this, the group says textbooks should note that:

• British rule brought peace and a common language (English) to deeply divided India, ended or opposed suttee, infanticide, and child marriage there, improved Indian health, education, and transportation systems, and merely added another caste to the existing system.
• Some sub-Saharan African peoples practiced human sacrifice (e.g., Ashanti, Dahomey).  The Aztecs and some other New World Indians engaged in cannibalism as well as human sacrifice.
• In the Columbian exchange, infection was a two-way street. A very lethal strain of syphilis, probably from America, killed many Europeans in the early 1500s.
• Only the Christian West realized slavery was wrong and took the lead in abolishing it.
• Manchu China was as culturally arrogant as the West.  Chinese emperors viewed all foreign traders as barbarian bearers of tribute to whom they wished only to sell, not to buy, demanding payment in silver.
• The West demanded "extraterritoriality" because Chinese justice assumed guilt until proven innocent, used torture to extract confessions, and held whole groups responsible for acts of single members.

The group notes that its reviews are important "because Texas state-adopts textbooks and buys so many that publishers write them to Texas standards and sell them across the country."

BOOKS: Wash Post on India's "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Emily Wax of The Washington Post writes about author Kancha Iliah and his illustrated children's storybook "Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labor in our Times":

"Turning the Pot" is the first Indian children's book to openly challenge the 3,000-year-old caste system, which ranks professions from scholars to shoemakers in a rigid hierarchy and is reinforced by some interpretations of Hindu theology.

"This book is a weapon for India's millions of low-caste children who are fighting for respect, just as African Americans did and do in the U.S.," said Ilaiah, who also wrote the best-selling anti-caste book "Why I Am Not a Hindu." "How do you change ancient prejudices in any society? You do it through repositioning caste at childhood. If young children are taught respect over a bedtime story or in class, that could help enormously."

Three thousand copies of the book have been bought for schools by UNICEF, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may also order copies for the school system. Wax suggests that the book is part of a larger movement in India to teach about historical discrimination against lower castes, and comes at a time when the economic divide is growing.

Upper-and middle-caste children in India often grow up with domestic servants, including maids, personal chefs, door openers and dog walkers. In many such families, Indian children are never asked to clean their rooms, wash the dishes or empty trash, because such tasks are seen as beneath them.

Ilaiah hopes that children will learn to see that's not the case. "Today, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin are famous cobblers known for designer footwear at over $750 a pair," he said. "In India, because of the caste system, people who did this work were labeled 'untouchables' and forced to live away from the main village. They were not allowed to prosper."

Earlier on SAJAforum:

• "MEDIA: Courting Dalits as Readers"
• "LANGUAGE: Calling Dalits what they really are"
• "BOOKS: Plain Speaking: A Sudra's Story"
• "HUMAN RIGHTS: Human Rights Watch says India's failed to Uplift Dalits"

OBIT: Edmund Hillary, Everest summiteer dies

A young Kiwi beekeeper-turned-mountaineer, Sir Edmund Hillary, who became the first person to climb Mount Everest along with Nepali Tenzing Norgay Sherpa on May 29, 1953, died yesterday at an Auckland hospital. He was 88.

Hillary and Sherpa became heroes, both in their native countries and in the international arena after successfully conquering Everest.

Here's a brief excerpt from the Associated Press article about Hillary and his life:

"The gangling New Zealander devoted much of his life to aiding the mountain people of Nepal and took his fame in stride, preferring to be called Ed and considering himself an 'ordinary person with ordinary qualities.'"

Also listen to NPR's All Things Considered where David Breashears, a fellow climber, talks about the life of Hillary.

Hillary is widely respected in Nepal for his service and generosity. He has helped raise funds for higher education of Sherpa families and funded and helped build hospitals, health posts, airstrips and schools.

The Telegraph writes about how Sherpas mourn the loss of Hillary.

Sir Edmund Hillary has been mourned in Nepal as a "second father" to the Sherpa people and an honorary son of their mountains and valleys.<snip>

In 2003, when the country celebrated the 50th anniversary of his achievement, he was driven like a king through cheering crowds in Kathmandu in a horse-drawn carriage.

