May 24, 2002
The British Library’s new exhibition on the East India Company does not tell the whole story The Guardian, 24 May 2002 According to the British Library, its new exhibition on the East India Company shows “how the work of 11 men, from a cold, wet and then relatively poor country, paved the way for what… Read more
Jan 1, 2002
From Beyond September 11: An Anthology of Dissent (Pluto Press). I was visiting New York when the news of the massacre of 15 Christians in Bahawalpur flashed up on CNN. It was a brief item, included in an update on the war, and all that the casual viewer would know was that ‘Islamic fundamentalists’ had… Read more
Dec 21, 2001
The Guardian, December 21, 2001 If any of the England cricketers currently struggling with the spin bowlers in Bangalore have had a chance to see Lagaan, the Bollywood crossover hit about a Raj-era grudge match between heroic Gujerati villagers and dastardly Anglo-imperialists, they’ll know that they are merely bit players in a long-running national psychodrama…. Read more
Nov 24, 2001
Guardian, 24 November 2001 Thomas Friedman’s New York Times article (Guardian 23 November) on Muslims in India exemplifies the kind of disinformation that has kept people in the US in the dark about global realities. Among the recent events that Friedman omits to report are: the desecration of the Taj Mahal by activists of the… Read more
Sep 28, 2001
Media Workers Against the War, 28 September 2001 I’m thinking today of a remarkable man I met not long ago in Quetta, a city in western Pakistan, a few hours drive from the border with Afghanistan. He was a devout and observant Sunni Muslim. He was also a community activist, who had helped establish women’s… Read more
Feb 2, 2000
Aaj Kay Naam, February 2000 On a rural road in southern Punjab I saw an official government sign sporting a curious message. “My Dear Countrymen, Army will never disappoint you like the past.” It was signed: Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf is the military dictator of Pakistan who, in Blairite-style, has rebranded himself as the country’s “Chief… Read more
