Writers are welcome whose work is a
tough-minded
exploration
of
why the world is in trouble,
starting with
the basic issues
of
who gets
heard,
who gets
ignored,
and
why.
Brig. Usman Khalid is director of the London Institute of South Asia. |
Authentic Voices of South Asia ISBN South Asia is the only large region of the world with unsettled frontiers. It is not because there are is no principles or agreements in existence to resolve disputes and underpin stability, it is because the largest country in the region - India - just does not honour its promises to its people or its agreements with its neighbours. This book is an account of broken promises and the wars and mayhem that they have caused. The irony is that in the case of India the voice of its victims is so thoroughly suppressed or ignored that it appears the victims are the one to blame. This is perhaps the first book where the victims speak out and make their case. It is very different to the hundreds of books that are churned out by India and its friends to blame the dead for being murdered, the women for their rape, the youth for being for being young - 'potential mililtants' taken by the soldiers from their homes and killed in fake encounters. Authors of Chapters Syed Ali Geelani, Chairman All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC), Srinagar. ‘In 1989, the Kashmiris decided they do not want sympathy for the barbarity they put up with; they want support for their freedom struggle. They want to be known for their resolve not their misfortune’. V.T. Rajshekar, Editor Dalit Voice, India Bangalore. 'The Bahujan, the native people of India, do not have a national agenda; their outlook is not imperialist while the glitter of Brahminism lies in its imperialist ambitions and its fascist agenda. The Bahujan must stand by the weak and the oppressed everywhere; after all, they have been the victims of the longest repression in entire human history'. Brigadier (r) Usman Khalid, Director London Institute of South Asia. 'The Muslims were the only people who had developed a 'national personality' by 1947 but they were not the only nation. Every nation in India is bound to seek sovereignty as it crystallises its national personality and has a birthright to do so'. Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President Council of Khalistan. ‘India spreads the myth there is no support for Khalistan. It says the assault by the Indian Army on the Golden Temple in June 1984 crushed their movement for independence. They could not be more wrong. The Sikh nation has been ‘crushed’ at least twice before in its history and it emerged triumphant every time it was pronounced dead’. Dr. M. Abdul Mu’mim Chowdhury, former Professor at Dhaka University. ‘The view that the creation of Bangladesh represents the fulfilment of the Lahore resolution is drawn from a false claim that the resolution envisaged two separate independent states and had set out the extent of provincial autonomy within them’. Dr. Awatar Singh Sekhon, Editor International Journal of Sikhs. ‘The Sikhs will not compromise on Khalistan, however long it takes. The fact is that India would be more secure with Khalistan as a buffer state between itself and Pakistan. Threats of war and sabre rattling do not provide basis for peace or stability; accepting the principle of national self-determination does’. Dr Syed Inayatullah Andrabi, Convenor in exile of Mahaz i Islami, Srinagar, Kashmir. 'There is total certainty that Kashmiris will also gain Azdai if a movement against Indian occupation continues to exist inside Kashmir and a strogn Pakistan is willing and able to face the challenge from India mindful of its duty to liberate Kashmiris who are a part of the nation of Pakistan'. Abid Ullah Jan, an Afghan Journalist based in Canada. ‘All those working in the name of the Durrani Empire, Pashtun solidarity or Islamic solidarity complement each other. The dynamics are more important than policies of powers with influence. The Union of Pakistan and Afghanistan is the destiny of both, the policy of neither’.
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