He was made an honorary citizen. His bond with the people was deep.

When I was growing up in Nepal, there was a rumor about how Tenzing Norgay Sherpa actually carried Edmund Hillary on his back and stepped on the summit. The rumor probably suggests the discontent among many Nepalis and Indians (Sherpa later lived in Darjeeling, India) because Sherpa was sidelined in the coverage of Everest's conquest. Virtually all media outlets to date report Hillary as the first man on Everest.

A letter written by Sherpa, published after his death, said that Hillary was the first person to set foot on Mount Everest. But this photograph of the conquest, which was taken by Hillary, shows Sherpa standing on the top. Hillary was never photographed on the top of the mountain.

Sir Edmund's explanation for that was that Sherpa did not know how to use a camera and there was no time to teach him how to operate a camera on the top of a mountain.

Post your comments below.

HISTORY: A 1979 Pakistan International Airline Ad

This is an ad that ran in a French magazine in 1979, according to Reddit (click to magnify).

Pakistan airlines ad, 1979, scan from a French magazine

Thanks to Manish Vij of Ultrabrown for the alert. Post your comments below.

HISTORY: Congress honors Dilip Singh Saund with portrait

Dilip Singh Saund, the first Indian-American (or even Asian-American) to be elected to Congress - nearly 50 years before Bobby Jindal - will be honored with a portrait to be unveiled on November 7. From a press release sent out from the office of Congressman Joe Wilson (R - South Carolina), who championed the honor.

Congressman Saund represented the 29th congressional district of California from 1957 until 1963.  This will be the seventh portrait unveiled by the House Fine Arts Board through their program to enhance the fine arts collection of the House to include historically important members of the House.

I'm not sure where they exhibit these portraits. The resolution that accompanied the press release said it would be in some 'appropriate place' in Congress.

More from The Times of India: 

Born on September 20, 1899, to a Sikh family in Chhajulwadi, Punjab, he came to the US in 1920 to attend the University of California at Berkeley. In 1924 he graduated having earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics. He thereafter remained in the US, becoming a successful farmer. <snip> 
Subject to prejudice and discrimination, prohibited for owning land he farmed, his American wife having been stripped of her citizenship for marrying an "alien" man, Saund, however, did not waiver in his pursuit of the American dream. He became a founding member and the first president of the India Association of America. The primary task of the association was to secure citizenship rights for Indians.

More on Dilip Singh Saund here, including a picture of him flanked by John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

DESI AMERICA: "HomeSpun: Made in America," a New Smithsonian Project to Showcase Indian American History

News from Washington, D.C., involving one of America's biggest institutions. From the press release, below:

On Thursday, October 11, 2007, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program will announce preliminary details of HomeSpun: Made in America, a project to showcase Indian American history and experience in America. The announcement marks the beginning of an ambitious project that hopes to establish a permanent presence within the Smithsonian Institution dedicated to the history, achievements and contributions of American's rapidly growing Indian American population. HomeSpun plans to include a national traveling exhibition, related public programming at the Smithsonian, a dedicated website and a middle school curriculum guide for the Smithsonian's young visitors. In this exploratory phase, the Smithsonian plans to engage the Indian American community and others to gauge support and to solicit input for the project.

There's a press conference on Thursday, Oct. 11, with Franklin Odo, director of the SI's Asian American Program; political experts Toby Chaudhuri and Parag Mehta; among others. Details below on press access - you can also call in if you can't make the event.

This is the first I have heard of the project. It's so new that a Google search reveals just an entry for the official press release:

PAKISTAN: Bhuttos - Father & Daughter

On the day U.S. newspapers were carrying prominent coverage of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's announcement that she'd return home after eight years of self-imposed exile on Oct. 18, SAJAer Aseem Chhabra sent me this YouTube video . It's from a Dec. 1971 U.N. Security Council speech by Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who'd serve as president and prime minister of Pakistan before being executed in 1977.

