These last few years have been very difficult in terms of writing. I’ve become slower and far less productive, my mind and body works at its own pace and refuses to budge any faster. Yet, I am also drawn to this pace of life, an acknowledgement of my exhaustion and the urgent need for care, something […]
Read More Subaltern islam: the politics of refusalI’ve got a new article out, it’s in an edited volume titled ‘Forms of the Left in Postcolonial South Asia’ by Lotte Hoek and Sanjukta Sunderason, examining cultural aesthetics, values and networks of the Left across Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka from the late 1940s onwards. My chapter is a micro-history of the 1957 […]
Read More subaltern joy: the 1957 kagmari melaI believe in the Prince of Peace. I believe that War is Murder. I believe that armies and navies are at botton the tinsel and braggadocio of oppression and wrong, and I believe that the wicked conquest of weaker and darker nations by nations whiter and stronger but foreshadows the death of that strength.W.E.B. Du […]
Read More PEACE IN SCOUNDREL TIMES: BHASHANI, BEVAN & DU BOIS“La conferencia proclama el derecho inalienable de los pueblos a la total independencia politica y a recurrir a todas las formas de lucha que sean necesarias, incluyendo la lucha armada, para conquistar ese derecho. Para los pueblos subyugados de Asia, Africa y America Latina no hay tarea mas importante” (The conference proclaims the inalienable right […]
Read More Una Conferencia De Combate: Bhashani at the Tricontinental, 1966DOI: https://doi.org/10.51142/issues-journal-3-1-1 এই লিখাটি দক্ষিন এশিয়ার রাজনীতিতে বাড়ির ছাদ যে বস্তুগত গুরুত্ব বহন করেছে, সেই বিষয়টিকে সামনে আনার চেষ্টা করেছে। প্রাত্যাহিক জীবনে মানুষের প্রতিদিনের যে জায়গা ব্যাবহার প্রয়োজন, সেইটাকে কেন্দ্র করে বাড়ির ছাদ রাষ্ট্র এবং নাগরিককে মুখোমুখি দাড় করিয়ে দেয়ার বহুমূখী সম্ভাবনা রাখে। সমস্ত বাড়িরই ছাদ আছে। এইটা স্থাপনার প্রয়োজনীয় অংশ হিসেবেই আছে, কিন্তু কাজের জায়গা […]
Read More ছাদ থেকে দেখা দৃশ্যঃ a view from the roofThe following article was published on 12th December 2020, in the English-language newspaper, ‘The Daily Star’ in Bangladesh: https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/news/we-are-the-95-bhashani-and-the-kagmari-festival-2009817 In 2011, people reclaimed the streets, parks and public spaces in major financial districts across the world as part of the Occupy Movement. “We are the 99%” was the popular slogan of the movement, coined by […]
Read More We are the ‘95%’: Bhashani and the Kagmari FestivalEarlier this year, I was going through the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) from the 1960s. HUAC was responsible for investigating suspected Communist activities in the US, and elsewhere. One particular testimonial from New York caught my eye. On 4th September 1964, Edward Lemansky of Brooklyn, New York testified in front of […]
Read More Revolution: Malcolm X and Maulana Bhashaniਘਰ ਦਾ ਰੱਖ / گھر دا رکھ / ghar da rakh The keeper of the house* ਰਾਖਾ ਸਬ ਕੁਛ ਖਾ ਗਿਆ/ راکھا سب کچھ کھا گیا /rakha sab kuch kha gaya The keeper of the house has eaten everything ਸੋਨਾ ਦੇ ਬੁੱਤ ਬਣਾ ਗਿਆ / سونا دے بُت بنا گیا/ sona de but bana gaya He has made […]
Read More ਘਰ ਦਾ ਰੱਖ/گھر دا رکھ/ the keeper of the house : Poetry of the FutureRooftops in South Asia often evoke images, feelings and memories of play, romance, leisure and work. lazy summer afternoons and nights on the charpoy/secret romances/loudly laughing, gossiping and fighting it out with family, friends, and neighbours/ cigarette breaks/ running and chasing and clambering across things/ sharing of messages and sweets/ escaping from the cacophony […]
Read More “ہمارا نعره انقلاب” – Rooftop Politics in South AsiaIf the poor and oppressed are the wretched of the earth, how do we describe those who oppress them? What names do we have for them? What names can we call them out by? “ক্ষুদিতের, বঞ্চিতের সম্পদ যারা জমা করে রাখে তারা দাগী দাগী দাগী” ‘جو بھوکے اور مظلوم لوگوں کا مل جمے کرتے ہیں […]
Read More দাগী-داغی-daghi
খামোশ-خاموش-khamosh! 