The YouTube video's accompanying text states: In his capacity of foreign minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto went to New York but was unable to affect the course of events. With Pakistan's unity on the verge of destruction and frustrated by the Russians' Security Council vetoes, Bhutto decided to make the best of a bad job and strengthen his own political position back at home. On 15 December he told the Security Council that he would never address them again. As he ripped up some Security Council papers, he asked: 'Why should I waste my time here? I will go back to my country and fight.' It was the speech of a leader in waiting.

Here is a 2002 piece from Dawn that analyzes this incident and the rest of the run up to the division of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh.

Post your comments below.

EARLIER ON SAJAforum:

• Benazir Bhutto's Appearance at CFR (Aug. 16, 2007)
  
• Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari break up (Jan. 29, 2007)

9/11 ANNIVERSARY: South Asian Victims of the Attacks

It's Sept. 11, 2007, six years since the 9/11 attacks and I spent part of this morning with the TV on, watching the memorial service at Ground Zero. Among the first names read out loud at the service by former first-responders were "Alok Agarwal" and "Mukul Agarwala," two of the South Asians to be killed at the World Trade Center. We have estimated that several dozen South Asians were killed at the WTC (none, we believe, died at the Pentagon or in the field in Pennsylvania). We have collected online profiles of 54 of these victims, including Alok and Mukul (link below) and are looking to add more: saja[at]columbia.edu - or use the comments section below.

Here are several items from the SAJA archives and beyond that you might want to check out.

1. A message I sent to the SAJA lists on 9/11/2001 at 1:21 p.m. New York time (see below).
2. A Sept. 13, 2001, message from then SAJA President Jyoti Thottam, now at a senior editor at Time (see below).
3. SAJA's roundup of articles, resources and more about the attacks: http://www.saja.org/roundupsept11.html (it has not been updated in four years, so many of the links are no longer working, but it still makes for fascinating reading). Links to more than 150 news stories, first-person reports, op-ed pieces and much, much more.
4. SAJA's links and profiles more about victims of the 9/11 attacks: http://www.saja.org/dissect/sept11victims.html (includes 54 profles of those who were killed at WTC as well as the handful who were killed in hate crimes).
5. Statistics, by place of birth of those killed (see below).
6. Obits and reports about people killed in the wave of hate crimes following 9/11/2001 (see below).
7. Over the years, SAJA HQ has been asked regularly about some of the victims of the attacks. The two people we have had the most queries about are one who survived, Stanley Praimnath, and one who didn't, Mohammed Salahuddin Chowdhury (updates on both their stories are below).
8. Listen to a 2006 SAJAforum audio interview with Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria about the five-year anniversary and read some of his 9/11-related pieces.
9. In the Sept. 24, 2001, issue of The New Yorker, Amitav Ghosh was one of several famous writers (John Updike, Susan Sontag, Jonathan Franzen) who reflected upon the attacks in "Talk of the Times." See all those piece here.
   

The only South Asian organization working closely with families is the South Asian Council for Social Services (SACSS), and its executive director, Sudha Acharya - sacharya [at] netzero.net. Because there have been so many requests for contacts, they may not be able to help you. Abu Taher, editor of Bangla Patrika Weekly, is in touch with a couple of Bangladesh victim families and is reachable at abutaher6[at]aol.com

Post your thoughts about the anniversary in the comments section below.

MUSIC: Old Video of Ravi Shankar Teaching George Harrison

Here's classic video of Ravi Shankar teaching Beatle George Harrsion how to play the sitar.

Post your comments below.

NAMES: Bangalore becomes Bengaluru

Salutations from Bengaluru, the newly approved name of Bangalore. The Indian government okayed a measure this week to change the city's name, one of a dozen name changes in the state of Karnataka. According to this article in Newindpress, "the proposal first came up in December 2005, when a meeting of litterateurs on celebrations of state Golden Jubilee Suvarna Karnataka suggested that Bangalore be renamed Bengaluru to mark the occasion."

Will American jobs now be Bengaluru'd? Other cities that have resurrected their native names in an ongoing bid to de-Anglicize India:

• Mumbai, formerly Bombay
• Chennai, formerly Madras
• Thiruvananthapuram, formerly Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala
• Kolkata, formerly Calcutta

I lived in Bangalore in the mid-90s, and had forgotten how pleasant the weather can be. Today it's cool and breezy and makes me want to stay in bed with some chai and Britannia Marie biscuits. The famous pub culture that predates the tech industry lives on; yesterday my brother-in-law and I spent a few hours over Kingfishers at a pub called Stones, in my old neighborhood of Indira Nagar. It's owned by the same guy who runs Pecos, and both pubs cater to the classic rock crowd.

SAJA EVENT: "Flavors Beyond Borders," Celebrating Indo-Pak 60th Anniversary in NYC

These photos by Preston Merchant are from a first-time-in-NYC event: Indians and Pakistanis jointly celebrating their Independence Day anniversaries. On Aug. 14, 2007, on the 60th anniversary of the British leaving the subcontinent, SAJA, Indo-American Arts Council and ifood.tv hosted "Flavors Beyond Borders," an evening of cross-border food and drink. See glimpses in the videos below.

ROUNDUP: Coverage of the 60th Anniversary of India/Pakistan

[Update: Several new items continue to be added below. Comments welcome...]

Happy birthday, independent India and Pakistan! [the tiny Reuters photo on the left is by Amit Dave - see the caption and full photo here.]

August 14-15 marks 60 years since the British left their former colony of India, leaving behind two free nations (eventually becoming three when East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971) and one of the most horrific bloodbaths in history.

We are collecting web links to various stories from around the world about the anniversary, so please post them below or e-mail saja[at]columbia.edu. Your analysis of the coverage is also welcome.

First, some history: Stories from 1947

• NYT: Front page story on Aug. 15, 1947 by Robert Trumbull (see replica of front page below)
  Other NYT stories that ran in 1947
• Time: India: Liberty & Death - Oct. 12, 1947 (see replica of cover below)
• SAJAforum collection of South Asian magazine covers includes several from 1947 - just click back in time on the slideshow
  Also see SAJA collection of historic front page stories
  (other links welcome!)

Coverage from 1997, the 50th anniversary

• CNN: India & Pakistan: 50 Years of Independence (big package)
• Time: Special package of stories
  The Price of Freedom: 50 Years Later, the Scars of Division Remain
  Mahatma's Miracle: How Gandhi spent Aug. 15, 1947
  Land of Plenty: Salman Rushdie Finds Reason to Celebrate
• Hurrying Midnight by Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre
  also see a Time review of the authors' "Freedom at Midnight," from 1975
• PBS Newshour: Pakistan Celebrates (transcript of news story)
    India Turns 50 (David Gergen interviews Shashi Tharoor)
• Harappa.com: 50 years of India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka movies/newsreels

Coverage from 2007

Packages/roundups:

• Time International's cover story & several stories: India Charges Ahead (ran last week in Asia, Europe; did not run in US edition, which had a Katrina package)
• Forbes package includes several stories, op-eds (by Amartya Sen and others), even a video
• Financial Times: several reports and features, including a slideshow
• The Guardian: several stories on India & Pakistan
• BBC: several stories linked at Partition: A Quick Guide

Stories:

• SAJAforum: Posting about The Observer on Coopers Camp, the refugees at the easter border of India by Dan McDougall
• VOA: Pain of Partition Lingers by Steve Herman (audio & text)
• NPR: India, Pakistan Mark 60 Years of Independence (audio)
  
  • From Guns to Cereal, Military Dominates Pakistan (audio & text)
• Yahoo: Pakistan Marks Independence Day
• Forbes: At 60: Pakistan's Potential & Pakistan's Conundrums by Ruth David
• Reuters: India, Born in Violence, Celebrates Miraculous Survival by Simon Denyer
• Reuters: Pakistan Celebrates, Warns of Meddling by Augustine Anthony
• The Journal News (NY): Rockland's India Independence Day Festivities by Amisha Padnani
• Asbury Park Press: India-Pak Enmity Evaporates in Melting Pot by Shruti L. Mathur

Opinion, editorials, etc:

• Slate: The Parallels Between India '47 and Iraq '07 by Fred Kaplan
• The New Yorker: Exit Wounds: The Legacy of Partition - review of "Indian Summer" by Alex Von Tunzelmann, reviewed by Pankaj Mishra
• The Economist: The Unruly End of Empire - review of "The Great Partition" by Yasmin Khan
• Indivual-Land: Pakistan at Sixty
• IHT: Pakistan's First Three Generations by Mohsin Hamid
• SAJAforum: Essay on the anniversary by Ambreen Ali
• IHT: India's democratic Path by Salil Tripathi
• Dorf on Law: Now we are Six(ty) by Prof. Anil Kalhan of Fordham Law
• BBC: Have Your Say - What is the Legacy of Partition?
• Daily Candy: Indian Summer
• Wild River Review: In A State of Partition (a novel excerpt) by Aneesha Capur
• Boston Globe: The Pakistan Problem by H.D.S. Greenway
• CFR.org: India & Pakistan at 50 by Lee Hudson Teslik
• NYT: India's Internal Partition by Ramachandra Guha
  
  • After 60 Years, Will Pakistan Be Reborn? by Mohsin Hamid
• The Guardian: The "Poor" Neighbour by William Dalrymple
  • Every one of is a minority by Shashi Tharoor
• Baltimore Sun: India Beat the Odds to Achieve Democracy by Shashi Tharoor
• Time: The India Advantage by Ishaan Tharoor
• Forbes: India and the United States by Mira Kamdar (see her new blog)
  
  • India @ 60 by Amartya Sen
  • India's 40 Richest
• NPR: Media emboldened under Musharraf by Fasi Zaka

Please post your links and comments below!

PARTITION: Ambreen Ali Essay on the 60th Anniversary (guest post)

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of India-Pakistan independence, an guest post/essay by SAJAer Ambreen Ali. Post your comments below. See SAJAforum roundup of the anniversary coverage.
=============

Happy Independence Day.

I hope to wake up tomorrow to tremendous amounts of press coverage on the 60th anniversary of Pakistan (and on the 15th, of India) from British colonialism. It won't happen, but fingers remain crossed. I read a New Yorker article by Pankaj Mishra on Partition last week, and as I was reading it, felt struck by the apt comparison this period in South Asia makes for current turmoil in Iraq and the proposals to possibly partition Iraq on ethnic lines. I was a bit sad that the article made no attempt to draw that contemporary comparison for readers.

I used to be concerned that Partition would be forgotten, but now I fear more that the lessons of Partition have been lost. As you celebrate your independence (as you have every right to), please take a brief moment to contemplate the violence and atrocities that went along with this period in our very recent history.

Think about what it means that human beings can be so savage, so inhumane. And then think about how it continues, in other ways and other forms, throughout the world.

I am proud of South Asia. I am proud of Pakistan. Today, perhaps unlike a few years ago, I feel a sense of patriotism and loyalty to the country I immigrated from nearly 20 years ago. But I don't want to forget, and I hope you won't either, that Partition was a debatable theory -- not a doctrine meant to be left unquestioned -- and that it has a strong role in the ideological and identity-based struggles that plague that region today.

PARTITION: 60 Years Later, The Refugees at the Other Border

SEE SAJA ROUNDUP of dozens of 60th anniversary stories.

[UPDATE: I hear there's a major Time magazine cover story coming soon; and a National Geographic issue on Pakistan in September.]

[A photo by Dan McDougall from a story about the 60th anniversary of India-Pakistan independence. See below.]

When the 50th anniversary of the India-Pakistan came along in 1997, there was a lot of U.S. press coverage, including special cover stories in National Geographic, Newsweek and The New Yorker (and London-based Granta ran an entire issue on India, still available for purchase).

But with the 60th anniversary about 10 days away (Aug. 14/15), there's been very little in the American press (please correct me if I am wrong). Part of the reason, I reckon, is that there's so much more being written about India and Pakistan on a daily basis now than in 1997 that doing special coverage isn't as necessary. Still, I'd have liked to see some big packages that step back and look at the progress of those two countries over the past six decades, as well as the 10 years since 1997. I hope to see some of that over the next 10 days or so.

The British press, on the other hand, continues to keep a close eye on the former British Raj (as it should), and I was alerted to a story in The Observer by SAJAer Srabani Roy. Almost all the stories about Partition are about the India-Pakistan border on the western part of the Subcontinent, but, of course, there was mass slaughter and mass movement on the eastern part as well, in what was carved out as East Pakistan (and in 1971 became Bangladesh).

The Observer piece is one of the most disturbing stories I have read recently. It documents the miserable lives of people in a refugee camp called Coopers Camp in West Bengal. They are refugees and descendants of refugees who crossed over from East Pakistan. "We hardly ever hear of the people crossing th eastern boarders in 1947," Srabani wrote in an e-mail to me. And she's right.

The story by Dan McDougall (who also took the sad, sad photos) opens with an 84-year-old named Kajal.

FOLLOW UP: Taj Mahal Makes It To List of "7 New Wonders"

We wrote in March about a worldwide poll to select the "New 7 Wonders of the World." The Taj Mahal was among 21 sites in the running. While this contest made only minor waves in the US, when I  was in India, there was nonstop coverage about it and news channels were running items on their "crawls" several times a day asking viewers to vote via text message.

So with millions of Indians voting, when the announcement of the winners came out of 07.07.07, it was no surprise that the Taj made the list. See the list below (click to magnify) and at New7Wonders.com. Post your comments below.

EARLIER ON SAJAforum.org:

• HISTORY: Poll to decide 7 New Wonders of the World

HISTORY: Poll to decide New 7 Wonders of the World

[UPDATE: The Taj made the list when it was announced on 07.07.07. See SAJAforum posting here.]

The Taj Mahal is one of 21 sites around the world competing for the title of the New 7 Wonders of the World. The competition is taking place through an online poll that has received 24 million votes so far, from people in 185 countries. The organizers of the New7Wonders campaign are hoping to get 100 million votes by July 7, when the 7 winners are announced.

Go here to vote.

Other sites competing for the honor are the Acropolis, the Great Wall of China, Angkor Wat, Stonehenge and the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty is also on the list; its candidacy is set to get a promotional blitz. See the complete list.

The competition has generated some controversy, namely from the Egyptian government, which doesn't think the Pyramids of Giza should have to compete to stay on the list (the Pyramids are the only site still remaining from the Ancient Wonders list):

MOVIES: "Gandhi," 25 Years Later

I can't believe it's been 25 years since Richard Attenborough's "Gandhi" hit the big screen. I was in New York City when the movie came out in 1982. We went to a big premiere hosted by the Indian Consulate, and even at 12, I remember being completely mesmerized by the film and the performance by Ben Kinglsey, the half-Gujarati, half-British actor who became Gandhi in my mind (the actual M.K. Gandhi looked somehow "unreal" in photos thereafter).  Soon after, I got to see it several times. We had recently gotten our first VCR and soon my father acquired, on a trip to Dubai, a pirated cassette of the movie. Since we owned only two films (the other was an Amitabh Bachchan-starrer called "Lawaris"), I saw "Gandhi" or parts of it, at least a dozen times. I was glued to the TV the following spring when it was up for 11 Oscars, winning eight, including best picture. I got in trouble the following day at school, an incident I wrote about in this essay, "Making Peace with Oscar."

Last week, Sony Pictures released a 25th Anniversary 2-disc Collector's Edition. That's the cover you see above.  If you click on the picture, you will see a larger size and you might notice that the image  (drawing?) of Kingsley they used is an odd one, making his makeup much too clear. It has a lot of features and has subtitles in Portuguese, Korean, Spanish, French - but no Hindi.  Am looking forward to watching the new edition tonight (a student is bringing it to a marathon "Gandhi" and Oscars party we are hosting tonight for my students and some friends).

Some "Gandhi" resources:

• See a New York Times collection of stories about "Gandhi," including the original Vincent Canby review ("...a big, amazingly authentic-looking movie, very sincere and aware of its reponsibilities in the panoramic manner of a giant post office mural.") and stories about the 20-year struggle to bring the movie to life.
• See a recent Telegraph interview with Attenborough, who says it's the only film of his that continuously makes a profit (it cost only $10 million to make).
• See a nine-minute featurette about Ben Kingsley from the new DVD. Among the relevations:  Nehru himself, who gave his support to the movie before he died in 1964, had suggested Alec Guinness as the actor to play the Mahatma. 
• See the Amazon page for the new DVD, which has a lot of information, photos and more.

Also see SAJAforum coverage of the recent death anniversary of Gandhi. Speaking of Oscars, here is SAJAforum coverage of Deepa Mehta's Oscar-nominated movie, "Water" ("Deepa Mehta Earns India's Indifference" and ("Water Nominated for Oscar"). Post your comments below.

HISTORY: Krauthammer, Zakaria, Hitchens debate Iraq comparison to 1947 India-Pakistan

This is a guest post by SAJAer and freelancer Salil Tripathi, whose work has appeared in The Guardian, the Wall Street Journal Europe, and numerous Indian publications.

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South Asian history is getting enmeshed in the ongoing debates about the Iraq war in the American media. But what's interesting about the current feud is not only that it is a feud within the family -- it is all going on within the stables of the Washington Post -- but that it brings on writers to take on nuanced positions. First, Fareed Zakaria, who blames the Bush administration for the Babylon bloodbath here.

Charles Krauthammer, writing for the Washington Post, acerbically calls Zakaria's argument "stupid", insisting that Iraq is "their" country, implying that ancient hatreds are spilling over, settling scores which could not be settled earlier (subscription required). Krauthammer points out:

"Of all the accounts of the current situation, this is by far the most stupid. And the most pernicious. Did Britain "give" India the Hindu-Muslim war of 1947-48 that killed a million souls and ethnically cleansed 12 million more? The Jewish-Arab wars in Palestine? The tribal wars of post-colonial Uganda?

"We gave them a civil war? Why? Because we failed to prevent it? Do the police in America have on their hands the blood of the 16,000 murders they failed to prevent last year?"

If Krauthammer's implication is that Britain did not "give" India the violence that accompanied Partition, that Hindus and Muslims were rarin' to go at one another in any case, he needs a quick history lesson, too, which comes from Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate.

Not so fast, says the contrarian who some call the Orwell of our times. Here, Hitchens agrees with Krauthammer's broad point, that Iraq's problems predated 2003 (a point yours truly made in a
speculative post on SAJA's discussion list -- where I said the US invasion probably speeded up what would have happened in any case). But Hitchens questions Krauthammer's reading of Indian Independence.

He says Britain did in fact give India the war of '47-'48 "by staying several decades too long and then compounding the mistake by leaving much too fast—even unilaterally advancing the date of independence so as to speed up the scuttle—and by capitulating to Muslim League demands for partition..."

That the Washington Post, Newsweek, and Slate are owned by the same company is of course, a mere coincidence. But it certainly shows the plurality of views in American media.

-Salil Tripathi

HISTORY: Jan. 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi assassinated

Today is the anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, who was shot to death on Jan. 30, 1948.

Thought some of you might like to see how the New York Times, led by Robert Trumbull, covered the story back then. You can find the coverage, including PDF links here.

It's part of SAJA's collection of landmark stories - a chance for you to see how SOME major front-page stories with South Asian connections were covered in the U.S. press (starting in 1857).

You should also take a look at some of the reporting by James W. Michaels, then of United Press, who broke the story of Gandhi's death by a few minutes - an eternity in the wire service days.

Trumbull's lead: "Mohandas K. Gandhi was killed by an assassin's bullet today. The assassin was a Hindu who fired three shots from a pistol  at range of three feet."

Michaels's lead: " Mohandas K. Gandhi was assassinated today by a Hindu extremist whose act plunged India into sorrow and fear."

Reax? Post you thoughts in the comments section below.

[See SAJAforum coverage of the 25th anniversary of the movie "Gandhi" in 2007.]